ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



merging on the east 

 side into a wonderful 

 primeval forest. The 

 entire Arboretum 



tract will be land- 

 scaped so as to provide 

 not only ideal condi- 

 tions for plant growth, 

 but with it scenic ef- 

 fects that will add 

 greatly to the attrac- 

 tions of the project. 

 During the spring of 

 this year 138,000 

 plants and cuttings 

 were set out and dur- 

 ing the summer prepa- 

 rations for 100,000 

 more were made. 



The main entrance 

 to the Arboretum will 

 be from the southeast 

 by a winding road 

 joining the new Chi- 

 cago-Aurora highway 

 via Ogden Avenue. 

 Skirting the sharply 

 defined eastern edge 

 of the forest the road enters into a magnificent first growth 

 of ancient and dignified trees. Oaks, maples, ash, elm, walnut, 

 basswood, black cherry and many other varieties, with a lower 

 growth of hawthorns, wild crab and viburnum. At one low 

 spot is a colony of red elm (slippery elm) festooned with great 

 lianas of poison ivy, dangerous to touch but magnificent in its 

 autumn coloring; farther on a dry north slope is carpeted with 

 a dense growth of hepaticas, and everywhere the many varieties 

 of hawthorn are loaded with their striking red fruit. 



Passing from the eastern timbered higher ground down the 

 slope to the roadway and across to the western boundary of 

 the arboretum, one is impressed by the numbers of magnificent 

 individual trees that have grown in entirely different manner 

 from those crowded in. the deep forest. One sugar maple, shapely 

 and dense, stands alone among its neighbors, having a spread of 

 almost 50 feet. Nearby is a wonderful elm, with a spread of 

 80 feet and a trunk diameter of 3% feet. In a hollow not far 

 distant is a group of tall, straight-boiled walnuts, whose trunks 

 if felled would furnish timber for furniture and veneer. 



The study of plant life in its relation to our economic life 

 has only begun. Although there are on many private estates 

 collections of trees and other plant life of great interest, and 



Photo by Orpheus M. Schantz 



SUGAR MAPLE GROWING IN THE OPEN 



