Page:Aesthetic Papers.djvu/246

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236
Vegetation about Salem.

best suited to this climate, if indeed any can be found superior to the old stocks. It is time that attention was awakened to the subject; for who can calculate the advantages of an abundant supply of useful timber to a commercial and manufacturing people?

We possess one tree, among many that are richly ornamental, of surpassing beauty. I allude to our common elm (Ulmus Americana). The grace, the beauty, the magnificence of this tree is only to be exceeded by the princely palm. Planted in rows along the streets, it is the pride of our towns, suggesting to the mind a far better idea of ease and comfort, than it could derive from the most exquisite statuary.

In Danvers, a little on this side of Aborn-street, in a barnyard on the land of the late Benjamin Putman, stands an elm of great beauty. A finer specimen of the elm, a more perfect tree, is seldom seen. Such is the vigor, the healthiness, and unshorn symmetry of its form, that it appears not yet to have arrived at maturity. There is a remarkable boldness in the manner in which the numerous branches spring from the parent stem, and form its fine symmetrical head. During a ride of six or seven hundred miles along the turnpike roads of England, the summer before last, I carried this tree in the eye of my mind as a standard; and truly in all that long ride I could not find one that appeared so perfect.

The Boston elm is a larger tree; but it is braced and bolted with bars of iron, and the mind is pained with the symptoms of approaching decay. To the lone farm-house or the detached villa, the elm is a most graceful appendage. I hope, however, I shall be forgiven if I say a word on the manner in which it is sometimes planted. It is too common to plant trees, while young, close before the dwelling, so that in a few years they totally obscure the building they were designed to ornament. Trees should be planted so as to flank the building, if it be a detached cottage or villa: in this position they will usually furnish sufficient shade, without obscuring the view, either from within or without the dwelling.

This climate does not possess an evergreen ivy; but our common creeper (Vitis hederacea) is a most excellent substi-