18 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jantjary, 
Curious Trees. 
Useful trees have their place, and so do orna- 
mental trees. But in addition to these there is a 
class which may be called distinctively curious; 
and of these a few notes may be interesting : 
The Cow Tree is a native of Venzuela, South 
America. It is often found growing on the 
poorest and must rocky soil. Its leaves are dry 
and leathery in appearance, and for several 
months of the year not a shower falls to moisten 
its roots and branches. Yet, by piercing the 
bark, it yields a liquid resembling milk, which 
is sweet and nourishing. At sunrise, this fluid 
seems to be especially abundant, and at this 
hour the natives go to the trees in great num- 
bers to get their daily supply. 
The Sorrowful Tree is found near Bombay, 
India. It is so called, from its habit of bloom- 
ing only at night. While the sun is shining, not 
an expanded flower is visible ; yet in half an 
hour after the sun is below the horizon, the tree 
is full of them. There is little beauty in tbem, 
though the odor is pleasant. At sunrise, the 
petals close up or drop to the ground. This 
tree, it would seem, must have some sort of re- 
lation to the night-blooming Ceres. 
The Dwarf Tree is found upon high lands near 
Cape Horn. Its maximum hight is two and a 
half feet, and the spread of its branches about 
four feet, and a stiff, thorny mat at that. 
The Mammoth Trees of California, are worthy 
of note here. They are found three hundred 
feet high, and 29 feet in diameter at five feet 
from the ground. A hollow section of a trunk 
was lately exhibited at San Francisco, which 
presented a large carpeted room, with a piano 
and seats for forty persons. On a recent occa- 
sion, one hundred and forty children were ad- 
mitted without inconvenience. 
The Ivory Nut Tree is found in South America, 
and belongs to the palm tribe. The natives use 
it in building their huts, and out of its nuts they 
make buttons and various trinkets. Of late 
years, the nuts have found their way to other 
countries where the}- are worked up into all 
sorts of fancy articles. 
The Cannon Ball Tree. — What can lie more in- 
teresting than this tree in our warlike times ! 
It's a pity that it grows only in the tropics. It 
rises about sixty-five feet high, has beautiful 
crimson flowers, in clusters, and very fragrant. 
The resemblance of the fruit to cannon balls has 
given it its martial name. When fully ripe, the 
balls burst with a loud report. The shells are 
worked into cups and a great variety of other 
useful and ornamental household utensils. 
The Bread Fruit Tree. — Here is something use- 
ful, as well as curious. Would that it grew 
somewhere besides in the islands of the Pacific. 
The fruit attains the size of a child's head ten 
years old. If wanted for food, it needs to be 
gathered a little before it is fully ripe, and then 
baked, like hoecake, mhot ashes. When prop- 
erly cooked, it resembles not a little the taste or 
a good wheaten loaf. Nor is this the only use 
of the tree. Its timber is excellent for house- 
building, for making canoes and agricultural 
implements. The sap is a gummy substance, 
very useful as a pitch for caulking the seams or 
vessels. The fiber of the inner bark is used by 
the natives for making cloth., which in that cli- 
mate answers a good purpose. It is the favorite 
tree of its native region; and well it may be. 
The UpasjTree.— The " deadly Upas," of which 
we have all read and heard from childhood, 
which was supposed to diffuse a poisonous air, 
fatal to animals or men who came beneath its 
branches, has no existence, and never had. The 
only possible ground for the superstition was 
this: On a certain island of the East Indies, 
there is a valley iu which there is a constant de- 
position of carbonic acid gas. This gas spreads 
itself amoug a few trees of the neighborhood, 
and of course, if birds, animals or men inhale 
much of this gas, it will quite surely be fatal to 
them. But this is no fault of the trees, which 
have been found to possess no poisonous quality. 
The Tallow Tree is a veritable fact. It lives in 
China, and yields au oily substance resembling 
tallow, and which answers well as a substitute 
for it. The tree is of only medium size, at ma- 
turity. It would not be hardy in America. 
The Varnish Tree is Japanese, though found, 
also, sparingly in China. This is the tree 
which produces the black Japan varnish, so 
useful an article of commerce. It resembles, in 
general appearance, the white ash tree of this 
country. It does not furnish its peculiar liquid 
in large quantities, until nine or ten years old. 
Tree Planting Societies. 
