152 CONIFERS 



Our best native spruces are the white and Colorado (P. alba 

 and pungens). England cannot grow a good white spruce, but 

 she grows good Colorado spruces and has an important lesson to 

 teach us about them. With us the Colorado spruce is the most 

 popular of all evergreens, because it has the bluest and therefore 

 the most conspicuous and unnatural colour. Every yard has one, 

 along with other curiosities, and we scatter them all over the place 

 in an effort to make our grounds as different as possible from their 

 environment. On the contrary, we ought to plant chiefly the 

 trees of our neighbourhood, and America will never look happy 

 and mellow until we do. Moreover, we ought never to isolate a 

 Colorado spruce or any other conspicuous object, but use such 

 things to "spice" a composition. Precisely what I mean is shown 

 by the frontispiece. 



OUR EQUIVALENTS FOR THE "BIG TREES" 



How the soul of a Californian must rejoice when he sees 

 a Sequoia gigantea that has grown a hundred feet in fifty years! I 

 saw one at Dropmore that was ninety -eight feet high and 

 planted about 1860. The oldest specimens I have seen in the 

 East are at Rochester and Dosoris, and they are "homelier 

 than sin." To tell the truth, the big tree is not beautiful in our 

 gardens. (See plate 63.) 



The only equivalent of it we can have is Cryptomeria Japonica, 

 the most important timber tree of Japan. Both have a 

 bunchy foliage effect which is produced by long strings, like those 

 of the cypress or club moss. But even the Cryptomeria is hardy 

 only as far north as New York, unless in sheltered positions, and 

 this type of conifer is only for collections. We do not want it in 

 our landscape. 



