The Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)

The Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) is another excellent subject for town planting and would appear to have a wonderful recuperative power; for, scorched, blackened, and encrusted with soot and dirt as the foliage may appear at the end of the Summer, the following Spring it again puts forth a garb of the freshest and healthiest greenery. As an ornamental tree for the town square or garden it has few rivals, the remarkable four-lobed, truncate leaves, and tulip-like flowers placing the Liriodendron in the first rank of desirable garden and lawn trees. Large, well-furnished examples of the Liriodendron may be seen in several parts of the metropolis, but it is not well known and consequently planted but sparingly.

Several species of Pyrus are well adapted for planting throughout London, the best being P. Aria (the Beam Tree), P. Aucuparia (the Mountain Ash), P. lobata, and P. domestica. All may be seen in several of our gardens and squares, where they succeed well and are evidently long-lived.

The Common Lime Tree

The Common Lime Tree may be found generally distributed over London, but it is not to be recommended for the most smoky districts and in warm dry seasons is apt to lose its leaves prematurely. Where the situation is not too confined, and where soot and smoke do not abound in unusual quantity, the Lime thrives in a fairly satisfactory way, but in the worst parts the branch tips die back and the tree usually shows signs of distress - the fierce struggle with smoke and fumes being too great for its somewhat tender constitution. For avenue or screen purposes in the comparatively pure atmosphere of the London suburbs it has certainly few equals, while its ornamental appearance and shade-giving qualities place it high in the list of garden trees. It stands pruning with impunity, a point that, unfortunately, is often taken advantage of to convert one of our noblest forest trees into a dwarfed and contorted specimen for the confined garden or path-side. In some smoky parts of the metropolis, as at Shoreditch, Bermondsey, Lambeth, and Chelsea, the Lime may be seen in a fairly healthy condition when the impure atmosphere is taken into account.

The Honey Locust (Gleditschia triacan-thos)

The Honey Locust (Gleditschia triacan-thos), though not well known in connexion with town planting, is yet a valuable tree for smoky localities, and a few well-developed specimens may be seen in various parts of the metropolis. But not only in London has this tree been found to succeed, for in Manchester and Liverpool several goodly specimens are to be seen, and in positions, too, where the impure atmosphere tells hardly on tree and shrub life generally.

In Clifford's Inn a healthy Ash about 50ft. high may be seen; several specimens of the White Poplar grow by Commercial Street in the East End; while of the Black Italian Poplar a giant tree adorns the Gray's Inn Road.