ROADSIDE TREES.
A considerable controversy is arising over the nature of the trees being used to decorate our new and spacious roads. A' great 'number of specialists on trees have" pooled their knowledge ; and among the more general results is the decision to plant a mixture of trees—not uniform avenues— varied by flowering shrubs. The elm—quite rightly— has been banned ; and the plane is banned where the too broad leaves might make the road surface treacherous in late autumn. There is still a stout refusal- to plant fruit trees ; and the reason (expressed indeed by the Minister of Agri- culture himself) seems to me wholly inadequate. It is, of course, not unlikely that the fruit would attract greedy youth ; but this is not found to be an objection on the Continent, and would not be here. The greater number of trees, the less would be the trouble. The apple is lovely in flower, lovely in fruit, and the wood is of a most useful hardness. Some of the stoutest and loveliest trees are of the cider apple sorts.
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