442 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



carefully excluded. When such a spot is fouud in the woods, one 

 readily agrees with Bryant in saying: " The groves were God's first 

 temples." 



TsuGA Canadensis— Carriere. (Hemlock). When grown in good 

 soil with plenty of room and moisture it is probably our most beau- 

 tiful native for the lawn. Its slender, graceful branches, with the 

 silvery bloom under the leaves, its conical yet gentle outlines 

 tempt one to try every means to make it a success. But it may 

 be hard to do this away from its favorite haunts, where it finds 

 the shelter of other trees, fertile loam and constant moisture. Here 

 let me mention another hemlock for introduction, Tsuga Pattoni- 

 ana, of Montana, a remarkably beautiful tree, growing high up 

 the mountains, where it la much exposed. It may be perfectly hardy 

 here. 



PiCEA ALBA— Link (White Spruce) and Abies Balsamea (Bal- 

 sam Fir) stand next in my favor for ornamental planting. They 

 are often remarkably beautiful on the alluvial banks of streams 

 in mountain regions. Picea alba and abies subalpina grow together 

 in Montana and seem there even more rigorous than the white 

 spruce and balsam here. It may be advisable to get seed and seed- 

 lings from there for nursery stock. The white spruce resembles 

 the Norway spruce somewhat. It grows tall and large and is val- 

 uable for timber. It is eminently a Northwestern tree, forming 

 large timber forests in Manitoba and the Northwest Territory. It is 

 doubtless more hardy on the prairie than the fir, yet it likes shelter. 

 It is the most ready conifer to come in under the birch and poplar 

 that follow forest fires. 



The fir is not a large tree, seldom exceeding seventy feet in height 

 and eighteen inches in diameter. It is valuable not only for its 

 beautiful form and foliage and its dense shade, but about the home 

 it is desirable for its medicinal properties. The "blister" in the bark 

 containsthemost healing salve the woodman knows and anexcellent 

 remedy for nasal and pulmonary diseases. Even the resinous odor 

 thrown off from the leaves on warm daj'^s is very healthful, and 

 some people use pillows made of thein. A well watered subsoil 

 seems to be necessar}^ for these two trees. 



Picea nigra— Link (^/aci Spruce). This has a natural distribution 

 northward. It is principally confined to the sphagnum bogs or 

 muskeegs. (It is sornetimes called the muskeeg spruce). There it 

 grows more slowly, sometimes being only an inch in diameter at 

 seventy-five years old, and uncouth, even weird in aspect; some- 

 times devoid of all limbs except a tuft of very short fruiting branches 

 at the very top; but on sandy upland with damp subsoil and plenty 

 of shelter, it develops much beauty. Its upper, or fruiting, branches, 

 very short, stiff and compact, form spires resembling but not as 

 slender as those of the balsam fir, or, occasionally, an inverted nap- 

 iform ball. The middle branches often droop considerably, ascend, 

 ing, however, at the tip. Sometimes they hang like vines close to 

 the trunk (as shown in engraving), the very lowest, when present 

 running out upon the ground. Some individuals of this form are 

 very beautiful. This is not a large tree. It is seldom more than 

 eevent}^ feet high and ten inches in diameter. This as well as the 



