EVERGREEN TREES 123 



and with great care. This group of comparatively unsat- 

 isfactory evergreens might easily include the yews, for 

 very few of them are really hardy, except the Japanese 

 taxus cuspidata, and one or two dwarf American spe- 

 cies. Yet the English yew, T. baccata, hardly ever dies 

 from the accidents of heat and cold, although it occa- 

 sionally browns in early spring, when it quickly recovers, 

 and retains, with great persistency, its former pictur- 

 esqueness. Another exception is found among the 

 spruces, in the case of the common hemlock, abies can- 

 adensis, which lasts in good order a long time, and sel- 

 dom suffers in winter. The trouble is, it is generally 

 used in hedges, where its crowded condition tends to 

 seriously impair its capacity for long life. 



One of the chief drawbacks to the use of evergreens 

 is met in the accidents that occur during the process of 

 transplanting. Like most accidents, many of them, we 

 are sure, might have been avoided by intelligent care, 

 which means puddling the roots with mud, and keeping 

 them absolutely from the air, until they are actually set 

 in the ground. The small fibers of the roots of ever- 

 greens are so sensitive that they readily shrivel up and 

 die when exposed directly to the adverse influences of 

 the sun and wind. 



