On Trees and Shrubery 
 Adapted to the soil 
 and climate of Nashville 
 
 August Gattinger 

 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Villiam McPherson
 
 TREES AND SHRUBBERY, 
 
 ADAPTED TO THE 
 
 SOIL AND CLIMATE OF NASHVILLE, 
 
 IN RELATION TO 
 
 YARDS, STREETS AND PUBLIC PARKS. 
 
 BY 
 
 ATCiTST GATTINGER, M. I)., 
 
 Mini/Hi' "f flu- AiiH-rii-itii AxtiK-in/iaii J'or tin' Adrmiri'itirnt <>/' Xri
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE, 
 
 DR. J. D. Pi.rxKKT, I'lntUlcHt of the Nashville Board of Health: 
 
 DEAR SIR In compliance with a request of the Board of 
 Health of this city I have the honor to transmit to you herewith 
 a general treatise on Arboriculture and Horticulture, with refer- 
 ence to the embellishment of this city, and the conditions of our 
 climate and locality. 
 
 Yours very respectfully, 
 
 A. GATTIXGER. 
 
 Nashville, September 1, 1878. 
 
 The development of artistic taste and a growing sentiment of 
 the Beautiful in Nature, have of late within this community 
 achieved very gratifying results. Modern architecture, embody- 
 ing the wonderful improvements and cdmforts of an inventive age 
 with the insuperable models of the classical phases of this art, is 
 rapidly supplanting the dull structures of a bygone unaspiring 
 age. The expanding contact with the world and their growing 
 wealth and prosperity invite the citizens to surround themselves 
 with those luxuries and refinements, which elsewhere adorn long 
 established seats of government and commerce. 
 
 Now, since art more than ever before leans with pious devotion 
 upon nature, it becomes of consequence a rational desire to bring 
 in harmonious union the charming aspect of nature with our city 
 and domestic life. 
 
 The advantages of this movement are plain. It increases health 
 and cheerfulness, the love of home, and strengthens the patriotism 
 of the citizen. 
 
 Public opinion favors propositions in regard to the adornment 
 of the city with parks and avenues, and private enterprise has 
 embellished a great many homesteads with trees and flower-bees 
 in elegant devises. The monotonous, obstructive and at random 
 method of tree planting formerly pursued, gives us now more 
 annoyance than pleasure, and the ubiquitous Paper Mulberry, 
 
 11 467G65
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 with its cumbersome umbrage, and the Ailanthus, with its un- 
 pleasant odors, have been unlucky selections for general planting. 
 It is a remarkable and astonishing fact, that men, living in the 
 midst of primeval forests, constituted of the most magnificent 
 trees in the world, had to go on a pilgrimage to the other side of 
 the globe, to the shrines of Buddha and the South-sea Islands, to 
 obtain a pair of trees of no peculiar merits for ornamental plant- 
 ing. 
 
 However, we ought to look even upon such errors with a degree 
 of reverence as the first attempts in a prudent and beneficial enter- 
 prise. Civilization and culture of plants have been wedded to- 
 gether in all ages of which we possees historical records, and law r s 
 and religious ceremonies relative to the culture of cereals and 
 fruit-bearing trees were recognized by the most ancient nations 
 of both continents. A sacred law prohibited the adorers of Osiris 
 to damage fruit trees, and the first commandment in the Zend- 
 Avesta says : " Thou shalt cultivate the field, and plant fruit- 
 bearing trees." The acknowledgment of the great blessings con- 
 ferred upon man by the arborescent vegetation in support of life 
 and aid in the simple industries, led primarily to the veneration 
 and worship of trees, and this sentiment of reverence advises us 
 to find in it the root and origin of the early rising of a profound 
 sense of the love of nature amongst the Semitic, Indie and Iranic 
 nations. Wherever the mind had matured so as to be able to 
 conceive the beautiful in the aspect of nature and to create the 
 desire to enjoy this pleasure in the fullest measure, there was ori- 
 ginated the first artificial plantations. Diodorus describes the 
 gardens laid out by Semiramis at the foot of the mountain Bagis- 
 tanos. Rows of cypresses, whose obelisk-like form recalls to the 
 mind the shape of flames, stood around the sanctuary of the tem- 
 ple of Zoroaster, and the residences of the Persian kings were 
 surrounded by extensive artificial plantations of great beauty. 
 These ancient Asiatic gardens, " Paradeisoi " of the Greek authors, 
 derive their name from the old Persian " Purdes," and this again 
 descends from the Sanscrit "Paradesa," which means an environ. 
 
 I take occasion to make some historical remarks to guard against 
 the acceptance of that hollow phrase, "Modern Civilization," as 
 the originator and distributor of every art and knowledge, thought 
 to elevate and beautify human life.
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 Admiration of and respect towards the majestic and venerable 
 in Plant-Life, has originated and is still at home in the East, and 
 many confirmatory facts are recorded. Herodotus speaks of the 
 joy of Xerxes when he beheld the great Plantain in Lydia, to 
 which he presented gold and jewels, and gave her an attendant in 
 the person of one of the 10,000 Immortals. Great was, by the 
 Hellenic nations, the fame of the majestic Palm-tree in Delos and 
 an old Plantain in Arcadia. The Buddists in Ceylon are paying 
 their veneration to the colossal Holy Fig-tree of Anurahdepuva. 
 He is said to have grown up from the branches of the parent- 
 tree under which Buddha went into Nirvana. 
 
 The aspect of Nature, for which the Greeks and Romans had 
 very little conception, took impression at an early day upon the 
 remotest Asiatic nations. Already under the victorious dynasty 
 of the Han (100 A. 0.), in China, had parks and pleasure 
 gardens extended over the country in such dimensions, that from 
 the encroachment upon agriculture, the people became alarmed 
 and revolted. A Chinese author of those times has so touchingly 
 and with such clear comprehension laid down the rules for land- 
 scape gardening, that a modern artist could not improve upon the 
 principles, although the means and material at disposal have now 
 immensely increased. "What enjoyment," says he, "do you ex- 
 pect to derive from a pleasure-garden ? In all centuries men 
 have agreed that plantations ought to compensate man for those 
 amenities, of which the remoteness from a life in the free and 
 unbound natural state, his genuine and loveliest domain, deprives 
 him. The art, therefore, to lay out a garden, consists in the en- 
 deavor to render the cheerful picture of an open country, luxuri- 
 ance of growth, and so to combine it with shade, seclusion and 
 quiet, which will produce upon the senses the illusion of a rural 
 retreat. Diversity, in which the country excels, ought to be 
 effected in the selection of surface, alternation of hills and dales, 
 in rivulets and lakes, covered with aquatic plants All symmetry 
 is wearisome; ennui and disgust is felt in gardens where every 
 design betrays constraint and artincialness." 
 
 Out of this early developed pleasure in the imitation of the 
 physiognomic of nature, proceeded progressively, in the course of 
 centuries, after intervals of mental stagnation, a system of inquiry 
 and investigation into the conditions of diversity of natural objects, 
 which we now call natural philosophy.
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 This modern or scientific culture has accomplished the beautiful 
 achievement, to enable us, nearly in all places, where inclemency 
 of climate or insufficiency of the soil threaten us with painful pri- 
 vations, to produce artificially, by culture and grouping; of native 
 and -exotic plants, the charm of landscape and diversified vegeta- 
 tion, which in their fullness and reality, with personal observation, 
 we could otherwise only experience by dangerous and distant 
 travel. 
 
