August, 19 14 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



19 



ever it can be induced to grow. The cedar 

 of Lebanon of European nurseries is 

 raised from seeds produced in Europe 

 by the descendants of the trees brought 

 originally from the Lebanon in Syria. 

 Occasionally one of these trees can be *' 

 seen in the neighborhood of New York 

 and Philadelphia, but it is not hardy in 

 New England. The cedar of Lebanon 

 also grows on the Anti-Taurus in Asia 

 Minor, a much colder and more northern 

 region than the Lebanon, and in 1901 the 

 Arboretum had seeds collected from the 

 trees in this northern station, and these 

 were sown in the spring of 1902. None 

 of the plants raised from this seed, although 

 planted in exposed situations, has ever 

 suffered, and some of them are now from 

 fifteen to eighteen feet high. This experi- 

 ment may have important results, but a 

 century at least will be needed to show its 

 real success or failure. [A small specimen 

 of this form is now growing in the Country 

 Life Press gardens, planted out last fall. Ed.] 



Of exotic conifers usually planted in 

 this country it is found that the life here of 

 the Scotch pine {Pinus sylvestris) is usually 

 not more than thirty or forty years. The 

 tree grows very rapidly here, it is per- 

 fectly hardy, and, beginning to produce 

 seeds when only a few years old, self-sown 

 seedlings often appear in considerable 

 quantities. The so-called Norway spruce 

 (Picea Abies or excelsa) is another hardy, 

 fast growing European tree which in this 

 climate generally begins to die at the top 

 when forty or fifty years old and is not a 

 success here. Experiments are being made 

 in the Arboretum with seeds of these trees 

 collected from wild trees in Norway and 

 Sweden in the hope that plants raised 

 from these seeds will be more permanent 

 here than European nursery stock which 

 has usually been planted in this country. 



The Colorado blue spruce, so-called 

 {Picea pungens), promises to be a dis- 

 appointment. This tree grows naturally 

 near the banks of streams in Colorado, 

 where it is not very common, and never 

 forms forests or large groves; and at the 

 end of a few' years it becomes thin and 

 scrawny, with a few short branches found 

 only near the top of the tree. Plants up 

 to twenty or thirty years of age in Colorado 

 and in cultivation are symmetrical, com- 

 pact, and very handsome. No conifer of 

 recent introduction has been raised in such 

 large quantities by nurserymen here and 

 in Europe, and few ornamental trees have 

 been more generally planted in the last 

 twenty years. This must be considered 

 a misfortune, for judging by old trees in 

 Colorado and by the oldest trees in cultiva- 

 tion, this spruce cannot be for any length 

 of time a valuable addition to our planta- 

 tions. It was discovered by Dr. Parry 

 in 1862, and one of the trees raised from 

 seeds which he sent at that time to Asa 

 Gray is growing on the southern slope of 

 Bussey Hill in the Arboretum. This 

 specimen very well shows what this tree 

 looks like at fifty years of age. [See illus- 

 tration herewith. Eds.] 



The other Colorado spruce, Picea Engel- 

 mannii, although it grows more slowly, 

 promises to be a more permanently valuable 

 ornamental tree than Picea pungens; cer- 

 tainly as it grows in Colorado, where it 

 once formed great forests, at high altitudes, 

 it is one of the most beautiful of all spruces. 

 The trees in the Arboretum were raised 

 here from seeds collected in Colorado in 

 1879. and are believed to be the finest 

 specimens in cultivation. They are nar- 

 row, compact, symmetrical pyramids, and 

 until a year or two ago were furnished with 

 branches to the ground; now they are 

 beginning to lose their lower branches and 

 therefore are losing some of their beauty 

 as specimen trees. . 



It is found here that the northern white 

 spruce {Picea Canadensis) grows rapidly 

 and is very handsome for about thirty 

 years, and then begins to become thin 

 and unsightly, probably because our climate 

 is too warm for this cold country tree. It 

 is found here, too, that the red spruce 

 {Picea rubra), the great timber-producing 



Colorado blue spruce fifty years old growing on Bussey Hill 



spruce tree of the northeastern United 

 States, is rather difficult to establish and 

 grows more slowly than any other conifer 

 in the collection, and that the two balsam 

 firs of the eastern states {Abies balsamea 

 and A. Fraseri) are in cultivation short- 

 lived and are of no value as ornamental 

 trees; and that this is true, too, of one of 

 the Rocky Mountain Firs, Abies lasiocarpa, 

 and of the Siberian Abies Sibirica. 



Of native conifers in the collection, which 

 now after a trial of from twenty to thirty 

 years promise to be most valuable in this 

 climate, the Rocky Mountain form of 

 Abies concolor is the most beautiful at 

 thirty years of age of all the firs which 

 can be grown here. Abies brachyphylla, 

 from Japan, with leaves dark green above 

 and silvery white below; Picea Omorika, 

 from the Balkans, a narrow pyramidal 

 tree which seems to grow as well in western 

 Europe as it does in New England, are 

 promising trees. Abies Cilicica, from Asia 

 Minor; Pinus parviflora, from Japan; and 

 P. Koraiensis, from Siberia, Manchuria, 

 and Korea, a valuable timber tree in its 

 native country, are also promising. Pinus 

 monticola from western America, the west- 

 ern representative of our eastern white 

 pine, is perfectly hardy here, but as an 

 ornamental tree is in no way superior to 

 the eastern species. 



Tsuga Caroliniana from the Blue Ridge 

 of North and South Carolina, although 

 smaller is a more graceful and beautiful 

 tree than our northern hemlock. First 

 raised from seeds in the Arboretum 

 in 1 88 1, it gives every promise of being 

 one of the most desirable ornamental 

 conifers which can be grown in this cli- 

 mate. 



The collection of the forms of the native 

 arborvitae {Thuya occidental is) in the 

 Arboretum is a large one and is now in 

 excellent condition, and well worth a visit 

 by any one interested in the seminal 

 varieties some trees are capable of pro- 

 ducing. This tendency to variation, ap- 

 pears, too, in the Japanese retinisporas 

 {Chamcecyparis obtusa and pisifera) which 

 are planted next to the arborvitses. 



Although yews are not technically coni- 

 fers, it may be said that the Japanese 

 Taxus cuspidata and its variety brevifolia 

 have come through another winter entirely 

 uninjured, and that there is no reason for 

 modifying the statement already made in 

 these bulletins, that these are the most 

 valuable plants which Japan has contrib- 

 uted to New England gardens, in which 

 the Japanese yew seems destined to be- 

 come our best hedge plant. A low 

 form of Taxus baccata (var. repandens) 

 has proved very hardy in the Arbor- 

 etum, and for this climate appears to be 

 the most desirable form of the European 

 yew. 



Of trees related to the yews the hardiest 

 here, with the exception of the well-known 

 gingko tree, is the Japanese Torreya, T. 

 nucifera. This, in Japan, is a large tree 

 with a tall trunk and a dense head of dark 

 green foliage. 



