The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-16

fine ladies of the court. King James anticipated the tariff reformers of to- day as he was anxious to start silk production at home. To that end ne offered packets of mulberry seeds 70 all who would SOW them, and he also sent a circular letter in 1909 recom- mending his courtiers to start the planting of mulberry trees, and offer> ing young trees at the moderate sum of two farthings apiece. To his en- cOuragement, no doubt, we may trace the fact of their presence in nearly all old gardens that carry back to the sev- enteenth century. The fig tree, too, flourishes well in the Charterhouse gar den, delightful retreat and we notice some have lately been planted in St. PauPs ehurchyard where there is a fine assortment of eyergreens. Other trees of interest are found at St. Mary the Virgin, Adermanbury, the solitary plane, in Love-lane, which should have a seat round it instead of an iron rail- ing; the passage at the Guild-hall; the rockery under the trees at St. Albau's, Wood street; the cherished graveyard in Oat lane, where stood the Church of St. Mary before the Great Fire here is found d laburnum, evidently tlourishing, as 1t will carry flowers shortly; the elders at St. Anne's in Gresham street. and the sparrows' home in Queen street, Cannon street, where thousands of these chattering
 birds congregate every evening. The Bank of England, the Temple, and the Charterhouse show that the best ever greens are in the very first place the | Irish ivy, the common holly, the euony- mus, the box the prIyet, and the Aucu- 1 ba Japonica. The rhOdoIendrOns at | the Bank of England make a cheerful show in spring,
 There yet remain, beyond doubt, hid l den away in the rear of houses, a few trees of an age and beauty to deserve l consideration. Leigh Hunt, once re- l marked that there was scarcely a street l in London but could boast of a tree 1 Since his day the city of London has l lost many and gained a few, But al- | though within the knowledge of the present generation very many city
 trees have been Improved" away, a
 few spots previously neglected have | been creditably embellished, and a number of the patriarchal trees re-
 main. The we'll known plane just off
 Cheapslde is still in existence, and was | until last year in every respect a fine
 ly proportioned tree of noble stature;
 in the spring 1t was cut back unmerci- fully It is, however, throwing out plen- ity of young sprays. A good many
 years ago @ small colony of rocks made
 their abode in its branches, and for
 some years after they quilted it their
 nests remained and were annually
 patched and occupied by sparrows;
 then some pigeons came along and
 made it their abode This fine old specimen of the London plane measures
 over five feet in diameter at the boIe
 of the trunk. Another almost equally fine plane exists in the garden at the rear of Stationers' Hall. The garden
 within the Bank of England possesses
 two venerable acaeias. In Great
 Tower street, in Staples Inn, Cliford's
 Inn, in Doctors Commons, in the gar
 dens of the temple, in Princes street
 on Holborn Viaduct at the Charter
 house, and in fifty other places that
 might be named trees in every way