EVERGREEN 1 ORNAMENTAL TREES. 481 



mountains, at an elevation of 1,020 feet above the sea 

 where even the Ailanthus was destroyed, we cannot see 

 why this tree may not stand in any other part of the 

 country, at the same elevation, having no greater degree 

 of cold, but always under the same circumstances and 

 conditions. What these are, unfortunately, the tree 

 only knows ; possibly a frost, even as severe as this, at 

 a great distance from the sea, may be less injurious than 

 half the amount of frost near salt water ; or the severe 

 weather may come and go, gradually, without the great 

 variations common in the middle States ; which varia- 

 tion we have always believed most destructive to veget- 

 able, as it is injurious to animal life ; and finally, the 

 conclusion we must inevitably come to is that the 

 organism of a plant is as wonderful and mysterious as 

 that of a man, and that, with certain general rules as 

 to planting and treatment, we must grope in the dark 

 until many more years of experience in different parts 

 of the United States, enable us to know what we can 

 and what we cannot grow. We trust, however, that 

 some assistance may be obtained from the reports we 

 have been enabled to procure from different parts of the 

 country, by which planters in those localities will be 

 able to do as well as their neighbors, if they can give 

 their trees the same advantages. 



Another reason why we proposed to give in this 

 supplement a more complete account and list of all the 

 evergreens, hardy and half-hardy, which have been 

 introduced into this country of late years is (and we 

 quote again in part from Mr. London), that we think there 

 are few scenes in an ornamental garden or pleasure- 

 ground, of greater interest to a person having any taste 

 or knowledge of Botany, however slight, than a collec- 

 tion of trees and shrubs, natives of foreign climates, 

 which, though they would be destroyed if exposed in 

 the winter, yet when planted (turned out), or sunk 

 in the ground during the summer, exhibit a degree of 

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