PLANTING IN CITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

PLANTING IN CITIES.

Dr. Wilfrid Fox, lion, secretary of the TCoads Beautifying Association, in a paper on "Trees and Tree Planting in Oreat Cities," read before the London Society at the Royal Society of Arts, criticised the lack of enterprise of local authorities. The most extensive arboreal sir. in London, he said, was to plant trees which would eventually bo too big for their situation. With the example of Chelsea, Embankment before them, Westminster City Council had learned nothing and had again planted plane trees in front of Thames HouseMillbank. It could not be too strongly emphasised that in a climate like ours the cutting out of sunlight by planting large forest trejs with a heavy leafage was unhealthy and unfair to the householder.

We should use our brains in the matter of town planting. Against the one material of the architect the horticulturist had a thousand fresh media with which to paint the picture. One of the chief reasons was the obstinacy of some public bodies, who vetped any attempt to plant anything unless they knew it themselves. The city fathers of one town recently insisted on limee; they did not want any "foreign stuff." (Incidentally, the common lime was not English). They gave them limes, though he doubted if they would recognise them as such, for they gave them Tilia petiolaris. - Speaking of the importance of proper planting of trees, he said that the double avenue of planes along the Mall, between Buckingham , Palace and Admiralty Arch was beginning to show signs of deterioration, due to their roots hnving reached down to a. hard pan which it was impossible to remove when they were planted.