THE CULTIVATED EVERGREENS 



CHAPTER I 

 THE CONIFEROUS EVERGREENS IN THE LANDSCAPE 



AN EVERGREEN is a plant that holds its green foliage 

 r\ when dormant. It is the prevailing opinion, no doubt, 

 that an evergreen plant is one that is always green; but 

 all plants are so colored in the growing state, and one that 

 grows year in and year out is necessarily continuously green. 

 In this sense, palms are evergreens; so are meadow and lawn 

 grasses when winters are mild; and so are begonias and toma- 

 toes when cold does not kill them. The true evergreen, how- 

 ever, is the one that remains verdant even though it is not 

 growing, and in spite of winter or frequent frost. It is not 

 deciduous; and, moreover, its foliage remains green rather 

 than brown and sere. 



The representative evergreens are the conifers, although not 

 all conifers are evergreen. Some of them are deciduous, as the 

 bald cypress and larches. The conifers, or Coniferse, comprise a 

 mighty group in the vegetable community, agreeing not pri- 

 marily in the fact that so many of them are evergreen, but in 

 certain clear botanical structure as explained in Part II. They 

 yield great products for the use of man in timber and resins; 

 and their ornamental value is outstanding. They may well be 

 treated as a unit, either from the forestry side or from the 

 horticultural use. The latter utility is intended in this book; 

 but it is first important to appreciate the coniferous forest, 

 against which so much of our civilization is set. 



Appreciation of the forest is essential to the best under- 



B 1 



mtPEWT UMARf 

 W C. State ColU^e 



