314 BRECK'S BOOK OF FLOWERS. 



that it was no more uncertain with this than with othei 

 evergreens; and pointed to a tree, thirty or forty feet high 

 clothed with branches to the ground, which, he said, he trans- 

 planted from another part of the ground to where it now stood 

 but a few years since, it being then six inches in diameter. It 

 was taken up so carefully that the growth was hardly checked. 

 The great trouble with this, as with all evergreens when 

 taken from the woods, is, that it is difficult to save all the roots. 

 They are then often exposed to the sun and air, which, to an 

 evergreen, is more hazardous to its prosperity, than it would be 

 to a deciduous tree. The change of soil and location, to the 

 tree, with only a portion of its roots, which, with the exposure, 

 and, perhaps, too deep planting, proves to be death to the tree. 

 For this reason, trees grown in a nursery are more sure to live 

 than those taken from the forests ; having been transplanted 

 into rows and root-pruned, their roots are in small compass, 

 and, as they are generally taken up with a ball of earth, they 

 are almost sure to live. We hope to see the Hemlock more 

 extensively cultivated in our nurseries. 



" The Hemlock Spruce, or Hemlock, as, throughout New 

 England, it is universally called, is the most beautiful tree of 

 the family. It is distinguished from all the other Pines by the 

 softness and delicacy of its tufted foliage ; from the Spruce, by 

 its slender, tapering branches, and the smoothness of its limbs ; 

 and from the Balsam Fir, by its small terminal cones, by the 

 irregularity of its branches, and the gracefulness of its whole 

 appearance. 



" The young trees, by their numerous irregular branches, 

 clothed with foliage of a delicate green, form a rich mass of 

 verdure ; and when, in the beginning of summer, each twig is 

 terminated with a tuft of yellowish-green recent leaves, surmount- 

 ing the darker-green of the former year, the effect, as an object 

 of beauty, is equalled by very few flowering shrubs, and far 

 surpasses that produced by any other tree. 



" The Hemlock is said, by Pursh, to extend to the most northern 

 regions in Canada, and was found by Mr. Menzies in North- 



