A WORD IN FAVOR OF EVERGREENS. 331 



wishes ocular demonstration of the truth of this, will do well to 

 daguerreotype in his mind (for certainly, once seen, he can never 

 forget them) the fine specimens on the lawn at the seat of Col. Per- 

 kins, near Boston ; or two or three, still larger, and almost equally 

 well developed, in the old Linnaean Garden of Mr. Winter, at Flush- 

 ing, Long Island. 



The Norway spruce, ahroad, is thought to grow rapidly only on 

 soils somewhat damp. But this is not the case in America. We 

 saw, lately, a young plantation of them of 10 or 12 years growth, in 

 the ground of Capt. Forbes, of Milton Hill, near Boston, on very high 

 and dry gravelly soil, many of which made leading shoots, last sea- 

 son, of three or four feet. Their growth may be greatly promoted, 

 as indeed may that of all evergreens, by a liberal top-dressing of 

 ashes, applied early every spring or autumn. 



Little seems to be known in the United States, as yet, of the 

 great value of the Norway spruce, for hedges* We have no doubt 

 whatever that it will soon become the favorite plant for evergreen 

 hedges, as the buckthorn and Osage orange are already for decidu- 

 ous hedges in this country. So hardy as to grow every where, so 

 strong, and bearing the shears so well, as to form an almost impene- 

 trable wall of foliage, it is precisely adapted to thousands of situa- 

 tions in the northern half of the Union, where an unfailing shelter, 

 screen, and barrier, are wanted at all seasons, f 



* This plant may be had from six inches to two feet high at the English 

 nurseries, at such extremely low prices per 1000, that our nurserymen can 

 well afford to import and grow it a year or two in their grounds, and sell it 

 wholesale for hedges, at rates that will place it in the reach of all planters. 

 Autumn is the safest season to import it from England ; as, if packed dry and 

 shipped at that season, not ten plants in a thousand will die on the passage. 

 We hope in a couple of years it will be obtainable, in large quantities, in 

 every large nursery in America. "We also observe that Elwanger <fe Barry, 

 at Rochester, advertise it at the present time as a hedge plant. 



f " No tree," says the Arboretum Britannicum, " is better adapted than 

 this for planting in narrow strips for shelter or seclusion : because, though 

 the trees in the interior of the strip may become naked below, yet those from 

 the outside will retain their branches from the ground upwards, and effectu- 

 ally prevent the eye from seeing through the screen. The tendency of the 

 tree to preserve its lower branches renders it an excellent protection to 