 At this time has also been fully demonstrated the powerful in- 
 fluence of vegetation, especially of the forest, on the condition of 
 climate and health. Humidity and fertility of the soil, the quan- 
 tity and frequency of atmospheric precipitation, are governed by 
 the expanse of forest-covered country. The return of resolved and 
 apparently inert matter into organic circulation, and lastly, con- 
 scious existence, is effected principally by the action of roots and 
 foliage, which absorb from the air carbonic oxyd and other gase- 
 ous or vaporous products, likewise from the soil as aqueous solu- 
 tions of very simple or more compound constitution. The chemical 
 changes going on within the tissues of plants effect not only the 
 growtli of the same, but maintain the state of the atmosphere and 
 the springs in a condition fit for the existence of animal life. 
 Very strong arguments are in favor of the opinion that the odors 
 and exhalations of certain trees and plants destroy, by oxydation, 
 deleterious gases, or floating organic corpuscles, which would pro- 
 duce malaria or zymotic diseases. Different species of the Euca- 
 lyptus family have of late years earned great reputation as disin- 
 fectants for malaria regions. This blissful property is thought to 
 be due to the exhalations of their foliage and the enormous ab- 
 sorbtive power of their roots. The interposition of forest, streaks 
 of timber, and even rows of sunflowers, has frequently and in 
 different countries been credited with the demarcation of epi- 
 demics. 
 
 The permanent injury to the health of cities arises from the 
 deterioration of the soil through the water and air contained and 
 absorbed in it. The ground upon which our dwellings are erected, 
 consists of loosely aggregated gravel, limestone flags and sand, 
 very frequently, and to the disgrace of our city administration, 
 of vast accumulations of debris and street sweepings. Even there, 
 where solid rock forms the foundation, hollows, crevices and de-
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 pressions are filled with such loose material. In these interstices 
 are contained considerable quantities of air, which even in very 
 compact gravelly soil constitutes one third of its volume. When- 
 ever water penetrates into the soil, it displaces the air, either in 
 part or entirely, and seeps into the depth until it meets an imper- 
 vious stratum, upon which it flows along until it flows off with 
 the general drainage of the country, or reappears in lower situated 
 springs and wells. The water during this passage carries with 
 it all substances which can either be floated or dissolved ; princi- 
 pally organic remains or excretions. The oxygen of the air 
 largely contained in the porous soil, combines with those sub- 
 stances, decomposing them. Hereby are formed large quantities 
 of gaseous substances, like carbonic oxyd and carbonic acid, am- 
 monia, nitric oxyd, hydro-sulphates, and so on. As long as this 
 decomposition is effected completely, little injury can result. 
 The quantity of impurities which the soil neutralizes may some- 
 times be very great, and depends altogether upon its mineral 
 nature, which is the greatest in clayey soils. Sooner or later a 
 "state of saturation" takes place, and the use of water thus defiled 
 contains the germs of a host of diseases, cholera, dysentery, typhus. 
 
 Not less deleterious are the gases arising from such soil, carried 
 upwards by various forces. Solid or liquid substances, by their 
 conversion into gases, expand and occupy much greater volumes; 
 the motion of the wind and the heating of the surface from solar 
 radiation, have the same effect. Such gases are different from 
 those produced by combustion through oxygen, being products of 
 putrid fermentation, and abounding in disease-creating germs. 
 It is evident that covering all surfaces wherever practicable with 
 sods, must greatly counteract or avert these evils. 
 
 The unendurable heat of a southern desert-region is proverbial. 
 Every particle of heat radiated upon it by the sun is either accu- 
 mulating in the soil, reflected or radiated. Surfaces covered with 
 vegetation annihilate heat, so to speak, in proportion to the mass 
 of the vegetation. For, the solar rays in contact with vegetable 
 tissues, are converted into chemical action, and effect thereby the 
 growth of tissue. 
 
 Cities are in one sense miniature deserts, and it would be an 
 inappreciable gain to the health and comfort of the citizens, if 
 they would rear climbing and trailing plants in profusion. The
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 temperature would be lowered in the immediate vicinity in day 
 time, and the radiating walls would not fill by night the interior 
 of houses with smothering heat. Prolonged high temperatures 
 are productive of malignant forms of diseases. 
 
 Such vine-covered trellises could be advantageously applied in 
 confined and narrow localities, where trees would obstruct the 
 circulation of the aerial currents, or be otherwise in the way. 
 Windows are very easily kept clear from being overrun from 
 vines, and the free access of air and light into the apartments is 
 not cut off, as is often the case with trees, when they are either 
 planted too close to the house, or if such kinds are chosen which 
 are unsuitable from too large dimensions. Houses too much 
 shaded are surrounded with an atmosphere of stagnant air and 
 are damp and mouldy. 
 
 The irregularity of the original plan of this city, the rugged ness 
 of the surface, which presents in many places the naked rock or 
 but a thin coating of soil, make uniformity in planting of trees 
 along streets and avenues utterly impossible. Fifteen feet dis- 
 tance from a wall is the nearest a tree of middle size ought to be- 
 planted. Where the pavements are only nine feet wide and the 
 building close up to them, climbers w r ith or without trellis work 
 should exclusively be used. Small courtyards should never con- 
 tain any trees, but if the enclosing walls are covered over with 
 ivy, which thrives Avell in shaded situations, it will be pleasant to 
 the eye, and air and light will not be shut out. 
 
 However, all the benefit that may result from judicious tree- 
 planting, covering by trellises and sodding of the ground, cannot 
 overcome the miasmatic emanations from adjoining swamps and 
 morasses, nor prevent the ingress of sirocco-like blasts from the 
 neighboring stony heights, south and south-west from the city. 
 The ponds ought to be drained and the desolate hills and wastes 
 covered with suitable growth. Presently wide spaces intervene 
 of open and unshaded ground between the city and the nearest 
 accessible grove or forest. The healthy and harmless pleasure of 
 enjoying a walk in the open air, sheltered against the hot sun and 
 unpleasant winds, or more distant excursions on foot, is not at- 
 tainable here. Human nature needs and seeks diversitv and 
 enjoyment, and if the avenues to legitimate pleasures are closed, 
 the morals and social feelings will become sadly affected.
 
 AKBORICULTUKE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 A number of our citizens will visit the Paris Exposition this^ 
 year. They will carry home with them unextinguishable impres- 
 sions of the public spirit that animates the French people. At 
 every step and turn they can see and learn how much happier 
 men live and look with an openhearted and social disposition, 
 compared with those prone to anxious seclusion and rank de- 
 marcation. Even religious devotion is not apt to dull with them 
 the gay colors of life, and the pious visitor of the high mass in 
 the Madeleine or Notre Dame, enjoys in the following hours, with 
 equal sincerity the earthly pleasures of the Champs Elysees, Bois 
 de Boulogne and other attractions of this brightest and most 
 beautiful of all cities. In magnificence and number of public 
 gardens and parks, in taste, and means of execution of adornment, 
 the French capital takes the lead. Perhaps the noblest feature 
 of Parisian gardening or Parisian improvements, is the great 
 abundance of healthy young trees that are introduced into the 
 very heart of the city, and planted wherever a new road or bou- 
 levard is constructed. It is indeed very surprising to see how 
 well this is done, and to what an extent, as well in the centre of 
 Paris, on the boulevards, along the Seine, as on the scores of 
 miles of suburban boulevards, radiating avenues and roads, the 
 sides of which one would think capable of supplying Paris with 
 building ground for a dozen generations to come. All the plant- 
 ing in all the London parks is as nothing compared to the avenue 
 and boulevard planting in and around Paris. Every tree is trained 
 and pruned so as to form a symmetrical straight-ascending head, 
 with a clean stem. Every tree is protected by a slight cast-iron 
 or stick basket, neat wads and ties preventing this from rubbing- 
 against the tree injuriously; it is staked when young, and when 
 old, if necessary. Most important of all, nearly every tree is 
 fortified with a cast-iron grating six feet wide or so, which effec- 
 tually prevents the ground from becoming hard about the trees 
 in the most frequented thoroughfares, permits of any attention 
 they may require when young, and of abundance of water being 
 quickly absorbed in summer. The expense for these strong and 
 wide gratings must be something immense, but the result more 
 than pays for all the expense by the grateful shade and beauty 
 they afford in all parts of the city. The kinds most in use there for 
 avenues are the Plane, Sycamore, Maple, Chestnut, large-leaved
 
 8 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 Elm, the Robinia and Ailanthus, and here and there, Pawlonia. 
 All streets more than twenty-six meters (eighty-five feet) wide, 
 are bordered on each side by rows of trees. If thirty-six meters 
 (one hundred and eighteen feet) wide, there is a double row ; and 
 if forty meters (one hundred and fifty feet), there is usually a 
 plateau in the middle, with a carriage way and side walk on each 
 .side. The trees are set at least five meters (nearly seventeen feet) 
 from the houses, and they are five meters apart and 1.5 meters 
 from the borders of the walks. The gardens, squares or planted 
 places (besides the four great promenades of the Boisde Boulogne, 
 the Pare de Buttes-Chaumont, the Bois de Vincennes, and the 
 Pare de Montsouris, together amounting to one thousand eight 
 hundred and thirty-five hectares), are seventy-four in number, 
 amounting to fifty -seven hectares. 
 
