648 



PINES, HEMLOCKS AND SPRUCES. 



protected place, no evergreen can excel it in grace. 

 If specimens are removed from the woods to open 

 and sunn}' grounds, care should l)e taken to select 

 those which grow in full or partial sunlight. But 

 it is better to plant them in some half shaded loca- 

 tion in the grounds. There are several good named 

 varieties of hemlock in cultivation. A weeping 

 form known as Sargent's weeping spruce is one 

 of the choicest and most ornamental of all ever, 

 greens. 



Many of the spruces are well known, and it is 

 not necessary to allude to them at length at this 

 time. But enough attention has not been given 

 to some of the named varieties, and this is espe- 

 cially true of some of the weeping ones. Fig. 4 

 shows an excellent weeping Norway spruce, stand- 

 ing about 12 feet high. Nothing can be more pic- 

 turesque and odd than a specimen like this. A 

 number of these mourning trees, like widows in 

 their weeds, would lend a too somber aspect to the 

 lawn, but one or two trees, well placed, would add 

 greatly to the variety and interest of large collec- 

 tions. In marked contrast with the somber ap- 

 pearance of the last named is the charming white 

 spruce (Abies alba), a species quite too rarely met 

 in cultivation. The habit is more compact and 

 symmetrical than the better known Norway spruce. 

 The foliage is silvery gray. Its general aspect while 

 young is highly ornamental. 



A great beauty of all coniferous evergreens is 

 their varied habit of holding snow. Nearly every 

 individual pine and spruce holds its masses of snow 



in a different fashion, and every storm, coming with 

 a different force or from a new direction, presents 



I 



Fig. 4. Weeping Spruce. 



a new picture. Here is a suggestion for a winter 

 study that will be most interesting 



L. H. Bailey. 



"Ho! bo! the biirlji pine ! Hurrah! Hurrah for ibe pine ! The oak may be king 

 of the lowlands, but the pine is the king of the hills — aye, and mountains too. 



''Ho! ho! the burly pine! How he strikes his clubbed foot deep into the cleft of 

 the rock, or grasps its span with conscious power ! There he lifts his haughty front like 

 the warrior monarch that he is. No flinching about the pine, be it ever so stormy. His 

 throne is the crag, and his croum is a good way up in the heavens ; and as for the clouds, 

 he tears them asunder sometimes, and uses them for robes. Then hurrah again for the 

 pine ! say I." * * * * . — ALFRED B. STREET. 



