ost striking and elegant. Some time, other municipalities will
learn wisdom from the example set in Washington, and we may expect to
see some variety in our street trees, now monotonously confined for the
most part to the maples, poplars, and a few good trees that would be
more valued if interspersed with other equally good trees of different
character. The pin-oak, the elm, the sweet-gum, or liquidambar, the
ginkgo, and a half-dozen or more beautiful and sturdy trees, do
admirably for street planting, and ought to be better known and much
more freely used.

[Illustration: Flowers of the liriodendron]

I have seen many rare orchids brought thousands of miles and petted into
a curious bloom--indeed, often more curious than beautiful. If the bloom
of the liriodendron, in all its delicate and daring mingling of green
and yellow, cream and orange, with its exquisite interior filaments,
could be labeled as a ten-thousand-dollar orchid beauty from Borneo, its
delicious perfume would hardly be needed to complete the raptures with
which it would be received into fashionable flower society. But these
lovely cups stand every spring above our heads by millions, their
fragrance and form, their color and beauty, unnoticed by the throng. As
they mature into the brown fruit-cones that hold the seeds, and these in
turn fall to the ground, to fulfil their purpose of reproduction, there
is no week in which the tree is not worthy of attention; and, when the
last golden leaf has been plucked by the fingers of the winter's frost,
there yet remain on the bare branches the curious and interesting
candlestick-like outer envelopes of the fruit-cones, to remind us in
form of the wonderful flower, unique in its color and attractiveness,
that gave its sweetness to the air of May and June.

These two trees--the elm and the liriodendron--stand out strongly as
individuals in the wealth of our American trees. Let all who read and
agree in my estimate, even in part, also agree to try, when opportunity
offers, to preserve these trees from vandalism or neglect, realizing
that the great forest trees of our country are impossible of
replacement, and that their strength, majesty and beauty are for the
good of all.

Nut-Bearing Trees

What memories of chestnutting parties, of fingers stained with the dye
of walnut hulls, and of joyous tramps afield in the very heart of the
year, come to many of us when we think of the nuts of familiar
knowledge