312 TREES, 



riant -foliage of the ailantbus, we shall see its downfall without a 

 word to save it. We look upon it as an usurper in rather bad odor 

 at home, which has come over to this land of liberty, under tBe^ 

 garb of utility,* to make foul the air/ with its pestilent breath, and; 

 devour the soil, with its intenneddling roote-^^ tree that has the 

 fair outside and the treaeherpus heart of the Asiatic?, and that has 

 played us so maiiy tricks,, that we find we have caught a Tartar: 

 which it requires something more than a Chinese wall to confine 

 wifiiin limits. V 



Down with tie ailanthus ! therefore, we cry wifli the populace. 

 But we have reiasons beside, theirs, and now that the favorite has 

 fallen out of favor witKthe sovereigns, we may take the opportunity 

 to preach a funeral sermon over its remains, that shall-not, like so 

 many funeral sermojis, be a bath of 6blivion*waters to wash out all 

 memory of its vices. For if the Tartar is not laid violelit hands 

 Upon, ajid kept under close watch, even after the spirit has gone out ^ 

 of the old trunk,' and the cOroner is satisfied that he ias cpm&to a : 

 violent end— ^lo, we shall have him upon us tenfold in the. shape of 

 suckers innumerable-^little Tartars that will beget a new dynasty, 

 and oven'un our grounds and gardens again, without mercy. 



The vices of the ailanthus — the incurable vices of the by-gon^ ' 

 favorite — then,, are twofold. In the first place, it smells horribly, 

 both in leaf and flower — and instead of sweetening and purifying 

 the air, fills it with a heavy, sickening odor;f in the second place, 

 it suckerf abominably, and thereby overruns, appropriates, and re- 

 duces to beggary, all the, soil of every open pi^oe of gi'ound where 

 it is planted. These are the mortifications which every body feels 

 sooner or later, who I^as been seduced by the luxuriaiit,^otitstretchad:\ 

 Welcome of its smooth round arms, ^nd the waving .and beckoning 

 of its graceful plumes, into giving it a place in their- home circle. 

 For a few years, while the tree is growing, it has, to be sute, a fair 



* The ailanthus, though originally from China, was first introduced into 

 this country from Europe, as the "Taniier's sumac" — ^but the mistake was 

 soon discovered, and its rapid -growth made it a favorite with planters. 



f Two acquaintances of ours, in a house in the upper part of the city 

 ■of NeW-Yorkj are regularly driven out by the ailanthus malaria every 

 season. 



