Abies brachyphylla is one of the most promising trees for Hardy form of the cedar of Lebanon growing from seed 

 our gardens in the Arboretum 



Torreya nucijera is the latest of all conifers to leaf out, 

 making its growth in June 



Plain Facts About Some Common Evergreen Trees 



From the Arnold Arboretum 



Boston, 

 Mass. 



[Editors' Note: The Director of the Arnold Arboretum, Prof. C. S. Sargent, issues from time to time the "Bulletin of Popular 

 Information^ in which the lessons learned by careful study and observations are made generally available. The matter in these Bulletins 

 is of unusual merit, and we herewith present to the readers of The Garden Magazine certain facts in regard to coniferous evergreens 

 {extracted from a recent issue) which have a timely and practical interest at this season when the planting of evergreens may be undertaken to 

 great advantage. Some of the information given below may be startling to some of our readers, who, however, may rest assured that there can 

 be no more authoritative decisions than those that come from that institution where is to be found growing every tree and shrub that can be 

 grown in that part of the country.] 



EASTERN North America is not 

 a good region for these trees. 

 Many of them cannot long bear 

 our hot dry summers, cold win- 

 ters, and the cold nights, the hot sun and 

 the winds of a New England March. For 

 ornamental planting here better and more 

 permanent results are obtained by the 

 use of deciduous leaved trees and shrubs 

 than by the general planting of conifers 

 and broad-leaved evergreens. Two of the 

 handsomest of coniferous trees, however, 

 are native to this part of the country, the 

 white pine (Pinus strobus) and the hemlock 

 (Tsuga Canadensis), and where these two 

 trees thrive the lover of evergreen trees 

 need not lack material for his plantations. 



It can be said generally that the conifers 

 of northeastern North Amer- 

 ica, the Rocky Mountains, 

 northern, central and south- 

 eastern Europe, Siberia, north- 

 ern China and northern Japan, 

 are hardy in this climate, and 

 that those of the southern 

 United States, Mexico, Cen- 

 tral America and the coun- 

 tries south of the equator, the 

 Himalayas and southeastern 

 Asia are not hardy; that only 

 a few of the species of western 

 North America can be safely 

 planted in this climate, and 

 that so far as it is possible 



to judge by our experience here many of 

 the pines, spruces, firs, and larches which 

 cover the mountain slopes of the Chinese- 

 Tibetan frontier promise to be hardy in 

 New England. 



In the Arboretum there is probably the 

 largest collection of species and varieties 

 of conifers which can be found in eastern 

 North America, although in a few col- 

 lections like that at Wellesley in this state, 

 and in the Hoopes Pinetum at West 

 Chester, Pa., there are larger specimens of 

 several species. Many exotic species are 

 hardy and grow rapidly and vigorously 

 here, but only time can tell whether any of 

 these trees will ever reach here a large 

 size and become permanently valuable as 

 ornamental or timber trees. 



The Japanese yew *(Taxus cuspidala) is quite hardy and keeps good color in winter 



18 



The most interesting thing, perhaps, 

 which the Arboretum has taught about 

 conifers is the fact that when a species is 

 widely distributed over regions of different 

 climates plants raised from the seeds of 

 the trees growing in the coldest parts of 

 the area of distribution of the species are 

 the hardiest. For example, the Douglas 

 spruce (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) from the 

 shores of Puget Sound, where this tree 

 grows to its largest size, is not hardy here, 

 but the same tree from the high mountains 

 of Colorado is one of the hardiest and most 

 promising of the exotic conifers which 

 have been planted in New England. A bies 

 grandis from the cold Cceur d'Alene 

 Mountains of Idaho has been growing for 

 years in the Arboretum, while the same 

 tree from the northwest coast- 

 region cannot be kept alive 

 here. The same is true of the 

 so-called red cedar or giant 

 arborvitae (Thuya plicata) of 

 the northwest. Plants from 

 Idaho are perfectly hardy in 

 the Arboretum and now prom- 

 ise to grow to a good size, 

 while those from the coast 

 are tender. 



The experience or the Arbor- 

 etum with the cedar of Le- 

 banon is interesting, for this 

 is a famous tree which it is 

 desirable to establish wher- 



