332 TREES. 



The Balsam Fie [Picea bahamea), or, as it is often called, the 

 Balm' of Oilead Fir, is a neat, dark green evergreen tree, perha,ps 

 more generally employed fd>r small grounds an^ plantations than any 

 other by our gardeners. In truth, it is better adapted to small gar^ 

 dens, yards, or narrow ' la-jras, than for landscape gardening oh a 

 large scale, as its beauty is of a formal kmd; and though the tree 

 often grows to thirty or forty feet, its appearance is never more 

 pleasing than when it is from ten to fifteen or twenty feet higlii 

 The dark green hue of its foliage, which is pretty constant at all 

 seasons, and the comparative ease with which it is transplanted, will 

 always commend it to the ornamental improver. But , as a full 

 grown tree, it is not to be compared for a moment, to any one of the 

 three Species of evergreens that we have already noticed ; since it 

 becomes stiff and formal as "it grows old, instead of graceful or, pictu- 

 r^que, like the hemlock, white pine, or Norway spruce. Its chief , 

 value is for shrubberies, small gardens, or courtyards, in a formal or 

 regular Style. The facility of obtaining it, added to the exQ,ellent 

 color of its foliage, and the great hardiness of the plant* induce us to 

 give it a place among the four evergreens worthy of the' universal 

 attention of our' ornamental plantere. 



The Arhtyr Vitce, so useful for hedges and screens, is, we find, so 



game ; and for this purpose, and also for the sake of its yerdure during win- 

 ter, when planted amotig deciduous trees and out down tp within five or six 

 feet of the ground, It affords a very good and very beautiful undergrowth. 

 The Norway spruce beafs the shears ; and as it is of rapid growth, it makes 

 excellent hedges for shelter in nuraery gardens. Such hedges are iiot Unfre- 

 quent in Switzerland, and also in Carpathia, and some parts of Bad£ln and 

 Bavaria. In 1844, there wei-e spruce hedges in some gentlemen's grounds 

 in the neighborhood, of Moscow, between SO feet and 40 feet high. At the 

 Whim (near Edinburgh), a Norway spruce hed^e was planted in 1823 with 

 plants 10 feet high,'put in 3 feet apart. The whole were cut down 6 feet, 

 and afterwards trimmed hi a regular conical shape. The hedge, thus formed, 

 was first cut on Jan. 26, the year after planting; and as the i plants were 

 found to sustain no injury, about the end of that month has been chosen far 

 cutting it every year since. Every portion of tliis hedge is beautiful and 

 green ; and the annual growths are very short, giving the surface of this 

 hedge a fine, healthy appearance." [This is an exoellentillustration of the 

 capacity of this tree for being sheared ; but good hedges are more easily and 

 better formed by using plants about 18 inches or 2 feet high.] 



