330 TREES. 



and agreeable hue of its pliant foliage, the excellent form of the tree, 

 and its adaptation to a great variety of soils and sites, are all recom- 

 mendations not easily overlooked. 



Besides, it bears transplanting particularly well ; and is, on this 

 account also, more generally seen than any other species in our orna- 

 mental plantations. But its especial merit, as an ornamental tree, 

 is the perpetually fine, rich, lively green of its foliage. In the 

 northern States, many evergreens lose their bright color in mid- 

 winter, owing to the severity of the cold ; and though they regain 

 it quickly in the first mild days of spring, yet this temporary dingi- 

 ness, at the season when verdure is rarest and most prized, is, unde- 

 niably, a great defect. Both the hemlock and the white pine are 

 exceptions. Even in the greatest depression of the thermometer 

 known to our neighbors on the " disputed boundary " line, we be- 

 lieve the verdure of these trees is the same fine unchanging green. 

 Again, this thin summer growth is of such a soft and lively color, 

 that they are (unlike some of the other pines, the red cedar, etc.) 

 as pleasant to look upon, even in June, as any fresh and full foliaged 

 deciduous tree, rejoicing in all its full breadth of new summer robes. 

 We place the white pine, therefore, among the first in the regards 

 of the ornamental planter. 



Perhaps the most popular foreign evergreen in this country is 

 the NORWAY SPRUCE (Abies excclsa.) In fact, it is so useful and 

 valuable a tree, that it is destined to become much more popular 

 still. So hardy, that it is used as a nurse plant, to break off the 

 wind in exposed sites, and shelter more tender trees in young planta- 

 tions ; so readily adapting itself to any site, that it thrives upon all 

 soils, from light sand, or dry gravel, to deep moist loam or clay ; so 

 accommodating in its habits, that it will grow under the shade of 

 other trees, or in the most exposed positions ; there is no planter of 

 new places, or improver of old ones, who will not find it necessary 

 to call it in to his assistance. Then, again, the variety of purposes 

 for which this tree may be used is so indefinite. Certainly, there are 

 few tiees more strikingly picturesque than a fine Norway spruce, 

 40 or 50 years old, towering up from a base of thick branches which 

 droop and fall to the very lawn, and hang off" in those depending 

 curves, which make it such a favorite with artists. Any one who 



