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CLIPPED YEWS AT EL V ASTON CASTLE, DERBYSHIRE. 



CONIFERS. 



CONIFERS, or cone-bearing plants, include not only the Pines, Spruces, Silver Firs, 

 Cedars, etc., but also the Cypresses, Arborvitas, Retinosporas, and others of this 

 class, while two or three that cannot be regarded as cone bearers, such as the 

 junipers and Yews, are also included in the order. As timber trees many of the 

 Conifers occupy a prominent position, for the timber sent to this country in 

 immense quantities from various parts of the globe, under the collective terms of Fir, Pine, or 

 Deals, is all the product of Coniferous trees. A prominent characteristic is the presence 

 of resinous matter in the wood. 



Many of the Conifers are also of great beauty, the massive and sombre-hued Pines, the 

 symmetrically-shaped Silver Firs and some of the Spruces, the graceful Lawson's Cypress, and 

 forms of the Hemlock' Spruce; while they vary in height from the 300ft. of Wellingtonia gigantea 

 (in its native habitats) to the if t. or 2ft. of some of the Junipers, Retinosporas, and varieties 

 of the Norway Spruce. As isolated trees for the park or lawn, many of the Conifers occupy 

 a high position, and much the same maybe said of their suitability for the formation of avenues. 

 Again, as belts or screens to protect more tender plants by sheltering them from the keen 

 northerly or easterly winds, several Conifers are usually employed, particularly the Spruce Fir 

 and the Austrian or Corsican Pine. Sev eral of them bear cutting and trimming well, hence they 

 are available to make evergreen hedges. The most generally employed, and next to the Holly 

 the finest, hedge plant we have is the Yew, while less impenetrable hedges may be formed of 

 Thuja Lobbi, the American Arborvitae, Cupressus Lawsoniana, and the Norway Spruce. 



Coniferous plants, as a rule, succeed best in a good open loam, which though well drained 

 is not parched up at any time. They are propagated by seeds, cuttings, or grafting. The 

 first-named method is the best for most Conifers, particularly the Pines, Silver Firs, and 

 Spruces, which are seldom satisfactory if struck from cuttings, or grafted. Where large 

 quantities are raised from seed, beds should be prepared in the open ground by thoroughly 



