DECIDUOUS TREES. 
11 
which it is grown, renders it desirable for planting in grounds 
of an extent of two or more acres. There is a variety of this, 
macrophylla , with larger foliage and stronger growth, that is 
desirable where two or more trees are to be planted. 
Ailantus — Glandulosa . — The Chinese Ailantus, or Tree of 
Heaven as it is often called, has received much fulsome praise 
and equally unjust censure. It is a tree that grows rapidly, and 
in almost any soil ; is entirely free from insects, and although not 
graceful, yet its strong shoots or arms of rusty brown young 
wood, taken with its long and singular foliage and profusion of 
whitish green flowers, create a tree of no mean attraction. There 
are two sexes, both of which produce flowers, the male much 
less abundantly than the female; and while the male suckers 
freely, the female does not. It should never be planted near 
dwellings, or where the ground is to be dug. It grows freely 
while young; but once it has attained a height of fifteen to 
twenty feet and comes into flowering, it increases in size more 
slowly. 
Beech — Fagus. — Our American Beech — fagus Americana — 
we rank as combining in itself more of beauty, grace, and mag- 
nificence than perhaps any other of our forest trees. True, it has 
not the grandeur of the oak ; but with its stateliness of upright, 
spreading growth, every line and twig is one of graceful ease ; 
and from the first opening of the buds in spring, onward until 
in full foliage, its glossiness and changing shades are a constant 
and varying feature of beauty. In winter, its delicate spray 
combined with the prominence of its long pointed buds make 
it especially an object of attraction and admiration. Some 
planters object to the beech on account of a tendency to sucker, 
but we have never found it so where the roots remained 
unbroken by cultivation. 
Young trees should always be procured with branches starting 
from near the ground, and rarely does it need the knife applied 
