Don’t blame the dog-wood for this verse, though doggerel it be,
Its flowers are much more beautiful than any lines from me.
I’d like to tell you all about the trees both great and small;
’Twould keep me very busy to even name them all!
The pine tree—that fine tree! the elms and the oaks,
Make wood enough and good enough for any sort of folks.
The beech tree, the peach tree together on the strand;
The pretty girls the “peaches” love the “beaches’” shining sand.
The palm tree, the balm tree, the bamboo, the teak;
And others from the Orient if we go there to seek.