 All operations in horticulture must be carried on in strict ac- 
 cordance with the laws of vegetable growth, or damage and failure 
 will follow. Trees and shrubs for transplanting should be started 
 from the seed. Only certain sports, that have originated in lateral 
 shoots or branches of an otherwise normal growth, make an excep- 
 tion, and can only be preserved and multiplied with the preservation 
 of their sport-character by cuttings ; otherwise they would re- 
 lapse again into the original normal form. Seedlings have to be 
 transplanted once or twice and remain in the nursery, until they 
 have attained a suitable size tor permanent planting. The age at 
 which their growth is accomplished varies according to species 
 or kind of tree, three or four years from sowing being the usual 
 length of time required. The cheapest and best way to obtain 
 young trees is, to purchase them in nurseries, where they are 
 reared on an extensive scale. Trees ;lug up at random in the 
 forest ought positively to be rejected, because their roots are 
 generally too irregular and without the sufficient number of fibrous 
 or working roots. Furthermore, a large proportion of them are 
 so tall that their unproportionatc length has to be reduced by 
 topping, whereby the circulation of the sap becomes more or less 
 interrupted, and the tree will never thrive well. Another mis- 
 take is the transplanting of too old trees. It takes very partic- 
 ular prepartions in, and close attention after, transplanting in such 
 cases. To trim down the limbs and top and transport them with 
 greatly injured roots, will so much stunt them that they succumb
 
 AHHORKTI/rURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 after a protracted illness, presenting a pitiable aspect while stand- 
 ing. By the respiration carried on in the foliage, the circulation 
 in the cambium, as well as the absorption of food and moisture 
 by the roots, is secured. As soon as the ascent and circulation 
 of sap in and up through the cambium is arrested, then the heat 
 and the winds will dry up and shrivel the cells and spiral vessels 
 in a manner to render them permanently impervious, and the 
 pealing or cracking of the bark and decay follows immediately. 
 Partial decay of the trunk is frequently the cause of the breaking 
 down of trees from high winds. 
 
 To prepare the ground for transplanting, a hole ought to be 
 dug about three feet deep and three feet square, if possible a good 
 while before transplanting, to cause the earth thrown up at the 
 side of the pit to become thoroughly loosened from exposure to 
 air and heat or cold. For every tree a stout stake should be 
 ready, either of cedar or oak-heart wood, at least three inches in 
 diameter and ten feet in length. This stake is to be firmly in- 
 serted in the bottom of the pit, to the south side and close up to 
 the point where the trunk of the tree is to stand. It being fixed 
 perpendicular, the soil formerly thrown out, must be replaced 
 again nearly or quite to the brim of the pit. On top of the loose 
 soil the roots of the sapling should be carefully spread, and cov- 
 ered with the balance of the thrown up soil. After a turned up 
 sod has been placed over, a good watering should be given. 
 Lastly, the tree is tied to the stake with osier or soft cordage. 
 In all exposed situations a box or basket, of iron or slats, or an 
 envelope with thorns from the osage orange or honey locust, fas- 
 tened with wire, may be put around for protection. 
 
 To secure a regular growth and to prevent the breaking down 
 of limbs or entire trees by storms, judicious trimming is required. 
 It is applicable by all deciduous trees, and in some of the broad- 
 leaved evergreens, but never by the conifers. Whenever per- 
 formed, the cutting must be done close to the trunk, never leaving 
 a projecting part. Nature has provided in a living tree, for the 
 repair of wounds by the deposit of new wood from around the 
 edges, which gradually closes over the injury, and when wholly 
 united, the annual deposit of wood goes on regularly, as if nothing 
 had occurred to prevent it. A sharp knife or saw should be used, 
 cutting first on the under side to prevent the tearing down of the
 
 10 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 bark and wood, when the limb is dropping. When finished, the 
 cutting should be smooth and vertical, and the surface be painted 
 over with thick coal tar. The proper time for trimming and 
 pruning of trees and vines, the grapevine included, is the close of 
 autumn, after all the leaves have fallen; and the season best 
 adapted for transplanting deciduous trees as well as evergreens,, 
 is early in the spring, as soon as the frost is out of the ground. 
 Especially by evergreens great care must be taken to transplant 
 them with a good ball of earth, and to avoid the loosening, break- 
 ing and drying of the fine rootlets. 
 
 The climbing or trailing vines do either possess proper organs 
 for direct attachment on smooth surfaces, or depend on some sort 
 of suitable support for the attachment of tendrils or twining stems. 
 For the latter kinds, a spalier of lattice work or wire trellises are 
 employed. The stretching of galvanized wire on walls is the 
 cheapest and neatest looking method. In the first instance, sev- 
 eral strong iron spikes are driven into the wall at the ends in 
 the right angle formed by the two walls, and then rough nails or 
 rather hooks are driven into the wall in straight lines, exactly in 
 the line of direction in which the wire is wanted to pass. The 
 wires are placed at about ten inches apart on the walls, and the 
 little hooks for their support are placed at about ten feet apart 
 along each wire. The wire about as thick as strong twine is 
 passed through the little hooks, fastened at both ends of the wall> 
 into the strong iron nails, and then stretched as tight as possible. 
 Their distance from the wall should be about one inch. 
 
 To answer the question, what trees, shrubs or ornamental plants 
 to select, an acquaintance with the natural growth or flora of the 
 region must precede, and the results of experiments with imported 
 plants awaited or noted. To discuss the relative merits of all the 
 material that could possibly be adduced, would require volumes. 
 Happily nature has so lavishly endowed this region, that we 
 could fare no better by traveling great distances, than by con- 
 fining ourselves to the immediate vicinity. The composition of 
 the soil and configuration of surface are sufficiently diversified to 
 insure a great diversity of vegetation to select from. The moist 
 and shady banks of the river, the hot and airy limestone flats 
 with a thin coat of earth, alternating with fertile, deep and loamy 
 soil, formerly heavy timbered, and high ridges coped with sili-
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 11 
 
 ceous and shistaceous rocks, each possesses their peculiar assem- 
 bly of plants. The area of the City itself retains only few native 
 old trees, remains and witnesses of the pioneer age. A few Cedars, 
 Hackberries, Elms, Honey Locusts and Poplars. The number 
 of trees planted and now within the city boundaries, estimated at 
 medium growth, would fully suffice for shade and shelter and 
 absorbers of moisture, etc., provided they were properly distrib- 
 uted ; but there is great lack in arrangement, and the selection is 
 not from the best kinds. 
 
 SELECTION OF TREES AND PLANTS. 
 
 The selection of trees for street, garden or park ought never to 
 be entrusted to the recommendations of nurserymen, or be gov- 
 erned by offerings of good bargains. Purchasing unsuitable or 
 unhealthy specimens, one loses not. only money but also time. 
 Foremost, the size which a given species will attain at full growth,, 
 ought to be considered. Sycamores and Tulip trees would be out 
 of all proportion in streets and avenues less than one hundred 
 feet wide. Very desirable properties are a clean and smooth 
 trunk, regular division of branches, and a spherical or conical 
 outline of crown. Roots horizontal, not too much prone to suck- 
 ering. Wood strong and elastic, especially in the branches ; fo- 
 liage abundant, the leaves smooth and not too large. Evergreen, 
 broad-leaved trees, wherever they can be grown and maintained, 
 deserve preference ; next, those deciduous trees which hold their 
 foliage the longest. 
 
