-NRLF AND VfN.E-5 Ex Libris BEATRIX JONES REEF POINT GARDENS LIBRARY The Gift of Beatrix Farrand to the General Library University of California, Berkeley BOOKS BY H. E. PARKHURST TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES OF THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 12mo, net $1.50 SONG BIRDS AND WATERFOWL. Illustrated by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. 12mo, net, 1.50 THE BIRDS' CALENDAR. With 24 Illustrations. 12mo, net, 1.50 HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS. 16mo, net 1.00 TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES OF THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES THEIR CHARACTERISTIC LANDSCAPE FEATURES FULLY DESCRIBED FOR IDENTIFICATION BY THE NON-BOTANICAL READER; TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL FOREIGN HARDY TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES CULTIVATED IN OUR COUNTRY, AND FOUND IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK CITY BY H. E. £ARKHURST 'The gods, to live in woods, have left the skies." Dryden ILLUSTRATED CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK::::::::::::::::1903 COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published, April, 1903 TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NtW YORK Add'l LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Earrand Gift1 *3 LANDSCAPE AECH. LIBRUtT MY WIFE 32B CONTENTS PAGE Opening Leaves . . . . 1 Tree Life 18 Central Park 29 Wood Notes 47 Around the " Pond " — First Excursion . . . . 57 On "The Point "— Second Excursion .... 77 Along the Lakeside — Third Excursion .... 91 In the " Ramble "— Fourth Excursion .... 105 Shrubs and Vines 130 Botanical Descriptions 179 Trees with Ornamental Blossoms 184 Description of Native Trees 186 of Native Shrubs 243 of Native Vines 304 of Foreign Trees 353 of Foreign Shrubs 376 of Foreign Vines 404 vii Contents PAGE Plant Structure 411 Glossary .421 Botanical List of all Trees, Shrubs and Vines in Central Park 425 Index *•..'.. * ...... Y .. 453 viii TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES OF THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES OPENING LEAVES * Thou, nature, art my goddess : to thy law My services are bound : wherefore should I Stand to the plague of custom ? " — SHAKESPEARE. OUR field of observation in the following pages is practically the entire Northeastern States. The record is in no sense local, except as the chosen background of the pictorial account is the most representa- tive and extensive collection of our finest native and for- eign growth, arranged for landscape effect, that is to be found in the country — the famous Central Park, of New York City. This small and definite area not only affords a splendid concrete example of landscape vegetation for the thou- sands annually traversing it, but is so illustrative of every phase of hardy, deciduous, and evergreen growth at home and abroad as to afford ample opportunity for discussing the entire range of native vegetation in tree, shrub, and vine, from Maine to North Carolina, and west to the Mississippi, and the abundant decorative species from Europe and Asia, that are now figuring so conspicuously in all our private lawns and gardens. This is the first time that a description of all the trees, shrubs, and vines in Central Park has been presented to the public. The nearest approach to it was a botanical i Trees, Shrubs and Vines list, published in 1875 by the Park Commissioners, Ln their third general report, upon the completion of the Park ; a list now valueless, owing to the subsequent dis- appearance of many species not suitable to our climate, and the addition, in recent years, of many choice foreign plants. The utility of the following account, in its relation to the Park, is not limited to even the large numbers that frequent these splendid grounds ; for the orna- mental growth here is of so representative a character as to comprise most of the species cultivated anywhere in the Northeastern States, the identification of which is made possible in these pages without resorting to text- books. It may also be added that, for a considerable amount of the foreign growth herein described, which is becoming widely popular for lawns and parks, no de- scription, sufficiently detailed for identification, is else- where to be found in any American publication, nor can all of it be found in any single foreign work. In recent years the treasures of Japan and other parts of Asia, as well as of Europe, have been extensively drawn upon for landscape decoration, and the following pages afford a ready reference for determining the leading species in the three distinctive types of growth herein considered. At the same time it is a matter for pride that our own sylva is worthy of so large a representation in this notable collection ; and those unfamiliar with our native species may be surprised to find that some of the most stately and picturesque effects in forestry, and some of the most brilliant and graceful forms of shrub and vine, 2 Opening Leaves are the result of indigenous growth. Other climes have given us the yulan, tamarix, forsythia, quince, English hawthorn, bird cherry, ailanthus, the most valuable coni- fers, the deutzia, hydrangea, lilac, many beautiful spir- aeas, azaleas, weigelas, etc., etc. ; but we are proud of our elms, maples, and oaks, our flowering dogwood, silver-bell-tree, red-bud, cottonwood, buttonwood, yel- low-wood, catalpa, beech, birch, etc. At the same time it is useless to deny that in very many genera the foreign species decidedly outrank the native ; and in the last analysis will it not be necessary to admit that, with a presumably Asiatic origin of species, we are ultimately indebted to the Eastern hemisphere for all our wealth of vegetation ? The catalogue herein presented is based upon accurate official lists recently completed, and not yet published, by the Park Department, the correctness of which has been largely verified by my own observations during the past two years. This extensive area of landscape gardening is in three sections : the first, extending from Fifty-ninth Street to the north side of the " Ramble," is by far the most favorable for study, as it contains, in an area of little more than half a square mile, the majority of all the species throughout the grounds. The second section, reaching northward from the "Ramble" to above Ninetieth Street, though hardly less beautiful in scenery, is not so elaborately cultivated ; and the third section contains the wilder portion at the upper end, where nature boldly asserts itself amid the few deft touches of art. 3 Trees, Shrubs and Vines The following is a complete list of the trees, shrubs, and vines in the Park. Those with an asterisk are foreign or American extra-limital, the others are native or naturalized in the Northeastern United States. DECIDUOUS TREES (not cone-bearing) Ailanthus (A. glandulosa) Alder (Alnus) *(glutinosa) *(cordata) Angelica-tree (Aralia spinosa) Ash (Fraxinus) White (americana) ^Flowering (ornus) *European (excelsior) Black (sambucifolia) Beech (Fagus) American (ferruginea) *European (sylvatica) *Weeping (sylvatica pen- dula) *Purple (sylvatica atropur- purea) *Cut-leaved (sylvatica as- plenifolia) Birch (Betula) White (populifolia) Black (lenta ; nigra) Red (rubra) Yellow (lutea) Paper (papyracea) *Cut-leaved (laciniata) *Weeping (pendula) *Purple- leaved (alba, var. atropurpurea) Buckeye (Pavia) Yellow (flava) Ohio (ohioensis) *Red (rubra) Buckthorn, Common (Rhamnus catharticus) Butternut (Juglans cinerea) Buttonwood (Platanus) (occidentalis) *(orientalis) Catalpa (Catalpa) (bignonioides) *(bungei) Cherry (Plum), (Prunus) Wild Black (serotina) Wild Red (pennsylvanica) Sloe, Black Thorn (spinosa) *Garden Red (cerasus) *Small Bird Cherry (padus) ^Japanese Plum (pissardii) *(mahaleb) Chestnut (Castanea) American (americana) *European (sativa) *Cork - tree ( Phellodendron armorense) Dogwood (Cornus) Flowering (florida, var. alba) Opening Leaves DECIDUOUS TREES—C