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flat-topped, shapely tree with wide-spreading branches; in the interior 
of the country and especially on the slopes of the high southern Appa- 
lachian Mountains it grows sometimes a hundred feet high and forms 
a tall, massive trunk often five feet in diameter and a narrow head of 
erect branches. The flowers are inconspicuous, and the small, dark 
blue, plum-like fruit is so hidden by the leaves that it does not make 
much show. The beauty of this tree is found in its habit and in the 
thick dark green, shining leaves. The long hard roots make the Sour 
Gum difficult to transplant and only very small plants can be success- 
fully moved. It is not therefore often found in nurseries and has never 
received the attention from planters of ornamental trees which it de- 
serves. The group of this tree is at the lower end of the Bussey Hill 
Road near the small pond, at the junction of this road with the Meadow 
and Forest Hills Roads. 
Halesia tetraptera, var. monticola. The Silver Bell tree of the 
southern states, Halesia tetraptera, has long been cultivated in north- 
ern gardens. It is usually shrubby in habit with several stout wide- 
spreading stems, and here at the north, rarely grows more than fif- 
teen or twenty feet high. It is an inhabitant of the southern states 
from West Virginia to southern Illinois, northern Florida and eastern 
Texas. It grows at low altitudes and does not appear to ascend to the 
slopes of the high Appalachian Mountains, although the Halesia of 
those mountain forests was long considered identical with the lowland 
tree. The Halesia of the high slopes, however, is a tree often eighty 
or ninety feet high, with a trunk three feet in diameter, sometimes 
free of branches for a distance of sixty feet from the ground. It is 
apparently only in recent years that this mountain tree has been intro- 
duced into cultivation by the Biltmore Nursery. From Biltmore it was 
sent to the parks of Rochester, New York, and from Rochester it came 
to the Arboretum with a description of its peculiar habit, large flowers 
and fruit. The mountain tree which has lately been distinguished here 
as var. monticola grows as a tree from the time the seed germinates 
and the seedlings show no variation of habit. Young trees are clean 
stemmed with short branches which form a narrow pyramidal head. 
The leaves are of rather different shape and less hairy than those of 
the lowland tree; the flowers are fully a third larger and the fruit 
is nearly twice as large. Trees less than ten feet produce flowers and 
fruit in abundance. There is now every reason to believe that the 
mountain Halesia will prove one of the handsomest flowering trees of 
large size which it is possible to cultivate in this climate. Its tall 
trunk and narrow head suggest that it may prove a good street and 
roadside tree. Two young trees now covered with fruit are growing 
on the upper side of Hickory Path near Centre Street; growing with 
them is a plant of the lowland form, also covered with fruit, so that 
it is possible to compare these two forms as they appear at this season 
of the year. 
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