 The flora of this immediate vicinity excels in an array of the 
 most desirable trees for street and park planting. For adornment 
 of gardens and parks, the intermixture of such forms which do- 
 not occur in the local flora, and are of striking aspect from gro- 
 tesqueness of shape or diversity in coloring is exceedingly effect- 
 ive. Such plants, when derived from sub-tropical climates, will, 
 in favorable locations and with protection, frequently endure our 
 winters. 
 
 Some interchange and dissemination of vegetable productions 
 between remote regions did nearly always exist, along the high- 
 ways of commerce and conquest; but, not more than about two 
 hundred years ago did the importation of plants into the gardens 
 and parks of the civilized nations assume any importance. Wher-
 
 12 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 ever European Governments held territory in tropical countries 
 and established Colonies, there they also planted for the produc- 
 tion of colonial goods. Peruvian Cinchona in India, Abyssinian 
 Coffee in Brazil, Oranges from Portugal in Florida. Several 
 of the German States, where the culture and control of forests 
 is in the hands of the government, do already possess extensive 
 plantations of the ftequoia Sempervirens, or Mammoth tree of the 
 California coast, and of the Sequoia Gigantea, or Giant Redwood 
 of the Sierra Nevada, of which they had several thousand dollars' 
 worth of seed imported some thirty or forty years ago. With 
 equal success has the European larch been grown in the Northern 
 States, and it thrives there as well as in the German Alps or in 
 Scotland. Its timber is far superior to the American species, 
 and said to make the best railroad ties ; larch plantations are 
 considered very profitable investments. To give the public and 
 the student an opportunity to study the characteristics of vegeta- 
 tion, botanical gardens, and for trees exclusively, arboreta, have 
 to be established. The latter ought to contain collections of trees 
 from all parts of the world, which are known or expected to en- 
 dure the climate of the place. The gardens and grounds of the 
 Agricultural Department in Washington have the greatest extent 
 of their area converted into such an arboretum. One of the larg- 
 est and finest collections of this kind in the United States, consti- 
 tutes one department of the Missouri botanical garden, and is the 
 property of a wealthy citizen of St. Louis, Mr. Henry Shaw. 
 These grounds are situated about two miles south-west of Lafay- 
 ette park in that city, and are probably unsurpassed bv any in 
 the United States, either public or private, in their extent, their 
 beauty, the completeness of collection of plants, shrubs, and trees, 
 or the skillful cultivation and the lavish expense bestowed upon 
 them. Open to the public, they are a great aid to the advance- 
 ment of science, the instruction of the student, and the use of the 
 naturalist and philosopher. 
 
 The first botanical garden in America was laid out by John Bar- 
 tram, the father of American Botany, on the banks of the Schuyl- 
 kill, near Philadelphia, more than a century ago. Of Public 
 Pleasure Grounds, Central Park in New York City, and Fairmount 
 Park in Philadelphia, bave acquired great reputation as examples 
 of the greatest perfection in the art of Landscape-Gardening.
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 After the preceding general remarks on tree-planting in streets 
 and parks, it remains to enumerate and describe some species 
 which, in every respect, appear to me the most worthy and prom- 
 ising for planting in the streets of the city. Landscape or park 
 plantations admit of such a diversity of species that it is impossi- 
 ble even to mention their names within the scope of a small trea- 
 tise. I will also name a few sub-tropical plants which have given 
 satisfaction in this place, and some native and foreign flowering 
 plants suitable for flower beds; next, the vines and climbers for 
 trelliswork. 
 
 Not without much deliberation, and under the impression of 
 very recent observations on a botanical tour through the middle 
 and eastern parts of this State, I have come to the conclusion 
 that for street planting 
 
 THE WATER OAK (QuercMs aquatica, Catesb.) deserves prefer- 
 ence before all other trees I am acquainted with, native as well as 
 foreign. It is an Evergreen of medium size, not exceeding thirty 
 or thirty-five feet in height, and twelve to eighteen inches in di- 
 ameter in full growth. Leaves of an olive-green color, short- 
 petioled, obovate-oblong or wedge-shaped, smooth on both sides, 
 obtusely three-lobed at the summit. Acorns small, sessile. It 
 grows not only on the edge of streams and in swamps, whence its 
 name originates, but also very vigorously on dry and elevated 
 grounds, where I have found it myself. It abounds, always in- 
 termingled with other trees, in some parts of this State. It is 
 found about Stephenson, Chattanooga, Ocoee district. Moreover, 
 we are not without a precedent of the successful introduction of 
 this species for street planting. The city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 
 is sometimes called the city of oaks, on account of the fine ave- 
 nues of the water oak planted in a central line and along the sides 
 of the streets. On the northern limits of its range it becomes 
 deciduous, and also in severe winters in this place. 
 
 THE WILLOW OAK (Quercus Phettos L.) grows in similar lo- 
 calities, and even associated with the water oak ; it grows about 
 the same size, or a little larger, and has a clean and smooth bark. 
 Leaves, two to three inches long, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 
 bristle-awned, smooth and light-green on both sides ; fruit small 
 and sessil. An elegant tree, desirable for its distinct willow-like 
 aspect. The foliage of both these species being rather small, and
 
 14 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 the spray very elastic, they are not endangered from heavy winds 
 or snow-fulls like the evergreen magnolia. It is evergreen south. 
 
 Of other oaks only the Live Oak (Quercus virens, Ait.) and the 
 Upland Willow Oak ( ^//r/w/.s '-///rm/, Michx.), the former ever- 
 green, are worth considering, but of doubtful success. 
 
 Next to the oak, the symbol of strength and valor, stands the 
 Elm for gracefulness and elegance. The elm is one of the most 
 common trees in both continents, and in the south of Europe 
 elms are planted in vineyards, and the vines trained in festoons 
 from tree to tree in the most picturesque manner. Their ramifi- 
 cation terminates in light and dark and very copious sprigs, fre- 
 quently bending down in graceful curves. The oldest American 
 avenues are planted in elms. The vicinity of Nashville abounds 
 in elms, of which four species are represented. 
 
 THE AMERICAN OR WHITE ELM (Ulmus Americana, L.) buds 
 -and branchlets glabrous, leaves oval, three to four inches long, 
 sharply and often doubly serrate, flowers in close fascicles. Found 
 in greatest perfection in moist woods, with deep rich soil, where 
 it attains a height of eighty feet. 
 
 THE CORKY WHITE ELM. ( U. racemosa, Thomas.) Bud- 
 scales downy, ciliate, and somewhat pubescent, as are the young 
 branchlets; branches often with corky ridges; flowers racemed. 
 
 WAHOO, OR WINGED ELM. ( U. alata, Michx.) Grows here to 
 great perfection, and is easily known by its corky-winged branches; 
 leaves downy beneath, ovate-oblong, acute, tickish, small, one to 
 two and a half inches long, deep green and shining. Height, 
 thirty to forty feet, with very delicate ramifications, light and 
 airy ; it does not make a deep shade. The Slippery Elm ( U. fulva 
 Michx) is perhaps less eligible. 
 
 THE HACK BERRY. (Celtis occidental, L., and Celtis Mississip- 
 yv/o/N/A 1 , jBo-s-c.) These are both very common trees in this region, 
 and numbers of specimens that have been spared have grown 
 from self-sown seedlings to large dimensions. It seems to thrive 
 very well in stony and open localities, and is not injured by dust 
 and smoke. In picturesqueness it is about equal to the elm. 
 
