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North America? In another city an avenue of the Chinese Pagoda- 
tree (Sophora) is suggested as a memorial. This is a handsome tree 
interesting in the fact that its abundant pea-like white flowers do not 
open until midsummer. In some of the open places in Peking are spec- 
imens of this tree which from a distance look like great Oak-trees. 
They may be two or three hundred years old. In this country this tree 
has probably not been growing for more than seventy or eighty years and 
its growth here has not been rapid. There seems to be no good reason 
why the Chinese Sophora should be used as a memorial for an Amer- 
ican soldier. But the most unfortunate selection for a soldier’s mem- 
orial is that made by a patriotic Connecticut community which has 
planted a group of Colorado Blue Spruces for this purpose. This Spruce 
by its unusual color probably has taken the popular fancy; it is easily 
raised; it grows rapidly, and is hardy even in the extreme north. More 
of these Blue Spruces are sold every year in the northeastern states 
perhaps than of all other conifers combined. Millions of dollars have 
been expended on it, and in fifty years from now it is pretty safe to pre- 
dict that not one per cent, of the trees planted this year will be alive. 
The Blue Spruce was discovered in 1862, and it was first raised in that 
year in the Harvard Botanic Garden by Dr. Asa Gray. In Colorado, 
where it grows near the banks of streams in colonies of scattered 
plants it loses many of its branches and becomes unsightly by the time 
it is fifty years old. In cultivation it gradually loses branches long 
before it has reached that age, and it usually becomes unsightly and 
only fit for the brush pile. 
There are objections to using even the longest lived trees as mem- 
orials. Even Elms and White Oaks in New England, Laurel Oaks in 
Florida and Live Oaks in South Carolina and Louisiana, Black Walnuts 
in Illinois and Burr Oaks in Wisconsin may suffer from bad treatment. 
Unexpected calamities are liable to happen to trees; they are often 
injured by fire or killed by lightning, and neglect is often the fate of 
trees in this country. Twenty years ago no nobler tree for a Penn- 
sylvania memorial could have been found than the Chestnut and now 
every Chestnut-tree in the state has been killed by a disease for which 
no remedy can be found. In the northern part of the eastern states 
there is not a more appropriate tree than the White Pine to mark the 
grave of a soldier, but the White Pine is menaced by a deadly disease 
and no one should now plant it for any purpose with the expectation 
that it will live through its natural life of one or two centuries. 
Trees as memorials appeal to the imagination of many persons. 
Theoretically they have much to recommend them for this purpose. 
There are few men who would not be happy in thinking that their 
memory was to be kept green by one of the great New England Elm- 
trees, or by such a Live Oak as grows in Audubon Park, New Orleans, 
but in recent years the best Elm-tree in Massachusetts was first muti- 
lated and then destroyed by storms long before it reached maturity, 
and the large New Orleans Live Oaks may at any time succumb to one 
of the West Indian hurricanes which every year destroy buildings and 
trees on the Gulf Coast. 
There are at least, however, two splendid memorials made by trees. 
The best known of them are rows of Cryptomerias which shade 
the road which leads to the Temples in Nikko, Japan. These trees 
