26 
LAWK AND SHADE TREES. 
can never be called a beautiful tree, so far as beauty consists in 
smooth outlines but in so saying we think he was in error, for 
some of the most perfect outlines we ever saw in tree, regular 
symmetrical cones from the ground upward, are to be found in 
trees of the European larch where grown alone and in a light 
dry soil. With Downing, however, we agree that it should be 
sparingly planted in grounds where the graceful rather than the 
picturesque style is designed to be created ; but in the formation 
of groups combined with the hemlock or the Norway spruce ; in 
planting a rocky knoll, or bordering some stream where its 
drooping spray and swaying branches harmonize with the birch 
or Willow, and at the same time increase character and expression 
by its spiry top, it is a tree of the highest value. 
For street shades, or any position where its lower branches 
have to be pruned away, it is entirely unsuited. Our American 
larch, frequently called tamarack, is of slow growth when 
planted in dry soil, as compared with the European, but in low, 
wet situations it grows rapidly, and for picturesque effect is 
even better, because of its more irregular habit. 
The cones of the European variety are much larger than those 
of the American, and when the tree is planted so that it can be 
plainly seen, it is very beautiful, with its bright pink flowers 
early in spring. 
Maple — Acer. — All the maples are good as shade trees for 
lawn or roadside, but among them the rubrum , red flowering, or 
as generally termed scarlet maple, is most to be prized. Its red 
flowers and leaves in early spring or beginning of summer ; its 
brilliant shades of red foliage in autumn, taken in connection with 
its rapid growth and upright half spreading form, render it one 
of the most ornamental of hardy trees. Although a native, and 
abundant in many parts of our Northern and Middle States, one 
or more trees of it should be found in all grounds of half an 
acre or more in size. It may not be quite as rapid in growth as 
