72 TORREYA 



small Norway Maples near the east road. Going on southward, it almost avoided 

 the Yale of Kashmir (which is in reality an old "kettlehole" and therefore 

 sunken and protected) but mowed down some Wild Cherry and Sassafras 

 on the western edge ; thence to the region south of the rose garden it took an 

 English Elm (Uluius procera), and farther down on the east path it uprooted 

 a giant London Plane, 3y 2 feet D.B.H. and 90 feet high, a landmark for nearly 

 a century. Coffee Trees (not particularly shallow rooted) a little to the west, and 

 finally, among others, a handsome Silver Linden {Tilia tomentosa) just west 

 of the Zoological Garden. But this was by no means the only current. There 

 were many others throughout the park so that the results seemed to have no 

 "rhyme or reason." Truly, as we have often been told, "The wind bloweth 

 where it listeth .... but [thou] canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither 

 it goeth." John 3 : 8. 



A friend told me that during the 1938 hurricane, in Hartford. Conn., where 

 it was particularly severe, she happened to be looking out of the window while 

 the storm was at its worst. The wind was bending a large Silver Maple almost 

 to the ground. Suddenly a change came and a large branch was snapped off in 

 the opposite direction. This illustrates the tornadic or twisting effect of winds 

 within the hurricane. 



However, there is no question but that large trees with shallow root sys- 

 tems, especially if located in moist soil, might be blown over while nearby trees 

 with deeper roots might be untouched. In such a case the cause would not neces- 

 sarily be a tornadic wind current, but the continued force lasting for hours, of a 

 violent wind. Such a tree I saw r in the Kissena Park region, a large Pin Oak 

 (Quercus palustris) lying prostrate, its upturned roots revealing its character- 

 istically shallow root system. It had grown near the road skirting the swamp 

 southeast of Kissena Park. Its fellows, Nyssa sylvatica, Primus serotina, and 

 other Pin Oaks, all of lesser height /were untouched. 



Sometimes it seemed as if certain streets, or perhaps open places between 

 high apartment buildings, especially if they had a north-south, or northwest- 

 southeast direction, formed channels for the wind (which in the N. Y. area 

 came from the north or northwest). Then a tree standing in or at the southern 

 end of such a channel or "canyon" was marked for destruction. Mr. Everett 

 also observed that the location of a tree seemed to be more important than the 

 kind of tree in determining its survival. For example, not one of the tulip trees 

 on the south side of the Museum Building of The New York Botanical Garden 

 was lost, but north of the building a dozen were down. 



Many large London Planes {Plat amis acerifolia) were uprooted, especially 

 in the parks. I believe that here the enormous butt was a decisive factor. For 



5 Tornado is from Latin tornare, to turn. We often on a windy day see miniature torna- 

 does — small dust whirls traveling along the streets. These illustrate what apparently hap- 

 pens within a large hurricane. 



