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diff --git a/78370-0.txt b/78370-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc23cc3 --- /dev/null +++ b/78370-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3050 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78370 *** + + + + + Arranged and Printed + by the + Germantown Independent-Gazette + Germantown, Pa. + + + + +[Illustration: Oak Tree and Rabbit Lane] + + + + + GERMANTOWN + _OLD AND NEW_ + + Its Rare + and Notable + Plants + + [Illustration] + + _1904_ + + _BY EDWIN C. JELLETT_ + + + + + _To + CLARA HELEN BAUMANN + a native of Germantown whose + ancestors beautified it in the + past as their successor honors + and enriches it in the present._ + +[Illustration] + + + + +_PREFACE_ + + +This outline sketch of our “rare and notable plants” was prepared at +the direction of “The Germantown Horticultural Society” and was read +at its public meeting of May 9, 1904,--the same later appearing in the +columns of the “Germantown Independent-Gazette.” + +At the time of writing, there was no thought of publishing the paper, +it being hurriedly assembled outside the time required for daily +positive duties within the limits of one week,--and was intended only +for a simple address. + +This will partly explain, if it does not excuse obvious defects, and +since I have been urged by several members of the Society named to +present the paper in print, I have concluded to send it forth with all +its faults from the same types by which it first appeared, asking only +that the circumstances be remembered, for no one, I feel confident, is +able to satisfactorily present the plants of Germantown in an article +so brief,--or more definitely,--I am not able to do so. To the original +paper I have added an index, which I hope may not be found superfluous. + +For the illustrations which grace our pages, I am indebted to S. +Mendelsohn Meehan,--who suggested this paper,--and to Horace F. +McCann--who printed it. The faces which familiarly greet us I have +added to dignify our work, for past and present they represent the +“stuff” which built our town,--preserved it,--and now keep it,--forever +famous. Last, but not least, I feel sure we all are pleased with the +appearance of our book, and to Erwin W. Moyer, whose skill and good +taste reared upon a sub-stratum apparently hopelessly unpromising a +structure so creditable, I wish to record my heartiest thanks. + + E. C. J. + + + + +_ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + +_FRONTISPIECE_ + + Oak tree on Rabbit Lane, near County Line Road. Photograph by Charles + Edward Pancoast. + +_PAGE 23_ + + The “Morris-Littell” House, at southeast corner of Main and High + streets. The rear part of this house I believe to have once been the + residence of Dr. Christopher Witt.--(E. C. J.) Photo by J. H. Russ. + +_PAGE 30_ + + George Redles. A remarkable botanist, whose knowledge of our native + and cultivated plants is unsurpassed, and whose modesty is equal to + his acquirements. Photograph by Mrs. George Redles. + +_PAGE 33_ + + Wakefield, a notable historic mansion, whose surrounding grounds + exhibit many of our finest plants. Etching by Joseph Pennell. Penna. + Magazine. + +_PAGE 44_ + + Naglee Houses. Original houses, exhibiting to the present the stone + dwellings of the early settlement. Photograph of “The Philadelphia + Times.” + +_PAGE 48_ + + Weeping Elms. Beautiful specimens shading the entrance to Meehans’ + nurseries. Cut from “Meehans’ Monthly.” + +_PAGE 51_ + + Louis Clapier Baumann, in his day the leading Florist of Germantown, + and the first “wholesale grower of cut flowers” for the Philadelphia + markets. Photograph copy by E. C. J. + +_PAGE 57_ + + Hemlock Glen of the “Monks,” situated on the Wissahickon, above + Kitchen’s Lane. Photograph by E. C. J. From “Meehans’ Monthly.” + +_PAGE 64_ + + Charles J. Wister, who preserves the traditions of “Grumblethorpe,” + and following in the footsteps of an illustrious line, is honored and + beloved wherever known. Photograph by Samuel R. Gray. + +_PAGE 72_ + + Elliston P. Morris, the owner of the “Deshler-Morris” mansion + which President Washington occupied, and the possessor also of + one of the finest gardens in Germantown. Print of “The Germantown + Independent-Gazette.” + +_PAGE 74_ + + R. Robinson Scott, an eminent Germantown horticulturist, and the + discoverer of the famous fern known as “Scott’s Spleenwort.” + Photograph copy by E. C. J. Print of “Fern-Bulletin.” + +_PAGE 78_ + + Thomas Nuttall, a noted naturalist, lecturer and explorer. An + exceedingly rare spleenwort keeps before us his name. From “Botanists + of Philadelphia,” by John W. Harshberger, Ph. D. + +_PAGE 79_ + + “Wyck,” a marvel of quaintness and exquisite beauty. The oldest + house and garden in Germantown, and the richest in intellectual + associations. Photograph by Gilbert Hindermyer. From “Home and + Garden.” + +_PAGE 83_ + + Johnson Homestead, at northwest corner of Main street and Washington + lane, a house renowned in local history, whose garden is its equal in + absorbing interest. Print of “The Germantown Independent-Gazette.” + +_PAGE 88_ + + Cliveden, the centre of the Germantown battle ground, and the home of + many beautiful plants. Print of “The Germantown Independent-Gazette.” + +_PAGE 90_ + + Upsala, celebrated for its stately beauty, and its possessions of + rare and unique plants. Photograph by J. H. Russ. + +_PAGE 94_ + + Joseph Meehan, a noted botanist and horticulturist, whose writings + form an integral part of our best floricultural magazines. Print of + “Floral Exchange.” + +_PAGE 100_ + + Prof. Thomas Meehan, a noted scientist, educator and writer, the + author of the greatest books upon our native flora, and the nestor of + American Horticulture. Print of “Meehans’ Monthly.” + + + + +_GERMANTOWN_ + +_RARE AND NOTABLE PLANTS_ + + +In the presentation and consideration of our home plants of special +interest, it should be kept in mind that nearly all, if not quite all, +were transplanted to the positions they now occupy, and that there is +here no disposition to compare or contrast with other plants of greater +age, of more historic worth, our rare and notable plants of “nature” +and cultivation. + +Our purpose is rather to show that, with our town’s increase in girth +and years, we have had a like advance in intelligence and culture, and +that our old mansions, gardens and those who keep them have earned for +Germantown the title,--“the most beautiful suburb in America.” + +We have no yew trees 3000 years old, no oak trees of 2000 years’ +growth, no “Burnham beeches,” nor have we other plants of great age +equal to those of older countries and especially England, but such as +we have we shall in outline endeavor to present, and direct attention +to the fact that they have merited and received the attention of +visitors, who have had opportunity for observation abroad. About ten +years ago, George Nicholson, curator of the Royal Botanical Gardens of +Kew, London, was the guest of Prof. Thomas Meehan, and spent some time +here. After leaving he said: + +“Germantown is a place which every foreigner interested in American +trees should visit, as the people of this suburb of Philadelphia one +hundred years ago were especially interested in the introduction and +cultivation of rare trees, and the first cultivated specimens of +several American trees were originally planted here, and may still be +seen. The roads of Germantown are shaded with beautiful rows of native +trees, and behind them stretch the green lawns of innumerable villas.” + +John Walter, editor of the London Times, while here expressed similar +views, and many other visitors and writers who passed through +Germantown have left us a record of their “impressions.” + +To name all our worthy plants were a hopeless task, and one which I +shall not attempt. Our efforts shall be rather to trace the thread of +development, and by examples of past and present conspicuous plants to +illustrate its growth. To do this properly we should go back to the +settlement of the town itself, know the causes which gave it birth, +understand the character of its founders and their pursuits--its growth +material and intellectual, before we may be able to meet its merits +with an equal appreciation. + +Alway while walking along our Main street I am reminded of the popular, +well-known thoroughfare of Oxford, England, which it strangely +suggests, and I sometimes wonder if it was not this ancient street, and +not the central highway of Philadelphia, which to our own principal +thoroughfare 150 years ago gave us High street, a name by which it was +long known. Be this as it may, our Main street in a very striking way +resembles its more widely known namesake abroad, a highway Hawthorne +described as “the noblest street in England,” and to which “Wordsworth +devoted a sonnet to the stream-like windings of that glorious street.” + +As I follow our “avenues” pleasing course, I am further reminded of +old Edinburgh’s hallowed hill, and as I picture its steep ascent, +its numerous historic buildings, its atmosphere of antiquity, I see +Sir Walter Scott from his carriage strenuously discoursing upon its +wealth of interests to the delight of his guests and his own apparent +satisfaction, for to him Edinburgh was home, and to so entertain +his friends was “very heaven,” and as I look into the future, I see +our own “cannongate” of not one whit less historic value, by one as +illustrious, made as widely, and as permanently known. + +In olden time it was the custom to approach Germantown only by the +“Great Road,” for indeed for a period there was no other way. The +original survey map of Germantown, dated October 24, 1683, now in the +possession of Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, is void of side roads or +lanes, but this defect immediately after the settlement was remedied, +maps following showing lanes to mills, and later maps showing other +roads connecting Germantown with important near-by pikes east and west. +After Rittenhouse Mill road, and Roberts’ Mill road, one of the most +important of later roads was Bensell’s or School House lane connecting +our Main street with Ridge road, a favorite route with travelers when +the quagmires and quicksands of “3-Mile Run” proved troublesome. + +In a letter dated March 7, 1684, which Francis Daniel Pastorius wrote +his parents, he gave them this information: “As relating to our newly +laid out town Germanopolis or Germantown, it is situated on a deep and +very fertile soil, and is blessed with an abundance of fine springs +and fountains of fresh water. The main street is 60 feet wide, and the +cross streets 40 feet in width. Each family has a plot of ground for +yard and garden 3 acres in size. The air is pure and serene, the summer +is longer and warmer than it is in Germany, and we are cultivating many +kinds of fruits and vegetables, and our labor meets with rich reward.” + +The ground of which Pastorius wrote was not the immigrants’ first +choice, but after a difference with William Penn was selected on +account of its elevation, and also because it was open ground with +only here and there groups of trees. After the survey lines were +established farms and gardens, and of course, houses, were located on +each side of the main road, the farm boundaries extending in parallel +lines from the “great road” east to Bristol township line, now Stenton +avenue, and west to the Roxborough line, now Wissahickon avenue. In +other respects these lines, however, were never strictly drawn, and +places on York road to the east, and Roxborough on the west, were +nearly always referred to as “Germantown.” + +The Main street farm lots began a few feet north of “Lower Burying +Ground,” now Hood’s Cemetery, and were plotted northward in divisions +of “half lots” of 115½ feet front each, or “whole lots” of 231 feet +front each, to a point adjoining “Upper” or “Concord Burying Ground,” +located a few feet north of Kyser’s, now Washington lane. The original +settlers of “42 persons in 12 families” were located upon this road, +for so it had been planned. In “a further account of the Province of +Pennsylvania,” published in 1685, wrote Penn: + +“We do settle in the way of townships or villages, each of which +contains 5000 acres in square, and at least 10 families; many that had +right to more land were at first covetous to have their whole quantity +without regard to this way of settlement, tho’ by such wilderness +vacancies they had ruined the country and then our interest of course. +I had in my view society, assistance, busy commerce, instruction +of youth, government of people, manners, conveniency of religious +assembling, encouragement of mechanics, distinct and beaten roads, +and it has answered in all those respects, I think, to the universal +content.” + +Our first settlers were not tillers of the soil. Pastorius records they +were “mostly linen weavers, unaccustomed to husbandry,” but “yeomen” +closely followed, and soon + + “The meads’ environed with the silver streames” + +were planted, and by a gracious providence stimulated to transmit +to us the increase. William Penn quoting Robert Turner, wrote--“the +manufacturers of linnen by the Germans goes on finely, and they make +fine linnen. Samuel Carpenter, having been lately there, declares they +had gathered one crop of flax, and had sowed for the second and saw it +come up well.” + +This Samuel Carpenter was a busy resident of Philadelphia, and the +holder of 500 acres of ground in the vicinity of present Branchtown. + +Very early in the growth of the new colony the importance of Germantown +was recognized, and although its founders were disappointed, desiring +ground upon a “navigable stream,” they made the best of what they +considered a poor bargain, and losing no time, they, under the +direction of Pastorius, gave life and vigor to the new “town,” planted, +and eight years after the settlement, Oldmixon stated, “the whole +street about one mile in length was lined with blooming peach trees.” +Soon the hastily constructed log cabins gave way to substantial +buildings of stone, and much of the stone, I doubt not, came from +the quarry of Godfried Lehman, located at what is now Main and Price +streets, where the old round-house once stood. Those who remember the +Heivert Papen or Jansen house, built in 1698, and which about 25 years +ago was removed from the northwest corner of Main and Johnson streets, +may picture the houses “built of stone which is mixed with glimmer,” +observed by Peter Kalm in his visit here in 1748. + +About this time the character of Germantown began to change, although +this change did not become pronounced until 50 years later. An influx +of settlers of means and the improved conditions of the natives created +new desires, houses became larger and more elaborate, “plantations” or +“estates” began to take the place of farms, trade stimulated by wealth +became of more importance, and the commingling of commerce and culture +gave to Germantown an atmosphere not enjoyed by those who planted the +settlement. + +With the advent and accumulation of gain came those luxuries which only +wealth and culture are able to accommodate, and the severe simplicity +of those who for conscience sake, left the Fatherland to aid in the +“holy experiment” and found a commonwealth, slowly gave way to an +expanding era of change. + +There were writers of this period who give us other impressions. One of +the most unsympathetic of these was Silas Deane, who in 1775 wrote: + +“Germantown consists of one street built mostly of rough stone, two +miles nearly in length, and the houses resemble the appearance of the +inhabitants, rough children of nature, and German nature too.” This +writer doubtless was an ancestral connection of Lewis Carroll, who, in +“Hunting of the Snark,” wrote, + + “The crew was Dutch, + and behaved as such.” + +But though rather uncomplimentary, Deane’s account is extremely +interesting, and as Townsend Ward reports him, is as follows: + +“The greatest improvement on nature is that on their groves, owing +by no means to luxury, but to penury and want. The growth is red oak +(quercus rubra), interspersed with black walnut (juglans nigra), etc. +The poor are allowed to cut up the brush and trim the lower limbs; this +leaves the groves in the most beautiful order you can imagine. All is +clean on the ground; removing every shrub and bush, leaves the wind +full play to sweep the floor, and the soil, by no means luxuriant, +shooting up the trees rather sparingly, so much grass starts as to +give a pale green carpet; while the trees are trimmed up ten to fifteen +feet on their trunks, and give the eye a prospect far into the grove, +and the footman or horseman free access.” + +As we may readily imagine, the original Germantown settlers were a +busy people, so with the exception of Pastorius, Godfried Lehman, and +a few others, we have little from them, and for our information we are +obliged to depend upon visiting travelers. Ten years before the time of +Deane’s report Major Robert Rogers wrote thus of Philadelphia: + +“In short, scarce anything can afford a more beautiful landscape than +this city and adjacent country, which for some miles may be compared to +a well regulated, flourishing garden, being improved, as I have been +informed, to as great advantage as almost any lands in Europe.” + +In 1799 Duke de la Rochefoucault described Germantown as “a long +village near 2½ miles in extent. The houses to the number of about 300 +are all built on the side of the highway, and are erected pretty close +to each other.” + +Of the planting of the people he wrote: + +“They raise a good deal of wheat, and still more Indian corn, but very +little rye or oats.” + +Rev. John C. Ogden, who visited here in the same year, describes the +village in much the same way, and noted, “the road is muddy and dusty +when rains or droughts prevail. The houses in Germantown are very +universally shaded with weeping willows, the Lombardy poplar, and other +ornamental trees. The gardens are under excellent cultivation, with +valuable fields in their rear.” + +Several visitors of importance we shall pass, for the purpose is merely +to expose the line of continuity to enable us to form a better idea of +the floral life of old Germantown, and with a recollection of Edward H. +Bonsall, who, as Rev. S. F. Hotchkin reports, lived here from 1819 to +1835, we will turn aside into another path. Evidently the last-named +was a poor observer, for he said, “in a circle of six miles with Chew’s +house as a centre outside of Main street, there would not have been +found 5 houses superior to an ordinary farm house,” a statement so +absurd as to require no consideration. + +This brings us to days which Robert Thomas and Joseph Murter, venerable +residents living with us, remember, and we shall now endeavor to follow +the development of our many fine estates enriched by mansions, gardens, +rare shrubs and notable trees, and with these note as much as we +possess or remember of data and lore as may give promise of interest. + +To me it is extremely interesting that original holdings are yet +held by families whose ancestors first occupied them, and I doubt if +there be another settlement in America where uninterruptedly so many +generations have occupied the same ground. Names which come readily +to mind are Pastorius, Logan, Rittenhouse, Johnson, Keyser, and a +group of other names of early settlers represented by the Wisters. Yet +we have with us “Wyck,” its original house built by Hans Millan its +original settler, standing surrounded by its original garden, and its +occupant and owner, Miss Jane R. Haines, a direct descendant of its +first owner--a house whose only local competitor for age with the +possible exceptions of Rock-House, and Naglee’s Houses, is the “Fraley +House,” clearly of later construction, which stands in what was once +Dr. Christopher Witt’s garden, later Miss Elizabeth C. Morris’ garden, +situated at the southeast corner of Main and High streets, a building +which may be seen to the rear of Mrs. Farnum’s charming latticed +residence. + +Local history, to me at least, is alway alluring, and it is with +difficulty that I hew to the proper line, the temptation being to +venture a little more. But we shall leave Dr. Witt and these pleasant +shades to follow in the footsteps of others perhaps less well known. + +[Illustration: Morris Littell House] + +By an unwritten law, observed from the days of Godfried Lehman to those +of Charles F. Jenkins, our latest guide, Germantown has been approached +from the south by way of Main street, and a custom so honored I hope +not to be the first to disturb. Many of us, indeed most of us, I think, +are able to recall Germantown village of 2½ miles or more, when the +large buttonwood tree (platanus occidentalis) at Naglee’s house +stood entire, shading on late afternoons “Turnpike Bridge” near; when +horse-cars, ignoring schedule, halted at the temporarily deserted tree +at the fork, in waiting for “Jake,” who was somewhere out of sight +northward on the hill, and no more in a hurry than those in the car, +who looked upon as an unwarranted innovation a noisy train which passed +to disturb their restful meditations; when laden wagons unfortunate +jumped the track, seriously interfering with suburban traffic; when +on “market days” long lines of wagons laden with hay, straw and other +commodities numerous, twice a week struggled through and oft-times +blocked the busy road. Time was, and that not long ago, when Charles +J. Wister, the well-known beloved father of Grumblethorpe’s present +owner, under the shade of his street trees, dined upon the sidewalk, +with none to wonder nor molest; and Conestogas with other vehicles +numerous, which James Stokes records, passed and re-passed as naturally +as present day trolleys, to whose inveterate clash and bang we have +become accustomed. Those were the days when gardening was a pleasure +if not an “art,” and the planting of the good old plain gardeners, who +never dreamed their calling would be elevated to a “science,” is before +us to judge. + +At the house of Isaac Norris, until a generation ago standing on +Germantown road, near Tenth street, and widely known as “Fairhill,” +was one of the finest gardens in the colonies. This garden was of the +formal type, and “Francis Daniel Pastorius, of Germantown, himself a +man of taste, pronounced Fair-hill garden the finest he had seen in +the whole country,”--so wrote Thompson Westcott in “Historic Mansions” +of Philadelphia, and this same writer continues: “Some of the trees +and plants came from France. There were catalpas from the Southern +States, and it was here were grown the first willow trees (salix alba) +in Pennsylvania, the introduction of which is told by Franklin in his +account of noticing the sprouting of a willow which had been used in +a basket which he saw on board a ship which came to a wharf on the +Delaware. Franklin took the sprout, and presented it to Debby Norris, +who planted it, where it became the parent of many trees of the same +species which have since become so common.” + +There are many white willow trees about Germantown, two fine specimens +each with trunks 4 feet in diameter by 70 feet in height, being located +on East Coulter street, corner of Cumberland street; but nearly all +our best weeping willows (salix babylonica) have disappeared. Now no +vestige remains of the rows of willows which lined both sides of Church +lane, east of Willow avenue, notable trees which Thomas MacKellar +described for Rev. S. F. Hotchkin. Under one of these trees, which +stood prominently in the middle of the road, tradition says General +Washington was accustomed to spend an evening hour in its shade. There +yet remains to us, however, interesting willows near the entrance to +Vernon, at Wyck, and several large and beautiful specimens are on the +estate of Charles Weiss, East Washington lane, near Stenton avenue. + +As you may remember, the weeping willow is a native of China, and by +the Dutch was introduced to Holland. By these same people it was also +introduced to England, one of the first specimens in that country +being planted at Hampton Court. + +Advancing northward by way of York road, we note on the grounds of J. +Bertram Lippincott a fine white oak (quercus alba) with a trunk four +feet in diameter and rising to a height of 80 feet. Here also is a +specially fine white pine (pinus strobus), but there is hardly a place +of importance in or near Germantown where there are not conspicuous, +if not great, white pine trees. It is a characteristic of a white pine +that it dominates wherever it is, and a plant which at a distance +appears to be of great proportions, near is found to be disappointingly +ordinary. + +From “Solitude,” located east of York road, south of Fisher’s lane, +the best plants have disappeared. There yet, however, is a catalpa +(catalpa bignonioides), having a trunk three feet in diameter and a +height of forty feet; a chestnut (castanea vesca), with a trunk of five +feet in diameter and a height of 70 feet; a tulip poplar (liriodendron +tulipifera), 4 feet in diameter and 100 feet in height; and a finely +proportioned walnut (juglans nigra), 3 feet in diameter and 80 feet +high. + +These trees are surpassed by others elsewhere, the walnut in particular +being excelled by like trees on Morton street near High street, on +Main street above Tulpehocken street, at Nutwold on East Johnson +street,--all superior plants, and by a wide branching tree of the same +species overspreading a spring-house on the grounds of Frank Smyth, +Washington lane, east of Chew street, a specimen 6 feet in diameter and +90 feet high, I think by all odds the finest in Germantown. + +On Fisher’s lane east of York road is an exceedingly fine white poplar +(populus alba), having a trunk 48 inches in diameter and a height of 80 +feet; and farther east on the same lane, with its lands bordering those +of “York Farm,”--the last American home of Fanny Kemble,--is Champlost, +a beautiful estate occupied by Miss Fox, where grow some of our finest +plants,--but it being situated beyond our proper limits, we shall with +this mention pass it, to stop at a worthy neighbor. + +Bordering York road, above Logan Station, is “Clearfield,” now +“Fairfield,” a plantation which Henry Drinker purchased in 1794, +and so named because “James Fisher has a place that has been called +‘Newington’ for many years, ’twas thought best to change the name,” +wrote Elizabeth Drinker in her entertaining “journal.” + +This plantation or farm was held for two years by the Drinkers, its +mistress delighting in its occupation and rewards, recording its +cherries ripe May 17; describing an odd tulip (tulipa gesneriana), +which grew in its garden, a plant “with 8 leaves, which I look upon as +a curiosity, never having seen one before with more than 6 leaves,” and +continuing she noted, “a very beautiful place it is, how delighted and +pleased would many women be with such a retreat.” + +The beauty of Clearfield was appreciated by successive owners and +care was taken for its preservation. Although a railroad has cut the +place in sections, and its collections are depleted, it yet preserves +sufficient of merit to attract the most superficial plant observer. +Here at the old mile-stone--“2 M. to R. S., 4 M. to P.”--surrounded +by high trees and ivy-covered, is its secluded mansion, which one +approaches by box (buxus sempervirens) bordered walks, winding +between borders of heavy shrubbery, and about are several conspicuous +hemlock (tsuga canadensis), beech (fagus ferruginea), and button-ball +(plantanus occidentalis) trees. + +Near the upper entrance gate is a white pine, and beside the house a +Norway spruce (picea excelsa), both of strange development, and as odd +as any of the grotesque growths I have seen at Wildwood, N. J., and +elsewhere on the Atlantic coast. + +Here also is a curious Austrian pine (pinus Austriaca), with a +depressed crown; an unusually fine specimen of Himalayan pine (pinus +excelsa), 50 feet in height, second only to pines of the same species +at William Rotch Wister’s, Wisteria avenue; at Justus Strawbridge’s, +School House lane and Wissahickon avenue, and at Caspar Heft’s, Main +street, near Manheim street, the latter a specimen which George Redles +considers the best in our territory. + +[Illustration: George Redles] + +At “Fairfield” is a fine specimen of rare Japan cedar or cryptomeria +(cryptomeria japonica), the acknowledged “queen of evergreens,” 25 +feet in height; also a fine white oak (quercus alba), 80 feet in +height; a white or silver birch (betula alba), 40 feet in height, the +latter a fine plant, but not equal to specimens at Fern-hill and at +E. W. Clark’s, Wissahickon avenue and School House lane. Also here, +as reported by Philip C. Garrett, the present occupant of Fairfield, +for Mrs. Anne DeB. Mears--“over the upper spring-house is an ancient +and famous catalpa tree pictured in the horticultural journals, which +still bears its beautiful crop of blossoms every year,” a tree yet +vigorous, and near the mansion, between it and the road, is a fine +cedar of Lebanon (cedrus libani), 50 feet in height. All these plants +are prominent, and may be plainly seen from the road. + +“Stenton,” once extending from Fisher’s lane to Nicetown lane, from +Germantown road to York road, and situated from “Fairfield” to the +west, has been shorn of much of its wealth. A. J. Downing, who visited +it, thus describes it in “Landscape Gardening” of 1849: “Stenton, +near Germantown, four miles from Philadelphia, is a fine old place, +with many picturesque features. The farm consists of 700 acres, almost +without division fences--admirably arranged--and remarkable for a grand +old avenue of the hemlock spruce (abies canadensis), 110 years old, +leading to a family cemetery of much sylvan beauty.” + +This same “splendid avenue of hemlocks,” described later by Townsend +Ward, is no more, and of interest at Stenton now is but a tulip +poplar, a large plane tree (platanus occidentalis), a few persimmon +trees (diospyrus virginiana) and a row of Lombardy poplars (populus +dilatata), plants surpassed by many with us, and by two plants of +exceptional merit, one a wide-spreading black walnut (juglans nigra), +appearing to the south of the mansion, and the other a notable elm +(ulmus Americana), having a trunk 4 feet in diameter and a top +spreading at a height of 120 feet, a plant which on part of Stenton +grounds disposed of, may now be seen in the yard of Dr. William +H. Hickok, northeast corner of Eighteenth and Cayuga streets, a +magnificent specimen said to have been mature in the days of James +Logan