THE ADVANTAGES OF AN ARBORETUM.
READ BY PROF. W. J. BEAL IN REPRESENTATIVE HALL, LANSING,
WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 22, 1873.

An Arboretum is an artificial collection of living trees and shrubs, including
those raised for fruit, of course. It is more limited in signification than
Botanic Garden, which means a plantation of herbs as well as trees and shrubs.
Europe possesses large numbers of Botanic Gardens. They are found in or
near Naples, Florence, Turin, Milan, Leipsic, Berlin, Paris, London, and many
other cities and villages. Some
are celebrated for one family of plants, while
others excel in several departments. The gardens of Munich and Nymphenburg
excel in palms; that of Edinburgh in heaths; that of the London.
Horticultural Society in trees. Many of these gardens contain museums of
vegetable products in various stages of growth or in different degrees of advance
ment in their manufacture. All or nearly all have an herbarium,—a collection
of dried plants properly named,—a library of works on botany and kindred
subjects, and green-houses for raising trees, shrubs, and other plants too tender
to endure the cold of northern climes.
Gardens of more or less pretension are as ancient as the human race. One
of the oldest now in existence was founded by Queen Elizabeth at Hampton
Court, continued under Charles II. and William III., and since rendered still
more illustrious by Leonard Plunkenet,
one of the most active of plant collectors.
One of the richest gardens known is that of Prince Heszterhazy at
Kismartony, containing 70,000 species of plants. The United Kingdom of
Great Britain has at least ten public and thirteen private Botanic Gardens.
The Kew Garden, near London, surpasses all the rest. It was first opened to
the public in 1840, when it was put under the directorship of Sir William J.
Hooker. The whole grounds include 345 acres, a large part of which are
covered by native forests. The garden proper contains about 60 acres. The
grounds contain at least nine large green-houses, among which is a palmhouse,
100 by 362, and 66 feet high. The Kew Garden not uncommonly contains
contains
1,200 visitors at one time, and during the whole of one holiday it reached
over 28,000. The yearly amount appropriated for its support would be considered
extravagant by many of our Western people.

France bas at least twenty-five prominent public gardens; little Switzerland
has five ; Denmark four; and poor sterile Sweden supports five. Each of the
following places has one, and perhaps some of them more: Bombay, Ceylon,
Calcutta, Cape of Good Hope, Canton, Mexico, Rio Janerio, Chili, Teneriffe,
Cambridge, Mass., New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and St. Louis. Each
has made a good start.

56
As near as I can learn, the first successful attempt in this country at a
Botanic Garden was made near Philadelphia, in 1730, by John Bartram. One
of the best in the United States was started in 1800 by Joshua and Samuel
Peirce at Westchester, Penn. Probably the Arboretum containing the greatest
number of species of any in this country, has been quite recently started on
the College Campus of the Ohio Wesleyan University. It now contains 600
species, though most of them are still too small to make much of a display.
I do not know that Michigan has any yet worthy of the name. A small
beginning has been made at the Agricultural College. If the prosperity of the
State continues, and her school system holds its rank, I have no doubt that
she will have a number of Botanic Gardens started within the next twenty or
thirty years.
I will briefly enumerate some of the
USES OF AN ARBORETUM.
Nearly all of our prominent cities are spending large amounts on parks for

the health and pleasure of their people. Chief among the attractions of a park
are trees and shrubs. The study of these and the interest they awaken would
be much increased by giving a greater variety of plants to the parks. Some of
them are now monotonous on account of too many plants of one kind. Private
grounds and cemeteries could be made much more attractive by planting a
greater variety of trees and shrubs, appropriate to each particular spot.
The Prairie States are already extensively engaged in planting for timber
and shelter, but no man knows for certain whether he has the best trees for
his purpose. It may seem too soon to talk of raising forest trees in Michigan,
so celebrated for her extensive forests; but at the present accelerated rate of
cutting off timber, the next generation must begin to look out for a supply of
some kinds either by importation or raising. I heartily indorse what Mr. T.
T. Lyon says of the importance of timber belts.

