116 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



States, but two are particularly worth notice, the White 

 Elm, and Slippery Elm ( U. pulva). But the former of these 

 is so incomparably the superior, that it should be selected 

 wherever it can be had. It attains a height of one humlm] 

 feet, is very long-lived, grows more and more beautiful with 

 age, its long branches droop over, forming graceful pendu- 

 lous extremities ; and no one who has seen the Boston Mall, 

 or the New Haven elms, or those scattered along the vil- 

 lages of Connecticut, will think that Michaux exaggerated 

 in pronouncing this tree to be the most magnificent vegeta- 

 ble production of the Temperate Zone. It is unquestional 1 y 

 the monarch among shade-trees, as superior to the oak for 

 avenues and streets, as the oak is to it for parks and forests. 

 The great main-street of every village should be lined with 

 White Elms, set at distances of fifty feet, and Locusts 

 between to supply an immediate shade, and to be removed 

 so soon as the slower-growing elm has spread enough to 

 dispense with them. 



THE MAPLE. The following varieties are in our forests, 

 and are beautiful shade-trees for the borders of farms, door- 

 yards, public squares, avenues, streets, etc. The Sugar 

 Maple (Acer saccharinum), White Maple (A. eriocarpum,) 

 Red Maple (A. rubrum). This last variety shows beautiful 

 red flowers before its leaves put out in spring, and, like the 

 sugar-maple, brilliant scarlet leaves in autumn. The maple 

 is a beautiful tree of fine form, the leaves of the different 

 varieties are variously shaped and all beautiful, it is free 

 from disease and noxious insects. 



Besides these, the ash, oak, tulip, beech and walnut, are 

 all worthy of being transferred to our streets. Shade-trees 

 for door-yards, and public squares, and pleasure-grounds, 

 require a separate notice, as in some material respects they 

 should be differently treated. 



We warmly recommend in lining streets, that each alter- 

 nate tree only be locust. 



It is better for effect that each street, or at least con- 



