THE PINE SUB-FAMILY. 139 



eluding leaves, branches, etc., forms a miniature specimen 

 of the species, with the shape flattened to a tabular form. 



ADDITIONAL LIST OF PIKES. 



In this chapter we desire to enumerate and describe 

 briefly a few of the new and untested species, as well as 

 those which have been thoroughly tested and proven to 

 be entirely too tender for our climate in the Middle States; 

 and in so doing we wish once more to explain our con- 

 struction of the terms hardy and tender plants. 



On soils that are thoroughly drained, either naturally 

 or artificially, many Conifers, such as the Deodar and 

 Cryptomeria, will succeed very well in the neighborhood 

 of Philadelphia, especially when planted in a warm and 

 protected situation ; and yet the same plants, \vith equally 

 generous treatment in soils that are retentive of moist- 

 ure, such as a very heavy clay, are frequently denounced 

 as tender and unfit for cultivation by others residing in 

 the immediate vicinity. 



As very many Conifers are barely hardy enough to with- 

 stand the severity of our winters at this point, a very few 

 degrees further north entirely places them as undesirable, 

 and thus many a well-meaning and strictly honest writer 

 is frequently censured for recommending plants that his 

 readers find, to their cost, tender and undesirable. 



Plants, therefore, may very justly be classed as hardy, 

 variable, and tender. The first of these embraces such as 

 are unexceptionably reliable ; in the second is comprised 

 those species which it is neither good policy to discard, 

 nor to recommend too highly ; and in the third, the undeni- 

 ably uncertain kinds. It is indeed difficult to assign the 

 true positions of many of our very finest Conifers as to 

 hardiness, and therefore it should be the pleasure of every 



