June 17, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



279 



colored cones adhering to the branches. They are very per- 

 sistent, and last for many years. It is doubtful whether they 

 fall off naturally, though they may be broken from the limbs 

 or drop off when the attachment rots away. They are more 

 durable than the smaller branches to which they cling, for on 

 fallen trees that have lain upon the ground a long time the 

 cones remain till the branchlets decay, the thick and indurated 

 scales being more lasting than the wood. They are closely 

 sessile, and when a fresh cone is pulled off some of the wood 

 of the supporting branch invariably comes away with it, a 

 piece from half an inch to more than an inch in length, and 

 often reaching to the centre of a small twig in depth, being 

 torn out. No better proof of the growth of a flower-cluster from 

 the wood could be desired. Even the old and dry cones do 

 this to a less degree, or the branch breaks off before the cone 

 can be detached. This persistence of the cones gives to an old 

 tree the appearance of great fruitfulness, the fruit of many 

 years being represented on it, though comparatively few cones 

 are produced in any single year, the fresh ones often being quite 

 scattered, or even scarce, upon the limbs. Hundreds of these 

 old cones may be counted on a dead tree, the limbs being 

 almost black with them, or they may look gray or grayish 

 from the cones weathering on their exposed parts to the color 

 of the nest of a paper-wasp. The old cones usually point 

 downward from the limbs, and become top-shaped by the 

 spreading of the scales, their diameter nearly equaling their 

 depth, an inch or more across. 



The newly ripened cones are from one to two inches long, 

 conical, but usually a little curved at the end. They are of a 

 light or yellowish brown color. The scales are thick and 

 blunt, reddish brown within when they first open. Each ends 

 in an oblique, somewhat four-sided, or rhomboidal plate. In 

 the centre of the plate is a shallow pit, or eye, of a grayish 

 color, from which many fine lines radiate to the margins. 

 There is enough variety in their colors and markings to im- 

 part a fair degree of prettiness to them at this time. As they 

 are often in pairs, and on opposite sides of a branch, pointing 

 in the same direction as the branch, they have the appearance 

 of stumpy horns scattered among the leaves. 



Rudimentary cones are seen upon the branches in the win- 

 ter, as they form the preceding season. These are from a 

 fourth to a half inch in length and ellipsoidal in shape. Like 

 the winter-buds, they are often coated with resin, which exudes 

 treely whenever the wood is cut, and is also copious at the 

 base of the twigs and branchlets. At these points it forms 

 balls frequently half an inch in diameter, completely investing 

 the branches. The resin is formed in connection with the per- 

 sistent remnants of bud-scabs, encircling the twigs at their 

 insertion, and hence accumulates there in balls. There are 

 also seen upon the branches clusters of withered aments, 

 which, though the tree sheds its pollen in May and June, re- 

 main till the following spring. 



The seeds of the Gray Pine are small and dark-colored, with 

 a relatively large pale-brown wing, so thin as to be transpar- 

 ent. Hence it is very light and may be carried far by the 

 wind. The wing, shaped almost exactly like that of some insect, 

 is striped along its inner edge with lines of darker brown. 

 The seeds usually occur in pairs, and are eagerly sought for 

 food by the White-bellied Nuthatch (Silla Carolinensis). Small 

 flocks of these birds, which become gregarious in winter, are 

 seen flying about among the trees, searching the cones for 

 seeds or pulling off bits of the bark under which insects or 

 larva? may be hidden. Their long and flattened bill is nicely 

 fitted for this work, for the seed lies close to the scale, but the 

 wing, dexterously snipped off and dropped, as it comes float- 

 ing on the air, shows that they readily succeed in their 

 efforts. 



The position of the cones upon the branches is rather upright, 

 which tends to keep the seeds from falling out. Though the 

 cones mature in the fall they are slow to open, and continue 

 to open throughout the winter, some being closed even up to 

 spring. This prolongs the season of supply for these birds, 

 which are quite abundant, and among the few to stay with us 

 and make the woods more cheerful in the winter. The Gray 

 Pine takes a wide range in its conditions of growth. Naturally 

 a denizen of rocky ground and dry sands, it is not uncommon 

 here in the wetter grounds. I have taken it from the scanty 

 soil lodged in the fissures of rocks in Canada, and found it 

 here in sphagnous swamps, growing amid clumps of Cassan- 

 dra, with the Pitcher-plant at its base, its roots covered with 

 Sphagnum and Cranberry Vines. In such wet positions it is 

 short-lived, though it may grow to a shapely little tree, three 

 or four inches in diameter. But in some swamps less wet it 

 takes a place beside the Tamaracks, like this tree tall and slen- 

 der when the growth is crowded, with a clean trunk devoid of 



limbs till near the top. Groups of such trees under these con- 

 ditions are rather neat and attractive, in the winter the yellowish- 

 green of the Pine offsetting the dense, rough spray of the 

 Tamarack ; in the summer mottling its soft foliage of lively 

 green with a well-contrasted color. 



