246 Landscape Gardening 



are not yet to be found, except as small specimens here and 

 there in the gardens of curious collectors in the United 

 States. But we hope, with our continually increasing inter- 

 course with western America, fresh seeds will be procured 

 by our nurserymen, and grown abundantly for sale. The 

 great Californian silver fir (Abies grandis) grows 200 feet 

 high, with cones 6 inches long, and fine silvery foliage; and 

 the noble silver fir (A. nobilis) is scarcely less striking. "I 

 spent three weeks," says Douglass, the botanical traveller, 

 "in a forest composed of this tree, and, day by day, could 

 not cease to admire it." Both these fine fir trees grow in 

 northern California, where they cover vast tracts of land, 

 and, along with other species of pine, form grand and majestic 

 features in the landscape of that country. The English have 

 been before us in introducing these natives of our western 

 shores; for we find them, though at high prices, now offered 

 for sale in most of the large nurseries in Great Britain. 



The most beautiful evergreen tree in America, and, per- 

 haps - - when foliage, flowers, and perfume are considered, 

 - in the world, is the Magnolia grandiilora of our southern 

 States. There where it grows in the deep alluvial soil of 

 some river valley to the height of 70 or 80 feet, clothed with 

 its large, thick, deep green, glossy leaves, like those of a 

 gigantic laurel, covered in the season of its bloom with 

 large, pure white blossoms that perfume the whole woods 

 about it with their delicious odor; certainly, it presents a 

 spectacle of unrivalled sylvan beauty. Much to be de- 

 plored is it, that north of New York it will not bear the 

 rigor of the winters, and that we are denied the pleasure of 

 seeing it grow freely in the open air. At Philadelphia it is 

 quite hardy; and in the Bartram Garden, at Landreth's, and 

 in various private grounds near that city, there are fine 

 specimens 20 or 30 feet high growing without protection 

 and blooming every year. 



Wherever the climate will permit the culture of this 

 superb evergreen, the ornamental planter would be un- 

 pardonable, in our eyes, not to possess it in considerable 

 abundance. 



