JaANnvuARY, 1909 
of Europe, which one sees everywhere, is 
the silver fir (Abies Picea or pectinata), and 
this is the one we waste our money on. But 
we have a much better tree in the white 
fir of Colorado (Abies concolor). It 1s 
the cheeriest fir because of the soft silvery 
tone of its foliage, and it is the most graceful 
because it has the longest and softest needles. 
Most firs are stiff; this is not. 
But England has us badly beaten on 
hundred-foot firs. She can. grow to per- 
fection the colossal firs that attain 200 or 
300 feet on the Pacific coast — the Cascade 
Mountain, Puget Sound, Columbia, and 
California red firs (Abies amabilis, grandis, 
nobilis, magnifica). These we can never 
hope to grow. But I saw them only as 
specimens in collections; they do not affect 
the English landscape. Whether we can 
ever grow hundred-foot conifers on Eastern 
estates, time alone can tell Our only 
chance, apparently, among firs is with the 
Colorado white and the Crimean (Abies 
concolor and Nordmanniana). If we fail 
we can console ourselves with the reflection 
that they are out of proportion, anyhow, 
on a small estate. 
THEIR BEST PINE AND OURS 
The only pine native to England is the 
“Scotch” (Pinus sylvestris) and it is no 
wonder that we waste thousands of dollars 
on it, for in its own country it is very lovely. 
It is a picturesque pine, but mildly so, as 
befits its enviroament. Its chief asset is 
its warm red bark. And since it is every- 
where planted for timber it conspires with 
the brick cottages, tile roofs and rosy cheeks 
of the people to make England seem the 
warmest and merriest place on earth. 
Fortunately, the tree is open enough to dis- 
play the red bark to advantage. The 
metallic blue cast of the foliage is the third 
element of its beauty. 
In America, the Scotch pine grows quickly 
but deteriorates or dies after twenty or thirty 
years. Our nearest approach to it is 
the red pine (Pinus resinosa) which agrees 
with the Scotch in having an open, roundish 
head when old, two leaves in a bundle and, 
most important of all, red bark. But the 
red pine is a better tree and it is strongly 
American. Its leaves are twice as long 
(four to six inches), it grows even higher than 
the white pine and it is long-lived. The 
red pine is sometimes called the Norway 
pine — after Norway in Maine, not Norway 
in Europe. 
The red pine is also superior to the 
Austrian, which is the gloomiest tree in 
England. But for wind-breaks we need a 
pine with dense bunches of long, coarse 
needles. Therefore the Austrian is much 
planted in America for shelter belts, especially 
along the seashore, but it dies out after 
twenty or thirty years. As a lawn tree it 
is too coarse and dull and it always is shaggy 
with dead cones, whereas the Scotch pine 
has the neat habit of dropping its cones as 
soon as ripe. Whenever we want a wind- 
break we should plant red pine in preference 
to the Austrian; it will last longer and it 
makes cheerful groves because the trunks 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
are red and the foliage, though dark, is 
lusty and brilliant. 
I am glad the Scotch and Austrian pines 
are short-lived here for we do not want our 
most conspicuous conifer to be like that of 
any other country. The white pine is our 
tree. Let us plant that everywhere and try 
to live up to it. The white pine (Pius 
The right way to use highly colored evergreens as 
Colorado spruce at Wisley in the gardens of the Royal 
way is to scatter them about and use too many. 
Horticultural Society 
Strobus) is one of the gracefullest pines in 
the world, because of its long, soft brushes, 
and it is certainly the cheeriest conifer we 
can have in the north, because there is so 
much white in its foliage. 
When it comes to hundred-foot pines the 
East must own itself beaten by California 
and England. White and red pine have been 
known to attain 120 feet in the East, but 
hardly in cultivation, and what is that com- 
267 
pared with 300 feet?—for that stupefying 
height is attained in California by the sugar 
and Western yellow pines (Pinus Lambertiana 
and ponderosa). England has many 
hundred-foot specimens of these. Anyhow 
she can’t grow a white pine to save her 
life —so there!* I never saw one in England 
worth the powder to blow it up and some 
oe 
t 
ham 
““spice”’ in a group or composition. The wrong 
one told me there wasn’t a healthy white 
pine in all Britain. 
To sum up: England grows taller conifers 
than we, but we beat her on variety. Our 
jobis to try Japanese conifers on a small scale 
and plant our native conifers by the million. 
* Every rule has its exception. As this goes to press I have 
this word from Mr, William Robinson: “The white pine in 
England is quite happy if it is on shaly or gritty soil. I have 
seen trees of it in Wales as fine as any I saw in New England, 
but it hates our heavy clay soil.” 
