1834 TREES 



per cent, which percentage surpasses by tar that of any 

 other country in tlie temperate rcKinns. 



Trees belong- to many ditt'erent natural orders, but ot 

 the orders of nionocotvledonous plants only a few con- 

 tain trees and none of them is hardy nortli. None of the 

 larger orders contains trees only, htif there are some 

 which consist exclusively of woody idants and include a 

 large proportion of trees, as Cuifera', Gupuliferfe, 

 SalicacefB, Jnglandace*, Jlagnoliaceas, Sapindacea», 

 Elajagnacere, Urticacefe, Hamamelidacea?, Lauraceif, 

 AnacardiaceEP, Ebenacea?, Styracacea"' and others. 



The uses of trees are manifnld, and a country from 

 which the forests have been destroyed becomes almost 

 uninhabitable and worthless to mankind. The forests 

 furnish wood and timber, exercise beneficial influences 

 on the climate, act as regulators of the waterflow, pre- 



TREES 



self, the trees and shrubs do not need his perpetual 

 care and usually grow without his aid and interference. 

 To the landscape gardener a thorough knowledge of 

 trees is absolutely essential. He ought to know the or- 

 namental properties of the trees, their rate and mode of 

 growth, their peculiarities in regard to soil, situation 

 and climate. As the trees are, after the surface of the 

 ground, the most permanent element of the landscape, 

 they ought to he planted with careful deliberation as to 

 the'intended artistic effect and their fitness to the soil 

 and climatic conditions, for mistakes in planting of 

 trees are afterwards not easily corrected and rarely 

 without injury to the original arti.stic design. The 

 available number of trees from which selection may be 

 made is large. There are in American and European 

 nurseries and gardens more than 000 species in cultiva- 



2552. A group of old susar maples, with Irregular and broken heads. 



vent erosion and also the removal of s(-)il by the wdnd. 

 Besides furnishing wood and tiniljcr, many ti-ees yield 

 other products of great eeonomir imitorlance, especially 

 the numerous kinds bearing fniils. The esthetic \:due 

 also of the tree Tt)ust not be underrati.-il, though it can- 

 not be counte.l iu money. 



The science of trees and shrul)S is dendrology. The 

 art of growing trees is arboriculture, of which sylvi- 

 culture is a bi'anch and deals with the rearing and main- 

 taining of forests and the ]o'odncing of wood crops. 

 Orchard culliue is ;i liranch of arboriculture or of hor- 

 ticulture ami deals with the ctiltivation of fruit trei's; 

 it is usuidly included under pomology, which coniprist's 

 both the scieni'e and practice of fruit-groving. As or- 

 namental sulijects, trees are more jiermanent, easier of 

 cultivation and cheaper in the long lain than herbs. It 

 is curious to note how little atteiitiini the aver.'ige gar- 

 dener who has the care of a pai-k or garden gives 

 to the most prominent feature eC his domain. He 

 usually knows fairly well the greenhouse plants and 

 his herbaceous perennials, which cost most in time 

 and money, but the trees and shrubs he often harilly 

 deigns to look at. This is apparently <lue to 1Ih.> fact 

 that after being ouce planted, and often not by him- 



tion which are hardy in the northern and middle states. 

 About 2i0 of them are American, almost 200 from eastern 

 Asia, about 100 from Europe and 70 from western and 

 central Asia. About 40 natural orders are represented, 

 of which the most important are the Coniferre, Cupu- 

 lifera?, Salicacea=, Rosaceae, Leguminosa', .Tuglandaceas, 

 Sapindacere, Urticacea?, JIagnoliaceie and Olcacea". The 

 number of all the cultivated varieties and gaiden f'lnus 

 is, of ciiurse, considerablv larger than that of the botani- 

 cal species and niav be eslimaled at about 3,000. Com- 

 Iv few Inivticultur.d varieties are found in 

 n nurseries as compared with European, hut 

 1 not be regretted, as horl icultural varieties are 

 oerelv curious or monstrous forms. In plant- 

 ing, one must rely chiefly on the types and use the horti- 

 cultural varieties sparingly, for restfnlness should be 

 the prevailing character" of the masses and groups of 

 trees. 



The fundamental puriioses of trees in landscape 

 garilening are to furnish the great masses of foliage 

 which frame and divide and partly constitute the views 

 and landscape pictures, to emphasize the elevations ot 

 the ground, to varv the sky-line, to screen or block out 

 unsightly obiect.s, to enhance the beauty of buildings. 



speci 

 parati^-(' 

 America 

 this neei 

 mosth" t 



