THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED TO ALL PHASES OF NATURE-STUDY IN SCHOOLS 



Vol. 2 JANUARY, 1906 No. 1 



THE EVERGREENS 



BY ANNA BOTSFORD COMSTOCK 

 Cornell University 



[Editorial Note. — The following paper is based on a leaflet prepared in 1904 

 for use in the Cornell Home Nature-Study Course, directed by Mrs. Comstock. 

 The original leaflet was limited to the trees of New York. It is now arranged for 

 Eastern North America, and the general plan will be valuable for teachers wherever 

 evergreens grow.] 



"Spite of winter, thou keep'st thy green glory, 

 Lusty father of Titans past number ! 

 The snow-flakes alone make thee hoary, 

 Nestling close to thy branches in slumber. 

 And thee mantling with silence. " . 



— Lowell 



Not only are the evergreens among our most useful and valuable 

 trees, but they are also most beautiful to look upon; in the winter they 

 give us masses of color in the snowy landscape, and in the summer 

 they add great richness and beauty to the hues of the woodlands. 

 These evergreens are the aristocracy of the tree world: they represent 

 the oldest families, for members of the group to which they belong ap- 

 peared as early as the Silurian ager the evergreens were probably at 

 their height in numbers of species and magnificence of development 

 during the Triassic period. The pines were contemporaries of all those 

 plants which were put to sleep in the Devonian age, in our coal beds 

 of today. The evergreens are a dignified remnant of an older tree- 

 race, which is being pushed to the wall by those upstarts, the oaks and 

 maples and other deciduous trees. They still cling to the sandy shores 

 where there is little to support other trees; and to the mountains and 

 northern regions where other trees have not the strength to endure. 



