Along the Lakeside—Third Excursion 
is too wide-spreading for the situation. Again, the maple 
is a rapid grower ; some trees would require twenty or 
thirty years to attain the size of a ten-year-old maple ; 
this secures shade and ornament in the briefest period 
after planting. The fast-growing cottonwood, which 
has many of the maple’s virtues, is also coming into 
popularity, as may be seen in the recent plantings of 
many New York streets. An important element in the 
effectiveness of the maple is the configuration of its leaf. 
This tree shows an endless gradation of greens, and a 
certain lightness of effect, even in the densest foliage, 
both resulting largely from the shape of the leal A 
street lined with the horse-chestnut, linden, or catalpa 
would present a very different and heavy appearance. 
The eye is pleased by the maple’s beautiful blending of 
soft tones, its endless alternation of light and shade. 
But if the leaf were as small as in the white birch or 
the common aspen, the shade would not be thick enough. 
And lastly, the normal height of the maple prevents its 
overgrowth in streets of usual width ; but in exception- 
ally broad avenues, as in old country towns, recourse 
must be had to the lofty, wide-spreading elm. 
Besides our three native species—tred or soft, sugar or 
rock, and white or silver-leaf—two from Europe, the 
' Norway and sycamore maples, are now widely used in 
street and lawn. The leaf-type of these is much the 
same, but darker and larger, especially in the Norway. 
Neither is handsomer than a fine sugar maple, but the 
advantage of the foreign sorts—a peculiarity common, 
by the way, to most imported species—is, that they 
come into leaf about two weeks earlier, and retain their 
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