and William Penn. + +Near-by and north of Stenton is “The Cedars,” a green grove wherein +Professor Stewardson Brown long dwelt, and where this gentleman +informed me is a fine specimen of swamp magnolia (magnolia glauca), two +rare yellow-flowering magnolias (magnolia fraseri), a lemon-scented +variety of great beauty, by many considered our finest magnolia, and a +small tree of the always rare cedar of Lebanon. Here also are several +fine specimens of swamp cypress (taxodium distichium), familiarly known +about Philadelphia as Bartram’s cypress. + +Without exception, the finest grove of trees in Germantown is that +in the midst of which “Wakefield,” a near neighbor of Stenton and +Fairfield, is situated--a grove composed of immense juniper (juniperus +virginiana), chestnut (castanea Americana), white oak (quercus alba), +red oak (quercus rubra), and tulip poplar (liriodendron tulipifera) +trees. Here is a green-flowering cucumber tree (magnolia acuminata), +perfectly proportioned, having a trunk 2 feet in diameter and a +height of 30 feet. Also here on the front lawn is a tulip poplar, +measured by John Warr and George Redles, a tree 5 feet in diameter, +ivy-covered from the ground to its first limb at 40 feet, and rising to +a height of 130 feet, a noble specimen equal to celebrated relatives +growing on the Virginian mountains, where the species is said to attain +its greatest development; truly a tree, especially when in bloom, +deserving Benjamin Franklin’s designation--“King of the American +forests.” + +[Illustration: Wakefield] + +Passing for the present “Little Wakefield,” we halt in lower Fisher’s +lane to note a most interesting white oak (quercus alba), long familiar +to me, but which I overlooked until directed again to it by George +Redles. This is a rugged tree 4 feet in diameter and 60 feet high, +perfectly formed, and growing on the top of a rock it has cleft in +twain. + +William E. S. Baker, in “Widow Seymour,” accurately locates this tree +“between the Wakefield mills in Fisher’s Hollow, close by the bank of +the Wingohocken creek, and at the curve of the lane.” “The immense +flat-rock” which supports this tree is also associated with “Widow +Seymour,” and those of a poetic temperament may here find much of +interest. Advancing to the elevation at Stenton avenue and Fisher’s +lane, we find before us at Mrs. M. H. Stiver’s two of our finest trees, +one a white oak, the other a red oak, each 4 feet in diameter and 80 +feet high; both plants perfectly shaped, and with huge wide-spreading +limbs, covering an area equal to their height. + +Other fine specimens of oak we have are a group of three fine white +oaks at Old Oaks Cemetery on Wissahickon avenue; a red oak at Stewart +A. Jellett’s “One Oak,” Pulaski avenue, near Apsley street; a beautiful +tree on the grounds of Francis B. Reeves, Clapier street and McKean +avenue; our most striking and picturesque oak at Judge F. Carroll +Brewster’s, Manheim street, near Wissahickon avenue; a great white +oak at Ivy Hill Cemetery, near Pennsylvania Railroad, a single finely +developed specimen 5 feet in diameter and 100 feet high; and if not +the largest, one of the finest, and certainly our most interesting oak +planted by John Wister in 1803, and now adorning Vernon Park. + +There are several fine trees on Fisher’s lane, but we shall now stop +only at T. Charlton Henry’s place, where Alexander Lawson was long +gardener, to record a century plant (agave Americana), which here +bloomed a few years ago. + +Retracing our steps through Wister’s woods, we pass a declivity on +which once grew a celebrated memorial beech. This tree stood to the +north of Fisher’s lane and Wakefield street, and through age and abuse +came to its end in the year 1870. The Germantown Telegraph, January +29 of the named year, gave an account of this venerable and venerated +tree. Near the earth its trunk was 3 feet in diameter, and “many very +ancient scars and markings were on its surface, and among them within +an escutcheon, deeply engraved and quite legible, were the initials D. +L. W., 1771,” cut there by Daniel and Lowry Wister. It is a pleasure to +note that this interesting work has been preserved, and is now among +the treasures of “Grumblethorpe.” + +Continuing through Wister’s wood, a place where its late owner loved +to roam, we note near the upper spring an odd twin growth, to which +Charles T. Macarthur, superintendent of the Germantown Gas Works near +by, directed my attention. Here are two trees, one a red oak and the +other a tulip poplar, which for several feet together grow as one, +resembling a unity of two species, I discovered growing on Dark Run +lane, near the Asylum pike, some years ago. + +Following the Wingohocken Valley southward we round the point to “Mill” +or “Valley creek,” and on our left find “Little Wakefield,” the home of +Ellicott Fisher, where a number of chestnut, butternut and tulip poplar +trees of fair proportions may be observed, but not any of which are +equal to the lofty vigorous specimens appearing on “Wakefield’s” bank +to the right, where sturdy oaks, not observable from the front, here +impressively stand. “Belfield Homestead, with its famous coffee tree +and lovely boulevard of maples,” now appears before us a perfect haven +of rest, its most prominent plants thus referred to by W. E. S. Baker, +standing conspicuous above a bordering wealth of vegetation. + +From the valley we turn into Thorp’s lane, once a gem of rural beauty, +but now sadly changed, to view a beautiful avenue of silver maples +(acer dasycarpum) extending from the main entrance to the mansion where +Fanny Kemble wrote “My children were born, by first and only American +home.” In “Records of Later Life” the same gifted author, under date of +1837, notes: “The other day, for the first time, I explored my small +future domain, which is bounded on the right by the high road, on the +left by a not unromantic little mill-stream with bits of rock, and +cedar bushes, and dams, and, I am sorry to say, a very picturesque, +half-tumbled-down factory; on the north by fields and orchards of our +neighbors, and another road; and on the south by a pretty, deep, shady +lane, running from the high road to the above-mentioned factory. There +are four pretty pasture meadows, and a very pretty piece of woodland, +which coasting the stream and mill-dam, will, I foresee, become a +favorite haunt of mine.” + +“The Farm” or “Butler Place” yet contains many notable plants, though +the “row of old acacia trees near the house” was removed, and “a +double row of 200 trees planted along the side of the place” show +wear. The latter, however, is of great interest to us, for in spite of +an acknowledged “combined ignorance” a majority of these plants have +lived, and from “York Farm” in 1874 Fanny Kemble wrote: “The trees I +planted along the low enclosure hedge of Butler Place, 30 years ago, +stretch their branches and throw their shadows half over the road which +divides the places.” + +Though exceedingly pleasurable, we may not linger here too long, and +to all interested in Germantown and its associations, I suggest the +reading of “Records of Later Life” and “Further Records,” both books of +great interest, and mainly produced at “Butler Place” and “York Farm.” + +There are many avenues of silver maples (acer dasycarpum) worthy of +record with us, among them being one in Town Hall Park, another at the +Pulaski avenue approach to “Fern-hill,” and also that leading to the +Pinckney homestead, where Judge William D. Kelly once lived. + +Other striking maple-lined avenues may be seen at Justus C. +Strawbridge’s, School House lane and Wissahickon avenue; at Samuel +Welsh’s, West School House lane, both of great beauty; also that of +Garrett’s Hill on our main street, with others numerous; and on Norwood +avenue, extending from Chestnut avenue to Sunset avenue, Chestnut Hill, +is one beyond compare. At Butler Place the hemlock (tsuga canadensis) +hedge continues of more than ordinary merit, but it is surpassed by a +notable hedge of the same species at Thomas P. Galvin’s grounds, West +Walnut lane, and by the remarkable hedges of “Fern-hill.” Other plants +at Butler Place worthy of notice are a black walnut and a coffee tree, +both of immense size and majestic proportions. Distributed throughout +our territory are many large and beautiful coffee trees (gymnoclaudus +canadensis). One of these may be seen at Dr. I. Pearson Willit’s, +on West Walnut lane; another holds its place in Vernon Park; and a +specially fine specimen stands before the Welsh mansion at Spring-Bank. + +At Dr. George De Benneville’s “Silver Pine Farm” is a group of white +pine (pinus strobus), which if not the largest is at least the most +imposing one among us. These trees are nine in number, are about two +feet in diameter trunk, rise to a height of from 80 to 100 feet, and +their shattered arms are familiar to every frequenter of Branchtown by +way of Green lane or York road. As these trees gave name to the place, +so we may refer to a farm house-like structure which once stood where +Masonic Hall now stands on Main street near St. Luke’s Church, a house +in 1832 the home of Bronson Alcott, and the birthplace of Louisa M. +Alcott--which from a group of trees before it, became known as “Silver +Pine Cottage.” + +In this same cottage, while rector of St. Luke’s Church, Rev. B. Wistar +Morris also dwelt, and this in a measure may account for his love of +“Oregon pines,” though his old-time neighbors say he was elected bishop +for quite another reason. + +Conspicuous specimens of white pine, in some respects our most +impressive tree, may be seen at Loudoun, at Toland’s, at Henry’s, +all near Naglee’s Hill; at Fern-hill, at George Blight’s and Dr. +James Gardette’s on Wissahickon avenue; at Manheim, where there is a +beautiful tree three feet in diameter and 90 feet high; at Carlton on +Indian Queen lane; at Armstrong’s on Duy’s lane, and at almost every +place on School House lane from John Alburger’s, near Greene street, +to William Weightman’s, near the “Falls;” at Jacob A. Datz’s, Stenton +avenue and Mill street, and at Alfred Williams’, near by; at Old +School, County line and Limekiln pike; at Vollmer’s, Washington lane; +at Upsala and Lutheran Seminary--indeed, so many and so generally +distributed are these beautiful plants that it is needless to further +enumerate. + +At Butler Place is an odd white pine, which curiously at a height of 40 +feet had its terminal bud destroyed, the result being the development +of a trinity of side buds. In like manner there is also a remarkable +specimen at Philip Guckes’ on West School House lane, a tree 2½ feet in +diameter by 70 feet high. This tree’s terminal bud at 40 feet elevation +having been destroyed, two side shoots were developed, which each +sturdily rose to an additional height of 30 feet. + +Without exception, the finest and most perfect white pine in our +district is a plant growing on a knoll on “Perot’s Farm,” now Northwood +Cemetery. This tree has a trunk 2½ feet in diameter, rises to a height +of 70 feet, has a spread of 40 feet, and is vigorous, perfect and very +beautiful. + +At “Outalauna,” the residence of Joseph Wharton, is an exceedingly fine +silver poplar (populus alba), and near at “Bonnenal Cottage,” the home +of Mrs. Anne de Benneville Mears, are two immense buttonwood trees +(platanus occidentalis) with trunks 4 feet in diameter, each with a +height of 100 feet, and 40 feet spread. In “Old York Road,” Mrs. Mears, +writing of “Bonnenal Cottage,” states “it was surrounded by a fine lawn +and in front still stands one of the sycamore trees whose age is over +300 years, and its companion was planted by Dr. George De Benneville, +Sr., in 1768.” + +With us continue many notable buttonwood trees, although all our home +trees are inferior to specimens growing in more favorable locations. +In Case’s Botanical Index, Page 46, there was recorded in 1880 a +buttonwood tree growing in Greene county, Indiana, having a trunk +16 feet in diameter, and which rose with a clear trunk 25 feet, the +altitude reached being 160 feet, and plane trees much greater than this +are known. + +It would be futile to name all our worthy specimens, so I shall +without mention pass many to locate a few which more directly appeal +to us. We all may remember the buttonwood tree within the gate to our +“Earthly Paradise,” and whose denuded trunk stands to remind us of +days when settlers first took up ground on “side land lots.” Here with +an additional story of recent growth is Naglee’s house, where James +Logan for a season dwelt, a building like the “Rock House,” a venerable +survivor and typical representative of the stone houses of early +Germantown. + +[Illustration: Naglee Houses] + +Recently we have lost one of two well-known sycamore trees at Wagner’s, +and the tree continuing is but a reminder of its former greatness. +Another interesting specimen on Main street is that on the grounds +of William Heft, a tree 5½ feet in diameter and 80 feet high, one of +the trees which changed the name of a public house once here from +“Ye Roebuck Inn” to “Buttonwood Hotel.” Though often so asserted by +over-zealous loyalists, these trees were not planted “by Philadelphia’s +first mayor,” but by Andrew Garret, who carried them from the banks of +the Schuylkill, and here set them in place, as “The Guide” some years +ago instructed us. Andrew Garret may be remembered as an eccentric +character, who during the latter part of the eighteenth century had a +dwelling on Indian Queen lane, near the “Falls.” Here he lived alone, +and by robbers was one night foully murdered, a sufficient warning, let +us hope, to all of like preferment. + +Other interesting buttonwood trees are located at the pump on Manheim +street, where there is a specimen 4 feet in diameter by 80 feet high; +at Manheim, near the club house, where is an odd-shaped specimen with +a short trunk 4 feet in diameter, and awkwardly branching limbs rising +to a height of 100 feet; at Friends’ grounds on Main street, where is +a rare tree 4 feet in diameter by 60 feet high, and another specimen +at Market Square, now only of interest because it was planted by +Samuel B. Morris; at Dr. Ashton’s on West School House lane, where +there is a majestic tree, and several others worthy a visit are in this +immediate neighborhood. Rare specimens may also be seen at spring-house +on Cresheim road, above Allen’s lane; at William Dewees spring-house at +the bend in the upper Wissahickon, where grow two fine specimens; at +“Spring Bank,” the residence of John Welsh, where is a perfect plant, +4 feet in diameter and 100 feet high; and two trees in Wissahickon +avenue, near “Fern-hill” entrance, one 6 feet in diameter, 100 feet +rise, with a spread of 80 feet, and the other about its equal, are the +finest plane trees we have. + +At National Cemetery, Haines street and Limekiln pike, are many +beautiful trees, though but few of unusual size or rarity. Here are +fair specimens of ginko (salisburia adiantifolia), but not equal to +the ginkos of Edward Hacker, Wister street; Charles J. Wister, Main +street; Lloyd Mifflin, Penn street; Benjamin H. Shoemaker, Mill street; +and that of Alfred C. Harrison, at Thorpe’s lane, Chestnut Hill. Larch +(larix Americana), but surpassed by the larch of David Pancoast at +High and Baynton streets, by that of “Fairfield,” of “Upsala,” and +several others. Silver birch and other trees of superior merit are +here, and also here is a fine white pine, while in sight is a number +of specimens of the same species at Middleton’s on Limekiln pike. +Among the best plants at National Cemetery is an arbor vitae (thuja +occidentalis) group of 12 feet in diameter spread and a 30-feet height, +and an exceedingly fine specimen of retinospora plumosa. + +At one time there were several fine trees on Christopher Ludwig’s +farm, Haines street, near Chew street, but the best of these have +disappeared, and there now remains but mediocre plane and walnut trees +to halt us at the house of Washington’s doughty baker general, who +spent here several years of his honest life, and who from his “labors” +rests in St. Michael’s Lutheran Churchyard. Opposite “Ludwig Farm” +is “Awbury,” containing the homes of John S. Haines, Thomas P. Cope, +Francis R. Cope and other members of well-known families of like name, +where are many rare and beautiful plants. From “High Street Station” +which was, there extended to the Cope houses a rustic walk shaded by +a double row of silver maples, and this shortened continues to remind +one of the celebrated “walks” of Addison at Oxford and Milton at +Cambridge. Shielding Haines street, east of Chew street, is a row of +specially fine scarlet maple (acer rubrum) trees now in bloom, and at +“John Haines’ gate” grow two fine elm trees, each having a trunk 2½ +feet in diameter, a height of 60 feet and a spread of 80 feet, entirely +covering the entrance to this most inviting place. + +With us are several fine elm trees (ulmus Americana), one being on the +grounds of Charles Edward Pancoast, East Johnson street; another is in +the “Concord graveyard,” and two very beautiful weeping elms of the +Galena type on Chew street, opposite Church street, shade the entrance +to Meehans’ nurseries. + +[Illustration: Weeping Elms] + +At one time several of our largest trees were to be found at Old Oaks +Cemetery, grounds once a part of John Tucker’s “plantation.” This +burying ground was located on Township Line road, and extended from +near the toll-gate at McKean’s hill to the railroad, south. Here was a +number of immense chestnut trees, but the finest have been destroyed. +Our best, however, did not class with trees elsewhere. At Hereford, +Bucks county, Pa., there is, or was, standing on the farm of James +Schlegel a chestnut tree 8¾ feet in diameter, 90 feet high, and said +to be 200 years old. At James A. Wright’s place on Township Line road, +near Clapier street, is an imposing grove of great chestnut, silver +maple and oak trees; at “Carlton,” Indian Queen lane, is a number of +chestnut trees of immense girth, but of no great height, storm riven +and impressive; but perhaps our largest chestnut trees are located +on the grounds of Thomas P. C. Stokes and Dr. George Strawbridge, +Wissahickon avenue, near Frank street. + +“Fernhill,” which from “Old Oaks” appears on an elevation before us, +is slowly but surely losing its choicest plants, and during a recent +visit there with George Redles, John F. Sibson, its efficient manager, +attributed its losses to noxious gases proceeding from the steel works +near by. Here, in addition to plants previously noted, are superior +specimens of barberry (berberis vulgaris), weeping dog-wood (cornus +F. variety pendula), common beech (fagus ferruginea), a fine specimen +of Virginian fringe tree (chionanthus Virginica), and a larch of +perfect proportions, 2 feet in diameter and 40 feet high. To compare +with these, along Wingohocken creek, immediately north of the “Rocky +Mountains” in Meehans’ nurseries, is a grove of fringe trees very +beautiful when in flower, and at Manheim there is a magnificent larch, +2 feet in diameter of trunk, rising to a height of 80 feet. + +The finest larch in Germantown once stood on the grounds of Hugh +McLean, corner of Carpenter lane and Cresheim road, but this great tree +a few years ago unfortunately met its fate. + +At Thomas Jones’, Manheim street and Wissahickon avenue, is a holly +(ilex opaca) 15 feet high, with a spread of 15 feet, a beautiful +specimen, but equaled by two notable plants at Vernon, and surpassed by +Wister Price’s specimen on Manheim grounds, a tree having a trunk 1½ +feet in diameter, 25 feet high, with a branch spread of 20 feet. Here +also is a rare virgilia, the first, and once the finest specimen in +cultivation,--a tree now showing the ravages of old age, but none the +less interesting. A virgilia younger (cladrastis tinctoria), vigorous +and beautiful, overhangs the gate of “Grumblethorpe,” Main street, +opposite Queen street, and is the best of its species I know in our +territory. + +The charms of “Caernarvon” have flown, but Manheim possesses a beauty +of its own, one of its many attractions being the finest group of +rhododendrons (rhododendron maximum) in Germantown. The neighborhood of +Manheim to me is of great interest, but we may not stop to consider its +historic associations nor to refer to all its plants worthy of notice. + +By far the finest silver maple in Germantown stood on the grounds of +Louis Clapier Baumann, at corner of Manheim and Henry streets. This +fine tree some years ago I measured, and when it was felled to make +way for improvements these measurements were verified by John Holt. +The tree was perfect in every particular, of commanding height, and +was a notable landmark of Manheim street. An account of this plant +I prepared for “Forest Leaves,” of June, 1897, wherein it is described +as being 138 feet in height. At half its altitude it had a spread of 35 +feet on every side of the main trunk, and at 1 foot above the ground +the trunk was 4⅓ feet in diameter. + +[Illustration: L. C. Baumann] + +We have many fine specimens of silver maple continuing, and one of the +finest stands on Cresheim road, near Gorgas street. Another appears to +the rear of Dr. John D. Godman’s house, Main street, opposite Pastorius +street. Another, and a very striking one, stands at the corner of West +Walnut lane and Adams street, but this tree a few years ago was visited +by marauders and now it is but a relic of its former greatness. At “The +Corvy,” the residence of William Wynne Wister, there are several silver +maples, not specially great, but of interest because they are directly +on Main street and shade Gilbert Stuart’s house. + +It is recorded that Jacques Marie Roset, who lived on the upper side +of Manheim street, adjoining James R. Gates’ lumber yard, and not at +“Spring Alley,” as has oft been reported, had a beautiful garden, +the products of which it is said he loved to distribute, one of +his recipients being Fanny Kemble, who from her home on York road +frequently passed this way on driving trips, a recreation she always +loved. It is also recorded that Roset first introduced tomatoes to +Germantown, but this does not appear to be correct, for the credit +belongs, I think, to E. B. Gardette, whose place on Wissahickon avenue, +opposite Manheim street, is marked by three notable pine trees rising +to a height of 80 feet. + +This gentleman came to America during the Revolutionary period, and it +is said his gardener first grew the tomato (lycopersicum esculentum), +or love apple, for the color of its fruit. Melons or canteloupes were +also first raised here, it has been stated, but this I have never been +able to verify, “for the seed of the canteloupe was brought to this +country from Tripoli, and distributed by Commodore James Barron,” so I +give the credit for what it is worth. + +This, however, I know, Philip R. Freas, a neighbor of Commodore Barron, +had a canteloupe patch which the “brickyard” boys well knew, and about +it I doubt not Philip Walters, and George Redles--who having reached +years of discrimination, has now no need to ask if it be “true that +horses when old never lie down”--can tell you more than I. + +Baumann’s great maple grew on ground which once belonged to “White +Cottage,” an estate at one time owned by the Logans. Here lived Dr. +Samuel Betton, who was succeeded by his son, Dr. Thomas Forrest Betton, +the friend of Rafinesque, and here under Samuel Betton, its present +occupant and owner, William Kulp, well known to many of us, has been +many years gardener. Recent changes have robbed “White Cottage” of +its seclusion, but with it yet continue many beautiful ivy-dressed +trees, which spread their branches over the grounds, in season almost +shielding the house from view. + +Near General Wayne Hotel, on Manheim street, is a specially fine +ailanthus (ailanthus glandulosus) 2½ feet in diameter of trunk, +with a height of 50 feet, and at the Keyser-Rodney House, Main and +Duval streets, and on Garrett’s Hill, opposite Lovett Library are +conspicuous superior specimens. Also on Manheim street, near Main +street, is a honey-locust tree (gleditschia triacanthos) with a trunk +3 feet in diameter by 80 feet high, and larger and finer specimens +are on Pulaski avenue, near Seymour street, and in front of Michael +Schlatter’s stone house, Main street, near where the road turns off for +“Wheel Pump,” Chestnut Hill. + +At “Carlton” is a magnificent beech (fagus ferruginea) 3 feet in +diameter of trunk, with a height of 60 feet and a spread of 40 feet, +the finest specimen I know in our territory. We have many fine +beeches, one being at “Awbury,” and another at Miss Nixon’s, on East +Tulpehocken street. There are also exceedingly fine specimens at George +L. Harrison’s, on West School House lane; at William Heft’s, on Main +street; at “Fernhill,” and at places elsewhere, too many to name. + +By George Redles my attention was directed to a large dogwood (cornus +Florida) growing near Queen Lane basin, and there true to life, between +the basin and Midvale avenue, may be seen a notable specimen 1½ feet in +diameter by 20 feet high, with a spread of 20 feet, and here are two +sassafras trees (sassafras officinalis) 2 feet in diameter by 40 feet +high, both notable plants, one, however, surpassing the other in form. +These are remarkable plants, and stand on historic ground, once part of +“Carlton.” + +Here the army of Washington was encamped, and here during an encampment +of the Civil War Joseph Meehan, botanist and horticulturist, active +among us, first did “picket duty.” Here also is a tulip poplar, 4 +feet in diameter and 100 feet high, not equal to Wakefield’s notable +specimen, but yet a plant of great merit. + +We have many superior tulip poplars, one being at “Woodside,” Edward +T. Steel’s residence on West School House lane, 4 feet in diameter and +100 feet high; another on John Wagner’s grounds on the same lane being +5 feet in diameter and 60 feet high. There are also several fine tulip +poplars at Thomas MacKellar’s, on Shoemaker’s lane, but the finest +specimen here, like the Blair linden at Main street and Walnut lane, +has been despoiled. + +At “Torworth,” the residence of Justus C. Strawbridge, and also at +“Blathewood,” Joseph S. Lovering’s place adjoining, we have very +fine specimens of hemlock (tsuga canadensis), as indeed we have in +many parts of Germantown, but our finest hemlock trees are in the +Wissahickon, where almost the entire southern bank of its romantic +stream is fringed by this refreshing tree, and wherein are groups or +groves above Kitchen’s or Garsed’s lane, above Allen’s lane, at Devil’s +Pool, beside Megargee’s dam, and near Rex avenue, plants ranging from +1½ to 2 feet in diameter and from 60 to 80 feet in height. Also near +Rex avenue bridge is a specimen hemlock of graceful proportions, having +a trunk 2½ feet in diameter and rising to a height of 100 feet. + +Among our most interesting plants are the native “Jersey pines,” which +appear sparingly about Germantown. With us are two varieties, that +on School House lane, opposite Gypsy lane, and others in the same +neighborhood extending to the mouth of the Wissahickon, are technically +known as pinus inops. + +[Illustration: Hemlock Glen] + +At Walnut lane and Wissahickon avenue is a specimen of pinus rigida +one foot in diameter and 30 feet high. At James A. Mason’s, near +Upsal Station, is a group of pinus inops. At Thomas’ Mill road on the +Wissahickon, and eastward on the same road in the open above Towanda +street, are from one to two hundred pinus rigida, interesting survivors +of a flora supplanted. On Stenton avenue, near Bethesda Home, we have +an isolated group of pinus inops, and at County Line road and Limekiln +pike, also on Mt. Airy avenue near Main street are solitary specimens +of the same species. + +The Wissahickon is covered by numerous valuable plants, but of these +a majority is too densely crowded to develop to the best advantage. +Several years ago Thomas Meehan in Meehans’ Monthly, asked for data of +sassafras trees, the text-books and general information agreeing that +the average height of mature specimens of this plant to be 30 feet. +At “Solitude” and at the “Indian Mound,” on E. W. Clark’s grounds, +School House lane, there are specimens rising to a greater than this +height, and at Tulpehocken and Musgrave streets were twin specimens, +one now surviving, exceeding this height, and finely formed. Near the +“Suicide’s Grave,” north of Rabbit lane, George Redles informed me +there is a specially fine specimen. In the Wissahickon, near Thorp’s +lane, I measured a slender specimen 80 feet in height, but the finest +plants of this species I know were those measured for me by Joseph +Heacock, two plants growing near Media, each three feet in diameter and +80 feet high. + +About home we have numerous and exceedingly fine specimens of +juniper (juniperus virginiana). Almost wherever one goes these may +be observed--along the borders of Wissahickon, at “Bummers’ Cave” on +Stenton avenue, on Chew street north of Johnson street, a place known +to Ellwood Johnson as “Vinegar Hill,” and at Tulpehocken street and +Wingohocken creek. This latter tree has a trunk 3 feet in diameter and +is 35 feet high. A short time ago it was a healthy, beautiful specimen, +but now it is partly or wholly dead, a plant when in its prime +approached in my knowledge only by two like it which grow on Sumneytown +pike, near “Indian Creek Meeting.” At Roberts Le Boutillier’s on East +Washington lane, and elsewhere near, there are many other specimens +worthy of record, but space and time details and elaboration forbid. + +The deep frost of last winter played havoc with many plants, partly +or wholly destroying box, ivy and other evergreens not usually +affected. The celebrated evergreen magnolia (magnolia grandiflora) at +Lippincott’s, Broad and Sansom streets, Philadelphia, entirely dropped +its leaves; in many ponds all the fish were killed, and losses in other +directions one may not yet undertake to estimate. Untouched, however, +we have many box-bordered garden walks, such as may be seen at “White +Cottage,” at “Grumblethorpe,” at “Wyck,” at Spring Bank, at C. M. +Bayard’s, on upper Main street; formal designs set in green like those +at Robert S. Newhall’s, Main and Gorgas streets; but the most elaborate +and most perfect of our box borders are those adorning the garden of +George C. Thomas, at Blue Bell Hill, protected by beautiful hedges of +osage orange, arbor vitae and neatly clipped hemlock. + +I never pass “Spring-bank” without thinking of John Welsh, its late and +honored owner. Here I often saw him