The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-04-19
TREES OF BEAUTY.
SOME OF THOSE SPECIALLY AD-
MIRED BY ENTHUSIASTS.

Fine Old Trees About the Capitol and
in the Smithsonian nGrounds-wonder-
full Flowering Trees in the other
Parks.
The trees have bedecked themselves in
crowns of living flowers before donning their
robes of green, which they have had so snugly
packed in tiny knapsacks on every bough
and twig since last season. The spring air
and the lovely growing things bring out the
people, who enjoy them; the grizzled old
scientists, who pause while to admire the
trees in the Smithsonian grounds, for instance,
while on their way to their desks at the
Institution or the Annex Museum; the happy
young lovers, who sit on the benches in Franklin
or jackson Square and "bill and coon as
persstently, if not as loudly, as the sparrows,
bluebirds, and robbins overhead, who are
getting ready to keep house up in the heart of
greenery that will soon cover their favorite
trees, or it may be big boy, who is yet only
superior kind of animal with few pin
feathers sprouting on lip and chin, who is
climbing the loftiest trees of the wood for fun
and birds nests.
Washington is a city we'll set with trees
That is one thing which adds so much to its
beauty. Fifty thousand-odd of NATURES
choicest specimens stand in serted ranks on
our curbstones, flank our street parking, or
adorn our reservations, public grounds,
squares, and circles. 1t is a sign of something
good in man or woman to be "cranlS" on
trees No heart ever is utterly hardened or
cold that responds to the annual resurrection
and charm of outrageous life, and arbori-
oy11f 10 o<Df4 =
to high art. While we cannot point with
pride to storied elm or historical trees here,
there is fine elm in front of the Capitol that
is known as 'Sumners Elm,'' because when
the fine park of trees once there was cut
down to improve the grounds Charles Sum-
ner, who loved trees plead for this graceful
trees life, and it was at much cost of labor
and pains lowered to the level of the new
grade, where it survives a thing of beauty and
a JOY forever, as it tosses its plumy branches
in the summer breezes in perpetual leafy
gratitude for its brave defender.
The Oldest trees in the city outside of the
Smithsonian grounds are scattered about over
Capitol Hill. Along the curbstones silver
naples and lindens, now rosy with delicate
blossoms or fringed with fluffy tassels, stand
with large trunks but clipped crowns. Along
Pennsylvania avenue, between Fifth and
Eighth streets, the car-tracks run through an
avenue OF catelpas that will soon be beautified
with great punches of purple blossoms early
in May. On the west side of the Capitol some
fine naples lift their lofty branches above the
well-kept lawns, while the dainty redbud,
transplanted from the wild woods, rivals the
Towering peach-trees not far off. But the
finest specimens of these last are to be found
in Franklin Square, where also on the east
side of that popular park is royal row of
naples. On the cross walk that leads out the
northeast corner of the park are several pecan
trees that are remarkably snowy when in
bloom, their clusters of purple blossoms being
brought out like living bouquet as they are
scattered over the round tops of these trees.
Just now the oval creamy buds with a splash
of purple of the smaller magnolias are in per-
fection. Lafayette or jackson Square has
the finest specimens of the nlaQaOLia gi10nti-
FOrd but they come little later on, great
disks of ivory-white petals, each one the rival
of pond-lily in beauty, one blossom of which
is full enough of perfume to scent house
with most delicious odor There are two
or three very handsome elms on this square,
and several specimens of larch and pine that
are cones of beauty. AT Mcpherson Square,
looking up Vermont avenue, the effect of the
trees on either hand is fine, as it is at adyan-
tageous points of other streets and avenues
throughout the city. The lawns between the
White House and Treasury grounds have
several trees that might be classed among the
veterans, if not venerable specimens. There
is a solemnity under their high-swung branches
of a summers day, bordering on the hot pave
ment and dusty street, as they do, that is pc
culiarly grateful to the tired tourist who pauses
to rest beneath their friendly shade while bent
on sightseeing through Uncle Sans Depart
ments contiguous. Fine specimens of trees
afford shade and accentuate the beauties of the
grounds south of the White House, but the
greatest variety of American and foreign trees
is to be seen in the Smithsonian Park There
is one vista of century-old naples there that
forms an aisle of living boughs above ones
head that is as beautiful as an architects
dream. 1t begins about half way down the
grounds on Seventh street and runs for about
square curying southwest. There are many
seats placed at the feet of these fine old trees,
and they are always filled with those who
come to admire as much as TO rest Just
northeast of the entrance to the Smithsonian
Institution there are several specimens of
double towering apple-trees that are marvel
ously beautiful People visit them by hun
dreds during the early daYs of Nav when they