X 



THE ARNOLD AEBORETUM: A 

 NATIONAL TREASURE 



AS the visitor to the Arnold Arboretum stands 

 ■^ ^ entranced in May, before glowing and fin- 

 ished pictures of tree and shrub fully developed 

 and in full flower; as he sees around him a beauty 

 so complete, so ravishing, that it seems to have 

 taken a century or so to create it — what is his sur- 

 prise to learn that this tree museum dates only 

 from 1882, and that only three years later actual 

 tree-planting was begun ! 



James Arnold, a New Bedford merchant, at the 

 suggestion of his friend George B. Emerson, left 

 in 1868 the sum of $100,000 for the promotion of 

 agriculture and horticulture. Mr. Emerson and 

 his friend Mr. John James Dixwell, both trustees 

 of this bequest, themselves growers and lovers of 

 trees, decided that no better use could be made of 

 this money than to give it to Harvard University, 

 on condition that the institution established an 

 arboretum. This was in 1872. The university al- 

 ready owned a farm in West Roxbury, part of 



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