476 LANDSCAPE BAEDENING. 



many such trees upon this place) required an immense 

 deal of coaxing to reconcile it to to our northern and 

 changeable climate. The first year we left it out it was 

 protected by a'donble box, the interval between the sidings 

 being filled with tan. The second year, the ti-ee was 

 sheathed in straw and protected besides by a single box, 

 with a few air holes on the north ; the third year it was 

 open at the north, but protected on the east, south, and 

 west, by a box with three sides. The fourth year a mat 

 was substituted for the box, and the fifth year it passed 

 alone through the winter, the extreme tip of some of its 

 more exuberant shoots being a little injured — the well- 

 ripened wood being untouched — since when it survives 

 our most severe weather without injury, and now takes 

 its place among the really hardy evergreens. "We should 

 feel no more apprehension about its safety in our worst 

 winters than we should about a pine or hemlock. 



A curious fact connected with this tree is, that plants 

 propagated from cuttings before it became acclimatized 

 are still tender, while plants propagated since its hardi- 

 hood became confirmed, seem quite as hardy as the 

 parent. 



"We are not prepared to say that a great deal of this 

 care was not a work of supererogation, and that the 

 tree might have done as well with much less protection, 

 and for half the number of winters, but we were work- 

 ing in the dark ; the tree was a native of Florida ; it 

 never had been tried here, and from the climate whence 

 it originated, we did not suppose it would stand, and 

 felt consequently disposed to take extra pains, for which 

 we are quite compensated^ by the gain of a new and 

 most exquisite variety, and the certainty of our know- 

 ledge that all torreyas, from this plant at least, are 

 are perfectly hardy in this latitude. 



"W"e mention this, simply as one illustration of a gi'eat 

 many similar experiments, with results more or less 

 successful, because we are quite sure it is within the 



