NATURE'S TREE-FREAKS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3133, 4 September 1922, Page 8

NATURE'S TREE-FREAKS.

That old dame, Nature, does not wholly deserve her reputation of working in a very orderly manner. The truth is that "she is forever doing stunts which would seem to indicate 11 very freakish disposition," says the Boston Transcript solemnly. Men who roam the woods know this, for they arc continually running across trees and shrubs which are as far different from the type as though a deliberate experiment was being made in the evolution of strange forms. From among these, nurserymen obtain the odd trees with which landscape gardeners lil<e to decorate the lawns of their clients. Says the writer:—The weeping trees arc merely freaks, and most of them have been discovered growing wild or-elsc. have come up unexpectedly in a nursery row. It is the same with tlit" pyramidal trees, which are narrow in girth but shoot straight into the air like huge needles. Kven the Lombardy poplar is an abnormal form of the common black poplar of Europe. Prof. S. C. Sargent, director of the Arnold Arboretum, lias been getting together in that institution probably the largest representation of abnormal fornix of the world's different trees to lie found anvwher in America.

Professor Sargent says that the l/oinbanJy poplar probably first appeared in northern Italy early in the eighteenth century, and that very likely all the trees now scattered throughout the world arc descended from a single individual shape. Moreover, all the trees, wherever found, are males. According to Professor Sargent, the Lombardy poplar has been much in favor with landscape architects because of its adaptability and its rapid growth. It; is perfectly at home in all parts of America, but probably the finest specimens to be seen anywhere are growing in the central valley of Chile. There are other trees: in the Arboretum collection which have taken on this same upright habit. One of them, and one which attracts much attention because of its peculiar appearance, is a sugar maple. A very perfect specimen fctands by itself near the maple group jiiist beyond the shrub garden. This maple is one of the narrowest and most remarkable of alii trees ha.vfug fastigate form, which is of special interest becunse the parent tree is a native of .Massachusetts, having been found in 1885 in a Newton cemetery.

For some reason the maples seeiu to have been singled l out by nature as special subjects for lier ftreakbh exjieriments. Not satisfied with producing a maple which grows straight into the air she lias evolved another kind which has the opposite tendency. It is ;i Norway maple, which, makes a. great round ball, being «ws different in habit from maples of the ordinary sort a» «ne can well imagine. The specimen in the Arboretum, although it has been growing for fifteen or sixteen years, has never added more than a foot lor each vear of its growth, and is as broad as it 'its tall.

There are many other maples which are unusual in one way or another, hut one of special interest hais bjeen named the Ragle's Claw maple, owing to the peculiar development of its foliage. The leaves of tin's odd tree are toothed and notched in the most remarkable way. They curl up, too. even when in their natural state, the pointed endis assuming very much the appearance of real daws. There is' little about this tree which could be called beautiful, but it has the merit of being out of the ordinary. There is something about the so-call-ed weeping trees' which' makes them much in favor for planting on private grounds. Far years weeping trees of various kindis have been industriously hunted for and largely propagated by nurserymen. In Europe they aire even more popular than they aire here, and many of the kinds which are: used there are to be found in the Arboretum. These trees are grown mostly from cuttings. Sometimes a, weeping branch is grafted on a stem of a normal tree of the same or a related species. Of course, weeping willows' are the best known trees in this class. Apparently they have wept down through many age's, for the Chinese weeping willow has been a favorite for centuries. It is a familiar object in many Chinese pictures, and lias long been represented' on Chinese porcelains and wood carvings. When it first reached Europe it was supposed to be a native of the valley of the Euphrates, and so was misnamed Salix babylonica. More than half a century ago great numbers of these trees were planted in Massachusetts, but they suffer from the cold here, and are constantly growing less. Freak trees are not necessarily freakish. One of the handsomest of the trees in Europe is a form of the beech. I'nfortunately it grows l , very slowly, and while it has been planted here, there are no specimens in this country to compare with those across the water, where the great tent-like trees prove a constant surprise to American visitors. Everybody knows the weeping birch, and its beautiful cut-leaf form. Freak as it is. it has delighted multitudes of garden-makers. .All must regret that this tree, which has been planted in immense numbers all over the northern States, is fast disappearing, owing to the havoc caused by insects which work under the bark of the trunk. While some of the most conspicuous among nature's stunts have been done with deciduous trees, the evergreens have not been overlooked. In the Arnold Arboretum there are two remarkable dwarf gardens made up of little evergreen trees, many of which naturally grow to large size. In some instances specimens of these baby trees, no higher than a man's waist. are growing in close proximity to huge specimens of the same species which tower far above them.

There is a spruce in llio Arboretum which much resembles a camel. It is a comical looking object and probably another freak liVe it will never he grown, for no one will caro to make grafts of it, unless, indeed, to place in some museum of strange and curious frees. It is til us that nature operates, producing her abnormalities in forms which are hoth inviting and rcpellant. It. remains for men to say which shall Ik- selected and given to the people. And yet, it may quite likely he that dozens of the abnormal trees are growing in the depths of the forest which are quite as handsome as any we know lint which have never vet been seen by the eve of man.