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CHOICE OF TREES AND SHRUBS FOR CITIES AND RURAL TOWNS-NO. 3. 
CHOICE OF TREES AND SHRUBS FOR CITIES 
AND RURAL TOWNS.—No. 3. 
I now proceed to give a general notice of the 
native trees that have been most planted in this 
country for the purpose of ornament and shade, and 
of the manner in which they have often been treat¬ 
ed ; also, to point out such others as appear to be 
best adapted to the objects in view. 
Among the earliest trees, cultivated by our fore¬ 
fathers, as before remarked, the American Elm 
stands conspicuous, and has long been a great 
favorite, particularly in New England, where it is 
very generally employed as a shade-tree for lining 
avenues, highways, the planting of parks, &c., and 
as such, there are few, if any, more appropriate for 
these objects; and, as a picturesque tree in wood¬ 
land scenes, it is rarely surpassed by any of its 
forest brethren, in point of beauty or in size. When 
standing in a wood, in a soil it loves, it naturally 
grows upright, and rises higher than the generality of 
other trees; and, when standing insulated and 
alone, in a newly-cleared field, with its top decayed 
and dead, save here and there a small tuft of leaves 
stretching forth its naked and withered arms, it 
forms a striking emblem of the aged patriarch, who 
has outlived all his fellows, and is a stranger in the 
land which gave him birth, in whom death is 
already struggling with life, and will soon gain the 
ascendency. But when cultivated or grown in a 
pasture, or in the lawn standing in lonely majesty, 
towering to the height of a hundred feet, with its 
lowermost limbs diverging outwards and upwards, 
at a few yards above the ground, and afterwards 
dividing and subdividing into numerous smaller 
ramifications, and diffusing on all sides its pendu¬ 
lous branchlets, floating lightly in the air, it forms 
an object of dignity and grandeur. This tree, too, 
is among the first to salute the early spring with its 
light and cheerful green, which, though discordant 
at first with the gloomy hue of the pines and firs, 
partakes of a darker tint, as the season advances, 
and unites in harmony with their unchanged 
boughs. In autumn, also, before the nightly frosts 
and chilly winds have done their work, the bright 
golden foliage of the elm kindly mixes with the 
various hues of the poplar and the maples, which 
display all shades of red, from the deepest crimson 
to the brightest orange 5 a tint that contrasts agreea¬ 
bly at this season, with the pale-yellow, sober foli¬ 
age of the birch and the beech, with the different 
shades of brown in the bass-wood and the ash, or 
with the buff yellow of the larch. The beech, the 
ash, and the larch, however, do not, in general, 
take much part in this gorgeous pageant. The ash 
is chiefly leafless at this time, and its glory has 
passed away before the other two have scarcely 
begun to fade. Indeed, “ the glossy green of the 
beech is perhaps more effective than if it partook of 
the general change ; and even the gloomy blackness 
of the resiniferous trees, by relieving and throwing 
forward the gayer tints, is not without effect.” But, 
unfortunately, the foliage of this noble tree serves as 
food for several kinds of insects, or their larvae, 
while its bark and wood are pierced by others for 
the purpose of making provision for their young. 
It is subject to but few diseases, however, and is 
not liable to any serious accidents, except in being 
occasionally struck by lightning, or prostrated by 
violent winds.* 
Next to the elm, the Sugar-Maple is accounted 
as the finest among our shade-trees ; and, in good 
taste, has long been planted along streets and 
avenues, in pastures, and ornamental grounds, fine 
illustrations of which are manifest in the town of 
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and in the beautiful 
village of Homer, in this State. This most noble 
and majestic tree, wdien growing in open situations, 
with ample room to spread on eveiy side, where all 
the branches are exposed to the free action of light, 
is an object of great beauty. And it is no less 
beautiful in our forest or woodland scenes, in au¬ 
tumn, when it puts on its bright-orange and deep 
crimson robes. At first the extremities of the 
boughs alone change their color, leaving the inter¬ 
nal and more sheltered parts still in their verdure, 
“ which gives to the tree the effect of great depth 
of shade, and displays advantageously the light, 
lively coloring of the sprays.” Later in the season, 
on the contrary, when the tints become more and 
more gorgeous, and the full beams of the sunshine 
fall upon the large masses of foliage, the warm and 
glowing colors of the whole summit possess a great 
deal of grandeur, and add much to the beauty and 
effect of the landscape. From the graceful and 
regular form of its summit, the rich verdure, and 
cleanliness of its foliage in summer, as well as in 
spring, the planting of this tree cannot be too highly 
recommended either for country or town. 
The Button-wood (sycamore), from its wide geo¬ 
graphical range, its rapidity of growth, and the 
facility with which it can be propagated, has been 
more universally planted, as a shade-tree, in the 
United States, than any other species. Gilpin, in 
speaking of this tree, says—“ The Occidental plane 
has a very picturesque stem. It is smooth and of 
a light ash-color, and has the property of throwing 
off its bark in scales; thus naturally cleansing it¬ 
self, at least its larger boughs, from moss and other 
parasitical encumbrances. This would be no 
recommendation of it in a picturesque light, if the 
removal of these encumbrances did not substitute a 
great beauty in their room. These scales are very 
irregular, falling off sometimes in one part, and 
sometimes in another;" and, as the under bark is, 
immediately after its excoriation, of a lighter hue 
than the upper, it offers to the pencil those smart 
touches which have so much effect in painting. 
These flakes, however, would be more beautiful if 
they fell off in circular form, instead of a perpen¬ 
dicular one—they would correspond and unite bet¬ 
ter with the circular form of the bole. No tree 
forms a more pleasing shade than the Occidental 
plane. It is full-leaved; and its leaf is large, 
smooth, of fine texture, and seldom injured by in¬ 
sects.”! If to these considerations we add the lofty 
height this tree attains, and the open character of 
its foliage, which admits the free passage of light 
and air, it is obvious that the button-wood, when 
associated with the willow, the ailantus, the silver¬ 
leaved maple, or the elm, is an appropriate subject 
for lining avenues and public highways. Unfor¬ 
tunately for this tree, however, it has been severely 
* Vide Trees of America, pp. 510 et 612. 
f Forest Scenery, 1., p. 53. 
