18 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
Curious Trees. 
Useful trees have their place, and so do orna¬ 
mental trees. But in addition to these there is a 
class -which may be called distinctively curious; 
and of these a few notes may he interesting : 
The Cow Tree is a native ofVenzuela, South 
America. It is often found growing on the 
poorest and most rocky soil. Its leaves are dry 
and leathery in appearance, and for several 
months of the year not a shower falls to moisten 
its roots and branches. Yet, by piercing the 
bark, it yields a liquid resembling milk, which 
is sweet and nourishing. At sunrise, this fluid 
seems to be especially abundant, and at this 
hour the natives go to the trees in great num¬ 
bers to get their daily supply. 
The Sorrowful Tree is found near Bombay, 
India. It is so called, from its habit of bloom¬ 
ing only at night. While the sun is shining, not 
an expanded flower is visible; yet in half an 
hour after the sun is below the horizon, the tree 
is full of them. There is little beauty in them, 
though the odor is pleasant. At sunrise, the 
petals close up or drop to the ground. This 
tree, it would seem, must have some sort of re¬ 
lation to the night-blooming- Ceres. 
The Dwarf Tree is found upon high lands near 
Cape Horn. Its maximum liight is two and a 
half feet, and the spread of its branches about 
four feet, and a stiff, thorny mat at that. 
The Mammoth Trees of California, are worthy 
of note here. They are found three hundred 
feet high, and 29 feet in diameter at five feet 
from the ground. A hollow section of a trunk 
Avas lately exhibited at San Francisco, which 
presented a large carpeted room, with a piano 
and seats for forty persons. On a recent occa¬ 
sion, one hundred and forty children were ad¬ 
mitted AA'ithout inconvenience. 
The Ivory Nut Tree is found in South America, 
aud belongs to the palm tribe. The natives use 
it in building their huts, and out of its nuts they 
make buttons and various trinkets. Of late 
years, the nuts have found their way to other 
countries where they are worked up into all 
sorts of fancy articles. 
The Cannon Ball Tree. —What can be more in¬ 
teresting than this tree in our warlike times! 
It’s a pity that it grows only in the tropics. It 
rises about sixty-five feet high, has beautiful 
crimson flowers, in clusters, and very fragrant. 
The resemblance of the fruit to cannon balls has 
given it its martial name. When fully ripe, the 
balls burst with a loud report. The shells are 
Avorked into cups and a great variety of other 
useful and ornamental household utensils. 
The Bread Fruit Tree. —Here is something use¬ 
ful, as well as curious. Would that it grew 
someAvhere besides in the islands of the Pacific.' 
The fruit attains the size of a child’s head ten 
years old. If wanted for food, it needs to be 
gathered a little before it is fully ripe, and then 
baked, like hoecake, in hot ashes. When prop¬ 
erly cooked, it resembles not a little the taste or 
a good wheaten loaf. Nor is this the only use 
of the tree. Its timber is excellent for house¬ 
building, for making canoes and agricultural 
implements. The sap is a gummy substance, 
very useful as a pitch for caulking the seams ox 
vessels. The fiber of the inner bark is used by 
the natives for making cloth., xvhich in that cli¬ 
mate answers a good purpose. It is the favorite 
tree of its native region; and well it may be. 
The Upas Tree. —The “ deadly Upas,” of which 
we have all read and heard from childhood, 
which Avas supposed to diffuse a poisonous air, 
fatal to animals or men who came beneath its 
branches, has no existence, and never had. The 
only possible ground for the superstition was 
this: On a certain island of the East Indies, 
there is a valley in which there is a constant de¬ 
position of carbonic acid gas. This gas spreads 
itself among a few trees of the neighborhood, 
and of course, if birds, animals or men inhale 
much of this gas, it will quite surely be fatal to 
them. But this is no fault of the trees, which 
have been found to possess no poisonous quality. 
The Tallow Tree is a veritable fact. It lives in 
China, and yields an oily substance resembling 
talloAV, and which answers well as a substitute 
for it. The tree is of only medium size, at ma¬ 
turity. It would not be hardy in America. 
. The Varnish Tree is Japanese, though found, 
also, sparingly in China. This is the tree 
which produces the black Japan varnish, so 
useful an article of commerce. It resembles, in 
general appearance, the white ash tree of this 
country. It does not furnish its peculiar liquid 
in large quantities, until nine or ten years old. 
-^ < ■ i p -p- gT ' m t ij i—- - - ■■ 
Tree Planting Societies. 
Several years ago, mention was made in the 
American Agriculturist , of a Rural Art Society 
established in one of our tOAvns, the leading ob¬ 
ject of which was to encourage planting road¬ 
sides and yards Avith shade-trees, and to fos¬ 
ter a general public taste for rural improve¬ 
ment. This article was copied into an influen¬ 
tial paper in London, with a commendatory 
note by the Editor. A year after, a gentleman 
Avho had read the article, was led to recall and 
re-read it. His reading set him a-tliinking, and 
his thinking set him a-writing. He wrote sev¬ 
eral articles, urging the rural embellishment of 
London and the surrounding villages. Other 
pens became enlisted in other parts of the king¬ 
dom, the subject got a good airing, and some¬ 
thing practical is likely to groxv out of it. 