walking “in the cool of the day” +under the shade of the “glorious” trees which line the front of the +estate, and, always excepting Wyck, there is not to me in Germantown a +more delightful spot. Here we have already noted a few plants, and we +shall stop only to look at a perfect tulip poplar, 3 feet in diameter +at trunk, with branches rising to 80 feet, a tree vouched for by Martin +Constable, the gardener, as “planted by John Welsh himself,” also here +is a specimen oak now 20 feet high, the acorn producing which N. Dubois +Miller told me was brought from Jerusalem and here grown. In this +direction we shall now go no further, but will southward turn, and by +way of Main street, which we left at Stenton, proceed to a conclusion. +Naglee’s and “Joe Nafle’s” we shall pass, and the Loudoun pines we have +already noted. + +Since the days of John Hart progress has here forced its way, and +many fine plants, including those on the adjoining grounds of James +S. Huber, have retreated before its irresistless advance, and the +great tree on the hill equipped with a swing, like “Green’s Meadow,” +implanted in the memory of every “Smearsburg” girl and boy of the last +generation, is gone forever. Toland’s and Wagner’s and Henry’s are +holding out “like grim death,” but it is only a question of time when +“Wayne Junction” shall overwhelm them. + +It is a pity I have often thought that fruit trees are not more often +planted for shade, and native sweet-scented flowering plants for +bloom, in a measure to bring the best of orchards and woods to home, +and thus more directly beauty and utility combine. Our wood plants +without exception may be readily grown if removed at a suitable time +and properly planted, and I have never had failure in growing laurel +(kalmia latifolia), arbutus (epigaea repens), and other of our native +plants considered difficult to transplant. + +Those of us familiar with Main street and Chelten avenue 25 years ago +may remember “Tinker” Frey’s famous swamp magnolia (magnolia glauca). +This is no more, but we have now at George Redles’ on Wister street; +at Dr. Herman Burgin’s on West Chelten avenue; near Christ’s Church +rectory on West Tulpehocken street; fine specimens of this common in +New Jersey swamps, but rare in cultivation, plant. + +Virginian fringe tree, perfectly hardy, and a very beautiful plant in +bloom, although we have several fine specimens, is not common enough +in gardens, exceptions not subject to this criticism being conspicuous +and notable plants on the grounds of Dillwyn Wistar, Wayne street +near Coulter street; Samuel Emlen, Coulter street near Greene street; +and Charles M. Bayard, Main street near Carpenter lane. Fringe tree +appears spontaneously as far north as the southern counties of New +Jersey, and several years ago it was found by Joseph Meehan in the +woods near Millville, though before this it had been collected in the +same district by Dr. J. B. Brinton. These, with Judas tree (cercis +canadensis), elder-berry (sambucus canadensis) and our native dog-woods +in variety, are but a few of many worthy native plants, but enough, I +hope, to direct attention to the subject. + +A creeping yew (taxus adpressa) appears in front of “Conyngham House” +or “Hacker House,” Main street, opposite Bringhurst street, but is not +equal to the famous plant once at Upsala, yet, however, there is a +most beautiful specimen of this rare evergreen in the garden of Edward +Hacker on Wister street. On grounds to the rear of Conyngham House are +several valuable plants for data of which I am indebted to Miss Howell. + +Here was one of “the first wild flower gardens” of later Germantown, +containing plants from many parts of the United States, but a garden +of which only a trace now remains. Here also is “the finest grove of +over-cup oaks (quercus macrocarpa) about, so Thomas Meehan always +said,” “and a specimen of strange weeping oak” (quercus pendula). + +“Grumblethorpe,” one of our most familiar homes, is now before us, +and its plants are second only to its other possessions. Its occupant +and owner is Charles J. Wister, to whom credit earned fully given +would seem but empty flattery. Here all his long life lived Charles J. +Wister the father, a man whom his neighbor, John Jay Smith, pronounced +“the greatest botanist living,” and here amidst the sanctity of its +associations lives the son, a most worthy successor. Quoting from +an article written several years ago by William E. Meehan, which is +sufficiently full for our purpose, there is growing at “Grumblethorpe” +“a number of interesting trees, among them three old pear trees, two +late Catherine and one sugar pear. There are records to show that +these trees are about 150 years old. The sugar pear, which still bears +abundantly, is 50 or 60 feet high, and has a girth of six feet. An aged +ivy has completely overgrown the trunk and has climbed almost to the +topmost branches. A very fine specimen of the famous larch of the Alps, +familiar to every student of Swiss Alpine scenery, is also growing on +these grounds. This tree, knotted and gnarled with age, has a trunk 5½ +feet in circumference, and the tree is probably the finest of its kind +around the city.” + +[Illustration: Charles J. Wister] + +A Japanese Ginko tree, which was among the first importations, is also +among the curiosities of the Wister place, and, it may be well to +add, this is the first recorded ginko in America to fruit. “About +1830 Charles J. Wister planted one of the first ailanthus (ailanthus +glandulosus) brought from China. This is one of the most rapid growers +of any known tree, and has attained a height of over 70 feet, and has a +girth of 12 feet 2 inches.” + +Here also is a rare specimen of papaw (asimina triloba), a tree equaled +only by one of the same kind at “Wyck,” one foot in diameter by 40 +feet high. “A gray poplar (populus alba), introduced about the latter +part of the last century from Italy, is also growing in Mr. Wister’s +grounds. Its trunk measures 10 feet 4 inches, and its branches cover a +great area of ground.” + +When we remember that the old fruit trees of “Grumblethorpe” have lived +through the busiest life of our town, and yet bear as they did at a +time when Christopher Saur in a building close by printed pamphlets and +books now highly prized, we may well halt for a moment of reverential +meditation, not for the trees and their produce, but for the power +which gave them life, which sustained them, and which has given them to +us. Interesting trees the garden of “Grumblethorpe” suggest, are the +Chancellor pear, which originated on the grounds of William Chancellor, +School House lane, adjoining Germantown Academy, and the original +Keiffer pear, produced by Peter Keiffer at his nursery on Livezey’s +lane, west of Wissahickon creek. + +While in the vicinity of Germantown Academy, let us notice there a +beautiful specimen of blood-leaved maple (acer J. atropurpureum), and +also one of equal worth on the grounds of Miss Jane E. Hart, diagonally +opposite. + +These plants are very fine though small,--but superior specimens may be +noted at Dr. James Darrach’s, Greene street, near Harvey street,--and +at Mrs. Thomas W. Evans’, Cliveden avenue and Main street, the latter +our representative plant. + +Thanks to Meehans’ nurseries, we have many fine specimens of this showy +tree about Germantown, and among a number known to us one of the best +is on the grounds of William Rotch Wister, Wisteria avenue. Also in the +garden of Samuel Emlen, West Coulter street, among other rare plants is +the most beautiful specimen of cut-leaved maple (acer J. dissectum a.) +I have ever seen. + +Passing the residence and one-time garden of the “annalist” John +Fanning Watson, we now turn in Penn street to visit “Ivy Lodge,” the +home of John Jay Smith, whose long, useful life was here lived, where +much of his best work was done, and from whence he departed to the +habitations of the “just made perfect.” “Ivy Lodge” is of interest in +many ways, but we shall stop only to mention a sun-dial with a noted +inscription associated with Stenton, and one of two original “constable +boxes” which once did service for the “borough,” the other box being +preserved at Manheim,--and present a few plants. Both dial and box are +conspicuous objects in the garden, and surrounding them are some of +the rarest shrubs and trees in our midst. Far more than I am here able +to give, credit is due Miss Elizabeth P. Smith, a daughter of John J. +Smith. At “Ivy Lodge” is a specially fine specimen of weeping beech +(fagus H. var. pendula), a memorial red oak (quercus rubra) planted by +Miss Smith’s mother, and an immense black oak (quercus nigra). Also +here once grew a notable juniper (juniperus squarrata), and several +specimens of araucaria. + +Miss Smith told me her father many times here tried to raise araucarias +(araucaria imbricata) in the open, but never succeeded in keeping them +over three years, this much being “considered quite an achievement.” +In England araucarias of great height are quite common, so I doubt not +the length and severity of our winters is responsible for the plant’s +non-existence in our gardens. At “Ivy Lodge” are several fine mahonias +(mahonia aquifolium) of 35 years’ growth, and with the exception of +a small specimen growing on the grounds of Edward Hacker, on Wister +street, here is the only cedar of Lebanon (cedrus libani) to my +knowledge growing strictly within the town limits. This is a fine plant +about 25 feet in height, and is one of two memorial trees planted in +1852 by John Jay Smith and John Granville Penn, the latter the last +of the “proprietor’s” line, in honor of William Penn and James Logan. +The “William Penn” tree, planted by a descendant of James Logan, is +the plant we may see. The James Logan tree planted by a descendant of +William Penn, is no more, having gone the way of “all the earth.” + +Until a few years ago there was on the grounds of Colonel Galloway +C. Morris, on East Tulpehocken street, a very fine cedar of Lebanon, +but this to make room for improvements was destroyed. A “cut” of this +plant, however, survives, and with a description may be seen in Vol. +I, page 39, of Meehans’ Monthly. Our best and most notable cedars of +Lebanon stand in North Laurel Hill Cemetery, and these grown under the +care of John Jay Smith are said not to be excelled in America. + +I wonder how many who pass up and down Main street, or who visit the +Friends’ Library, notice the trees at “Friends’ Meeting.” To me these +are always a delight, and I love to look back into the spacious, +restful grounds, for here and wherever these “meetings” are is a +picture of peace. We all are apt to know more about “green hills” far +away than of those immediately before us, for the things at hand often +appear ordinary, while those heard of or seen under unusual conditions +are rated by an exalted measure. + +Walking in the Wissahickon upon two occasions with men of travel, I +asked, “Did you ever see a more beautiful place?” One answered, “It is +very much like the scenery of New Zealand, but it is better.” Another +said, “I have traveled throughout Europe, and the only place that will +compare at all with it is the Trossachs in Scotland, but in extent it +is insignificant compared to this.” Henry Carvill Lewis, who “circled +the globe” before attaining his “majority,” told me in all his travels +he saw nothing that in his estimation approached the beauty of the +Wissahickon, and others who have traveled far and who lived long abroad +have told me “the Wissahickon is incomparable.” + +So we may know much about “Bartram’s cypress,” a plant 9 feet in +diameter and 120 feet high, while we may not have noticed the beautiful +cypress at “Fairfield;” the specimen at David Peltz’s, on Nicetown +lane; the exceedingly fine specimen 2 feet in diameter and 80 feet high +at James E. Caldwell’s, on Manheim street; specimens at Henry’s, Main +street, opposite Fisher’s lane; at David Hinkle’s, on Main street, +near Penn street; at “Ivy Lodge;” at Vernon; at Town Hall Square; at +several points on West Walnut lane, at Pomona; and the group of three +very fine cypress trees we passed at Friends’ grounds. + +There are many other fine cypress trees with us, but our most noted +ones are on Main street, above Washington lane, where at Ellwood +Johnson’s is a group of three trees of unusual height, and one solitary +plant 5 feet in diameter by 100 feet high, conspicuous by its size. +These plants grow upon “Honey Run,” on ground once owned by Peter +Keyser, whose son of the same name, a “preacher” and tanner, brought +them from South Carolina, and under his direction about the year 1800 +were here planted by Israel Haupt, so Miss Elizabeth R. and Ellwood +Johnson informed me. + +At the Deshler-Morris home, owned and occupied by Elliston P. Morris, +is one of our finest gardens, possessing several of our largest and +finest trees. Mr. Morris wrote me: + +“The exact age of some of my fine old trees is uncertain, the family +tradition is that some of them were planted by my grandfather, or +members of his family. I doubt not some of the older trees were there +when it was President George Washington’s residence during the yellow +fever epidemic of 1793. The great storm two years ago with its wind and +sleet sadly spoiled my most attractive trees, and in some cases left me +but skeletons of their former beauty, notably a 70-year-old elm tree +planted by my father, Samuel B. Morris, which stands in the middle of +my grounds.” + +[Illustration: Elliston P. Morris] + +Those who view the garden of Mr. Morris wonder at its freshness, and +proceeding with its owner: + +“The great secret of my lawn is the unbroken expanse of grass, and the +planting in conformity with established rules of landscape gardening. +I have still some choice specimen trees, notable an immense English +horse-chestnut (aesculus hippocastanum), with a girth I should think +of some 10 feet; a hybrid English walnut (juglans regia) and butternut +(juglans cinerea) very unusual, about 70 feet high and a girth of say +8 feet; a pretty specimen of the lovely cut-leaved beech (fagus S. +heterophylla); a 70-year-old magnolia glauca, a fine box tree (boxus +arborescens), and some 100-year-old box-bushes (boxus sempervirens), +and a good variety of shrubbery, with its ever changing bloom.” + +With us are many exceptional gardens, and these, with the beautiful +garden of Mr. Morris, I trust may be presented at another time. + +We have also many rare “wild garden plants,” and such native rare and +notable plants as Goldie’s spleen-wort, climbing fern, walking fern, +Nuttall’s spleen-wort, Scott’s spleen-wort, Wister’s coral plant, +obolaria, Adam and Eve plant, cancer root, and others exceedingly +scarce and valuable, which we may only in this way refer to. + +[Illustration: R. Robinson Scott] + +On Main street, opposite Armat street, in a house occupied by Edward +Manley, a one time preceptor of mine, once lived Christian Lehman, +scribener, surveyor, notary public and nurseryman, and here in the old +“nursery” is an English walnut to remind us of the first local importer +of this valuable tree. The present specimen belongs to a later period, +but is doubtless a product of an original planting of surrounding +grounds. From a much used advertisement of the Pennsylvania Gazette of +April 12, 1768, we learn