It will take some years for Arboreta to get established so as to be very
instructive, hence the great need of starting them soon. The expense is very
trifling when we think of the advantages which would arise from it. “Its
utility is as obvious and important as any other museum of natural history,—
certainly not inferior to any in the intrinsic value of its connection with arts
and manufactures, and presenting a school of instruction that will largely
tend to advance our progress in the knowledge of vegetable physiology, and
furnish a strong incentive to botanical studies. Unlike many other museum
collections, this will constantly vary in its beauty and attractions; the yearly
development of individual forms, with its combinations of form, foliage,
flowers, and fruit the opening buds in spring, and the gorgeous hues of the
autumn foliage, represent extreme periods between which each day has its own
peculiar beauties. To the artist, such a collection preseuts a field where may
be studied the form of every leaf and outline of the superior vegetation of the
temperate zones; and the botanist will here find the material living presence
of those objects which, in their more refined relations, enter into his abstract
and recondite arrangements.”*
Such a garden will be the delight of the nurserymen, as here they can then
see what would be hardy, and most suitable to ornament the grounds of their
customers. Asa part of this Arboretum should be an
experimental garden of
orchard fruits, where should be found all the fruit trees hardy in our climate,

* Report of U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1867.

57
with their various modes of training, pruning, and culture. In connection
with the Arboretum it would be very useful to have green-houses well supplied
with various economic plants,—those valuable in medicine, for dyeing, those
used for gums, resins, ornament, or those furnishing articles of food.
A museum of vegetable products also would tend to make the establishment
complete in all its departments. This they are beginning on
a large scale at
Washington. The authorities estimate that there are 2,248 species and varieties
of trees and shrubs which will thrive in the open air in that latitude.
With our severe winters, where the thermometer sometimes reaches 33°
below zero, and often 15° below, I think the number of hardy trees and shrubs
would be reduced to 1,200 or 1,500 species and varieties besides the varieties
of fruit trees.

Quite a nice start can be made in such a collection by getting all the trees
and shrubs which can easily be picked up in any neighborhood, and by purchase
of our nurserymen. After this we shall be obliged to resort to the slower
process of exchanges with like collections in our own country and in foreign
countries. It will need constant vigilance and some money to get trees and
shrubs from distant countries, through missionaries, travelers, and merchants.
We have already begun an Arboretum at the Agricultural College. We
have taken several! small specimens of each kind we could get in the neighborhood,
and placed them temporarily in nursery rows, where some will die, some
may harden, some may be used in exchange ; and when we get enough together,
they may be set in groups where they are to be permanently located.
Nearly all methods have been tried in the arrangement of an Arboretum,
each having its advantages and disadvantages. Some try to show to the intelligent
visitor the geographical distribution alone, by having a part of the
garden for plants from Europe, a part from North America, while each of the
other grand divisions of the globe has its corner. Others put trees together,
shrubs together, and herbs together. Others attempt to arrange them solely
with reference to landscape effect, though in this they must fail, to a great
extent, because so many of their plants are new and their habits of growth are
not known.

The prevailing tendency now seems to be to arrange them in groups,
according
to the natural orders or families. This method puts all the oaks together,
and near them all the chestnuts, and near these the beeches and hazels, ironwoods
and blue beeches. These plants just mentioned constitute one of the
largest and most important natural families.

In another spot may be placed all the cone-bearing plants (confers) including
our pines, cedars, spruces, larches, and cypresses. Another order includes
all the poplars and willows; another, birches and alders; another, hickories
and walnuts.

In each of these natural orders geographical distribution can be shown to
some extent,—for example, by arranging the pines from North America on one
side of a drive or path, and those from Europe on the opposite side. Hach
natural order should have a large label near it, containing its name,
and each
plant should be conspicuously labeled. These natural families can be dotted
here and there over the lawn, and may be easily reached by paths and drives
running through and around them.

The importance of such a collection must be apparent to all cultivated
minds. The study of trees can not be otherwise than ennobling to ail who
behold them, whether he be artist, botanist, arboriculturist, or man of culture

58
who is seeking for novelties with which to adorn his grounds and make home
pleasant.
Trees and shrubs are the cheapest ornament.
Many of our native trees and shrubs are preferable to those from distant
countries. ‘The shrewdest men have long since discovered that no money pays
a better interest than that used by skillful hands ir making a home pleasant.
If you
wish to sell a place, it is sure to pay more than 20 per cent on the
investment; if you want it for a permanent home, who dare say it pays less?
More attention to these subjects is one of the greatest wants of our thrifty
Western people.