262 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
editorial excursions to Colorado and Utah, (the real 
object of which was to extend the advertising busi¬ 
ness of a, so-called, religious journal.) Our friend, 
when practicable, sent us home by mail, all the 
plants, especially Alpine ones that the rapid move¬ 
ment of the menagerie allowed him to collect. 
These plants—mostly roots, with their leaves re¬ 
moved, were placed in a shady place, in common 
soil, and the surface well covered with small stones! 
The stones were in bulk from that of a hazel nut, 
up to that of a hen’s egg, but being from a shaly 
locality, were flattened rather than round in shape. 
Care was taken in placing the stones around the 
crowns of the plants, and the general surface 
covered two inches deep. As a consequence, nearly 
every plant lived, though some that could only he at 
home on the margins of streams of ice-water, fail¬ 
ed to last, yet the general success was most grati¬ 
fying. We would suggest this plan of mulching 
with stones to all who set out Alpine plants, or any 
others, in which the fibrous roots are large in 
proportion to the rest of the plant; it more near¬ 
ly comports with the natural localities of Alpines, 
and for others it is better than any other form of 
mulch. As an illustration of the success of an 
Alpine plant under adverse circumstances, we may 
mention our own with the Stemless Gentian, Gen- 
tiana acaulis. This plant, (tig. 1.), is a native of the 
Alps, where its low herbage often forms patches of 
wide extent, and in the blooming season is hidden 
by flowers very large in proportion to the size of 
the plant, so large that they often hide the plant, 
and of a blue so beautiful that no description will 
give a proper idea of the color. A few years ago, 
in ordering some plants from an European nursery¬ 
man, we added a half dozen of Gcntiana acaulis, 
as that was in his catalogue. We supposed that by 
potting and shading, we might chance to get it to 
flower, at least for once. When the plants came, 
our Stemless Gentian, which had been put in as 
good-sized clumps, appeared in a most unpromis¬ 
ing condition. The leaves were yellow, and there 
was a general failure apparent everywhere. We 
had the plants put in a reserve bed, and thought no 
more about them. Some two years after, it was 
reported that Gentiana acaulis , was about to bloom, 
and we found that two or three of our dead-look¬ 
ing sods had lived and recovered, and each was a 
small mat of pleasing foliage, with several of the 
large, inexpressibly beautiful, blue flowers about 
to bloom. Here was an Alpine plant that, out of 
mere disgust, was put in a soil in which one would 
hesitate to plant a respectable tomato, establishing 
itself in spite of adverse circumstances. For many 
Alpine plants, the best way for the amateur, if he 
cannot afford to purchase plants outright, is to 
raise them from seeds. Most of the seed catalogues 
offer several kinds, and others may be readily pro¬ 
cured from Europe. The seeds are to be sown in 
pots, covered thinly, kept in a moderate heat, and 
when the plants are large enough, they are pricked 
off, four or more in a pot, according to size, and 
they can then be transferred to the open ground 
without disturbance of the root; even in the case 
of plants from the seeds, we should prefer to put 
around them a mulch of stones. In a recent visit 
to the grounds of Woolson & Co., Passaic, N. J., 
we saw a number of instances in which plants re¬ 
garded as peculiarly Alpine, as well as a host of 
others, not classed as Alpine, but treated the 
same, had been raised from seed. A row of Alpine 
Toad-flax, Linaria Alpina, (fig. 2.), was especially 
showy. This is a truly Alpine plant, which, on the 
high elevations of the Alps and Pyrenees, attracts 
the tourist by its bright little tufts, not more than 
an inch high, was as much at home as if it had 
never known of any ground more elevated than 
that of W. & Co.’s garden. As grown there—the 
seeds having been sown under glass, and the young 
plants put out in the spring of 1876—it made a most 
beautiful show. The plant itself was attractive for 
its silvery-tufted foliage, and the very numerous 
flower-stems were clothed with violet-colored flow¬ 
ers, of the form shown in the engraving, each with 
a center or “ eye ” of the brightest orange. We 
learn that these plants passed the winter perfectly 
well under the ample cover of snow, which came 
before the intended mulch could be given them. 
These examples show that some, at least, of the Al¬ 
pine plants, may be enjoyed in the ordinary garden 
border. To the zealous amateur, the few obsta¬ 
cles to the culture of these plants, will only serve 
to stimulate him to endeavor to overcome them ; 
we cannot have all the truly Alpine plants in our 
borders, or even on our rock-work, hut we can, by 
a little painstaking, cultivate a good share of them 
even in localities very unlike the high elevations 
in which they form the whole vegetation. 
The Colorado Spruces. 
