EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
481 
mountains, at an elevation of 1,020 feet above the sea — 
where even the Ailanthus was destroyed, we cannot see 
why this tree may not stand in any other part of the 
country, at the same elevation, having no greater degree 
of cold, but always under the same circumstances and 
conditions. What these are, unfortunately, the tree 
only knows ; possibly a frost, even as severe as this, at 
a great distance from the sea, may be less injurious than 
half the amount of frost near salt water ; or the severe 
weather may come and go, gradually, without the great 
variations common in the middle States ; which varia- 
tion we have always believed most destructive to veget- 
able, as it is injurious to animal life; and finally, the 
conclusion we must inevitably come to is that the 
organism of a plant is as wonderful and mysterious as 
that of a man, and that, with certain general rules as 
to planting and treatment, we must grope in the dark 
until many more years of experience in different parts 
of the United States, enable us to know what we can 
and what we cannot grow. We trust, however, that 
some assistance may be obtained from the reports we 
have been enabled to procure from different parts of the 
country, by which planters in those localities will be 
able to do as well as their neighbors, if they can give 
their trees the same advantages. 
Another reason why we proposed to give in this 
supplement a more complete account and list of ‘all the 
evergreens, hardy and half-hardy, which have been 
introduced into this country of late years is (and we 
quote again in part from Mr. Loudon), that we think there 
are few scenes in an ornamental garden or pleasure- 
ground, of greater interest to a person having any taste 
or knowledge of Botany, however slight, than a collec- 
tion of trees and shrubs, natives of foreign climates, 
which, though they would be destroyed if exposed in 
the winter, yet when planted (turned out), or sunk 
in the ground during the summer, exhibit a degree of 
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