that there was “to be sold--a choice parcel +of well grown young English walnut, as well as pear and apricot, and a +curious variety of the best and largest sorts from England of grafted +plumb trees fit for transplanting this spring or next fall, as well as +a great variety of beautiful double hyacinth roots and tulip roots, +next summer season, and most other things in the flower or fruit +nursery way, by Christian Lehman.” + +“Vernon,” although its native charms vanished with its open stream, +meadow, spring-house and protecting shrubbery, yet preserves much to +hold and interest us. The ground now covered by Vernon include the +estate of Melchior Meng and part of that of Henry Kurtz, both plant +lovers possessing fine gardens, which were enriched by cultivations of +Matthias Kin, a celebrated plant collector. + +Here is the locally known “Meng’s magnolia” (magnolia macrophylla) +procured by Kin, the first magnolia of its kind cultivated in North +America, and here are oak and hemlock trees planted by John Wister in +the early part of the last century. Several noted trees once here have +gone. One was an immense buttonwood with a trunk having a diameter +of 5 feet; another was a weeping willow (salix babylonica) located +near the spring-house, and others were a large horse-chestnut which +shaded the front of Kurtz house, and a large linden (tilia Americana) +once prominent on the street before the door of Melchior Meng. Many +doubtless may recall Meng’s house as “Oliver Jester’s tin shop,” until +a few years ago standing on Vernon’s southern front. + +Old gardens, and the grapes of which Pastorius wrote have gone, but we +have in new Germantown, gardens superior to any of olden time, and I +warrant the 8-inch diameter grape vine-trunks of middle Wissahickon are +equal to any the “founder” ever saw. So, too, the two gardens of Dr. +Christopher Witt are no more, and there is nothing surviving to suggest +them. + +On the Geissler-Warner tract, part of which was also once occupied by +Dr. Witt, whereon also he had his first garden, stands St. Michael’s P. +E. Church, and on its rear chancel wall is an ivy recently re-planted +by E. A. Frey. This plant, carefully transferred from a former +position, is a hardy “English ivy” brought originally from Sir Walter +Scott’s “Abbotsford” by Dorsey Cox, and was here planted under the +direction of the late beloved rector, Dr. John K. Murphy. + +At this place also grew a white mulberry tree (morus alba) of local +celebrity, one of many which sprang up in this neighborhood, the +parent tree being at the “cocoonery,” Hermann and Morton streets. +Although Dr. Philip Syng Physick, nor his son Philip--who was never a +doctor--had any direct connection with this tree, it is justly prized, +and I am pleased that in the form of a “Canterbury chair,” made by +George Redles, it now occupies a prominent position in the chancel of +the church, for beyond these associations, it was grown in the Warner +burying ground, where was laid the remains of the Warners, Daniel +Geissler, Dr. Christopher Witt, and perhaps John Kelpius, all Mystics +and early botanists, and we have before us a memorial sanctified by the +blood it contains. + +Though the Warner ground mulberry was a foundling, we have on the +original “multicaulis” grounds where Philip Physick lived a solitary +specimen of mulberry of unusual size, 3 feet in diameter by 40 feet +high, now in bloom, to remind us of a “South Sea bubble” burst, which +troubled the investors of a generation past. + +Among the noted trees of Germantown was a pecan once standing on the +grounds of Dr. William R. Dunton, and which was removed after the +erection of the First Methodist Church. This tree was grown from one of +several nuts which Thomas Nuttall brought from Arkansas and presented +to his friend, Reuben Haines, a prominent officer of the Philadelphia +Academy of Natural Sciences, and at whose home in Germantown he was +a frequent guest. The nut which produced Doctor Dunton’s tree was +given by Reuben Haines to his neighbor, Daniel Pastorius, and two nuts +were planted in his own garden, all developed to plants of maturity, +but the trees at “Wyck” died, while the Pastorius tree reached large +proportions, bore fruit, and it is to be regretted that a specimen of +so much interest could not have been preserved. + +[Illustration: Thomas Nuttall] + +In many respects a pecan (carya olivaeformis) resembles a hickory +(carya tomentosa), a tree whose name occupies an important place in +the early records of Germantown. From our Township line boundaries +the ancient “hicories” have disappeared, and I shall refer only to a +notable one which stood on Baynton street, west of Church lane, a tree +Thomas MacKellar described as “the finest hickory” he ever saw. + +“Wyck” throughout the history of Germantown has been conspicuous, and +I regret that present bounds will not permit us to enlarge upon it. +To this attractive spot came the most noted naturalists of the last +century, and following in the path of generous culture came Lafayette, +who in the year 1825 was given here a public reception, which is +distinctly remembered by Robert Thomas and Joseph Murter, honored +citizens already referred to, who attended it. At “Wyck” is growing a +Spanish chestnut (castanea vesca) raised from a tree whose parent nut +was planted by Washington at Belmont for Judge Richard Peters. Also +here is a white walnut (juglans cinerea) grown from a tree planted by +Lafayette at Belmont, upon his “farewell visit” to America. Many of +us may remember it was an immense tree standing on “Wyck” ground, +and afterwards in the centre of the street almost opposite “The +Barn,” which gave to Walnut lane its name. This walnut for many years +was permitted to keep its place, but in due time became a prey to +expediency. + +[Illustration: Wyck] + +Likewise it was a noted oak which gave name to a familiar “east-side” +lane, and the circumstances attending, were almost identical with those +serving the Walnut lane dedication. + +Among plants rare, though not rare plants, are several which have +always puzzled me that they are not more general in cultivation. One +of these is tamarisk (tamarix gallica), a shrub or small tree common +enough in other parts, but with us scarce. The finest specimen of this +plant we have is one 8 inches in diameter, rising with a bushy head to +a height of 16 feet, and growing in the garden of Mrs. Frank Cooley, +106 Hermann street. Ordinarily tamarisk is of a thin, straggling +habit, but responding to care and liberal pruning this plant shows a +remarkably heavy, vigorous growth, as a cut, page 173 of volume 12, +Meehans’ Monthly, fairly illustrates. + +On our way northward, let us as we pass Charles Megargee’s mansion, +now the home of a popular club, recall a rare oriental spruce recorded +by William E. Meehan. Impersonality in writing is often its greatest +strength, but the credit for a large amount of city history presented +by Mr. Meehan I should like to see justly given, for much that has +appeared and repeatedly reappeared belongs to him. The oriental +spruce (picea orientalis) once here was considered a remarkably fine +one, and belonged to the “most northern growing of all the pine tree +family.” This specimen was brought to Philadelphia “by Engineer George +W. Melville on his return from the famous De Long expedition,” the +specimen being secured “on an island near the mouth of the Lena river.” + +Among our scarce plants is persimmon (diospyros Virginiana), though why +this should be I do not know, for outside our territory, and especially +in the neighborhood of the Perkiomen Valley, it is one of the most +common of trees. At Stenton; on Abbotsford avenue near James A. +Wright’s place; in the Wissahickon, near “Livezey’s Mills;” near Rabbit +lane and County line, we have meritorious if not great persimmons; and +at Miss Hocker’s, Main street above Washington lane; also at Joseph +C. Channon’s, Main street, above Pastorius street, we have at each +place two specimens, noteworthy because being directly upon our main +highway they serve to remind us of farm days and the simple character +of our one-time village. Here, too, at “Channon’s,” under the care of +Miss Amelia R. Wood, is a lusty Japanese persimmon (diospyros kaki) +which never fails to fruit. Also here, as well as at Miss Elizabeth R. +Johnson’s near-by, are quince, pear and apple orchards, survivors of +ancient days, blossoming as of old. + +Townsend Ward, with others before him, and followed by Judge Samuel +W. Pennypacker, have given accounts of a great but almost unknown man +who had the confidence to address Cromwell upon his plans, a religious +writer of wide influence, the founder of a successful community, which +existed nearly 200 years before that of the more widely known Brook +Farm of New England. This man was Peter Cornelius Plockhoy, and his +colony was located on the Delaware river, where the town of Lewes now +is. Ward records: “In 1694 there came to Germantown an old man and +his wife. He was blind and poor, and his name was Cornelius Plockhoy, +the founder and last survivor of the Mennonite colony broken up 30 +years before at the Hoorn Kill by Sir Robert Carr. The good people of +Germantown took pity on him;” and continuing with Judge Pennypacker, +“they gave him the citizenship free of charge.” They set apart for him +at the end street of the village by Peter Klever’s corner a lot 12 +rods long and one rod broad whereon to build a little house and make +a garden; in front of it they planted a tree. Jan Doeden and William +Rittenhouse were appointed to take up “a free will offering” and to +have the house built. + +I refer to this because Plockhoy, more than he is, should be identified +with Germantown, because a tree in this early life of the colony +was considered of sufficient importance to name, and also because +this house and tree stood upon Kyser’s lane within sight of the +homestead owned and occupied by Miss Elizabeth R. Johnson, in whose +charming garden situated at the northwest corner of Main street and +Washington lane, we shall stop for awhile to “sit at her feet” while +she entertains us with accounts of her historic plants. Among the +rare treasures here is a fine Persian lilac (syringa persica) planted +in 1771, which continues vigorous and spreads its sweetness upon the +receptive air. A curious fig (ficus carica) here is the development +of a shoot which for 4 years after the removal of the parent tree did +not appear, but is now, as figs go, a stately plant. Here also on +the southern exposure of the mansion is the first wisteria (wisteria +speciosa) planted in Germantown, and one of the first planted in +America, a plant of immense proportions, and whose numerous runners +overspreading two near-by trees weighted them to earth. + +[Illustration: Johnson Homestead] + +Many fine wisteria plants we have, and at Ellwood Johnson’s fascinating +retreat adjoining there is a most beautiful specimen; another is at +“Grumblethorpe;” another at William Rotch Wister’s on Wisteria avenue, +and yet another at Dr. Herman Burgin’s on West Chelten avenue; also +at David McMahon’s on East Chelten avenue are two handsome wisterias +grown as standards. All these are notable plants, and conspicuous among +an innumerable company which help beautify our town. + +At the Johnson homestead are several fine box trees planted in the +year 1800, and these bring to mind other superior box trees; plants on +Hermann street, near Baynton street; at Hacker house, on Main street; +at Vernon, and at many other points in our territory. + +At Ellwood Johnson’s we shall halt for a moment to partake of his +sparkling spring water, and note a pear tree of Revolutionary days +which yet spreads its branches over a charming spring-house. Here +until the storm which overthrew Christ Church steeple, stood an old +willow (salix babylonica) with a trunk 5½ feet in diameter, and one of +the first weeping willow trees planted in America, a notable specimen +which outliving its strength was felled by the great wind of the storm +referred to, but now a scion from its roots has risen to preserve its +memory. + +Also here among many notable plants is a fine specimen of the rare +clammy locust (robinia viscosa), and the largest hazelnut (corylus +Americana) I have ever seen, a plant of 20 feet in height, and covering +a large area. + +Passing Concord School, its nature-loving pupils, George Lippard +and William E. Meehan, with other associations of interest to plant +students, we halt at “Pomona Grove” to present a plant which should +not be forgotten, for “Pomona” and its charms are now a memory. At +the northeast corner of what is now Baynton street and Pomona terrace +once stood a yew, which by those competent to judge was considered +remarkable. No one has been able to definitely state where this tree +came from, nor when it was planted. All agree that it was a mature +imported plant and was placed at “Pomona” by Col. Thomas Forrest. There +need be no mystery, however, for it is well known a yew grows rapidly +for 20 or more years, more slowly for a hundred years, after which +period it exists in a practically stationary condition. + +Prof. Thomas Meehan pronounced the Pomona yew the finest he had ever +seen, and his ripe knowledge and wide travels gave a distinct value to +the opinion. This plant was in perfect condition, covered a circle of +13 feet diameter, and stood at a height of 20 feet. + + “Alas, that vandal hands should tear away + The ancient landmarks dear to other days, + And spoil the verdurous temples in a day, + Which nature took so many years to raise!” + +It is to be forever regretted that the efforts of our Germantown +Horticultural Society to secure this gem for Market Square failed, for +it rather than objectionable intrusions now there, would better serve +the purposes for which the block was set apart. + +We have, however, near Market Square in the garden of Elliston P. +Morris, a small, but perfect and very beautiful specimen of English +yew, identical in variety with the plant so unfortunately lost. + +Continuing--we pass Miss Arrott’s select school, which was once a barn, +and Leonard Stoneburner’s house and farm, he an active citizen, whose +pride lay rather in the speed of his horses than in “crops” and trade +and politics, all of which claimed a large share of his attention; also +passing Naaman K. Ployd’s garden, and his numerous plants of more than +local interest--we soon reach “Cliveden,” first occupied as a country +seat by Chief Justice Chew in the year 1763. This is the battleground’s +centre, and is sacred because of the men who died there; but while +appreciating this, let us work and pray for a time when war shall be +considered a crime, and the taking of human life for any cause, murder. +At “Cliveden” there are now no plants of the Revolutionary period, and +many of its finest shrubs have been planted within my memory. + +“Growing close against the Chew mansion a beautiful rose of Japan. +It is certainly at least 75 years old, and has delighted all who +have seen it by the quality and beauty of its large red blossoms,” +so noted William E. Meehan. Mrs. Chew wrote me: “There were a number +of magnificent English elms, a row along the front of the place near +the street, extending as far as Upsal street, and another row along +Cliveden street.” + +Near the