LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS TREES.

And the winner of American Forests' coveted Tree Planter of the Millennium award goes to ... Johnny Appleseed.

That's right. And come spring, the conservation group will honor the man, whose true name was John Chapman, and whose tree-planting meanderings in the early 1800s is the stuff of American folklore. The plan is to follow Chapman's path and plant direct offspring of the last-known Johnny Appleseed tree.

Jeff Meyer, project director of American Forests' Famous & Historic Tree Program, says that about five years ago, the group first learned of the Appleseed tree, located on a farm in Nova, Ohio, and took cuttings. (Unfortunately, the tree was in bad health and two years ago, a heavy storm dealt it a death blow.) American Forests has since produced close to 2,000 offspring of the Albemarle Pippin apple tree.

In mid-April, Meyer will go to Chapman's birthplace in Leominster, Massachusetts, beginning a trip to all 10 states that Chapman visited. Along the way, he will plant Johnny Appleseed trees at botanical gardens and arboretums. Last stop: Chapman's gravesite in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

"Johnny Appleseed is the best known tree planter of all time, even though a lot of people think he's just a legend," says Meyer. "He cared very deeply about trees and the planting of trees and, really, he was one of our first environmentalists."

When Chapman was a young man, a kick to the head from a mule supposedly knocked him for a loop. While unconscious, he had a vision of heaven--lined with apple trees. Such was the impetus for a lifelong devotion to planting trees around the U.S. Or so the story goes.

American Forests is taking reservations for springtime delivery of the Johnny Appleseed tree's offspring. Those with no taste for apples, however, might consider any number of other trees--the George Washington tulip poplar, the offspring of a tree our first president planted; or the moon sycamore, the original seeds of which visited the moon on Apollo 14; or any number of trees from Civil War battlefields. There are trees with connections to U.S. presidents, renowned American women, even authors.

The price for any tree--Johnny Appleseed included--is $35, a reasonable sum, some would say, for bringing George Washington Carver's green ash, Napoleon's gravesite weeping willow, Thoreau's Walden Woods red maple or Susan B. Anthony's sycamore to your backyard. CONTACT: Famous & Historic Trees, 8701 Old Kings Road, Jacksonville, FL 32219/[phone], www.amfor.org/fht.