1 64 fOKEST TREES, 



light green, and look like tassels appended to the bluish stiff branches 

 of older growth. The cones are long, from one and a-half to two 

 inches, and slightly curved, appearing pendent on the last years branches. 

 The White Spruce differs from the Black, in that the larger cones instead 

 of remaining persistent on the branches, drop from the tree as soon as 

 the seeds are ripe. The spiny leaves surround the branchlets on all sides, 

 and are stiff and rigid as they get older, but soft in the earlier stage of 

 growth. 



The Spruce firs are rapid in growth and bear transplanting well, 

 especially if planted in groups, and supplied with water when first removed 

 from their forest soil. By planting several of the young trees near each 

 other, they shelter one another and retain the moisture about their roots 

 which would otherwise evaporate too quickly. 



April is preferred by some persons for transplanting evergreens, before 

 the sap has started the new shoots. Others prefer July or August, when 

 the sap is less active, but with watering and care Spruce will move well 

 at any time during the Spring and Summer months ; when once rooted 

 they make rapid growth. Hemlock and White Pine take less kindly to 

 change of soil and place. As an ornamental tree the White Pine is 

 inferior to the Spruce firs unless in extensive grounds where it has ample 

 space allowed for the development of its branches. 



The timber of the White Spruce is white and light ; it is not valued 

 so highly as that of the Pine, nor does it attain to so great a height or 

 bulk. Hurlburt gives it only 50 feet in altitude, and from 12 to 18 

 inches in diameter. 



Tamarac. — American Larch. — Larix Americana, (Michx,) 



"And the Larch has hung all its tassels forth."" — Honans. 



One of the loveliest heralds of the opening Spring is the Larch, 

 delighting the eye, long wearied with watching the tardy unfolding of 

 the leaves of the hardwood trees ; its bright verdant tufts of foliage, 

 bursting from every spray, encircle the rosy, hardly developed, cones, like 

 a tender green thready fringe. The more we look upon this beautiful 

 tree the more we find to admire in it. The young twigs are covered 

 with a golden hued knobby bark ; from this rough bark spring the light 

 thready whorls of leaves at short intervals, each enveloping a soft cone 

 of crimson colour — or cluster of staminate flowers — arranged along the 

 pendent branchlets, which hang gracefully downward, looking as if 

 adorned with strings of fresh rosebuds — or tufts of golden threads. The 

 branches of the Larch grow at right angles with the trunk, and spread 

 horizontally, slightly drooping at the extremities. The bark is whitish- 