Englewood, Chicago. E. /. Hill. 



How We Renewed an Old Place. 



IX.— PLANTING TREES ON A LAWN. 



THE house at Overlea was begun in the summer of 1887, 

 and completed in April, 1888, at which time the grading 

 of the knoll was finished, and the lawn ready for planting and 

 sowing. 



Our first experiment, however, in moving good-sized trees 

 was made in the month of January of the latter year, when we 

 transplanted two large Norway Maples, given to us by a friend, 

 on condition that we would take them away at that time, as 

 otherwise they would be destroyed by some grading that was 

 going on where they stood. 



Fortunately, it was an open winter, with no frost in the 

 ground, and there was no difficulty about digging. *I person- 

 ally conducted the procession, and insisted upon having the 

 diggers begin at the outside and work in toward the trunk, so 

 as to save all the little roots. It was slow and careful work, 

 and it took all day to move two trees. They were too heavy 

 to lift with a ball of earth, as we had no special appliances for 

 the purpose, for the largest one measured six inches through, 

 two feet from the ground, and had a lofty top. 



After the trees were carefully uprooted their tops were cut 

 off, until the main stems were only about eight feet high, and 

 the branches that were left running up from them were also 

 cut back to within a few feet of their union with the trunk. 

 Could we have foreseen the mildness of the two succeeding 

 winters we should have been tempted to prune them less se- 

 verely. I am almost sure that it was unnecessary, but moving 

 them at such an unusual season seemed to make it wise to 

 give them more root than top. It will take about four years 

 for them to get back their original stature after this severe 

 treatment, but they perhaps have escaped risks of drawbacks 

 by the way. Similar trees in this town, transplanted without 

 topping, though they have lived, have shown signs of feeble- 

 ness, and I am disposed to think that in the end ours will make 

 the finer specimens. 



The holes in which they were set were dug six feet in diame- 

 ter and nearly five feet deep, and six or seven cart-loads of 

 loam were put in them. A gentle rain was falling when the 

 Maples were set ; and when the roots were fairly covered and 

 the ground trodden closely about them, water was put into the 

 holes before they were finally filled up. 



These two trees, planted on the south side of a gravelly 

 slope, so that the moisture must run away from their roots 

 more than is desirable, have made so heavy a growth in the 

 last two years, that in the middle of summer we have been 

 compelled to cut out many large branches to admit light, and 

 to improve their shape. In addition to their density of growth, 

 they have shot up fresh stems, between seven and eight feet 

 long, in the two seasons they have been fairly growing, for 

 the first summer they did not accomplish much beyond a 

 good crop of leaves. By the end of July we look to see them 

 grow four or five feet more, as they are fairly set, and in fine 

 healthy condition. The ground about them has been kept 

 open and cultivated, and is heavily enriched several times in 

 the course of the summer. 



They are so near the house that we use the broad space 

 around them as beds for Geraniums and Heliotropes, which 

 probably detracts a little from the growth of the trees, but at 

 the same time improves their appearance and keeps the earth 

 moist and well stirred up about their roots. When the season 

 is dry th'ey are very thoroughly watered at least twice a week, 

 by leaving the hose to run on them from its open mouth for 

 an hour or two at a time. 



In April we moved in the same manner a Silver Maple, 

 which has grown nine feet and ten inches, and a stocky White 

 Willow, which has been put quite near the house to give us 

 immediate shade, of which we are greatly in need, and which 

 is to be cut down as soon as the Maples are big enough. This 

 last tree has grown, in a very dry place, a dense head nine feet 

 six inches in height, so that it is now a tree seventeen feet 

 high. 



These are the best we have to show, except a Catalpa, which 

 has made a most luxuriant growth, for our Ash-leaved Maple, 

 which was also disposed to make a record, has been moved 

 twice, and so set back. But this growth on a gravel-bank, 



