Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-06-23
CTo be continued.


"washington is a garden OF trees" sah
Superintendent George II. Brown OF the
propagating gardens to y write for The
Star. I'VE have here more varieties Of
trees than are planted in any other city in
the United States. The District Of Column
bia is a national arboretum. in which are
set out trees and shrubs Of every kind that
will grow in this climate One may fairly
say that TO tree that will thrive I'm this
neighborhood has been omitted.
I'VE have tried some trees which did not
turn out successfully Notable in that cate.
CORY is the sequoia-the giant redwood OF
the Pacific coast We have had specimens
Of the sequoia growing in the Smithsonian
and Agricultural Department grounds.
They all died. One Of the best of them was
planted in the garden at the British lega-
ton. but 1t went the way OF the rest. In
dozen young seQuoia trees. They are readl-
ly propagated from seeds.
Thousands of Evergreens.
I'VE have more than 1900 evergreens in
Washington. They do not do 80 well here
as they might. The native pines. you
know. are small and scraggy. To such
plants the climate is not wholly suited; the
summers are too dry and hot. This Is rhs
northern limit of the magnolia grandIhora,
which. at all events. does not thrive beyond
this latitude. 1t is the same way with the
lveoak and the silk tree
An effort has been made TO gather in
Washington as many possible OF the
most beautiful Towering trees in the world
Nowhere else will you find such an assem-
blage Of trees and shrubs which, at the
season Of poisoning. are transferred into
great bouquets OF lovely blooms This re-
gion. of course is the home OF the dogwood.
We have here a wonderful collection ct
shrubs. many OF them from the SOUTH and
not a few from Europe. The fringe Iree'
and yellowwood are from the south, the
former from Virginia Among the imported
shrubs are the double-aowe-ing thorns-
Trees and shrubs.
What is tie difference between a tree
ard a shrub. you ask? Well. a tree has one
stem. whereas a shrub comes out of the
ground with many stems. To put IL differ
emily, low, bushy trees with several stems,
are shrubs. We have here many Towering
dwarf trees and shrubs from Japan. One
of these is the 'sophora, which has long
pea-shaped flowers. The Japanese make a
speciality Of dwarting trees: they do it by
cIamping them for room.
''One of our handsome trees is the EN-
peror tree the imperial tree of Japan. IL
has beautiful blue flowers IN panicles. that
look somewhat like the gloNinIa- They are
very snowy. The Chinese 'kolreuteria' like
wise has panicles of very SNOWY flowers.
Snowballs do well here. Some OF them are
native and others imported from Europe.
one very handsome variety is from Japan
In some of the parks you viii see weeping
elms from England.
Wonderful Collection.
mot one person in d thousand who visit
the Smithsonian or Agricultural Depart
ment grounds takes any special notice Of
the trees there displayed. Yet they constitute
wonderful collection. and in the depart.
ment park particularly they IRE heactifuHy
arranged, the varieties being assorted IN
distinct clumps and groves. The main road
leading UP to the front door OF the depart.
ment Of Agriculture Is bordered by two line
OF ginglio trees. which among the most
remarkable trees in the world. Ii is said
that they are the Oldest trees now In sx-
istence. dating back to the coal-formins
period.
THE ginGko trees are from Japan Like
most other things derived from that country
they are queer. Though OF the deciduoUa
type. dropping their leaves IN the autumn.
they bear some resemblance TO pines In
their structure. An ordinary deciduous leaf
has a midrib, from which branches extend,
while from the latter smaller ones shoot on
and interlace. The leaf OF the gingko has
no such structure, but is a mere fan of
hbers. On this account the gingko 10 some
times called The 'maidenhair tree"