SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILIJNOIS. 195 



of David Landreth. Bristol, Pennsylvania^ and from the appearance 

 of all the rest of his ('alifornia conifers one would infer that there 

 must have been some mistake in this instance. 



Many conifers will fudure the climate of Boston, New York, 

 and Philadeljihia. that will never reach the hight of three feet in the 

 West: tus an instance. .1/^/V.s Nordmanniana in Rochester, and Finns 

 excehd near Boston. 



Japan evergreens seem to stand better than those from the Pa- 

 cific. 'Especially is this the case with the Retijwsperax in the vicinity 

 of Boston, but I understand that they suffered seriously last winter. 

 During the summer of ISOS or U my attention was called to the hardi- 

 ness and beauty of Abies Menziesii (Ficea punf/e)is of Engelmann), 

 and Abies Doufjlasii (Fsendo tsuga of Engelmann), on the grounds 

 of A. R. Whitney. They had stood the winter without injury, while 

 the Norway spruce and even the Balsam Fir and White Pine were 

 browned. On learning that these trees had been brought from the 

 Rocky Mountains, I took into consideration that they had grown in 

 a dry climate, and would be more likely to endure our climate than 

 trees indigenous to the moist climates of Europe and the Pacitic 

 coast. I found trees of these two species growing at several places 

 in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, and all doing finely, some over 

 twenty feet high, that showed by their annual growths that they had 

 started every year from the terminal bud since the time they were 

 brought from Pike's Peak during the gold excitement. I then went 

 to Colorado and examined the trees in the mountains, and was more 

 pleased with them than ever. I hired a man to collect the seeds. 

 When he had collected a great many cones, and had hired storage 

 for them at the base of the mountains, on close examination he 

 found that the seeds had shrunken, and sent us a sam])le. My son 

 started immediately for the mountains, and when there, after a most 

 thorough examination, he found that every seed was imperfect: and 

 since that time, 1871, we can only count three years that one or the 

 other of the firm has not been in the mountains, yet we have not 

 succeeded in getting seeds but three times. 



I went up into the mountains last summer, but found the trees 

 were not seeding. However, our collector found the trees seeding in 

 another locality several hundred miles distant, and collected a large 

 quantity of seeds with the help oi several men. He fortunately suc- 

 ceeded in forwarding us about a fourth part of the seeds when a 

 heavy fall of snow filled the canon, so that the remainder of the 

 seeds must lie there till spring. I am far from being discouraged, 

 for I have at least paved the way for others, and I am confident that 

 the time will come when these valuable trees will beautify our noble 

 prairies. 



Aside from the two sppcies named we have tested many other 

 conifers from the Rocky Mountains, among which are Finns Aris- 

 tata, or Balfouriana, Finns confortu^ ponderosa, Jiaxilis, and Finns 



