ROCKY MOUNTAIN EVERGREENS. 77 



as white as Canoe Birch, the needles streaked 

 with emerald and silver, and when the winds move the branches 

 there is a fascination of beauty in these mingled colors. This 

 tree is called by some Abies Lasiocarpa, sometimes White Fir, 

 White Balsam and Mountain Balsam. It is a Balsam. In form 

 It IS mi'.ch like the northern species with which we are familiar, 

 only the needles have a more intense color and the bark is 

 different. In its own habitat It is a beauty. This is Abies 

 Subalpina. 



It took me some time to get acquainted with Its peculiarities. 

 One day I saw a fine group of beautiful slender trees, very 

 thrifty and symmetrical, huddled closely together. A few feet 

 away there was a dead Subalpina and from it a dead limb ex- 

 tended under the group. Looking closely I saw the limb had 

 dropped down into the leaf mould and taken root, and these 

 young and beautiful trees were the result. Looking further, 

 I found many other trees doing the same thing. I have seen 

 the Norway Spruce and American Arborvitae do this in the 

 moist climate of the East, though very rarely, but this was 

 the only tree I have met in the West with this habit. To see 

 them, in their beauty one needs to visit themi where they grow. 

 In the East, where they want the best of everything regardless 

 of cost, they are growing In favor. These trees grow in the 

 Yellowstone National Park where they have the same charac- 

 teristics of reproducing themselves from the lower limbs which 

 fall into the leaf mould and take root. Showing this tendency 

 to fellow passengers awakened m'uch Interest. 



The Concolor. After 25 years of close observation I am con- 

 vinced that this Is the queen of the Firs for the East. Of course, 

 we must acknowledge the superiority of the noble Firs of the 

 Western slope, but as they do not succeed in the East we must 

 count them out and leave the Concolor supreme. The name 

 signifies even color, bright both summer and winter. These 

 have been tested under cultivation for forty years and they are 

 growing in favor. Riding with a friend in Massachusetts years 

 ago In a group of evergreens, I detected one which I said was 

 from the Rockies. We were quite' a distance away. There 

 were several kinds In the group, but I knew my eye cbuld not 

 deceive mie, and there was that lovely tree, thrifty and beauti- 

 ful, outvying all the rest. 



The Picea Pungens ranks as the most beautiful of all 

 in its younger years. It Is indeed a marvel, but after it is 

 thirty years old the silver and sapphire gradually turn to green 

 and In many Instances they have been cut away. Not so with 

 the Concolor. Planted by itself with room to spread It will 

 grow to be four feet through and seventy-five feet tall arid 

 the lower limbs are retained so as to give a fine pyramidal 

 form. As with the Pungens and EngelmanI there are sports or 



