ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS FOR MONTANA 9 



he grown. It grows best upon rich, moist soil. There are many 

 horticultural varieties in this species of which Weiri is good. This 

 variety has more deeply cut leaves than others of this species and 

 the branches are more or less drooping. 



On the Experiment Station grounds, at an elevation of 4800 

 feet, the silver maple is not hardy. Trees planted in 1898 were ten 

 feet four inches high in 1902, but the current year's growth killed 

 each year. The wood is brittle and the branches are badly broken 

 by strong winds and unseasonable snow storms. These trees were 

 cut down and destroyed in 1905. In 1903, five hundred trees, from 

 12 to 1 8 inches in height, were secured in Iowa and planted. These 

 young trees did not mature in the fall before freezing weather, and 

 killed back each winter. They were plowed out and destroyed in 

 1906. In 1903, ten trees, from 4 to 6 feet high, were secured in 

 Pennsylvania. The tips killed each winter. The larger trees, how- 

 ever, seemed hardier than the young plants and about one plant out 

 of several hundred seemed entirely hardy, in 1908, one thousand 

 small seedlings were secured in Iowa. In the spring of 1909 all 

 had killed back to the ground. 



In the city of Bozeman there are, on some of the older lawns, 

 a few soft maple trees, but they probably represent a very few out 

 of a great many planted. At lower altitudes in the state, where 

 there is a longer growing season, the soft maple is hardy and makes 

 a desirable shade and street tree, although the branches are brittle 

 and are often broken by heavy wind storms. The soft maple is 

 one of the fastest growing trees in this group. 



Weir's cut-leaved maple is an improved variety of the soft 

 maple, and seems to be hardier than the others. This tree is dis- 

 tinguished from the original (Acer saccharinum) by having deeper 

 iobed leaves and more drooping branches. Its foliage takes on 

 brilliant colors in the fall. Of ten plants, 4 to 6 feet high, secured 

 in Pennsylvania in the spring of 1904 all are still living. The tips 

 of the branches kill back a little each winter, although not enough 

 to interfere seriously with the growth of the trees. At lower alti- 

 tudes in the state it will make a desirable ornamental tree. 



Manchurian Maple: (Acer ginnala) This is a small tree or 

 shrub, rarely reaching a height of over 20 feet. The leaves are 

 three-lobed and from one and a half to three and a half inches long. 

 It produces a very graceful and ornamental shrub. The leaves take 



