64 
monly cultivated Conifers have no real permanent value in northeastern 
North America. The Colorado Blue Spruce, for example, was first 
raised from seeds in the Harvard Botanic Garden during the winter of 
1863, the year after its discovery by Dr. Parry. One of the original 
seedling plants now fifty-eight years old is growing here on the south 
slope of Bussey Hill in good soil and has had good care; it has lost 
most of its lower branches, others are half dead, and it is hard to im- 
agine a more miserable looking object. For several years it has been 
allowed to live as a warning to planters of this tree which is perhaps 
the most popular Conifer in eastern America where it is planted every 
year by tens perhaps hundreds of thousands. Millions of dollars have 
been spent for this tree which has always sold at a high price, but it 
is not probable that in fifty years one per cent, of ail the planted trees 
will be alive. The unusual blue color of the leaves and the juvenile 
habit of this Colorado tree attract planters who rarely look many years 
ahead or avail themselves of information to which they might have 
access if they cared for it. 
Three European Conifers which have been largely planted in the north- 
eastern states in the last sixty or seventy years have not proved per- 
manently valuable here. These are the so-called Norway Spruce {Picea 
Abies or excelsa), the Scotch Pine {Pinus sylvestris) and the Austrian 
Pine {Pinus 'nigra). They are all hardy here and valuable timber trees 
in their native countries. The Norway Spruce is a handsome tree here 
in youth but at the end of forty or fifty years begins to die at the top 
and soon becomes unsightly. This tree is not planted as generally here 
now as it was but its introduction into this country must be con- 
sidered a misfortune. The two Pines have not been so often planted 
although some American foresters are raising and planting the Scotch 
Pine in large numbers. The seedlings grow rapidly and are easily trans- 
planted. From thirty to forty years, however, appear to be the length 
of life of this tree in most parts of the eastern states. It is possible, 
of course, that planted as forest trees it may last longer, but this fact 
should be known before large forest plantations are made of it, that 
is in eighty or one hundred years from this time. The Austrian Pine 
has been less commonly planted. It grows well while young, but too 
often dies without apparent cause at the end of thirty or forty years. 
As an ornamental tree it is in every way inferior to the native Red or 
Norway Pine. 
Of the Conifers of other regions that have not yet been thoroughly 
tested here, that is which have been growing in New England for less 
than fifty or sixty years, those which give the greatest promise of 
permanent usefuii»ess in this climate are the Hemlock of the Carolina 
Mountains which has been growing in the Arboretum for forty 
years and is now perhaps the most beautiful of all the Conifers in the 
collection, the Chinese Pseudolarix, the Japanese Abies homolepis, the 
White Fir of the southern Rocky Mountains (Abies concolor), the Colo- 
rado form of the Douglas Spruce discovered in 1862, two Japanese 
Spruces, Picea bicolor and P. Glehnii, the western White Pine (Pinus 
monticoLa), the Idaho form of the western Arborvitae (Thuya plicata), 
and the Balkan Spruce (Picea omorika). Time, however, only can tell, 
what the value of these trees may be when they have reached maturity. 
These Bulletins will now be discontinued until next spring. 
