E\ KKCUKKN TKKES. 89 



puts oil :i .silviT typr. and in tlu- distance looks like Picea pungens. 

 It has a wide diversity of form and foliage; some trees have short 

 needles like the hemlock : others have needles of great length ; 

 some trees have a graceful, pendulous habit ; others are more rigid. 

 The deeper colors with silver tints will be very attractive. But 

 from long oliservatiou Mr. Harrison believes that the Abies con- 

 color will l)e the tree of the future. Henry Ross, Superintendent 

 of Newton Cemetery, and Mr. Hunnewell have some fine specimens 

 gi'owing, but even from these one can hardly conceive of the 

 beauty and attractiveness they present in their mountain home. 

 While in old age both the pungens and the Evgelmanni revert to 

 the green and lose the silver, the concolor retains its unique beauty 

 down to its death. 



]\Ir. Harrison said he had seen massive trees half dead, with 

 limbs 3'et alive, robed in all the beauty of youth. You can pick 

 out a grove of these trees miles away, from their rich contrast 

 with the neighlioring green. He would like to show the meeting a 

 grove in the fruiting season. Here is one tree of richest sheen — 

 silver and sapphire — the new growth being soft green. On the 

 under side of the limits are deep purple blossoms. The cones are 

 purple also and are massed in large numbers on the to*p of the tree. 

 The next tree of the same rich color, strange to say, has cones and 

 blossoms of light green. He had seen two Imnches from the same 

 stump, with this diversity of color. To add to the effect a gum 

 exudes from the cone, clear as crystal, which sparkles in the sun- 

 light. Now stand back and let the breeze and the light play upon 

 the branches, and mingle all the rich colors, and you have a scene 

 worth crossing a continent to behold. These trees are somewhat 

 hard to transplant, though T. C. Thurlow and ^y. C. Strong have 

 made about seventy-flve per cent of trees direct from the moun- 

 tains live. 



Mr. Harrison spoke of the adaptability of the soil and climate 

 of Massachusetts to the conifers. He wondered that there is so 

 little attention paid to beautif^^ing the home and the farm when 

 such facilities were offered. It is a shame so many old farms are 

 deserted, and a further shame that man}' now worked are almost 

 as bleak and dreary as a western prairie, when a little effort would 

 make them charming elysiums. In the west one has great diffi- 

 culty in starting the evergreens, but where once established they 

 are doing well. Last spring the speaker planted over fifty pounds 