 THE LIME OR LINDEN TREE. (Tilia Americana, L. and Tilia 
 heterophytta, rent.) The latter is common in the Nashville flora. 
 These trees are well known by the name of basswood. It is a 
 rapidly growing, handsome, and regularly shaped tree. In Eu-
 
 AKBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 15 
 
 rope they have since centuries been favorites for planting in public 
 places. In Germany and Holland especially their wide avenues 
 and long lines of canals are bordered with lindens. " Under den 
 Linden" in Berlin is the most celebrated avenue .in the world. 
 This tree is also distinguished by simple but handsome flowers, 
 that last a long time, and diffuse a delicious perfume. The honey 
 gathered from its flowers is very highly esteemed. The flowers, 
 collected with bracts and peduncles, when dried, yield a very pleas- 
 ant tea, which produces diaphoresis without vascular or nervous 
 excitement. The addition of lemon juice makes it very palat- 
 able. 
 
 THE KENTUCKY COFFEE TREE, .((rymnocladus Canadensut) 
 This remarkable tree wins the amplest admiration from everybody 
 who meets it the first time on the outskirts of a forest, where it 
 finds room for the development of its branches. The whole leaf, 
 doubly compound, is generally three feet long, the leaflts standing 
 vertically. It belongs to the order of the Leguminosae, and its 
 flowers are either dioecious or polygamous, whitish, in axillary 
 racemes, fragrant. The pods are six to ten inches long, two inches 
 broad, and the seeds over half inch across. It requires judicious 
 pruning while young, to prevent the breaking down of the young 
 limbs from violent storms. It is indigenous round Nashville. 
 
 The Maples, I think, come next. They are held everywhere 
 in great esteem as ornamental trees, their merits consisting in 
 the rapidity of their growth, the beauty of their form, and the 
 verdure of their foliage, to which is added by some the elegance 
 of their blossoms. 
 
 THE RED MAPLE, also called Swamp Maple (Acer rubrum, L.), 
 is decidedly the most ornamental and of more suitable size, as the 
 other two southern species grow rather too large. In spring this 
 tree bursts out in gay tufts of red blossoms, which give life and 
 color to the landscape, when the only other appearances of vegeta- 
 tion are a few catkins of willows and poplars. It is very prolific 
 in foliage, and gives an ample and abundant shade. The verdure 
 of its vernal clothing is wonderfully contrasted by the golden and 
 scarlet hues of the matured foliage in autumn. 
 
 THE Box ELDKI; ( Xn/timlo arcrnnk's, Moench), also called Ash- 
 leaved Maple, has only lately been botanically distinguished from 
 the maples. Linnaeus named it Acer Negundo. It is, on uplands,
 
 16 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 a middle-sized tree, but on the river banks it grows to consider- 
 able dimensions. Unlike the rest of the maples, it has pinnate 
 leaves, with three or five leaflets ; male and female flowers arc 
 borne on different trees, as in the persimmon (dioedou*). It is 
 a very hardy and durable tree, retaining its pendant racemes of 
 of seeds during the whole summer. It is very frequent in this 
 neighborhood. 
 
 THE YELLOW-WOOD. (('IdiJi-uxfw tinctorm, Raf.) Next to 
 the coffee tree, the most beautiful of the papilionaeous family. 
 It grows, when standing single, more into lateral expansion, and 
 I have measured a specimen on Judge Lea's lands which, by over 
 three feet diameter of trunk, was little more than thirty feet high. 
 It bears nearly smooth pinnate leaves of seven to eleven oval 
 leaflets, and ample panicled racemes of showy white flowers, droop- 
 ing from the end of the branches. The wood is yellow and the 
 bark gray, shining and very smooth. It is very remarkable for 
 its prolixity in budding, eyes and shoots bursting forth from all 
 points of trunk and roots. I consider it as fine a tree as the com- 
 -mon locust, which it resembles, and the latter is generally not a 
 healthy tree in city localities. 
 
 Some species of the ash, like the red ash (Fraxinu*, pubescent 
 Lam.), and the green ash (Frd.cinttx riritU*, Michx.}, both produced 
 in this State, are very desirable trees, of moderate proportions, 
 pleasing structure of ramifications and foliage, and more adapted 
 to our purposes than the Ailanthus. 
 
 THE PRIDE OF INDIA (Melia Azedemch, L.), has been much 
 neglected of late, and it is nearly disappearing. It must be re- 
 membered that this region forms nearly the northern limit of its 
 range, and although it attains full growth, and is hardly ever 
 killed by frost, yet it does not attain a higher age than about 
 thirty or forty years, when it begins to decay. 
 
 The Pride of India rises to the height of thirty or forty feet, 
 with a diameter of fifteen or twenty inches, but when standing 
 single it grows more in lateral expansion. Its leaves are of a 
 dark green color, large, double pinnate, and composed of smooth, 
 acuminate, denticulate leaflets. It has been at a very early dav 
 introduced into the Carolinas and the West Indies, where it now 
 abounds. 
 
 The reverse position is held by the Lombardy Poplar (Poputu*
 
 ARBOKKTT/ITKK AND I K >H r n< T I/n*H E. 
 
 j'xf!(/i(tt(t}, which, in cooler climates, is an excellent tree for ave- 
 nues, and attains a height of eighty and more feet by three feet 
 diameter. But even there this tree does not attain a higher age 
 than forty to sixty years, longevity not being given to the order 
 of the tiaficiiK'de, to which it belongs. They excel in rapidity of 
 growth. Whosoever chooses to plant this tree must be ready for 
 constant replanting as soon as it shows signs of decay. 
 
 THE CATALPA. ^Caiaipa Kgnomoidee, U'filt.) A well known 
 beautiful tree, covered in beginning of summer with large racemes 
 of gorgeous white flowers is not fitted for street planting. It 
 far excells in beauty the common horse-chestnut (Aet-u/nx Ifij>jt<i- 
 castanum, L.}, whose leaves will become scorched and prematurely 
 drop from the heat of our summers. 
 
 THE PATJLOWMA is a very decorative species for certain select 
 localities, but for various reasons it is one of the least adapted for 
 street planting. 
 
 The'species now following are those which have formerly nearly 
 exclusively been planted in this city. For this reason I intend 
 to devote to them a more ample description. 
 
 THE PAPER MTLBEKKY (Ifrotatmme&'a p(ij>i/rij'crfi) has been 
 introduced into Nashville some forty years ago, contemporaneous 
 with the White mulberry (Morn* ftlb), the Morus multicaulis and 
 the Heaven tree (Ailai)llmx (/fti/nlti/osa). An attempt was then 
 made to raise silk, and these plants were intended and cultivated 
 for the sake of supplying food lor the silkworms. The silk cul- 
 ture failed, being, as I think, more a hobby and transient excite- 
 ment than the serious enterprise of an industrious class of people 
 resolved to establish this industry for a profitable support. 
 
 The Broussonetia is a dioecious plant, which means to say that 
 it lias distinct male and female flowers, produced on separate trees. 
 the males being in cylindrical drooping catkins, each flower grow- 
 ing from the base of a small bract, and having a four-parted calyx 
 and four stamens, while the females are congregated into round 
 heads or balls about the si/e of marbles, which, in ripening, are 
 converted into deep scarlet pulpy fruits, resembling a mulberry, 
 of a sweetish insipid taste. We posses- of this, and likewise of 
 the weeping willow, only the male tree. It grows wild in China 
 and Japan, and also in many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. 
 The Chinese and Japanese cultivate it very miwh in the way we
 
 18 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 do osiers, using only the young shoots for the manufacture of 
 paper from its finely fibrous inner bark. At the Centennial Ex- 
 hibition such paper and papier-mache articles were greatly ad- 
 mired. The process of manufacture is unknown as a practical 
 art in Europe and America. From no other kind of pulp can so 
 elastic and delicate a tissue be made. It is preferred for the im- 
 pressions of valuable steel engravings. 
 