barn there is at present an elm (ulmus campestris), a sole +representative of the trees indicated. The street “trees were killed by +wanton boys when the family temporarily left the place about 40 years +ago,” and by the fathers I doubt not of the “Dog-towners,” who stoned +every Rittenhouse School boy of my own class reckless enough to venture +alone into the reserved precincts of “Beggarstown.” Here is a beautiful +specimen of European larch (larix Europaea), and to continue with Mrs. +Chew, “the tulip poplars on the west side of the house were planted by +Blair McClanachan during the few years after the battle that he owned +the property. The oak on the lawn in front of the house was planted +about 70 years ago by one of the family.” + +The pine tree (pinus rigida) on the front lawn “may be accounted for +in the following way, I think, although I do not positively know. +Mr. Chew, the son of the Chief Justice, owned a number of very fine +farms in New Jersey, and his tenants there were of the same family for +generations, and they were on the most kind and friendly terms with Mr. +Chew. I imagine that this tree when very small may have been brought +as a gift to Mr. Chew by one of his tenants, and there planted by Mr. +Chew himself.” + +Surviving on Upsal street is a companion pine, which from its position +gives strength to this opinion, for these trees appear to have been +twins planted in “Cliveden” equi-distant. + +[Illustration: Cliveden] + +“Upsala,” opposite, which we all know well by name, possesses several +of our finest and most notable plants. Miss Sally W. Johnson, who +owns and occupies it, generously gave me an account of its rare home +plants, which we may now only present in outline. Among these plants +were grapes planted and cared for by Dr. Johnson, a very large white +flowering camellia, a white flowering sweet jasmine, a laurestinas, a +daphne, not equal to the one which Miss Ann Chew had in her hall by the +front window. Of her garden, Miss Johnson’s account is so interesting +that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of quoting. In it “there were in +summer Bordeaux lilies, and varlotta purpurea, a handsome red clustered +lily, and agapanthus with their odd shade of lavender blue; funkias, +vincas, oriental poppies in garden beds, and the ‘York and Lancaster’ +rose still blooms, though it is a curious dwarf. The Marie Louise, a +sweet light pink rose, has lived on all through the garden for I am +sure the past hundred years. I try to replace the trees or plants that +have died. There was once a double row of white Hawthorn to the Johnson +street entrance. The red berries were so bright, and made a charming +English decoration for Christmas. A double pink hawthorne was a very +fine tree.” + +“The fringe tree was an old favorite, arching gracefully over the +middle walk, and when gone was replaced by another, and a group +of tartarian honeysuckle is still blooming every spring after the +daffodils and cowslips and double low buttercups with their mottled +shiny leaves, periwinkles and lilies of the valley were in every shady +spot, and the late summer was gorgeous with phlox--the hardy--and +Drummondii, larkspurs, tritoma, trumpet vine, and the like.” + +Though many of “Upsala’s” best trees are no more, here yet are several +of which we may be justly proud. The once well-known creeping yew is +gone, and the silver fir planted in 1800, which reached 100 feet in +height, a plant figured and described in A. J. Downing’s “Landscape +Gardening,” was removed several years ago, and a memorial apolinian fir +was planted in its place. + +[Illustration: Upsala] + +Here is a famous American yew, a plant distinct from English yew; a +noted catalpa, a dwarf spruce, a handsome tulip-poplar, a number of +towering white pines, an exceedingly fine cryptomeria or Japan cedar, +which greatly excels specimens at “Fairfield,” at Edward Hacker’s on +Wister street, at Peter Keiffer’s on Livezey’s lane; and here is a +California redwood or “big-tree” (sequoia gigantea), a plant now about +25 feet in height, the rarest, and so far as known to me, the only +specimen of a size worthy of consideration in Philadelphia. This tree, +now showing the effects of last winter’s unusual frost, stands directly +in front of the mansion, and my prayer is that “Upsala” unaltered, +and its owner in health and “perpetual youth,” may continue until it +attains the proportions of its most illustrious progenitors. + +Time presses upon us, so we shall pass rapidly Billmyer house, where +are beautiful specimens of locust (robinia pseudacacia), walnut and +honey-locust (gleditschia triacanthos); Peter Leibert house, where +are fair Norway spruce, horse-chestnut and silver maple; the Church +of the Brethren grounds, where grow four of our finest trees, two +larch trees, each 2 feet in diameter and 60 feet high, and two coffee +trees of magnificent development, plants 2 feet in diameter by 80 feet +high each; several striking plants of merit at Peter D. Hinkle’s; St. +Michael’s Lutheran Church grounds, where is a superb specimen of Irish +yew (taxus, var. Hibernica), resembling, but in beauty far exceeding, +similar plants at St. Vincent de Paul’s Church, and Lower Burying +Ground; Phil-Ellena, the one-time residence of George W. Carpenter, +whose garden of home gardens, if not the greatest, was at least the +one most widely known, but its rare plants are now distributed and +its notable trees in the main leveled to accommodate “Pelham,” a late +product of capital and change. + +At George Hesser or William M. Bayard house, opposite, is a number of +fine box-bordered walks, an impressive linden resembling the linden in +Concord Burying Ground, and a picturesque white pine, but these without +further mention we shall neglect to stop briefly at Joseph Meehan’s, +on Pleasant street, and at Meehans’ nursery on Main street, the latter +once located at the southeast corner of Meehan avenue, where numerous +plants now beautifying home streets and gardens were first grown. + +Among Joseph Meehan’s “wild plants” is a handsome aster, discovered by +this botanist near Gettysburg, Pa., a plant which for several years has +been growing in his garden. As yet the “authorities” have not decided +upon a name, so we shall present it as aster Meehani. + +Here also is a specimen of the rare Franklin tree (gordonia pubescens), +and with the exception of a like specimen at Meehans’ nurseries, and +another near Horticultural Hall, also one raised by William De Hart and +now growing near Lansdowne, it is the finest specimen I know. + +In our “Flora,” I have referred to the parent of this tree, which was +a scion of the plant brought from South Carolina by William Bartram. +The original plant, abused at Bartram Garden after the retirement +of Colonel Carr, was rescued and revived by William De Hart at his +garden on Darby road, where it grew for several years. It was then +presented to Joseph Meehan, on whose grounds, its energy spent, it +struggled through a precarious existence to an honored death--truly +an interesting record of the most remarkable plant in botanical +nomenclature. + +From Main street nursery Thomas Meehan removed to “Hongs’ Farm,” on +Chew street. His partner, William Saunders, located first on Johnson +street, near Greene street, and later took charge of the experimental +gardens at Washington. At the Chew street nurseries are many of the +choicest and most notable plants in America, specimens from which +plates of the “Flowers and Ferns of the United States” were figured; +indeed so many “new and rare plants” that I shall leave them, +trusting that Joseph Meehan may favor us with a paper upon the same, +and at present we shall be content with reference to a few valuable +ones I think him likely to ignore--namely, cut-leaved plum (prunus +myrobolana, var. dissectum); halesia Meehani or silver-bell, a +species of shrub or small tree bearing beautiful white bell-shaped +flowers; weeping dog-wood (cornus F., var. pendula), and rose-flowering +dog-wood (cornus F., var. flore rubro), all distinct varieties +originating at these widely known and justly famed nurseries. + +[Illustration: Joseph Meehan] + +I had thought to completely cover our territory, but within the “time +limit” this I have found impossible. There are many “estates” of merit +with us to which I have not referred, and on them and elsewhere near +are many deserving plants and odd growths I should like to introduce +and enlarge upon, such as a cherry (prunus serotina) of immense +proportions, situated on Fisher’s lane, near Lower Burying Ground; +a very fine silver-bell tree on the grounds of George W. Russell, +Seymour street near Morris street; two beautiful elms on Spencer’s +Farm, and standing near the site of “Roberts’ mill” on Church lane, +near Township Line road; the Henry Lenhart memorial stone in Market +Square Church grounds, which since the year 1830 has been enveloped +by the root growth of a silver maple, and in its vise-like grip +is supported vertically; several commemorative trees, emblems of +affection, such as the purple beech and white pine trees planted on +Greene street near Coulter street by “Dr. Rivinis, a grandson of the +botanist for whom Rivinia or rouge plant” was named; and the “Mollie +Middleton,” “Helen T. Longstreth” and numerous other marked trees in +the Wissahickon; an exceedingly fine American aspen on the grounds +of Dr. Daniel Karsner, Tulpehocken and Greene streets; a group of +large pine trees at Adams street and Washington lane; the wild goose +lily treasured by Ellwood Johnson, a unique plant resembling, but +quite distinct from Hemerocallis Flava of our gardens; a valuable and +perfectly formed Norway maple, situated on Chew street, near Washington +lane, a tree which always leads its kind in leaf and flower; an immense +hawthorn (crataegus oxyacantha) on Magnolia street, near Johnson +street; individual paulownia (paulownia imperialis), catalpa (catalpa +bignonioides), and smoke trees (rhus cotinus) of merit, conspicuous +in many places throughout our domain; a celebrated Irish yew once +standing beside the Carpenter Mansion at Phil-Ellena; a white oak of +remarkable growth showing a trunk 5 feet in diameter, a height of 60 +feet, and having an immense limb tapering from 2 feet in diameter, +32 feet long, projecting horizontally for its entire length, and +completely spanning Rabbit lane, east of E. Rittenhouse Miller’s place; +a magnolia, the product of skill if not art, flourishing on James E. +Gowen’s grounds at Main street and Gowen avenue, a monstrosity formed +by the union of a circle of plants drawn together at about 3 feet above +the earth and united, rising in a central trunk, reminding one of +Alexander Pope and his strange fancies at Twickenham; a curious seat at +“The Cherries” at Spring-bank, naturally supported by the outgrowth of +two oak trees,--and near the same spot, a storm-cleft chestnut tree, +which strangely has renewed itself; many rare and beautiful magnolias, +such as may be seen at Mrs. Taws’, West Tulpehocken street, at Thomas +Meehan’s, at “Wyck,” at William Heft’s, and in general distribution +throughout our territory; “cut-leaved” plants in variety, such as +may be seen on Baynton street, near Walnut lane, at Chelten avenue +and Godfrey street, and at many places elsewhere; Kilmarnock willows +and “weeping plants” innumerable; rare plants at Miller & Yates’; the +celebrated “paragon chestnut” of William L. Schaeffer, a variety of +Spanish chestnut (castanea vesca) which originated on what is now the +Institution for the Deaf and Dumb grounds, and obtained wide celebrity; +fern-leaved beech (fagus, var. asplenifolia) at Edward S. Buckley’s, +and weeping beech (fagus, var. pendula) at C. B. Dunn’s, with another +noted one at Thomas C. Price’s, all of Chestnut Hill; Caleb Cope’s +garden “grotto” and valuable plants; the “new garden” of John T. Morris +on Wissahickon, a botanical garden in every respect save name; and +many unique plants stationed throughout the length and breadth of the +Wissahickon region. + +But among our superabundance it has been possible only to mark a few +guide posts to point the way to all who care “to lead or follow” to +a possession which in other parts is suggested only by such rich old +settlements as Alexandria, West Chester and some New England towns, +but not any of which, so far as I have been able to observe, is able +to approach the treasure ever present with us. Much that we desire to +present we thus are obliged to curtail or ignore, and with one more +thought we shall conclude. + +When visitors of distinction called upon George W. Childs at “Wootten,” +they invariably were requested to plant a tree. The custom is a +pleasing one, worthy of imitation, and should be encouraged. Wrote +Thomas Meehan: “trees are associated with our dearest memories and most +important events.” Abroad memorial and historic trees are so numerous +that we refer to them only for illumination, and in our own country we +have the “Charter Oak” of Connecticut, the famous “Elm of Cambridge,” +and the “Treaty Tree” of Philadelphia. Other trees quite as important, +but not so well known, are the “Liberty Tree” of Newport, the mulberry +tree of Maryland under which the first settlers met to establish a +government, and the plane tree of Burlington, to which New Jersey +colonists tied ship before the founding of Philadelphia. + +Stop soon we must, and passing many home plants of tender associations, +I shall select one, and close with mention of a memorial tree near +Kitchen’s bridge in the Wissahickon, a pin oak (quercus palustris), +planted “Arbor Day, 1903, by the pupils of Andrew G. Curtin Public +School in memory of Thomas Meehan, the friend of boys and girls.” No +truer words than these were ever penned, but let us not limit, for +Thomas Meehan was a friend to all--the world is better because he +lived, and there is no one in Germantown this day who does not enjoy +the fruit of his great work. + +[Illustration: Prof. Thomas Meehan] + +So we pass, and although our list of plants is indicative only, and +those named but meagrely “presented,” yet we trust enough has been +noted to direct attention to the beautiful creations placed before us +to enjoy. We have no need to covet or compare, for in a magnificent +fullness we have what others have not, and while we envy not nor desire +another less, let us for ourselves strive to deserve the favors so +bountifully given us, and take lesson, for false accumulations are +vanity, so let us spurning the selfishness of the few who ignore +the rights of the many, find pleasure in pursuits which no abuse is +able to restrict nor monopoly to control, for when schemers and their +usurpations are no more, nature incorruptible and unalterable will +continue steadfast on her way. + +Now as I go about our “village,” developed to a full-fledged town, I +rejoice that we have so much for the enjoyment of the many, and so +little that is not as free as our own desires. As of old, our common +highway follows its tortuous course, and although peach and weeping +willow and lombardy poplar trees of long ago have vanished, other trees +of sturdier mould have risen to take their place. Large, substantial +houses in the ripeness of age continue with us, but those who built +them sleep in our shaded graveyards, and we may decipher their names +on bleached and weather-beaten