NEWS OF SPRING 



cellent for peopling a space in which the sky is f ree^ 

 that is to say, where we need not hesitate lest we should darken 

 the windows of houses that are too near. Let us not forget 

 either the Lombardy poplar, which is our cypress of the 

 North and almost indispensable in our towns to mark a flight, 

 here and there, towards space; besides, especially in our Flem- 

 ish cities, we could hardly fill the poplar's place when it comes 

 to bordering certain canals, marking the outline of a long 

 meadow or guarding the entrance to an old house. 



I will not concern myself with the acacia, formerly too 

 much employed, which is frail, sickly and poor in leaf; nor 

 with the oak, which is too slow, uncertain and unequal. But 

 a tree which, to my mind, has been unjustly proscribed is the 

 pine. I do not speak of the umbrella-pine, the noblest of the 

 conifers and one of the purest glories of the world of plants. 

 We must do without it, as without the cypress and the divine 

 laurel-tree, in our northern cities, whose climate they could 

 not support. The tree which I have in mind is the simple 

 forest pine of our home woods. If you care to behold the 

 effect which a square would produce planted exclusively with 

 those wonderful trees, go to the country round Rouen, for 

 instance, to the old forest domains of Bretonne or Roumare, 



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