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not maples and not elms and not limes (or lindens) but plain 
straightforward examples of sweet gum (Liguidambar) a tree 
not uncommon in the native forests about New Yo k, and yet 
one whose corky-winged twigs are sometimes sold on the city 
streets as “the rare alligator-wood from the tropics.” 
These trees stand on Convent avenue and 143rd street, nearly 
opposite the old Hamilton grange, and to the shame of the city’s 
regard for the historic have been allowed to suffer neglect, and at 
present only one or two of them are living and the dead trunks 
still standing are covered with signs “for sale.’’ With the rapid 
increase of building in the vicinity they are certain to pass 
speedily out of existence. 
Most trees, or at least those of the commoner sorts, are not 
difficult to recognize and that by very simple characters. Even 
a botanist of very fair ability might quail at certain of the critical 
species of oaks and hickories, but the greater number of even 
these groups are well-marked and unmistakable. Most trees 
have such pronounced characters that we ought to recognize 
them as easily as we recognize old friends, and their study has 
been greatly popularized by such works as those of Miss Keeler 
and Miss Lounsberry, and Miss Huntington’s Trees im IV tuter. 
Most trees have characters that are to be found in the buds, in 
the leaves, in the bark, and in the general habit, so that by one 
or the other sets of characters they may be recognized in winter, 
spring, summer, or autumn. There is no more inviting and profi- 
table field for amateur study in botany than among the trees, 
nor one that will yield surer, more pleasant, and more helpful 
results. 
Trees have been associated with human interests and human 
happiness since the earliest times. Way back before historic 
times the savage looked to certain trees for protection from the 
lightning and from other violent demonstrations of the elements, 
and came to regard certain trees with greater esteem than others. 
With the early dawning of the religious instinct, trees were asso- 
ciated with early forms of worship and it was no mere poetical 
fancy that “the groves were God's first temples.” The children 
of Israel found the Hamitic tribes, who occupied the promised 