Several years ago, mention was made in the 
American Agriculturist, of a Rural Art Society 
established in one of our towns, the leading ob- 
ject of which was to encourage planting road- 
sides and yards with shade-trees, and to fos- 
ter a general public taste for rural improve- 
ment. This article was copied into an influen- 
tial paper in London, with a commendatory 
note by the Editor. A year after, a gentleman 
who had read the article, was led to recall and 
re-read it. His reading set him a-thinking, and 
his thinking set him a-writiug. He wrote sev- 
eral articles, urging the rural embellishment of 
London and the surrounding villages. Other 
pens became enlisted in other parts of the king- 
dom, the subject got a good airing, and some- 
thing practical is likely to grow out of it- 
One of these articles urges the formation of 
rural societies like those in America. Here are 
a few sentences : " The idea of promoting these 
objects by an association is a happy one; and in 
this age of co-operation, such a society can 
easily be established. Owners of property in 
and around villages would belong to such a so- 
ciety, because the embellishment would enhance 
the value of their property. Men of taste would 
belong to it, for the gratification it would afford 
them," etc., etc. So it would seem that the good 
seed sown by our agricultural papers, often 
springs up and bears unexpected fruit. 
For the American. Agriculturist. 
A Parmer on our Native Porest Trees. 
Mr. Editor : It seems to me that there is too 
much of a rage for foreign trees and plants, to 
the neglect of the productions of our own 
country. I know, indeed, that all the good 
things are not confined to this nation, but I be- 
lieve we have enough for our own use. Not a 
few persons are fond of having a root or cut- 
ting of something which once grew on a fa- 
mous man's estate in England or Prance — no 
matter whether it is adapted to our climate or 
not. They are forever hunting after something 
rare, something uncommon, something which 
ordinary people can not hope to possess. 
Now, I go in for the natives. We have here 
at home enough, and more than enough, to sat- 
isfy every reasonable desire and taste. If a per- 
son wants to increase his variety, here is oppor- 
tunity enough. The fact is, only a few persons 
know what a long and varied catalogue we pos- 
sess. The planters and nurserymen of England 
and the Continent are continually sending over 
here for our trees and plants, knowing them to 
be the finest that the world possesses : but are 
they not as good for us as for them? If you 
should send an order to any intelligent nursery- 
man in England, for a dozen of his best orna- 
mental trees, irrespective of their origin, and 
adapted to a northern climate, rest assured he 
would send you, among others, the cucumber 
tree (Magnolia acuminata,) the tuljp tree, white 
elm, sugar maple, hemlock, and white pine, all 
of them indigenous to North America. That's 
worth thinking about. 
Then, there is a certain claim of self respect. 
If a person is continually undervaluing his own, 
and hankering after the things which others 
possess, it indicates weakness, and it lowers 
him in the estimation of others. Now, if we 
respect ourselves as Americans, I think we shall 
put a due estimate on our own possessions ; we 
shall feel a sort of national pride in them. For 
one, I feel proud of whatever belongs to us as 
a people. Our country, in its vast extent and 
resources, in its scenery and climate and people, 
is one of which we may well think highly. 
Our civil and political institutions cost us a great 
deal to purchase, and now, much more, oh, how 
much, to maintain and preserve ! Now, sir, I 
can't help appropriating somewhat of this na- 
tional feeling to our native productions — to our 
very grasses, and grains, and fruits, and trees, 
I dearly love them, because they belong to my 
own native laud. Let us all prize, more and 
more, the trees which clothe our hills and adorn 
our valleys, and the vines, shrubs, and plain:;, 
which smile all over the landscape. Farmer. 
Hints from Mr. Loudon. 
In turning over an odd volume of Loudon's 
Magazine, lately, we met in his description of a 
country seat, a hint or two worth recording: 
"Here we found Tliwibergia alata, in great 
luxuriance, sowing itself every year, a proof that 
it maybe treated as an annual. Maurandya Bar- 
cbiijana here, as iu some other places, is found to 
be perfectly hardy. The top dies down to the 
ground in the Pall, but new shoots spring up 
vigorously in the Spring. And this we presume 
will prove to be the ruse with a multitude of 
other plants which we have not tried The 
collection of choice shrubs and ornamental trees 
here is remarkable, considering the limited extent 
of the place, the secret of which is, that few 
common plants or duplicates are admitted. . . . 
There is not a greater mistake, in planting 
pleasure grounds, than the mixing of the com- 
mon or indigenous shrubs of the country with 
foreign or improved species. It is as bad in a 
garden, as it would be in architecture to mix 
Grecian ornaments with Gothic ones." He al- 
so speaks of thorns being tied around the stems 
of young trees to guard them from animals. 
Also, of certain plants which require au abun- 
dance of light, but can not endure the direct rayi 
of the sun; these arc accommodated by being 
set where they get only the light reflected from 
a high wall which had been whitewashed. 
Query: Would not this answer for rhododen- 
drons and laurels? Lastly, he publishes the 
letter of a head-gardener who, in speaking of 
the trenching of the ground done for planting a 
lot of young magnolias, says : " The subsoil on 
this place we have not yet been able to prove, 
having gone down deeper than five feet ; but to 
that depth, it is all sandy loam." Think of that, 
ye American trenchers ! Only five feet down I 
