Johnny Appleseed's story is

but one of many tantalizing accounts of our horticultural heritage.

American Forests' Web page

lists several dozen and characterizes each as relevant to certain national

events or historic figures.

You can grow a maple tree genetically

identical to the Alex Haley Silver Maple that stands in front of the writer's

boyhood home.

The American Revolution comes

to the modern age in saplings generated from the Lafayette Sycamore on

the Brandywine Battlefield Park in Chadds Ford, Pa. That tree was already

168 years old when it sheltered troops in its shade. The Marquis de Lafayette

lay against its bark as his wounded leg was being dressed.

The Nathan Hale Northern Red

Oak shades the patriot's boyhood home in Coventry, Conn. Your seedling

is acorn-grown.

Civil War survivors include

several trees at Appomattox Courthouse and in Gettysburg. En route to

the cemetery where he gave his immortal speech, Abraham Lincoln would

have passed under the shade of three American red oaks on Baltimore Street.

They come to you today, sprouted from handpicked seeds.

Seedlings from acorns may grow

up to be as big as their parent, the Hanging Live Oak in Goliad, Texas.

True to its name, this massive tree was the host of many a necktie party.

You can plant a Southern magnolia

seedling from the tree that grows by the Great House at the plantation

where Robert E. Lee was born. Another Southern icon is remembered in the

pin oak along the driveway of Elvis Presley's Graceland Mansion, as well

as in a weeping willow near the front gate. Yes, for around $35, you can

have your very own certified Presley Pin Oak.

In a broader view of history,

there are the Charles Lindbergh White Oak at the flier's Little Falls,

Minn., childhood home; the Frank Lloyd Wright Ginkgo in Oak Park, Ill.,

where the architect lived for 20 years; the Thomas Edison Oleander at

the inventor's winter home in Fort Myers, Fla.; the Wyatt Earp Black Walnut,

which was already a large tree shading Earp's Monmouth, Ill., birthplace

when he was born in 1848.

Presidential trees include

not only those at birthplaces and childhood homes, but also those planted

that got national concern in modern times is the Andrew Jackson Southern

Magnolia. Planted by the president in 1832 in memory of his wife, Rachel,

who died before he took office, the tree was nearly destroyed 165 years

later when a small airplane crashed into it.

And the trees that may require

the most unusual care are two tulip trees planted in 1785 by George Washington

at Mount Vernon, his home on the Potomac River. The Historic Trees Web

site says these majestic trees ­ well over 80 to 100 feet tall now

­ can no longer be naturally pollinated by bees, which can fly only

about 40 or 50 feet high.

"Beginning in 1989, we

began manually pollinating the individual flowers, one by one, relying

on a lift bucket and Q-Tips," says Historic Trees.

And to think, you can order

the resulting seedlings for your own Mount Vernon, and plant trees derived

from the cooperative efforts of the first president and the National Arboretum.

You can learn more at www.historictrees.org .

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