EUROPEAN TREES. 
309 
Few European trees, except those bearing edible fruit, have 
been naturalized in the United States, while the American 
forest flora has made large contributions to that of Europe. It 
is a very poor taste which has led to the substitution of the 
less picturesque European for the graceful and majestic Amer¬ 
ican elm, in some public grounds in the United States. On 
the other hand, the European mountain ash—which in beauty 
and healthfulness of growth is superior to our own—the horse 
chestnut, and the abele, or silver poplar, are valuable additions 
to the ornamental trees of North America. The Swiss arve 
or zirbelkiefer, Pinus cembra , which yields a well-flavored 
edible seed and furnishes excellent wood for carving, the um¬ 
brella pine which also bears a seed agreeable to the taste, and 
which, from the color of its foliage and the beautiful form of 
its dome-like crown, is among the most elegant of trees, the 
white birch of Central Europe, with its pendulous branches 
almost rivalling those of the weeping willow in length, flexi¬ 
bility, and gracefulness of fall, and, especially, the “ cypresse 
funerall,” might be introduced into the United States with 
great advantage to the landscape. The European beech and 
chestnut furnish timber of far better quality than that of their 
American congeners. The fruit of the European chestnut, 
Till. 
And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led, 
Joying to heare the hirdes sweete harmony, 
Which therein shrouded from the tempest dred, 
Seemd in their song to soorne the cruell sky. 
Much can they praise the trees so straight and hy, 
The 6ayling pine ; the cedar stout and tall; 
The vine-propp elm ; the poplar never dry ; 
The builder oake, sole king of forrests all; 
The aspine good for staves ; the cypresse funerall ; 
i x. 
The laurell, meed of might!e conquerours 
And poets sage ; the firre that weepeth still; 
The willow, worne of forlorn paramours ; 
The eugh. obedient to the benders will; 
The birch for shaftes ; the sallow for the mill ; 
The mirrhe sweete-bleeding in the bitter wound ; 
The warlike beech ; the ash for nothing ill; 
The fruitfull olive ; and the platane round ; 
The carver holme ; the maple seeldom inward sound. 