 In Samoa, Tahiti, and other Polynesian islands, the natives 
 manufacture from the inner bark an exceedingly tough cloth 
 called tapa, and wear it either plain or dyed, and printed in va- 
 rious colors. This cloth is principally made by women, pursuing 
 the following method : The bark is first soaked in water, and the 
 exterior green parts are scraped off, and after a second soaking in 
 water it is placed upo-n a table made of verv hard wood. Upon 
 this it is beaten with a heavy curious-shaped baton, which has 
 four flat sides, each differently ribbed. After the pieces have at- 
 tained the desired degree of softness, mucilage of arrow-root is 
 applied at their edges, and the hammering and warping continued 
 until the edges firmly cohere. In this way pieces are made which 
 sometimes measure one hundred and fifty feet in length by six to 
 nine feet in width. 
 
 The Jli-f>i<xK<>n(>tia promises to grow here to considerable dimen- 
 sions. It is healthy and vigorous, and possesses a remarkable 
 power of surviving and resisting sustained injuries. It is a great 
 mistake to condemn this tree for its far-reaching roots, which 
 enable it to thrive and resist the fury of a storm when standing 
 on shallow and rocky places. It is, in my opinion, the best 
 adapted tree to replant the sterile hills around the city. It ought 
 not to stand in crowded parks and narrow places. Insects do not 
 often attack it, but a parasitic fungus (peziza), as large as a rice 
 grain, often covers the trunk with yellow dots without injuring it. 
 
 THE HEAVEN* TREE. (AilanMwa gl&ndulosa,} Native of China 
 and India, growing to an altitude of one hundred and fifty to two 
 hundred feet. Young and luxuriantly grown, and terminated by 
 a simple crown, it bears a striking resemblance to an arborescent 
 fern or palm. This elegant and graceful form may be preserved 
 on the growing tree by annually lopping off the lateral branches, 
 whereby the main trunk will ascend perpendicularly, and sustain 
 a symmetrical spreading canopy. The pinnate leaves are fre-
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 19 
 
 quently three feet long, consisting of four to twenty pairs of leaf- 
 lets. It hears separately mule and female flowers on different 
 trees. The male and early deciduous flowers emit a very disa- 
 greeable odor, which is carried (o considerable distances, affecting 
 many persons with vertigo, headaches, and vomiting, and it is 
 therefore advisable not to plant the male tree at all. The fe- 
 male tree bears large clusters of winged seeds, resembling those 
 of the ash, of a golden color when ripe. They remain a long 
 time upon the branches, add greatly to the beauty of the tree, 
 and have no peculiar smell. The wood of the Ailanthus is ex- 
 ceedingly valuable, its tenacity being superior to the best oak, 
 and when well seasoned, equal to the best timber for posts and 
 ties, resisting for indefinite time changes of dry ness and moist- 
 ure. Insects never disturb it, but nevertheless it is the habi- 
 tation of the Attacus cynthia, or Japanese silkworm. The rear- 
 ing of this silkworm has well succeeded in France, where it is 
 carried on in the open air. The roots spread and sprout in all 
 directions, more so than the paper mulberry, and are a great nui- 
 sance about cultivated ground. On the other hand, this property 
 has been turned to great profit on the sand dunes of Holland. 
 Associated with the firomsonetia, it would, in a few years, cover 
 with dense shade the barren and sterile places where no other trees 
 could make a stand. 
 
 THE SILVER MAPLE (Acer dasycarpum, EhrK) is now generally- 
 preferred for street planting. The foliage is sharply three to five 
 lobed, and white on the lower surface. Its rapid growth is very 
 commendable, and its shape very good until it gets old, when the 
 limbs become bulky and make the tree look very much like a syc- 
 amore. Many very large specimens line the banks of the Cum- 
 berland above the city. Unfortunately, it is much attacked by 
 various insects, and the trunks are frequently blistered and full 
 of decaying spots, .which renders it liable to severe injuries from 
 strong winds. It .is a very good shade tree, but certainly far less 
 valuable than the Elm for street planting. 
 
 THE LOCUST. (Robinia Pxeudo- Acacia, fj.) This tree grows 
 spontaneously over the whole State, preferring northern hill slopes 
 with rich soil. As long as young a,nd vigorously growing, it 
 makes a good looking tree, but in none but very favored situations 
 will it rear-h a higher age than about twenty or twenty-five years
 
 20 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 without becoming stunted and gradually decaying. In deep 
 loamy river soil, with plenty of moisture, as you may observe on 
 the White's creek pike west of Edgefield, it attains a much higher 
 age in full vigor, and grows in large dimensions with a height of 
 perhaps seventy feet. It is, for the above reasons, not a good spe- 
 cies for this city. 
 
 Climbing plants ought to find a very diversified application 
 from the multitude of very distinct forms and the manifold devices 
 to which they may be subservient. Some produce luscious fruit, 
 some aromatic spices or wholesome vegetables. Climbing plants 
 are sufficiently numerous to form a conspicuous feature in the 
 vegetable kingdom, more especially in tropical forests. Nearly 
 two-thirds of all the phaenogamic families contribute to this form 
 of vegetable growth, and to these a few cryptogamic plants must 
 be added. Our Climbing Fern (Lygodium palmahnu, Swartz) is 
 one of the few trailing ferns. Physiologically considered, we may 
 say that, especially the more highly developed tendril bearers, act 
 with some kind of determination or some degree of will and rea- 
 son very difficult to. the human mind to form a satisfactory con- 
 ception of. The various kinds of movement which they display 
 in manifest relation to their wants, for which the most different 
 organs, stems, branches, flower peduncles, petioles, leaflets, and 
 apparently serial roots, are all endowed with the same power, im- 
 press, upon us much reflection. 
 
 Climbing plants may be divided into four classes. First, those 
 which wind spirally round a support, and are not aided by any 
 other movement. Secondly, those endowed with irritable organs, 
 which, when they touch any object, clasp it, such organs consist- 
 ing of modified leaves, branches, or flower peduncles. The third 
 class ascends by the aid of hooks, and those of the fourth by 
 rootlets. 
 
 A few of the most important, fully sufficient for our wants, I 
 let herewith follow in the order of their merits. 
 
 THE (iRAi'E VIXE ( Titi* Lubi-uxca) unquestionably takes the 
 lead. It ought to be the first plant that any one thinks about who 
 intends to plant a vine. It possesses an historical and political title 
 to this honor from the high antiquity of its culture, and its uni- 
 versal distribution amongst the most civilized nations. A liberal 
 distribution of grape vines through the city and environs would
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 21 
 
 also greatly aid the interests of grape culture, from the fact that a 
 great diversity of varieties may then be kept under close observa- 
 tion and easy comparison. The grape vine requires trellises of 
 laths or wire to ascend on walls. Its mode of culture is an object 
 that requires particular study. 
 
 THE EUROPEAN IVY (Hedera J-Ielix, Lin.) is perhaps the finest 
 looking of all climbers (properly creepers). It ascends by means 
 of little rootlets, by which it fastens itself to stones, or the bark of 
 trees. It possesses not only a glossy dark green cordate and 
 three-lobed foliage in great abundance, but the foliage is also ever- 
 green, a property very rare amongst climbers. After attaining 
 some age it bears umbels of yellowish green flowers, which are 
 followed by black berries. It ought not to be grown on wooden 
 buildings, for it causes them to decay, but on stone buildings it 
 fastens itself firmly without injury to stone or cement. The 
 thick garniture of foliage with which it covers the surface ex- 
 cludes the stormy weather, and has, therefore, a tendency to pre- 
 serve the walls rather than injure them. It may attain to an age 
 of hundreds of years, and grow to immense dimensions. It serves 
 excellently to subdue the nakedness and openness of the monoto- 
 nous garden railings by densely covering the railings, which 
 makes a beautiful wall of polished green, so that even in the 
 midst of winter it is refreshing to walk along them. It forms 
 beautiful edgings along walks and around flower beds when planted 
 pretty thickly, tucked down and kept neatly to a breadth of, say, 
 from one foot to twenty inches, so as to form a mass of the fresh- 
 est verdure, especially in early summer, and, of course, all through 
 the winter in a darker state. Ivy is readily propagated in the 
 open air by making cuttings of about four inches in length, and 
 inserting them in well prepared ground close up to one another. 
 This is best done in September, and if covered over with straw 
 during winter, they will be well rooted and ready for transplant- 
 ing in early spring. They must be thickly planted for good effect 
 in edgings, say about six or eight inches apart in every direction. 
 A border of eighteen inches breadth requires thus about fifteen 
 plants for the running yard. The scarlet geranium, encircled 
 with an edging of ivy, produces a capital effect. It may also be 
 used with the best taste in the dry air of rooms, and cover over 
 walls and trellises, when planted in a tube. The ivy is not a na-
 
