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Fig. 15.—Formal trees in a central parking, but appropriate trees wanting on the sides of the street. Canary Island date palms in Merced, Calif.; midsummer.
As a rule, trees native to the locality that have been successfully grown in other cities should be given the preference. When a choice must be made between untried native trees and those tested in a city or town under different soil or climatic to give the native trees the first trial. There are many native trees that are promising which have not been planted on a sufficient scale or under sufficiently varied conditions to demonstrate their real value for street planting over any considerable area. Many of the trees mentioned in this bulletin may prove valuable far beyond the areas for which they are suggested. The burr oak, the swamp white oak, the scarlet oak, the chestnut oak, the white oak, the sour gum, and others may be found on further trial to be as valuable as those already demonstrated to be valuable over large areas. Those mentioned have all been tested in a small way.
Caution should be used in selecting trees with conspicuous flowers and those with edible fruits or nuts, as in many parts of the country such trees are badly mutilated by the public. Even horse-chestnuts, although the nuts are not edible, are often broken by boys clubbing the trees. That public opinion can prevent such vandalism is in evidence all along the Pacific coast and at a few places in the East. Every effort should be made to create a sentiment that will protect these attractive additions to street adornment, but where the sentiment does not exist it is better to avoid the planting of such trees except in a limited way.
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Fig. 16.—Live oaks, the handsomest southern street tree for broad street: Biloxi, Miss.; late summer.