Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Reimagining the Cemetery as Museum | Page 22

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Visitors flock to the Prince of Wales Scion Beech Tree on Bigelow Chapel
Lawn in November 2015

By Stephen Jackson, Plant Records & GIS Manager

At Mount Auburn,
Some Trees are Celebrities!
Prince-of-Wales Beech (Fagus sylvatica): The current tree
on the lawn outside of Bigelow Chapel is a vegetative
re-propagation of the original 1860 tree, which had to be
removed in 2008. That tree was ceremonially planted by
the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.
Newton’s Apple Tree (Malus domestic ‘Flower of Kent’):
A recent gift to Mount Auburn, this tree was propagated
with cuttings from the original apple tree that gave Sir Isaac
Newton his ideas on gravity. It is currently in our nursery.
Asa Gray’s Yellowwood (Cladrastris kentukea): Seeds were
taken from the two Yellowwoods that famed botanist Asa
Gray planted outside of First Church in Cambridge (the
trees were in very bad condition and were removed in 2014).
We hope to be able to grow more trees from this seed.

20 | Sweet Auburn

Longfellow’s Linden (Tilia cordata): A Linden tree grown
from one at the historic Longfellow house in Cambridge.
Planted on Fountain Avenue.
Waverly Oaks (Quercus alba): Acorns collected in 2015
from the last of the original Waverly Oak trees in Belmont,
which were instrumental in the formation of the Trustees
of Reservations, are currently in propagation.
Jacob Bigelow’s Magnolias (Magnolia virginiana): Collected
from the same swamp in Gloucester where Bigelow
discovered this northernmost population of the species,
which he included in his Florula Bostoniensis of 1814.
Currently in our nursery, it will be planted by Bigelow’s lot
on Beech Avenue in 2016.
Pre-1831 Black Oaks (Quercus velutina): These trees were
part of the original oak forest that occupied the site prior
to Mount Auburn’s founding.