 22 
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 tive of this country, but of the milder regions of Europe. Of 
 the very numerous species of climbers of our flora is especially 
 one noted for its luxuriance of growth and beauty of foliage. 1 
 refer to the 
 
 VIRGINIA CREEI-KI; ( . 1 injjcloj/*!.* quinquefolid, .!//'//. r. ), a common 
 woody vine, growing in low or rich ground, attaching itself by 
 rootlets as well as by its disk-bearing tendrils. The leaves are 
 digitate, with five lanceolate slightly serrate leaflets. The green- 
 ish flowers, appearing in July, are followed by small blue berries 
 in October. Although the leaves are not evergreen like those of 
 the ivy, yet in autumn they far surpass that plant by the brilliant 
 coloring which they then assume. The ramified tendrils, when 
 they meet with a flat surface of wood or wall (and this is evi- 
 dently what they are adapted for), turn all their branches toward 
 it, and, spreading them widely apart, bring their hooked tips lat- 
 terally into contact with it. In the course of about two days after 
 a tendril has arranged its branches so as to press on any surface 
 to effect which suitably, the several branches, after touching the 
 surface, often rise up, place themselves in a new position, and 
 again come down in contact with it the curved tips swell, be- 
 come bright red, and form on their under sides the well-known 
 little disks or cushions with which they adhere firmly. Another 
 species of Ampelopsis 
 
 AMPELOPsis VKITRHII, which has of late years been much dis- 
 seminated by commercial gardeners in Europe as well as in Amer- 
 ica, is well deserving the high recommendations which are given 
 to it everywhere. I am at present not fully informed about the 
 origin of this plant, but believe it to be a denizen of the south- 
 ern part of the Rocky Mountains. It attaches itself much closer 
 to the surface it adheres to than either the ivy or Virginia creeper, 
 and fastens itself solely by the aid of adhesive disks, and no fear 
 need to be had, therefore, that it may in any way injure the walls. 
 The leaves of young shoots are oval and acuminate; those of 
 second year wood are larger, two and a half or three inches long, 
 round oval, three-lobed at the apex and coarsely serrate; small 
 racemes of berries are abundantly produced in nearly sessil clus- 
 ters. The foliage is deciduous, and the plant suffers sometimes, 
 at least the young shoots, from late frosts. 
 
 These four climbers I consider the best suited for exposures to-
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND HOUTK T I/ITIIE. 23 
 
 ward streets, yards, and coverings over fences and outhouses. 
 Flower-bearing climbers will be mentioned in the chapter on city 
 gardens. 
 
 It is in the interest of town improvement that I intend to make 
 some remarks about the small private gardens within the city 
 boundaries, whose careful management and graceful arrangement 
 add to our feeling of peace, comfort and repose. Wherever the 
 space is very much confined, a clean sod, with an occasional small 
 evergreen, is preferable; but whenever a sufficient expanse of 
 ground is allotted, there it becomes desirable to introduce such 
 plants which, for an entire season, present an aspect peculiar by a 
 distinguished and fine form of foliage, and a choice of such flow- 
 ering plants as abound in a peimanent and brilliant inflorescence. 
 Those of the first class arc generally classed as sub-tropical plants, 
 while the latter are not drawn from any particular geographical 
 region. 
 
 Selections of plants for flower gardens ought to be left to the 
 desires of the owner. Practice and experience are generally the 
 only guides accepted, still it may not be amiss to communicate the 
 result of experiments, for which I had to pay myself. From 
 these, and the success and failure of others, I will mention a few 
 unquestionably well-adapted and indispensable plants. 
 
 Cnfadium t^culcnimn, in any rich and moist ground. Magnifi- 
 cent specimens of it here and there. 
 
 ( unmix, in like localities, remote from trees or their roots, such 
 as Pr&msee <le .\ic<-c. Mai^/mf/ Vail 'unit, Imperator, etc. 
 
 Itirinii* coiitintoiix (the Castor oil plant), when well grown, and 
 of a good variety. It makes a very imposing subject. 
 
 One or the other of the palms, such as are easy to house in 
 the winter. 
 
 CHAMKROPS PALMETTO succeeds excellently, and is very hardy. 
 May stand in the open air until November, and sometimes later. 
 
 PRITHARDIA FILAMKNTOSA, AVindell. (California Palm.) 
 This palm has been in cultivation to some extent for several years, 
 both in Europe and in this country, under the name of I>r<iiu'(t 
 fi/(tiiinif<)N<i. It grows on rocky canons near San Felipe, some 
 seventy-five miles north-east of San Diego. It grows to the 
 height of fifty feet. It is the most northVrly growing of all 
 palms (about the latitude of Memphis.) It has not yet been
 
 '24 AHHoKirri/rruK AND IIORTICULTI-KK. 
 
 tried he IT, hut is very deserving to be fairly tested, as it may per- 
 haps, with very careful protection, stand out the whole winter. 
 
 ALTHKA ROSKA, the Hollyhock, a much-neglected biennial, 
 when raised from good seeds of double Howers, makes a grand 
 display. Alter it has passed flowering it should be pulled -up im- 
 mediately with the root, and something else put in its place, as it 
 now looks ragged, and will soon die off. 
 
 THE T UITOMAW. So hardy, so magnificent in coloring, and so 
 fine and pointed in form are these plants, that we can no more 
 dispense with their use in the garden where beauty of form as 
 well as beauty of color is to prevail, than we can with the 
 
 PAMPAS (IKASS ((it/ner/iini <i,-</('i/icii,,i), from the prairies of 
 South America. To give it the highest degree of strength and 
 vigor, the soil must be made very rich to a depth of fully four 
 feet. Some straw and a low shed of boards covering it over and 
 keeping excessive moisture from it during winter, is all required 
 to keep it over winter. If it never would put forth its graceful 
 silverv plumes, waving high in the air, the copious pendant rust- 
 ling foliage alone would make it attractive. 
 
 AiU'M><) D;>NAX V'EBSICOLORj the Italian striped cane, is an- 
 other wonderi'ully effective and beautiful grass that is hardly 
 known in our gardens. It is so elegant in form and delicate in 
 coloring that everybodv i^ delighted in looking at it. It is verv 
 easy propagated by laying the mature canes hori/ontally in the 
 ground in October or November, and covering them over with 
 four to six inches of soil. Beginning of April every node of the 
 cane will have made roots and a new shoot. It is perfectly hardy 
 without protection. The same holds good of the tit-limf/m* lt<i- 
 remnie, another tall-growing grass with plume-like tassels, which 
 is much in request for vases. 
 
 Tm: C)I,KANDKI; (Xn-iinii O/cn/i^cr}, a native of the classical 
 grounds of Asia Minor an^ the southern shores of the Mediter- 
 ranean. Much too little use is made here of this exquisite and 
 continually flowering plant. It becomes especially valuable and 
 showy when allowed to grow to the si/e of little trees from six 
 to twelve feet high, the stem well supported by a stout stake. It 
 ought to be sunk in the ground when planted out, for when in 
 boxes standing on the ground it will be injured from blowing 
 down by heavy winds, as the heads of this plant make very strong
 
 ARBORicn/rruE AND HORTICULTURE. 25 
 
 growth during one season. It is necessary to put them into a 
 half flour barrel or cheap wooden box in planting, and have these 
 perforated with numerous holes. This is required to be able to 
 get them u-p in fall for wintering without great injury to the ball 
 of earth and roots. Such plants carefully lifted up with the sac- 
 rifice of the box or barrel, if put in a dry cellar upright, or hori- 
 zontally, will be in very good condition next spring. 
 
