Arboretum Notes 
Conifers 
The studies which have been carried on for the last thirty years in 
the Arnold Arboretum on conifers and their value for cultivation in 
the northern states have taught lessons to which American planters 
of these trees can wisely give attention. 
The Arboretum experiments show that for the northern United 
States the native species are more valuable than any exotic species. 
No other conifers are so valuable as the White Pine, the Red Pine 
and the Hemlock, and these trees may well be used in general planting 
in preference to any other conifers. Exception, however, must now be 
made to the White Pine since the appearance in this country of the 
White Pine blister, whose dangerous character makes it unwise to 
plant this tree. Two other northern Pines, the Banksian and the 
Virginia Pine, are hardy and fast-growing trees but have little value as 
ornaments of the garden. 
The White Spruce is a hardy and fast-growing tree of great beauty. 
The cHmate of southern New England is, however, too warm for the 
best development of this northern tree, and individuals over thirty 
years old usually become thin and unsightly. There seems to be some 
promise, however, that the form from northern Wisconsin and north- 
ern Minnesota may be better suited for cultivation southward than 
the plant from the St. Lawrence Valley. The Red Spruce is a more 
southern tree and is one of the handsomest of the Spruces. It grows 
very slowly, however, perhaps more slowly than any other conifer 
of large size. 
The Red Cedar is now largely planted in the United States, 
especially in formal gardens, but this tree suffers from fungal and 
insect enemies and the large transplanted specimens too often become 
unsightly from the loss of the lower branches. When pyramidal trees 
are needed for formal planting forms of the eastern Arbor Vitae are 
more valuable than the Red Cedar. 
Of more southern trees the CaroHna Hemlock has proved itself 
to be one of the handsomest and most valuable conifers in the 
Arboretum. This beautiful tree which grows at high altitudes 
on the Blue Ridge of North and South Carolina is smaller than 
the northern Hemlock but is more gracefuUy branched and of 
more cheerful color. Still Httle known or planted, it seems destined 
to become an important subject for the decoration of northern 
gardens. 
Going west it has been found that the mountains of Colorado have 
given us two first-class conifers in the Rocky Mountain form of the 
