New Series, No. 136 . 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
145 
Fig. 9 -ABIES SMITHIAKA SMITH'S, OR THE HIMA¬ 
LAYAN SPRUCE FIR. 
This forms a beautiful pyramid of about 50 feet 
(light when full-grown, and is a very ornamental 
tree. It grows rapidly, and in sheltered situa¬ 
tions it is hardy as far north as New-York. Mr. 
H. W. Sargent of Fishkill Landing, says that in 
his grounds its foliage was browned by the Winter, 
but the buds were good. It is deserving of a 
place in every collection, if a favorable position 
can be given it. 
BROAD-LEAVED EVERGREENS. 
All the foregoing are of the class called Coni¬ 
fers, and are terebinthinate or resinous trees, hav¬ 
ing narrow leaves. But besides these there are a 
number of fine evergreen trees and shrubs of the 
broad-leaved kind. Of these, the magnolias are 
foremost in beauty. 
Fig. 10- MAGNOLIA GLAUCA. 
The magnolia, glauca (fig. 10) is a small tree, 
growing from Massachusetts to the Gulf, attain¬ 
ing a hight of 12 to 20 feet. It has an abundant 
white bloom, which continues, when in favorable 
locations where it lias abundant moisture, during 
the whole Summer, rendering the forest very 
fragrant. The leaves are smooth, of a bluish 
green above, and though it sometimes loses a por¬ 
tion of its leaves in Winter, it may fairly be con¬ 
sidered an evergreen, and has the advantage of 
being perfectly hardy. 
The Magnolia grandijlora (of which fig. 11 be¬ 
low, represents the leaves, and fig. 12, on the right 
the blossom,) is really a princely tree. It is a 
native of the Carolinas, and is justly the pride of 
the South. Strangers, seeing for the first time 
these magnificent trees in their native forests—a 
hundred feet high, covered with large, snow- 
white blossoms, imbedded in clusters of dark, 
shining leaves nine inches to a foot in length, 
the air for miles around, being filled with perfume 
—are always overcome with raptuie. No tree of 
the forest equals this in regal magnificence. The 
majesty of its form, its thrifty, luxuriant growth, 
and the ease with which it is cultivated, are bring¬ 
ing it rapidly into use wherever the severity of 
the Winter does not forbid. A French sea-cap¬ 
tain at New-Orleans carried home one of these 
plants and set it in his garden, where it, at first, 
attracted no attention. After some years, how¬ 
ever, its magnificent blossoms excited admira¬ 
tion, and its fame finally reached the palace. The 
royal gardener was dispatched to ascertain 
whether a removal could be successfully made. 
The tree was by this time some thirty years old, 
Fig. 11- LEAF or MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLORA. 
and it was decided that the risk was too great, so 
that it continued to grace the humble garden of 
the Captain. After this it was burned nearly to 
the ground by a fire which destroyed the adjacent 
dwelling, but the next season it produced a vigor¬ 
ous new shoot. 
HINTS ON TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS. 
The great obstacle in the way of widely ex¬ 
tended cultivation of evergreens is the difficulty 
in transplanting them successfully. While a few 
persons will transplant thousands with a loss of 
scarcely one per cent, many others find that their 
trees either die, or “grow shabby," in spite of all 
their care and pains-taking. The chief causes of 
failure are : 
1st. The planting of trees taken from forests 
or uncultivated grounds. This is a point not un-: 
derstood by persons of limited experience, but 
which is well established. Any tree, carefully 
removed and well planted and cultivated, is much 
more easily re-transplanted than one taken from 
the spot where it originally grew ; and after several 
judicious removals when the plant is young, it 
may ihen be, with perfect safety, transferred to 
the spot where it is to remain, even after it has 
obtained considerable size. The reason is ob¬ 
vious ; the roots which naturally extend laterally 
and downward to distances not easily reached by 
the spade, are cut off in transplanting, and in ever¬ 
greens a constant evaporation is taking place 
from the leaves, before the roots left are able to 
supply the demand for sap. If, however, a seed¬ 
ling tree is planted in a bed of rich soil, its roots 
are more fibrous, and it does not form those long, 
Fig. 12 -FLOWER OF MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLORA. 
naked roots seen in the wildling. If, moreover, 
it is taken up when one or two years old, and its 
roots by this means shortened, a larger quantity 
of small fibrous roots will start near the body of 
the tree, so that they are easily taken up without 
injury. It is therefore an excellent practice to dig 
a trench around the tree intended for removal, 
in the Fall, or early in the Spring, deep enough to 
cut off all the roots 12 to 15 inches from the body 
of the tree, if the stem is less than two inches in 
diameter, and from li ft. to 3 ft. if larger. The 
trench is to be filled with rich soil. This will in¬ 
duce the formation within the trench of those 
small roots so essential to the nourishment of the 
tree. In the succeeding season the tree may be 
safely removed. 
2nd. An exposure to the sun or drying winds, 
though injurious to the roots of all trees, is pecu¬ 
liarly hurtful to evergreens. Dr. Warder, in his 
work on “ Hedges and Evergreens” says : “In 
all the resinous or terebinthinate trees the proper 
juices of the roots are of such a character, that 
when once dried they cannot be restored to their 
fresh condition by the application of water or 
moisture, as is the case with most deciduous 
trees.” These two causes of failure are suffi¬ 
cient to account for the loss of the great quanti¬ 
ties of trees brought every Spring from the moun 
tains, by the wagon load and boat load, and sold 
very cheap after a few weeks of exposure in trans¬ 
portation and sale. 
3rd. The planting in narrow holes and unpre¬ 
pared soil is a frequent cause of failure. Ample 
space should he allowed for spreading the longest 
roots in a natural position, and the soil should be 
moderately rich and finely pulverized. No fresh 
animal or other rank manures should be used, but 
leaf mould, or rich soil from the garden or old 
pastures are desirable immediately about the new¬ 
ly planted roots. Wherever it is possible, the 
tree should be taken up with a ball of earth ad¬ 
hering to the roots ; this is always a great audi- 
: tional security in removing evergreens. 
A Look at the Evergreens 
[We had hardly printed the April number containing ar 
illustrated article on evergreens— which was wriiten m 
connection with the one in the presentnwmber—when tne 
following from a distant contributing editor came >n. It 
treats Ihe subject somewhat differently and from a more 
northern pointof observation (latitude 43°). We can hard¬ 
ly print too much on this subject during this evergreen- 
planting month] 
A first look to see how we like them. During 
the past Winter, they have battled bravely with 
the winds and defended our premises from the 
stormy blasts. They have kept up a cheery look, 
amid surrounding desolations. In the early part 
of Winter, before the snow fell, they gave our 
grounds almost the look of Summer. And through 
