A Word in Favor of Evergreens 21.") 



better adapted to small gardens, yards, or narrow lawns, 

 than for landscape gardening on a large scale, as its beauty 

 is of a formal kind; and though the tree often grows to 

 thirty or forty feet, its appearance is never more pleasing 

 than when it is from ten to fifteen or twenty feet high. The 

 dark green hue of its foliage, which is pretty constant at all 

 seasons, and the comparative ease with which it is trans- 

 planted, will always commend it to the ornamental im- 

 prover. But as a full grown tree, it is not to be compared 

 for a moment, to any one of the three species of evergreens 

 that we have already noticed; since it becomes stiff and 

 formal as it grows old, instead of graceful or picturesque, 

 like the hemlock, white pine, or Norway spruce. Its chief 

 value is for shrubberies, small gardens, or courtyards, in a 

 formal or regular style. The facility of obtaining it, added 

 to the excellent color of its foliage, and the great hardiness 

 of the plant, induce us to give it a place among the four 

 evergreens worthy of the universal attention of our orna- 

 mental planters. 



The Arbor Vitse, so useful for hedges and screens, is, we 

 find, so rapidly becoming popular among our planters that 

 it needs little further commendation. 



For a rapid growing, bold, and picturesque evergreen, 

 the Austrian pine is well deserving of attention. We find 

 it remarkably hardy, adapting itself to all soils (though 

 said to grow naturally in Austria on the lightest sands). 

 A specimen here grew nearly three feet last season; and 

 its bold, stiff foliage, is sufficiently marked to arrest the 

 attention among all other evergreens.* 



The Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra) we find also perfectly 

 hardy in this latitude. This tree produces an eatable ker- 

 nel, and though of comparatively slow growth, is certainly 

 one of the most interesting of the pine family. The Italian 

 stone pine, and the pinaster, are also beautiful trees for the 

 climate of Philadelphia. The grand and lofty pines of Cali- 

 fornia, the largest and loftiest evergreen trees in the world, 



The Austrian pine has proved to be one of the hardiest and most 

 successful evergreens in the plains stales. - F. A. W. 



