67 
and has little to recommend it either as an ornamental or a timber tree. 
The Fir*tree, in its native swamps in the northeastern part of the 
country, is with its narrow pyramidal head of dark green leaves silvery 
white below a beautiful object, but like many other Fir-trees it does 
not take kindly to cultivation and in the Arboretum has never lived 
more than a few years. The White Cedar, too, is a hard tree to es¬ 
tablish, and although a common native tree in the swamps of eastern 
Massachusetts it has not always proved hardy in the Arboretum where 
it has grown best on dry gravelly slopes. Few trees have shown so 
great seminal variation as the eastern Arborvitae, and the collection 
of the forms of this useful tree is one of the most interesting in the 
Arboretum only excelled in variety by that of the forms of the Red 
Cedar. No other low-growing Juniper clings so close to the ground as 
Juniperus horizontalis, and few plants make a denser mat or a better 
ground cover. 
European Conifers in New England. Seventy-five years ago three 
European conifers were much planted in the northeastern United States 
because native trees at that time were not often found in American 
nurseries, and because the idea prevailed and still prevails that exotic 
plants were more valuable than native ones. These three conifers were 
the Norway Spruce so-called {Picea Abies or excelsa), the Scotch Pine 
{Pinus sylvestris) and the Austrian Pine (P. nigra). These are hardy, 
fast-growing, and for several years here handsome trees. The intro¬ 
duction of the Norway Spruce must be considered a misfortune, how¬ 
ever, for New England where it was planted and is still planted as an 
ornamental tree in great numbers. It grows rapidly while young and 
often remains in good condition until it is from thirty-five to forty years 
old; then it begins to fail, the leading shoot dying or failing to make 
a satisfactory growth and all the upper part of the tree gradually 
becoming thin and unsightly, with the result that there is now hardly a 
park or a country place in New England where the sad spectacle of 
such half dead trees cannot be seen. Further south the Norway Spruce 
often promises to become a longer-lived tree; and the best specimens 
known to the Arboretum are in the military cemetery at Gettysburg, 
Pennsylvania. The Scotch Pine, which in Europe is a magnificent tree 
and one of the most picturesque of all Pines, is hardy and grows rap¬ 
idly here, often reproducing itself from self-sown seed. When about 
thirty years old it has the unfortunate habit of dying suddenly without 
obvious cause, and it is doubtful if many Scotch Pines more than fifty 
years old can be found in this country. Although inferior as an orna¬ 
mental tree and probably as a timber producing tree to the native Red 
Pine, the Austrian Pine is hardy and grows rapidly here, but like the 
Scotch Pine often dies suddenly when only thirty or forty years old. 
These three conifers are easily raised and the seed is readily obtained. 
The young plants grow rapidly and they are therefore profitable plants 
for nurserymen to handle, and the public, in spite of the American 
experience with them continues to buy them. In some of the states 
they are raised by state agencies and given away or sold at a nominal 
price, or planted by the states in reforesting operations. Two conifers 
from southeastern Europe, although still insufficiently tested in this 
climate, promise to be valuable here. These are a White Pine, Pinus 
peuke, and a Spruce, Picea omorika. The former has been growing 
in the Arboretum since 1883; it is quite hardy, but as an ornamental 
