The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-08-18
! shaae rr,.a ~ citles.

shade Trees In cities. ...e
The August number Of the Horticultural, pub
lished at Newburgh, New York, contains the fol-
lowing article on shade trees attributed to the pen
Of the late lamented A. J. DowsInG, whose skill
in this respect but recently exercised in beau
flying this metropolis. His remarks bear hard on
the ailanthus tree, while the silver and sugar ma
pies are extolled by him for their cleanliness and
beauty, and for being Indigenous to American soil:
"Down with the ailanthus!'' IL the cry we hear
on all sides, town and country, now that this .tree
Of heaven" Gas the catalogues used alluringly to
call it,l spenetrated all parts Of the Union, and
begins TO show lis true character. Down with the
ailanthus. "lts blossom smells 90 disagreeable
that my family are made i'll by it," says an old re
eident on one OF the squares In New York, where II
i the only shade tor fifty contiguous houses. "We
must positively go to Newport, papa, to escape
these horrible aanthuses," exciaim numberless
young ladies, who find that even their best Jean
Maria Farina affords no permanent relief, since
their front parlors have become 90 celestially en-
powered. "The vile tree comes up all over my
garden" say nifty owners Of suburban lots who
have foolishly been tempted into bordering the
outside Of their "yards'' with it-having been told
that Il grows 20 "surprisng fast" ut has ruined
my lawn for fifty feet all around each tree" say
the country gentlemen, who, seduced by the ORR
entail beauty of its foliage, have also been busy for
years dotting II in open places, here and there, in
their pleasure grounds. In iome of the cities
seriously, have voted the entire, downfall Of the
whole species, and the Herods who WELD the bosom
Of sylvan destruction have probably made clean
sweep Of the first born OF ceestials In more towns
son. .,...
Although we think there ia picturesqueness in
the free and luxuriant foliage Of the aianthus. we
ehall see its downfall without word to save it.
We look upon II as usurper in rather bad 0dOr ut
home, which has come. over to ths land OF liberty
under the garb of utility to make foul the air
with it's pestilent breath, and devour the soil with
its intermeddng roots-a tree hat has the fair out
aide and the treacherous heart Of the Asiatics and
that has played US 90 many tricks that we find we
have caught Tartar which it requires something
more than Chinese wall to- confne within limits.
Down with the ailanthus! therefore, we cry
with the ypopulace, but we have reasons besides
theirs; and now that the favorite has fallen out of
favor With the sovereigns, we may take the oppor.
tunity 10 preach q funeral sermon over its reInains
that shall not, like 90 many funeral sermons, be
it's vices. For if the Tartar is not laid violent
hands upon, and kept under close watch, even at.
ter the spirit has gone out of the old trunk, and
the coroner is satisfied that he has come to a vio-
the shape of suckers innumerable-little Tartars
that viii beget pew dynasty, and overrun our
grounds and gardens again without mercy.
The vices Of the alianthus-the incurable vices Of
the by-gone favorite-then, are twofold: In the
first place, it smells horribly, both in leaf and flower,
and instead Of sweetening and purifying the air,
fills It with heavy sickening odor;t in the second
place, It suckers abominaby, and thereby overruns,
appropHates, and reduces to beggary, all the soil
OF every open piece Of ground where it is planted.
These are the notifications which everybody feels,
sooner later, Who has been seduced by the luxu.
RANT outstretched welcome of its smooth round
arms, and the waving and reckoning OF its grace
circle For few years, While the tree is growing.
II has, to be sure, q fair and specious look You
feelalmost you look at its round trunk shooting
up a. straight, and almost as fast as a rocket,
crowned by such a luxuriant tuft verdure, that
you have got a young palm tree before your door,
that can whisper tales to you in the evening Of that
"howery country" from whence you have bor-
rowed il, and you swear to stand by It again all
slanderous assertions. But, alas! you are greener
in your experience than the Tartar in his leaves.
few years pass by; the sapiing becomes a treo-its
blossoms fill the air with something that looks like
curry powder, and smells like the plague. You
shut down the windows to keep out the unbaImy
June air, if you live in town, and invariably give
. wide berth to the heavenly avenue, if you belong
to the country.
But we confess, openly, that our browning OBJ
iection to this petted Chinaman Tartar, who has
played US 90 falsely, is patriotic objection. II is
that be has drawn away our attention from our
own more noble native American trees, to waste it
on this miserable pigtail of an Indiaman. What
should We think Of the Italians, if they should for
swear their own orange trees and hgs, pomegran-
aes and ciron, and plant their streets and gardens
with the poison sumac tree of our swamps? And
what must an European arboriculturist think, who
travels in America, delighted and astonished at
the beauty Of our varied and exhaustiess forests
the richest In the temperate zone-to see that we
neither value nor plant them, but fill our lawns
and avenues with the cast. off nuisances of the gar
dens Of Asia and Europe.
And while in the vein, we would include in the
came category another lcss fashionable, but still
much pctied foreigner that has settled among US
with good letter Of credit, but who deserves not
his success. Wemean the ADELE, or silver poplar.
hpr to A,tttz in 10 o,lu ri
leaves; but when the timber is foot thick, you
shall And the air unpleasantiy filled every spring
with the fine, white down which flies from the
blossom, while the suckers which are thrown up
grounds and gardcns, even worse than those OF
the ailanthus Down with the abeles!
Oh, that our tree. planters, and they are an army
Of hundreds Of thousands in this country-cver
they knew and could understand the surprising
beauty Of our natios s.ode trees. More than forty
species Of oak are there in North America, (Grcat
Britain has only two species, France only hve;)
any country in the Old World Tulip trees and
magnoas, from America, are the exotic giories
Of the princely grounds of Europe. But (saving
always the praisewor,hy Partially in New Eng
American tree in America? And who, on the con-
trary, that has planted shade trees at all in the
United States for the last fifteen years, has not
planted either aianthuscs abe!e poplars? We
Snoutu ike 70 sec tnat uIsCFCet, SaRbClou5 lnQl-
vidual, who has escaped the national ecstacy for
foreign suckers If he can be found, he is more
deserving gold medal from our horticultural 30
cieties than the grower Of the most mammoth
pumpkin or elephantine beet that will arnish the
cornucopia OF Pomona for 1852.
In this confession Of our sins Of commission in
planting filthy suckers, and omission in not plant
ing clean natives, We must lay part of the burden
at the door ofth nurseymen (lt has been found
o convenient practice-this shifting the responsi
bityever since the first trouble about trees in the
garden of Eden.)
Well, then, if the nurseymen ,oil raise allan
thus ana abelcs by the thousands, (reply the
planting community and telling US nothing
about pestilential odors and suckers, tell great
deal about rapid growth, immediate effect, beauty
Of foliage rare foreign trees and the like, it is not
surprising that we plant what turn cut, after TWEEN
ty years. trial, TO be nuisances instead of cmbelsh
men1p. Nis the business of the nurseymen to cup.
ply phnters with the best trees. II they supply
NJ Win tie worst, who sins the most, the buyer or
the seller of such stufT?'
SONY, rood friends. 1t is the business Of nurse
rymen 20 make profit by raising trees. If you
will pay just as much for poor tree that can be
raised In two years from q sucker as n valuable
tree that requires four five years, do you wonder
that the nurserymen will raise and sell you allan
thuses instead of oaks? 1t lie the busiuess--duty