All the Acacias (Robinia)

All the Acacias (Robinia) are to be recommended for town planting, and may be found everywhere throughout the metropolis. Even during unusually dry and hot seasons when the whole of the ordinary vegetation is burnt up - the Lime and Elm looking seared and sickly and premature leaf shedding going on around us - the Acacia stands nobly out in all its freshness of leaf and branch, and, if anything, blooms all the more freely for the scorching and want of moisture to which it has been subjected. The Common or False Acacia is also rendered of particular value for town planting, owing to its retaining its rich verdure till well on in Autumn, while it is by no means difficult to satisfy in the matter of soil - desirable qualities in a London tree. Good examples of the Acacia may be found in almost every part of London, even in the most smoky and confined - as at the Royal Mint, at Lambeth, and in most of our squares and gardens. For confined positions the variety Inermis is to be recommended, being a small-growing, round-headed variety with the brightest of pea-green foliage. It is usually seen as a standard from 10 to 12 ft. high, and is not uncommon in many parts of London, particularly suburban districts.

The Mulberry (Moras nigra)

The Mulberry (Moras nigra) can lay claim to being one of the best trees for planting in London, and numerous fine old specimens, many a century old, are to be seen scattered over the metropolis. Even where the atmosphere is chemically impure, as at Lambeth, the Mulberry has attained to a large size, and, judging from its healthy, well-developed foliage, would almost appear to revel where smoke and dust are the order of the day. In many of our public squares in the West End, and Shoreditch and Poplar in the East, and in all the Northern districts, the Mulberry may be seen in a flourishing condition, many specimens having attained to a large size and good old age. By the side of Camden Road, and where exposed to the constant dust and smoke of the adjoining railway, a fine example of the Mulberry may be seen, as also at Stratford and Bermondsey. There are large examples, too, of the Mulberry in Elm Park Gardens and other parts of Chelsea and Kensington, as also in the gardens attached to the Tower of London. Other remarkable Mulberries are those in Finsbury Circus Gardens and at Westminster, the latter situated behind a brick wall at the bend of Great Smith Street, between the buildings of the Church House and the office of the Westminster Coroner, and nearly opposite the free public library. It has been this season in full foliage and most prolific in berries, a fact that passers-by can vouch for by looking at the pavement, which is stained for many feet by the falling berries. The age claimed for this tree is a very great one, some people asserting that it existed in far-off days in the Abbot's garden or orchard, which may be right, for a plan of Dean Stanley's "Memorials of Westminster Abbey," showing the precinct as it was "about 1536," shows the orchard to be pretty close to where this tree stands. It is apparently about 30 ft. high, its trunk being somewhere about a foot in diameter.

The Mulberry In London. To face page 68

The Mulberry In London. To face page 68.