Fig. 138. 



426 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



alders, as the dimensions given rank it with the smallest class oi 

 trees. 



Gilpin, whose works on landscape gardening are of high au- 

 thority in England, considers the alder among the most pictur- 

 esque of aquatic trees ; while Loudon, in general remarks on this 

 family, says : " As an ornamental tree, much cannot be said in 

 favor of the alder." 



THE APPLE TREE. Pyrus malus. 



For its beauty alone we here treat of the 

 apple tree — one of those admirable families of 

 trees whose members are not less beautiful 

 because they feed our stomachs as well as please 

 the eye. We are apt to forget how often Nature bounteously 

 covers with beauty the productions which minister most to our 

 necessities. The bread-fruit, the palm, the banana, and the cocoa 

 of the tropics, all bear witness to the unity of the greatest beauty 

 and the greatest utility ; while the nut-trees, and the fruit-trees of 

 the north, with their fine foliage, fragrant blossoms, and savory 

 fruit, teach the same lesson in our temperate zone. We have seen 

 the Magnolia soulangeana, with its immense blossoms, and the 

 finest horse-chestnuts, like bountiful mountains of bouquets, bloom- 

 ing at the same time, and near old apple trees ; and gazing on all 

 their florescent splendor, have doubted which, if all of them were 

 equally novelties, would be awarded the palm for the greatest beauty 

 of bloom. The flowers of the magnolia and the horse-chestnut 

 are more showy ; but how inferior in delicacy and fragrance ! Each 

 twig of the apple tree, with its clusters of buds and blossoms, 

 bedded in nests of bright opening leaves, is, in itself, an exquisite 

 wild bouquet. 



The apple tree comes early into leaf, and its foliage- is dark^ 

 glossy, and abundant. Its low, spreading form has a home expres- 

 sion ; and, for a tree of no great size, there is something grand in 

 the wide extension of the branches of old trees, casting shadows^ 

 sometimes from forty to sixty feet in diameter ; and we- have seen 



