138 The American Flower Garden 



scintillates in the sun. To light up a dark corner of the lawn, to 

 run up the colour scale of a group of darker spruce and firs to a 

 high, accented note, this tree strikes, perhaps, the most effective 

 crescendo. But how sadly misused it is! Sometimes one could 

 almost wish that it, like the over-planted crimson rambler, had 

 never been introduced. These few spruces named illustrate how 

 important it is to really know various members of even the most 

 familiar tree tribe, their defects and merits, their uses and abuses, 

 before installing them as neighbours about your home. 



If the yew and holly are the best evergreens for England 

 because, being native, they thrive there to perfection, so our spruce, 

 hemlock, arborvitae, pine and junipers are best for us to use 

 as a basis for other planting. On the solid foundation of our native 

 trees we may build the lighter superstructure and embellish it, 

 according to fancy, with details from the ends of the earth; but 

 let us not forget the enormous sums of American money wasted 

 on European evergreens on English yews alone. After exhaust 

 ing the possibilities of our beautiful native trees, our hope lies in 

 those from lands with climatic conditions, similar to our own, no 

 tably Siberia, China and Japan. The Korean yew (Cephalotaxus 

 pedunculata, var. fastigiata), the Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata) 

 and their varied forms, with rich, dark, lustrous, dense, almost 

 solid foliage that withstands intense cold and the brightest sun, 

 promise to be the valuable ones for our landscape work years after 

 the English and Irish yews, once so extensively planted, have 

 perished miserably almost everywhere except in a few favoured 

 places in the Middle South. We have to thank the Orient for 

 most of the charming little retinisporas, the green and gold lace 

 and embroidery among trees, that we most enjoy when planted 

 close to the foundations of our houses, massed in corners, in 



