EVERGREENS 151 



tion. Even the ancient Greeks told how Cy- 

 bele, mother of the gods, changed a shepherd 

 lad into a pine, and Jove, sympathizing with 

 her in the after-grief she betrayed for her act, 

 ordained that thenceforward the leaves of the 

 Pine should be ever green. Even to this day 

 in China, the natives consider the Pine em- 

 blematic of eternal friendship, and did not the 

 Pilgrim Fathers take the old Pine Tree (the 

 only green, growing thing they saw brighten- 

 ing the horizon of their landing) , as the emblem 

 of their colony? Then there is the Larch 

 which, when burned, was thought in times of 

 witchery to drive away serpents and evil things, 

 and the Juniper, venerable in the traditions of 

 antiquity. The Fir, St. Nicholas' tree, the 

 Spruce, chief mystic tree of the Indians of the 

 Northwest, and the Hemlock (which we must 

 not confuse with the plant the ancients meted 

 out as death potion to the condemned), the 

 Cedar, famous in the building of Solomon's 

 Temple, and the Cypress, from which was wo- 

 ven the crown of Melpomene, the Tragic Muse. 

 The value of Evergreens in the construction 

 of the home landscape is inestimable. Septem- 

 ber is the month in which this subject should re- 



