484 LANDSCAPE GAEDENINO. 



yet the reverse of this is true with us. Our object 

 should be to make our places as gay and interesting as 

 possible, at those portions of the year when we live at 

 them. What advantage is it to plant the beautiful varie- 

 ties of double and single thorns, the Judas tree, the 

 Forsythia, or the Magnolias in those places which the 

 families or owners do not reach until the season of their 

 inflorescence is past; where one lives in the country 

 from June to October, the whole force should be ap- 

 plied to those plants, shrubs, and flowers which bloom 

 during . these four months; and as a majority of our 

 country gentlemen do not get out to their places much 

 before June, and are apt to become very restless after 

 the earlypart of October, we think a selection of those 

 plants should be made most useful and attractive during 

 this time ; and we do not know anything more efiective 

 than the proper mingling of some of the large showy 

 exotics and tender evergreens we have mentioned. 

 Of course we do not suggest this as general, but merely 

 to those — ^and their number is now large — ^who have a 

 taste for planting the newer and more striking conifers. 

 In concluding this section we will merely add : that 

 with one or two exceptions, we have described only 

 those plants and shrubs which we have ourselves seen, 

 and which, in almost every instance, we have growing 

 upon our own place. We believe that a correctness in 

 description, and an honest statement of the merits and 

 demerits of each plant, will, more than anything else, 

 contribute to the main end we have in view — the ex- 

 tension of the taste for planting the newer deciduous 

 and evergreen trees. 



THE NEWEE EVEEGEEEN OENAMENTAIi TEEES. 



Abies. The Spruce Firs. 



Abies alba nana (the Dwarf White spruce fir — or Prostrate 

 White spruce) is only a dwarf variety of our native White 



