3 
good introduction of the Arboretum. This is the handsomest of the 
North American Spruce-trees and the most valuable as a timber tree of 
them all. At its best it is sometimes one hundred and twenty feet 
high with a tall trunk often nine feet in diameter, frequently forming 
great forests up to altitudes of 10,000 to 12,000feet, and is widely scat- 
tered above 6000 feet through the whole Rocky Mountain system from 
Alaska and British Columbia to southern New Mexico and northern 
Arizona. This tree has been grown in the Arboretum since 1879 when 
seeds collected by the late Dr. C. C. Parry were sent here from the 
Pike’s Peak region of Colorado. It has grown rapidly in the Arbore- 
tum where it has always been perfectly hardy and has formed a nar- 
row columnar head of pale gray-green leaves. Its only defect as an 
ornamental tree here is the tendency of the older plants to lose their 
lower branches— an advantage rather than a defect in a tree which 
will be grown more for the, production of timber than for ornament. 
The loss of the lower branches discloses, too, the exceptionally beau- 
tiful gray scaly bark tinged with red. 
Picea omorika, the Spruce-tree of southeastern Europe, is the third of 
the really great conifers introduced by the Arboretum. This is the im- 
portant Spruce-tree of southeastern Europe where it forms or has formed 
great forests. Seeds of this tree sent by the late Dr. Carl Bolle of 
Berlin were planted in the Arboretum in 1881 and have grown into 
handsome compact pyramids of yellow green leaves pale below. The 
only drawback to this tree is that the leading shoot is sometimes killed 
by the insect which destroys the leader of the White Pine {Pinus 
Strobus). 
That this Pinetum has done useful work is shown in the case of conifers 
of wide distribution in demonstrating that the plants raised from seeds 
gathered in some parts of their range are hardier than in others. The 
best results of this sort have been obtained perhaps with the hand- 
some and useful Douglas Spruce {Pseudotsuga taxifolia). This tree is 
widely distributed and grows to its largest size on the Pacific coast from 
southern British Columbia to California. The trees from the coast states 
have never proved really hardy in the east, but in 1873 and 1874 Dr. 
Parry sent to the Arboretum from Colorado seeds from which a per- 
fectly hardy race of this tree was raised; and the trees which in late 
years have been so largely planted in the eastern states have been 
raised from seeds collected in Colorado. 
Almost equally interesting is the so-called Red Cedar, Thuya plicata, 
of the northwest coast region from Alaska to Mendocino County, Cal- 
ifornia, ranging eastward to the western base of the Rocky Mountains 
in Montana, and in the coast region often growing to the height of two 
hundred feet and forming a gradually buttressed base often fifteen feet 
in diameter at the ground level. From these trees the Indians of 
the coast made their great war canoes, and more recently it has fur- 
nished the best material for shingles and the other covering of houses. 
The coast tree never proved hardy here, but in 1880 one of the Arbor- 
etum collectors sent to the Arboretum a small bundle of its seedlings 
gathered on the mountains of Idaho. These plants have never been 
injured and have grown well and fairly rapidly, are now all handsome 
trees and among the most interesting conifers in the collection. 
