JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Carden 
Vor. III. Denes 1902. No. 36. 
SOME HISTORIC TREES.* 
Considering their abundance and their economic importance 
it is a curious circumstance that there is a widespread ignorance 
of our native trees. From a testing of class after class in botany 
for the past twenty-five years added to information derived from 
association with people in general, we have come to the con- 
clusion that less than one per cent. of our population know ten 
trees accurately by name. Aside from the pine, the oak, the 
maple, and the elm which every one would be supposed to recog- 
nize, but unfortunately does not, the ordinary trees, even those 
passed by daily for years are a sealed book to the great majority 
of our fellow citizens. An amusing illustration of this popular 
misinformation appeared a few years since in the successive issues of 
several of our New York papers. It commenced with Harper's 
Weekly which gave an elaborate account of the thirteen oaKs 
planted by Alexander Hamilton to commemorate the formation 
of the original states of the federal union. A little later the 
Spectator whose observations are to be found in the pages of Zhe 
Outlook, took a short trip with a party about historic New York 
ELms. This called out a reply from your lecturer stating the 
true nature of the trees, and the morning after it was printed 
cture given in the autumn course at the Museum of the New York Botanical 
Eas October 25, 1902 