decomposing stone. Lofty trees planted +by those who “have gone before,” in “the fullness of time” stand as +monuments to them, and as friends to us to shade and protect. + +Time “may come, and time may go,” for nature is change, and change +nature, but to us “Providence has been very kind,” and the past though +hardly pressed, yet dominates the present. + +Mansions and plantations justly venerated have become the property of +all, and now among us we have “Vernon” and “Stenton,” “Waterview” and +“Cliveden” as public parks, not great nor finished as yet, but ours, +while behind looming up in the possibilities of “pleasure grounds” is +“Fernhill,” and with us forever secure is the peerless Wissahickon. + +Though slowly, the character of our town alters, “orders old giving +place to new,” but I rejoice that we have so much to remind us of days +gone by--“Cliveden” and “Upsala,” “Grumblethorpe” and “Wyck,” to any of +which an enforced change would be a catastrophe. + +Logan, Huber’s, Spring Alley, “Tinker” Frey’s, Vernon and Chew springs +have gone, but Wister, Cope and Johnson springs continue to remind us +of rural long ago. Henry’s, Vernon and Methodist lane pumps, once with +never-tiring handles traveling uncomplainingly “neath earth and sky” +for the public good, have been retired, but “Manheim street pump” +unfailingly dispenses to who so e’er will wait. Toll-gate, Conestoga +and stage-coach have disappeared from our turnpike road, and the +trolley has “followed after,” yet in spite of “all temptation” we cling +to the past, and the “Germantown wagon” undaunted waits upon us to do +us service. + +Change truly is in the air, but there is a remarkable blending of the +old with the new. The curse of war has passed from among us, “swords +have been beaten into plough-shares, and spears into pruning hooks,” +“peace and plenteousness” reign within our borders. No more the +cannon’s thundering roar disturbs our homes, and “storied groves of +Johnson’s lane, where Washington the bold led Freedom’s sons on British +guns in the brave days of old” are free of strife. + +Now from many gardens on our “Appian Way” the perfume of blooming +plants “maketh glad the heart of man;” native birds frequent, charming +with enlivening song, our Main street lawns, and from above, falling +upon never-tiring ears, “the great bell still tolls the hours,” as +one by one they round to remind us of youth and age and the “vast +forever,” while over the “belgian block,” heedlessly perhaps, “the +noise of traffic rolls.” + +Days come and go, the wheel turns. With us, “too soon, too soon, the +noon will be the afternoon, to-day be yesterday.” “The night cometh” +when no man may work. While it is yet day, let us remember those who +“planted and watered” that we might benefit, and not forgetting our +obligations to them, to ourselves and posterity, let us appreciate and +provide, so that generations to come may receive with the increase +those blessings so generously showered upon us, that the Germantown +of greater opportunity to be, may upon the traditions and heritage +preserved and bequeathed, rise to heights not attained, because unknown +to us. + + + + +_INDEX_ + + + A. + + Page + + Acacia, 38 + + Adam and Eve Plant, 73 + + Addison’s Walk, 47 + + Ailanthus, 53, 65 + + Alburger, John, 41 + + Alcott, Bronson, 40 + + Alcott, Louisa M., 40 + + Armstrong, 41 + + Araucaria, 68 + + Arbor Vitae, 46, 59 + + Arrott’s School, 86 + + Ashton, Dr., 45 + + Aspen, American, 96 + + Aster, Meehan’s, 93 + + Awbury, 46, 54 + + + B. + + Baker, W. E. S., 33, 36 + + Bartram, Wm., 93 + + Barbary, 49 + + Barron, Com. James, 52 + + Baumann, L. C., 50, 53 + + Bayard, C. M., 59, 62, 92 + + Beech, 9, 29, 49, 54, 96 + + “ Fern-leaved, 98 + + “ Weeping, 98 + + “ Wister’s, 35 + + Beggarstown, 88 + + Belfield, 36 + + Benneville, Dr. Geo. De, 40, 42 + + Bethesda Home, 57 + + Betton, Dr. Saml., 53 + + Big-tree, California, 91 + + Billmyer House, 91 + + Birch, Silver, 30, 46 + + Blair, Linden, 55 + + Blathewood, 56 + + Blight, Geo., 41 + + Bonneval Cottage, 42 + + Bonsall, E. H., 20 + + Box, 29, 59, 73, 84 + + Branchtown, 16, 40 + + Brethren, Church of, 92 + + Brewster, F. Carroll, 34 + + Brickyards, 53 + + Brinton, Dr. J. B., 62 + + Brown, Prof. Stewartson, 32 + + Bummer’s Cave, 58 + + Burgin, Dr. H., 62 + + Butternut, 36 + + Button-ball, 29 + + Butler Place, 38, 41 + + Buttonwood, 42, 43, 44, 75 + + Buttonwood Hotel, 44 + + + C. + + Caernarvon, 50 + + Caldwell, Jas. E., 70 + + California Red-wood, 91 + + Cancer Root, 73 + + Canteloupe, 52 + + Carlton, 41, 48, 54 + + Catalpa, 24, 26, 30, 96 + + Cedar, Japan, 30, 91 + + Cedar of Lebanon, 30, 32, 68, 69 + + Cedars, The, 32 + + Century Plant, 35 + + Champlost, 27 + + Channon, Jos. C., 81 + + Chancellor, Wm., 66 + + Charter Oak, 99 + + Cherry, 95 + + Chestnut, American, 32, 36, 48 + + “ Horse, 92 + + “ Paragon, 98 + + “ Spanish, 26, 78 + + Chew, Chief Justice, 87 + + “ Mrs., 87 + + Childs Geo. W., 99 + + Christ’s Church, 84 + + Clark, E. W., 30, 57 + + Clearfield, 28 + + Cliveden, 87 + + Cocoonery, 76 + + Coffee Tree, 36, 39, 92 + + Concord Ground, 47, 93 + + Concord School, 47, 85 + + Constabel Martin, 60 + + Conyngham House, 63 + + Cooley, Mrs. Frank, 79 + + Cope, Caleb, 98 + + “ Francis R., 46 + + “ Thomas P., 46 + + Corvy, The, 51 + + Cryptomeria, 30, 91 + + Cucumber Tree, 32 + + Cypress, Bartram’s, 32, 70 + + “ Swamp, 32, 70 + + + D. + + Datz, Jacob A., 41 + + Darrach, Dr. Jas., 66 + + Deane, Silas, 18 + + De Hart, William, 93 + + Deshler-Morris Garden, 71 + + Devil’s Pool, 56 + + Dewees, William, 45 + + Dial, Logan, 69 + + Doeden, Jan., 82 + + Dog-town, 88 + + Dog-wood, Common, 54, 62 + + “ Rose Flowering, 95 + + “ Weeping, 95 + + Downing, A. J., 30 + + Drinker, Elizabeth, 28 + + “ Henry, 28 + + Dunton, Dr. William R., 77 + + + E. + + Elder, 62 + + Elm, 31, 47, 95 + + “ Cambridge, 99 + + “ English, 87 + + Emlen, Samuel, 62, 66 + + Evans, Mrs. Thomas W., 66 + + + F. + + Fairfield, 28, 30, 32, 70 + + Fair-Hill, 24 + + Farm, The, 38 + + Farnum, Mrs., 22 + + Fern-Hill, 30, 38, 39, 41, 45, 48, 54 + + Fig, 83 + + Fir, Silver, 90 + + Fisher, Ellicott, 36 + + Fisher’s Hollow, 33 + + Forrest, Col. Thomas, 85 + + Fox, Miss, 27 + + Fraley House, 22 + + Franklin, Benjamin, 24, 33 + + Franklin Tree, 93 + + Freas, Philip R., 52 + + Frey, E. A., 75 + + Frey, “Tinker”, 61 + + Friends’ Library, 69 + + Friends’ Meeting, 44, 69 + + Fringe-tree, 49, 62, 90 + + + G. + + Galvin, Thomas P., 39 + + Gardette, E. B., 52 + + “ Dr. James, 41 + + Garret, Andrew, 44 + + Garrett’s Hill, 39, 54 + + Garrett, Philip C., 30 + + Geissler, Daniel, 76 + + Germantown Academy, 66 + + “ Horticultural Society, 86 + + “ Lots, 14 + + “ Maps of, 12 + + “ Method of settlement, 14 + + “ Old Roads of, 12 + + “ Wagon, 103 + + Ginko, 45, 64 + + Godman, Dr. J. G., 51 + + Goldie’s, Spleenwort, 73 + + Gowen, James E., 97 + + Grape, 75 + + Greens, Meadow, 61 + + Grumblethorpe, 23, 35, 50, 59, 63, 65, 83 + + Guckes, Philip, 41 + + + H. + + Hacker, Edward, 45, 68 + + Hacker House, 63 + + Haines, Miss Jane, 21 + + “ John S., 46 + + “ Reuben, 77 + + Harrison, Alfred C., 45 + + “ George L., 54 + + Hart, Miss Jane E., 66 + + Hart, John, 60 + + Haupt, Israel, 71 + + Hawthorn 90, 96 + + Hazel, 85 + + Heacock, Joseph, 58 + + Heft, Caspar, 29 + + “ William, 43, 54, 97 + + Hemlock, 29, 31, 39, 56, 59 + + Henry House, 40, 61, 70 + + “ T. Charlton, 35 + + Hesser House, 92 + + Hickok, Dr. William H., 31 + + Hickory, 77 + + High St. Station, 47 + + Hinkle, David, 70 + + “ Peter D., 92 + + Hocker, Miss, 81 + + Holly, 49 + + Holt, John, 50 + + Honey-Locust, 54, 92 + + Honey-Run, 71 + + Hongs’ Farm, 94 + + Horse-Chestnut, 75 + + “ “ English, 72 + + Hotchkin, Rev. S. F., 20, 25 + + Hotel, Buttonwood, 44 + + “ General Wayne, 53 + + Howell, Miss, 63 + + Huber, James S., 60 + + + I. + + Indian Mound, 57 + + Inn, Ye Roebuck, 44 + + Ivy, 59 + + Ivy, Abbotsford, 75 + + Ivy Hill Cemetery, 34 + + Ivy Lodge, 67, 68, 71 + + + J. + + Jansen House, 16 + + Jellett, Stewart A., 34 + + Jenkins, Charles F., 22 + + Johnson, Dr., 89 + + “ Miss Elizabeth R., 71, 81, 82 + + “ Ellwood, 58, 71, 83, 84, 96 + + “ Miss Sally W., 89 + + Jones, Thomas, 49 + + Judas tree, 62 + + Juniper, 32, 58, 67 + + + K. + + Kalm, Peter, 17 + + Karsner, Dr. Daniel, 96 + + Keiffer, Peter, 66, 91 + + Kelly, Judge William D., 39 + + Kelpius, John, 76 + + Kemble, Fanny, 27, 37, 38, 52 + + Kew Gardens, 10 + + Keyser, Peter, 71 + + Keyser-Rodney House, 53 + + Kin, Matthias, 74 + + Kulp, William, 53 + + Kurtz, Henry, 74 + + + L. + + Lafayette, 78 + + Larch, 45, 49, 64, 88, 92 + + Laurel Hill Cemetery, 69 + + Lawson, Alex., 35 + + Le Boutillier, Roberts, 58 + + Lehman, Christian, 74 + + “ Godfried, 16, 19, 22 + + Lehman’s Quarry, 16 + + Lenhart Memorial, 95 + + Lewis, H. Carvill, 70 + + Liberty Tree, 99 + + Lilac, Persian, 83 + + Lily, Wild Goose, 96 + + Linden, 75 + + Linden, Blair, 55 + + Lippard, George, 85 + + Lippincott, J. Bertram, 26 + + Locust, 92 + + Locust, Clammy, 85 + + Locust, Honey, 54, 92 + + Logan, James, 32, 43, 68 + + Lombardy Poplar, 20, 31 + + Longstreth Tree, Helen T., 96 + + Loudoun, 40 + + Lovett Library, 54 + + Lovering, Joseph S., 56 + + Ludwig, Christopher, 46 + + Lutheran Seminary, 41 + + + M. + + Macarthur, Charles T., 36 + + MacKellar, Thomas, 25, 55, 78 + + McClanachan, Blair, 88 + + Magnolia, 32, 59, 97 + + Magnolia, Evergreen, 59 + + “ Glauca, 32, 61, 72 + + “ Swamp, 32, 61, 72 + + “ Yellow Flowering, 32 + + Mahonia, 68 + + Manheim, 44, 67 + + Manley, Edward, 73 + + Maple, Baumann’s, 50, 53 + + “ Blood-leaved, 66 + + “ Cut-leaved, 67 + + “ Norway, 96 + + “ Silver, 36, 37, 38, 47, 50, 51, 92 + + Market Square, 44, 86 + + Mason, James S., 57 + + McLean, Hugh, 49 + + McKean’s Hill, 48 + + McMahon, David, 84 + + Mears, Mrs. Anne DeB., 30, 42 + + Meehan, Joseph, 55, 62, 93, 94 + + Meehan Memorial, 100 + + Meehans’ Nurseries, 66, 72, 94 + + Meehan, Prof. Thos., 10, 57, 63, 86, 94, 97, 99, 100 + + Meehan, William E., 64, 80, 85, 87 + + Megargee Dam, 56 + + Melons, 52 + + Melville, George W., 80 + + Meng’s Magnolia, 74 + + Meng, Melchior, 74, 75 + + Middleton Tree, Mollie, 96 + + Mifflin, Lloyd, 45 + + Milan, Hans, 21 + + Miller, E. Rittenhouse, 97 + + “ N. Dubois, 60 + + Miller & Yates, 98 + + Milton’s Walk, 47 + + Morris, Bishop, 40 + + “ Elizabeth, C. 22 + + “ Elliston P., 71, 86 + + “ Galloway, C., 69 + + “ John T., 98 + + “ Samuel B., 45, 72 + + Mulberry, 99 + + “ White, 76 + + Murphy, D. D., Rev. John K., 76 + + Murter, Joseph, 21, 78 + + + N. + + Naglee Hill, 41 + + “ House, 22, 23, 43 + + National Cemetery, 45, 46 + + Newhall, Robert S., 59 + + Newington, 28 + + Nicholson, George, 10 + + Nixon, Miss, 54 + + Norris, Debby, 24 + + Norris, Isaac, 24 + + Northwood Cemetery, 42 + + Nuttall’s Spleenwort, 73 + + Nuttall, Thomas, 77 + + Nutwold, 27, 47 + + + O. + + Oak, 9 + + Oak, Black, 67 + + “ Jerusalem, 60 + + “ Mossy-cup, 63 + + “ Red, 18, 32, 34, 36, 67, 88 + + “ Weeping, 63 + + “ White, 26, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 97 + + Obolaria, 73 + + Ogden, Rev. J. C., 20 + + Old Oaks Cemetery, 34, 47 + + Oldmixon, 16 + + One Oak, 34 + + Osage Orange, 59 + + Outalauna, 42 + + + P. + + Pancoast, Charles E., 47 + + “ David, 46 + + Papaw, 65 + + Papen House, 16 + + Pastorius, Daniel, 77 + + Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 13, 15, 19, 24, 75 + + Peach, 16 + + Pear, Catherine, 64 + + “ Chancellor, 66 + + “ Keiffer, 66 + + “ Sugar, 64 + + Pecan, 77 + + Peltz, David, 70 + + Penn, J. Granville, 68 + + “ William, 13, 14, 15, 32, 69 + + Pennypacker, Judge S. W., 12, 81, 82 + + Persimmon, 31, 80, 81 + + Perot Farm, 42 + + Peters, Judge, 78 + + Phil-ellena, 92, 97 + + Physick, Philip, 76 + + “ Dr. Philip Syng, 76 + + Pinckney Homestead, 38 + + Pine, Austrian, 29 + + “ Himalayan, 29 + + “ Jersey, 56, 88 + + “ White, 26, 29, 40, 41, 42, 46, 52, 96 + + Plane Tree, 42, 43, 44, 99 + + Plockhoy, Peter, 81 + + Ployd, Naaman K., 87 + + Plum, Cut-leaved, 94 + + Pomona Grove, 85 + + Poplar, Gray, 65 + + “ Lombardy, 20 + + “ Silver, 42 + + “ White, 27 + + “ Tulip, 26, 31, 32, 36, 55, 60, 88 + + Price, Wister, 49 + + + R. + + Rafinesque, C. F., 53 + + Redles, George, 29, 33, 48, 53, 54, 58, 61, 76 + + Red-wood, 91 + + Reeves, Francis B., 34 + + Rittenhouse, William, 82 + + Rivinus, Dr., 96 + + Rhododendron, 50 + + Roberts Mill, 95 + + Rochefoucault, Duke de la, 19 + + Rock-House, 22, 43 + + Rodney House, 53 + + Rogers, Major, 19 + + Roset, Jac. M., 51 + + Rose of Japan, 87 + + Rose, York and Lancaster, 90 + + Russell, George W., 95 + + + S. + + Sassafras, 55, 57 + + Saunders, William, 94 + + Saur, Christopher, 65 + + Schaeffer, William L., 98 + + Schlatter, Michael, 54 + + Scott, Sir Walter, 12, 76 + + Scott’s Spleenwort, 73 + + Seymour, Widow, 34 + + Shoemaker, Ben. H., 45 + + Sibson, John F., 48 + + Silver-bell, 95 + + Silver-Pine Cottage, 40 + + “ “ Farm, 40 + + Smearsburg, 61 + + Smith, Miss Elizabeth P., 67 + + “ John Jay, 63, 67, 69 + + Smoke-tree, 96 + + Smyth, Frank, 27 + + Solitude, 26, 57 + + Spring-Alley, 51 + + Spring-Bank, 39, 45, 60, 97 + + Spruce, 80 + + Spruce, Norway, 29, 91 + + St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, 75 + + “ Lutheran Church, 46 + + Steel, Edward T., 55 + + Stiver, Mrs. M. H., 34 + + Stokes, James, 23 + + “ Thomas P. C., 48 + + Stoneburner, Leonard, 86 + + Strawbridge, Dr. George, 48 + + “ Justus C., 29, 39, 56 + + Stenton, 30, 31, 32 + + Stuart, Gilbert, 51 + + Suicides Grave, 58 + + Sycamore, 42, 43, 44 + + + T. + + Tamarisk, 79 + + Taws, Mrs., 97 + + Thomas, George C., 59 + + “ Robert, 21, 78 + + Toland House, 40, 61 + + Tomato, 52 + + Torworth, 56 + + Treaty Tree, 99 + + Tulip Poplar, 26, 31, 32, 36, 55, 60, 88 + + Tucker, John, 47 + + Turn-pike Bridge, 23 + + + U. + + Upsala, 41, 46, 63, 89 + + + V. + + Vernon, 25, 35, 39, 49, 71, 74 + + Vinegar Hill, 58 + + Virgilia, 50 + + Vollmer, 41 + + + W. + + Wagner House, 61 + + “ John, 55 + + Wakefield, 32, 55 + + “ Little, 33, 36 + + “ Mills, 33 + + Walnut, Black, 18, 26, 27, 31, 39, 92 + + “ English, 72, 73 + + “ White, 78 + + Walter, John, 10 + + Walters, Philip, 53 + + Ward, Townsend, 18, 81 + + Warner Ground, 76 + + Warr, John, 33 + + Washington, George, 25, 55, 72 + + Watchman box, 67 + + Watson, John Fanning, 67 + + Weightman, William, 41 + + Weiss, Charles, 25 + + Welsh, John, 45, 60 + + “ Samuel, 39 + + Wescott, Thompson, 24 + + Wharton, Joseph, 42 + + Wheel-Pump, 54 + + White Cottage, 53, 59 + + Wild-Garden, 63 + + Williams, Alfred, 41 + + Willits, Dr. I. P., 39 + + Willow, Kilmarnock, 98 + + “ Weeping, 20, 25, 75, 84 + + “ White, 24, 25 + + Wingohocken Creek, 49, 58 + + Wissahickon, 45, 56, 57, 66, 70, 96, 98, 102 + + Wistar, Dillwyn, 62 + + Wister, Charles J., 23, 63, 65 + + “ Jr., Charles J., 45, 63, 65 + + Wister Coral Plant, 73 + + “ Memorial Tree, 35 + + “ John, 34, 74 + + “ William Rotch, 29, 66 + + “ William Wynne, 51 + + “ Wood, 35, 36 + + Wisteria, 83 + + Witt, Dr. Christopher, 22, 75, 76 + + Wood, Miss, A. R. 81 + + Woodside, 55 + + Wright, James A., 48 + + Wyck, 21, 25, 59, 60, 65, 77, 78, 79, 97 + + + Y. + + Yew, American, 91 + + “ Creeping, 63 + + “ English, 9, 66 + + “ Irish, 92, 96 + + “ Pomona, 85 + + York Farm, 27, 38 + + + + +TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + +Typos and extraneous punctuation corrected. + +Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been left unchanged. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78370 *** |