Complimentary 
NEW SERIES VOL. VIII 
NO. 16 
ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
BULLETIN 
OF 
POPULAR INFORMATION 
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. OCTOBER 23, 1922 
Memorial Trees. The use of trees as memorials for soldiers who lost 
their lives in the Great War is now popular in this country, judging 
by the number of letters which come to the Arboretum on’ the subject. 
The planting, too, of trees to commemorate the visit of an Association 
or of a distinguished individual to a spot of historical interest has long 
been practiced in the United States and has often interfered, with dis- 
figuring results, with well considered planting plans. Even the plans 
of George Washington, a master planter of trees, have suffered by 
the zeal of his admirers who have too often in efforts for self-aggran- 
dizement sacrificed the simple beauty of Mount Vernon by insisting on 
planting among Washington’s native trees Japanese Maples, European 
Oaks, Chinese Mulberries and other trees which fortunately have usu- 
ally proved short-lived in the valley of the Potomac. 
Clearly the essential thing in a memorial tree is its ability to live 
long. The tree selected therefore should be the native tree which 
grows to the greatest age in the particular locality and in the kind of 
soil in which it is proposed to establish the memorial, A native tree 
should be used for the trees native to any locality have become, 
through thousands of years of cross-breeding and natural selection, 
better able to live long and flourish in that locality than any foreign 
tree or any tree brought from a distant part of this country. All 
sorts of trees are being used as soldiers’ memorials. In a western 
city a long memorial avenue of Japanese Cherry-trees has been planted. 
The kind selected is a handsome tree, but its seeds first reached the 
United States in 1892. Japanese trees are well known to be short- 
lived in this conntry, and who can foresee the future of this tree in 
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