SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 491 



six or seven years, and the arbor vitge the same; while the Norway spruces 

 and Austrian pine retain their leaves till the sixth or seventh year. Then in 

 the arbor vita? and the red cedar the change in color during winter is due to 

 the green color in the surface cells of the leaves withdrawing to the inner 

 end of the cell, leaving the reddish coloring material with which the leaf is 

 supplied nearest the surface. When warm weather returns and active life 

 resumes its operations in the leaves, the green coloring matter takes its 

 rightful place nearest the surface. 



I would like to add a word of warning or advice in regard to evergreens. 

 Do not plant too many. Do not plant them too close to the house. Although 

 they are beautiful in themselves and retain their leaves when all nature is 

 embraced in the icy fetters of winter, too many of them about a place gives 

 it a heavy and gloomy aspect. Give them plenty of room. Do not shear 

 them into stiff or fantastic forms. Do not think you must have evergreens 

 in order to have a beautiful place. The place that I think the most taste- 

 fully ornamented in this city has but a single evergreen, and that is a small 

 arbor vita? in the corner of the front yard. 



Watering Newly Set Trees. — C. M. Hovey gives good counsel in this 

 matter in the following paragraphs: 



That newly planted trees in certain unfavorable seasons and certain con- 

 ditions of soil do occasionally require watering will not be denied. But the 

 eases are so rare that they are scarcely to be taken into account. A tree 

 properly planted, with the soil in the right condition, immediately goes to 

 work to replace roots which had been severed in removal. The earth grows 

 warmer every day, and the young rootlets feel the influence of this heat, and 

 new fibers immediately break from them, as may be seen by examination 

 twenty-four hours after planting. The soil has probably a temperature of 60° 

 or 65°, and perhaps more; but, just as all is going well enough, along comes 

 the planter with a pot of cold water, which he dashes around the tree, chill- 

 ing the earth, and, indeed, often killing the young fibers. Trees can stand a 

 great deal, or twice as many would never survive. The tree leaves out with 

 the great heat of the sun upon the soil, and again the fresh fibers begin to 

 put out; once more comes the shower-bath, often a third time, and if the tree 

 doos not die it is in spite of the planter. 



It is rarely that a tree planted very early ever needs any water ; certainly 

 only in a very dry soil, and it should then be given at the time of planting. But 

 later in the season, when the sun's rays are more powerful and evaporation 

 rapid, possibly one, or at most two waterings are all that any tree needs. If 

 the planter has nothing to do, and wishes to show his affection for his trees, 

 he can safely take the syringe or even a fine rose waterpot, and moisten the 

 whole top of the trees, which will do far more good than to drown the roots. 



Pruning Evergreens. — " Croppie " says in the New York Tribune: Many 

 persons are afraid to trim evergreens, under the impression that as the buds 

 are in so many instances terminal, it would be impoosible to cause a fresh 

 growth of young shoots. The fact is, no other family of plaut3 is more greatly 

 benefited by systematic pruning, not even excepting the pines. The great 

 majority of plants are furnished with adventitious buds, that is, hidden organs 

 which develop a».;d grow from the surface of the branch apart from their 

 usual position. We have only to examine a perfect hedge to ascertain how 



