A WORD IN FAVOR OF EVERGREENS. 333 



rapidly becoming popular among our planters, that it needs little 

 further commendation. 



Among the foreign evergreens worthy of attention, are the Chili 

 pine (Araucaria), the Cedar of Lebanon, and the Deodar cedar, 

 three very noble trees, already described in previous pages, and 

 worthy of attention in the highest degree. The two first have stood 

 the past winter well, in our own grounds, and are likely to prove 

 quite hardy here. 



For a rapid growing, bold, and picturesque evergreen, the Aus- 

 trian pine (Pinus Austriaca) is well deserving of attention. We 

 find it remarkably hardy, adapting itself to all soils (though said to 

 grow naturally in Austria on the lightest sands). A specimen here, 

 grew nearly three feet last season ; and its bold, stiff foliage, is suffi- 

 ciently marked to arrest the attention among all other evergreens. 



The Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra) we find also perfectly 

 hardy in this latitude. This tree produces an eatable kernel, and 

 though of comparatively slow growth, is certainly one of the most 

 interesting of the pine family. The Italian stone pine, and the pinas- 

 ter, are also beautiful trees for the climate of Philadelphia. The 

 grand and lofty pines of California, the largest and loftiest evergreen 

 trees in the world, are not yet to be found, except as small specimens 

 here and there in the gardens of curious collectors in the United 

 States. But we hope, with our continually increasing intercourse 

 with western America, fresh seeds will be procured by our nursery- 

 men, and grown abundantly for sale. The great Californian silver 

 fir (Picea grandis) grows 200 feet high, with cones 6 inches long, 

 and fine silvery foliage ; and the noble silver fir (P. nobilis) is 

 scarcely less striking. " I spent three weeks," says Douglass, the 

 botanical traveller, " in a forest composed of this tree, and, day by 

 day, could not cease to admire it." Both these fine fir-trees grow in 

 Northern California, where they cover vast tracts of land, and, along, 

 with other species of pine, form grand and majestic features in the 

 landscape of that country. The English have been before us in in- 

 troducing these natives of our western shores ; for we find them, 

 though at high prices, now offered for sale in most of the large 

 nurseries in Great Britain. 



The most beautiful evergreen-tree in America, and, perhaps, 