One of these articles urges the formation of 
rural societies like those in America. Here are 
a few sentences: “ The idea of promoting these 
objects by an association is a happy one; and in 
this age of co-operation, such a society can 
easily be established. Owners of property in 
and around villages Would belong to such a so¬ 
ciety, because the embellishment would enhance 
the value of their property. Men of taste would 
belong to it, for the gratification it would afford 
them,” etc., etc. So it would seem that the good 
seed sown by our agricultural papers, often 
springs up and bears unexpected fruit. 
For the American Agriculturist . 
A Farmer on our Hative Forest Trees. 
Mr. Editor : It seems to me that there is too 
much of a rage for foreign trees and plants, to 
the neglect of the productions of our own 
country. I know, indeed, that all the gcfod 
tilings are not confined to this nation, but I be¬ 
lieve Ave have enough for our own use. Not a 
fexv persons are fond of having a root or cut¬ 
ting of something Avhich once greAV on a fa¬ 
mous man’s estate in England or France—no 
matter whether it is adapted to our climate or 
not. They are forever hunting after something- 
rare, something uncommon, something which 
ordinary people can not hope to possess. 
Noav, I go in for the natives. We have here 
at home enough, and more than enough, to sat¬ 
isfy every reasonable desire and taste. If a per¬ 
son wants to increase his variety, here is oppor¬ 
tunity enough. The fact is, only a few persons 
knoAV Avhat a long and varied catalogue we pos¬ 
sess. The planters and nurserymen of England 
and the Continent are continually sending over 
here for our trees and plants, knoAving them to 
be the finest that the world possesses : but are 
they not as good for us as for them ? If you 
should send an order to any intelligent nursery¬ 
man in England, for a dozen of his best orna¬ 
mental trees, irrespective of' their origin, and 
adapted to a northern climate, rest assured he 
Avould send you, among others, the cucumber 
tree ( Magnolia acuminata ,) the tulip tree, white 
elm, sugar maple, hemlock, and white pine, all 
of them indigenous to North America. That’s 
worth thinking about. 
Then, there is a certain claim of self respect. 
If a person is continually undervaluing his own, 
and hankering after the things which others 
possess, it indicates weakness, and it lowers 
him in the estimation of others. Noav, if we 
respect ourselves as Americans, I think we shall 
put a due estimate on our own possessions; we 
shall feel a sort of national pride in them. For 
one, I feel proud of Avlxatever belongs to us as 
a people. Our country, in its vast extent and 
resources, in its scenery and climate and people, 
is one of which we may Avell think highly. 
Our civil and political institutions cost us a great 
deal to purchase, and now, much more, oh, how 
much, to maintain and preserve! NoAi r , sir, I 
can’t help appropriating somewhat of this na¬ 
tional feeling to our native productions—to our 
very grasses, and grains, and fruits, and trees. 
I dearly love them, because they belong to my 
own native land. Let us all prize, more and 
more, the trees which clothe our hills and adorn 
our A r alleys, and the vines, shrubs, and plants, 
which smile all over the landscape. Farmer, 
Hints from Mr. Loudon. 
In turning over an odd volume of Loudon’s 
Magazine, lately, Ave met in his description of a 
country seat, a hint or two worth recording: 
“ Here Ave found Thunbergia alata , in great 
luxuriance, soAving itself every year, a proof that 
it maybe treated as an annual. Maurandya Bar- 
clayana here, as in some other places, is found to 
be perfectly hardy. The top dies down to the 
ground in the Fall, but neAV shoots spring up 
vigorously in the Spring. And this we presume 
will prove to be the case with a multitude of 
other plants which Ave have not tried.The 
collection of choice shrubs and ornamental trees 
here is remarkable, considering the limited extent 
of the place, the secret of which is, that feAV 
connnon plants or duplicates are admitted_ 
There is not a greater mistake, in planting 
pleasure grounds, than the mixing of the com¬ 
mon or indigenous shrubs of the country with 
foreign or improved species. It is as bad in a 
garden, as it would be in architecture to mix 
Grecian ornaments Avith Gothic ones.” He al¬ 
so speaks of thorns being tied around the stems 
of young trees to guard them from animals. 
Also, of certain plants Avhich require an abun¬ 
dance of light, but can not endure the direct rays 
of the sun; these are accommodated by being- 
set Avhere they get only the light reflected from 
a high Avail Avhich had been whitewashed. 
Query: Would not this answer for rhododen¬ 
drons and laurels ?-Lastly, he publishes the 
letter of a head-gardener who, in speaking of 
the trenching of the ground done for planting a 
lot of young magnolias, saj^s: “ The subsoil on 
this place Ave have not yet been able to prove, 
never having gone down deeper than five feet; but to 
that depth, it is all sandy loam.” Think of that, 
ye American trenchers ! Only five feet cjpxvn ! 
