DECIDUOUS TREES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 550, 3 July 1909, Page 7

DECIDUOUS TREES.

MORE OF THEM WANTED. SENTIMENTAL AM) PRACTICAL REASONS. I (By X.) - Now that tho Mayor's policy of beautifying the city begins to take shape, and oven tho dry bones of Arbor Day are stirred, tho timo seems opportune to put in. a plea for deciduous trees. Tho evergreens, indigenous or introduced, should pot be slighted. It is A national duty to perpetuate every,species pi nativo two and' shrub, and it may well be maintained that the pines and macrocarpas, whioh wo have brought from California, do not receive tho admiration which they deservo. But Wellington already has plenty of pines, white in the suburbs and the settled country districts it is almost' impossible to get out of sight of the mncrocarpa. Everybody would bo glad of a change from theso too familiar, though serviceable, trees, but it is to be houed that tho advocates or indiconous growths will not bo too exclusivo in their justifiable enthusiasm. It was a Now Zealander, Mr. Arthur Adams, who wrote of his own country: "Unchanging hero the drab year onward presses; . ' ' No Spring comes trystmg here with newloosed tresses,, ~ ( \ , And never, may tho years, "^'<?"'■* Win, Autumn's sweet caresses—, ','•„ Hor leaves that fall like tears." This is a 6 truo of "Wellington oity as of the' bush or tho tussock plains. ' 'lie grass on Mount Victoria changes from brown to green and back to brown again, the gorsc and broom cover tho Tinakori Hills twice a year with yellow blossom, and a few poplars; willows, and hawthorns put their leaves on and off with the seasons. But theio is no general transformation. Spring is not a'bright, nor Summer a deeper green; Autumn wears no garment of red and yellow; and Winter has almost as littlo of the blackness of'trees as of 'the whiteness of snow. "Unchanging here the drab year Onward jpresses." Tho city (where broom and gorse do not take "noxious" pity upon it)' is oven more monotonous in its colouring than the bush. Here is no clematis to star it with white, no rata to'splash it with red. It is not enriched with! silver of manuka, nor gold of kowhai. The_ sojourner in Wellington may feel'the seasons in,the air, or in his blood, but ho is wont to 'cry with John Davidson's tired heroes of Fleet Street, "I would that I could seo tho Spring.!' Take a tram from Courtenay Place, to Con-1 stable Street,' and you will havo to; keep a ] very bright look-out if you would see any i trees that do not look to-day Just 'as they looked throe months 'ago, and will look three months hence. In Kent Terrace, the Basin Reserve, and the Hospital,grounds, cabbage palm succeeds to cabbage palm, as uniformly as tramway pole to tramway pole, and .the pines are scattered on the slope of Mount View, lik« perverselv regular ink-blots' on a green tablecloth. Would one not glance aftoner at the plantations on tho slopes of M«nnt Victoria if the colours of opening and falling leaves made them a clock of the je»r? English trees are among the best gifts of the white man to New Zealand. Not only do they, make the seasons visible, but they carry 01 every bough and leaf thoughts 'and memeries of'older lands. They enrich '|the language. Without .them we could hardly understand English poetry. , _ \ • Jf to the practical citizen those considerations seem fanoiful, he may be rccommonded to peruse Chapter xv. of "Tree Planting tin | New Zealand,'' by tho late Mr. Henry Matthews, Chief Forester. This book is recognised by peoplo whoso opinion counts 'as tlio most complete and authoritative New Zca- , land work on its subject. It is published by , tho Government Printer. Writing of street; I planting, Mr. Matthews says: "It is best to select those species which have largo leaves,! \ as in these tho .spaces between tlwbranohes are wider, so that while in summer the large leaves afford' a pleasant shade, in winter, ' when the tree 3 are bare, both tho sun and ° wind havo free-access to the street below; but silver-leaved trees such as the silver-birch, having close'branches and an : abundance-of'twigs, even in winter cast a shade which is undesirable, as 'it keeps the ' street damp." Thus Mr. Matthews held that ' ttreot-trees should,be not,merely'deciduousi but as deciduous as possible. He goes on to D recommend plane trees, tho tulips-tree, tho ,' catalpa, tho lime, chestnuts, sycamores) elms, .ashes,:.,, Japanese cherries, . and paulownia imperialis. 5 It is noticeable thai Mr. Mattbows does not I mentien the Lombardy poplar, though it * appears in one of the lists given by Mr. T. 6 W. Kirk in his Arbor Day pamphlet of 1895. It is favoured, too, by English authorities, 1 one of whom remarks that it is "useful for 1 hiding unsightly buildings." 1 It must be admitted_ that the ,lato Chief 'i forester's recommendation of deciduous trtoe 1 was made with special reference to planting in streets, whereas tho Wellington municipn' a policy seems to be mainly concerned witl r vacant plots of ground. But somo of thest o are skirted by roads and < footpaths, whicL t- ought not to be screened from the drying ;, winds and fitful sunshine of winter. Anc h why should not Spring como trysting in Kenl o Terrace?