 ERYTHRINA CRIST A GALLT. The Coral plant may be raised 
 from seed, and grows and blooms beautiful during our hot sum- 
 mers. It makes large racemes of handsome peashaped crimson 
 Howers, and blooms repeatedly and in profusion. It attains a 
 height of seven or eight feet, by corresponding breadth, and is a 
 very stately plant. 
 
 YUCCA FILAMENT* >SA. The Jjeargrass of our Nashville region, 
 and Yucca gloi'iasa from Savannah and Florida, especially the lat- 
 ter, are very graceful in habit, and yet large and imposing in pro- 
 portion. They belong to the liliaceous family, and produce irj 
 May and June prodigous spikes of large bell shaped white flow- 
 ers. Perfectly hardy, they need no attention after they are once 
 planted. 
 
 FRENCH HYBRID PAEONIAS deserve much more regard than is 
 paid to them. Although their flowering season is limited, yet 
 they make a splendid show in spring, and need no attention aftei> 
 ward. Their foliage looks very satisfactory until commencement 
 of fall, when it may be cut away, if looking too shaggy, without 
 injury to the plant. It is not necessary for me to urge the cul- 
 ture of roses, verbenas, heliotropes, jnsminum, geranium, phloxes, 
 tulips, the common and laricolate lily, etc., as every one knows 
 that these are indispensable. 
 
 Hardy and half hardy deciduous or evergreen shrubs are sup- 
 plied by our nurseries in a large selection. If the selection made 
 does afterward not prove satisfactory, thev may be exchanged 
 without entailing much loss of time. In attributing space by 
 planting the narrow-leaved or coniferous evergreens, it must be 
 remembered that they are either shortlived like the golden arbor 
 vita.' and some of the junipers, or growing to considerable size 
 like the cupressus species. 
 
 Retipwpprq aurea, or aryentca, are really the finest and most
 
 26 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 delicate foliaged of this class, and at the same time they have 
 proven here perfectly hardy. 
 
 Junipers set on partially shaded ground make very good growth. 
 For most plants of this class is our climate very trying. 
 
 Of flowering shrubs I would beg not to forget our native 
 
 FRINGE TREK, (('liiomintluix Vir</'nii<'<i L.), whose abundant 
 fringe-like snow-white flowers in early spring give it an unsur- 
 passable charm. 
 
 THE CAROLINA ALLSPICE (Oetlycanthu* floridua and luci-it/nlu*), 
 with lurid purple flowers that are very lasting. Hark and foliage 
 aromatic, and the flowers exhaling a fragrance similar to pine 
 apple or strawberries. 
 
 THE STUARTIA VIRGINICA and PENTAGYNA are the American 
 representatives of the Camellia tribe. Their foliage is deciduous, 
 but the white flowers, closely resembling a Camellia, are abundantly 
 produced on short pedicels from the axils of the leaves. This 
 shrub is not yet known in cultivation. They abound in the Cum- 
 berland Mountains about Sewanee, and in the higher mountains 
 on Ocoee river. 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL (Kalnia latifolia L.), producing pro- 
 fuse, large and very showy flowers, grows abundantly in the sili- 
 ceous copping of the Harpeth ridge. The transportation of some 
 soil from that region into our gardens is necessary for the success 
 of this shrub, and likewise for 
 
 THE AZALEA CALENDULA* KA, which grows with the above,, 
 and is one of the most attractive American shrubs. 
 
 THE TREE ALTHEA (Hybiscus Syriaeus) is abundantly grown 
 here, but scarcely with that care and attention to present it in its 
 full beauty. 
 
 SYRINGA. VULGARIS does much better here than the Xi/rin</<i 
 Persica. Highly recommendable. 
 
 THE AMERICAN WISTARIA is superior to the Chinese Wistaria, 
 for the latter is very generally spoiled by late frosts, but never so 
 the indigenous. It grows in Col. CockrilPs Bend. 
 
 TUP: ROSEMARY (l-tusnta //'// //* officinali* L.} is a little shrub, a 
 native of several distinct regions of the countries surrounding 
 the Mediterranean. It extends north as far as the province of 
 Langnedoc in France, and the island ot Lesiua on the coast of
 
 ARBORICULTURE AND IloRTKVI/n'RK. 27 
 
 Dalraatia. Already a favorite with the ancient Greeks and Ro- 
 mans, it ought not to f>e forgotten in our days. An eulogium of 
 this beautiful shrub is unnecessary, but a word in favor of its cul- 
 ture in our region is but an honest tribute to its high merits. 
 
 It grows here luxuriantly, flowers profusely in April, and pro- 
 duces an abundance of seed, from which it is reproduced again as 
 easy as thyme or caraway. It stands many ordinary winters un- 
 protected, and should it even be killed sometimes by unusually 
 hard frosts, it is very easily replaced again. The perfume of rose- 
 mary is carried far around by the air where it grows abundantly, 
 and the two to six feet high shrubs, with narrow dark green foli- 
 age, look sombre and solemn. 
 
 The realization of the advantages of tree planting and horti- 
 cultural embellishment within the city, and the amelioration of 
 the physical condition of the surroundings by similar methods, 
 can only be substantially secured through the influence of an as- 
 sociation formed for city improvement, especially for the reason 
 that the appeal is not only made to the private citizen, but to the 
 community at large. It is the environments of the city and the 
 public grounds especially to which our greatest care and attention 
 ought to be directed. It is there where well directed labors will, 
 by the example of an unusual success, lead to the acknowledge- 
 ment of the high value of such improvements, and stimulate imi- 
 tation. Such public efforts would at once be a testimony of the 
 prevailing sense of culture and refinement among the citi/ens: 
 and the association, from the character of its object, would natu- 
 rally bring together the best elements of the community to an 
 amicable and blissful union. 
 
 Maintainance of public decorum and display of respect com- 
 manding dignity commensurate to the wealth of the community r 
 are as indispensable to her prosperity as faultless conduct and ap- 
 pearance to the success of the individual. And as there is no 
 personal worthiness without a correlative and duly adjusted self- 
 respect, so must necessarily the virtue and intelligence of the 
 masses making up a commonwealth be greatly doubted when it is 
 not reflected in works of public enterprise. 
 
 Patriotism itself, that is, estimation of one's society, is a reflex 
 of self-estimation; and assertion of one's society's claims is an 
 indirect assertion of one's own claims as a part of it. I do not
 
 28 ARBORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 
 
 hesitate to ascribe the obvious deficiency of public spirit in a 
 great measure to the incongrueuce and incengeniality of our com- 
 munity. 
 
 Burdened with the disadvantage of intermixture with an un- 
 U3sthetic race, we must \vake up and preserve an enthusiasm for 
 the higher aims of life, or be in danger of abandoning our high 
 distinction. In regard to our short-comings, let us remember 
 what Herbert Spencer says : " When there has been adequately 
 seized the truth that societies are products of evolution, assum- 
 ing, in their various times and places, their various modifications 
 of structure and function, there follows the conviction that what 
 relative to our thoughts and sentiments appeared extremely bad, 
 had in reality fitness to conditions which made better arrange- 
 ments impracticable." 
 
 The culture of the fine arts, says Horace, softens the manners 
 and precludes rudeness. Culture and study of plants embraces 
 both art and science. 
 
 Entangled, as we often are, with the deep sorrow ; s of life, and 
 at a loss to find the causes and final results of relations that deeply 
 concern us, we may find peace and consolation in the quiet re- 
 treats of the vegetable world. Law, harmony and progress be- 
 come more perceptible as we ascend in the order of beings, until 
 we look upward to the starry heavens, where the celestial bodies 
 continue their quiet and undisturbed path. 
 
 May the thoughtful minds of this commonwealth give their at- 
 tention to the philosophy of evolution, and ponder over it with 
 careful study, for it will strengthen their belief in a better future, 
 and in a higher perfection, which man is destined to reach.
 
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