BY PROF. C. S. SARGENT, DIRECTOR OP THE ARNOLD AR¬ 
BORETUM, OP HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
The three Spruces of the Rocky Mountains, 
Douglas’s, Menzies’, and Engelmann’s, hotanically 
known as Abies Dcmjlasii, A. Menziesii, and A. Engle- 
manni, seem destined to take such an im portant posi¬ 
tion as ornamental trees in the northern portions of 
the United States and Europe, that some account of 
them at the present time will he interesting, and 
will, I hope, help to make them better known to 
nurserymen and planters generally. Abies Eouglasii 
and A. Menziesii have been in cultivation for half a 
century, having been introduced into England from 
seed collected in California and Oregon, by David 
Douglas, a celebrated Scotch botanical traveler, 
whose labors and untimely death in the pursuit, of 
his profession, the Douglas Spruce will always re¬ 
call to botanists and lovers of coniferous trees. Al¬ 
though these two trees grew well, and soon became 
popular in England,all efforts to introduce them into 
our extreme Northern States failed, or practically 
failed, as after a few years, more or less, some un¬ 
usually severe winter had killed all that had been 
planted, and it seemed settled that our plantations 
must be made without reference to these really fine 
trees. But in 1862 Dr. C. C. Parry, to whose inde¬ 
fatigable journeyings and researches are due the 
solution of so many of the botanical problems of 
the Western Territories, visited the Bocky Moun¬ 
tains of Colorado, and sent from there seeds of 
these two trees to the Botanic Garden of Harvard 
University. From this seed a large number of 
plants were raised, which, with a view of testing 
their hardiness, have been widely distributed 
through several of the' Northern States, where they 
have stood the trial of the last dozen years, and 
many of them, too, very trying years to plant-life, 
without, so far as I have heard, a single one, 
whether planted on the most exposed situations of 
the New England coast, or in heavy clay soils in 
Pennsylvania, having been injured in the slightest 
degree. As a plant is generally more susceptible 
to injury from cold or drouth during the early years 
of its life, and as our plants have passed through 
these first years so successfully, their perfect hardi¬ 
ness and adaptability to the soil and climate of the 
Eastern States must, I think, now be conceded. 
But why, it will be asked, are these Colorado 
trees hardy, when the same species had, up to a 
dozen years ago, proved so unsuited to our climate ? 
The reason for this apparent anomaly is obvious, if 
we take into consideration the fact that individuals 
of the same species vary to a remarkable degree in 
their power to adapt themselves to various condi¬ 
tions of temperature, and that the power of an in- 
vividual to withstand cold, increases in proportion 
to the distance at which its seed-beaftng parent is 
situated, either from the Equator,, or above the sea- 
level. Or, in other words, our two Spruces are per¬ 
fectly hardy in New England, the seeds from which 
they were raised having been collected at an eleva¬ 
tion of some 8,000 feet, while plants of the same 
species, raised from seed collected at comparatively 
low elevations near the Pacific coast, have almost 
without exception, proved too tender for this cli¬ 
mate. The Douglas Spruce, which hotanically is 
closely allied to the Hemlock of the Eastern States, 
and which, though coarser and less graceful, it 
somewhat resembles, extends through California 
and Oregon, as far north as Sitka, and in the Kocky 
Mountains from New Mexico northward, growing 
to an enormous size on the Pacific coast, where, in 
favorable situations, it often attains a height of 
from 200 to 300 feet, with a diameter of trunk of 
from 10 to 15 feet. In the Rocky Mountains, how¬ 
ever, its average height is hardly above 80 feet, and 
its growth there is slower and less productive of 
valuable timber. But it is a3 an ornamental, and 
not as a timber tree, that we are now considering 
this species. As such, few coniferous trees surpass 
or even equal it, for it has thus far retained in cul¬ 
tivation (and some of the first trees planted in Eng¬ 
land are now over 100 feet high), its lower branches, 
and close, dense pyramidal habit; and in this it 
contrasts most favorably with such trees as the 
Norway Spruce and many of the Spruces and Silver 
Firs of the old and new world, which, however 
beautiful and thrifty in their young state, become 
either naked and unsightly skeletons, or destitute 
of lower branches, long before they have reached 
half their full development. For this reason, the 
Douglas Spruce should he selected in preference to 
any other tree of which, in cultivation, I have any 
adequate knowledge, where it is desirable to plant 
a tree of pyramidal habit, which not only is beauti¬ 
ful in its young state, but which will improve for 
generations. 
The second of our species, Abies Menziesii, in 
favorable situations, attains a bight of 100 feet, 
and has nearly the same geographical range in 
North America as Abies DouglasU. It also, under 
various names, extends through Kamtchatka and 
the Amoor country, to Japan. In the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, this tree is found at an elevation of from 6,000 
to 9,000 feet, and never forming extensive forests, 
as do many coniferous trees, but scattered widely 
here and there, and always in low, wet situations, 
generally along streams at the water’s edge, where 
its roots are constantly kept cool and moist by the 
mountain torrents. This natural selection of a cool, 
moist soil, indicates under what conditions this tree 
can he most successfully cultivated. According to 
Dr. Parry, Abies Menziesii is, in the Rocky Mountains, 
a tree of rather an oval outline, pointing upwards 
with a rapidly tapering trunk. It has a thick, gray, 
rough hark, and its leaves are remarkably broad, 
stout, and very sharp pointed ; indeed, so harsh are 
they that it is painful to grasp one of the branelilets 
with the naked hand, and by this peculiarity the 
species can be most readily distinguished while 
young, from several other Spruces which, in their 
early years, have certain points of resemblance. 
The young plants, although of rapid growth, are 
remarkably copapact and beautiful, especially those 
of them (about 20 per cent in our seedlings), which 
are of a bright, bluish-gray tint. In fact, these 
young “ Blue Spruces,” as cultivators are beginning 
to call them, are the most beautiful and valuable 
hardy conifers for this climate I know. Still, it is 
only in its young state, probably, that this species 
will make a desirable ornamental tree, as it has 
been observed that, when growing naturally, the 
bluish tint disappears from trees over 30 feet high, 
while, long before its full development is reached, 
loose, unsightly branches, nearly destitute of foliage, 
take the place of its early compact habit. This 
comparatively early fading of beauty is less objec¬ 
tionable, perhaps, in an ornamental tree in this 
country, than in almost any other, and is quite 
compensated for, in this case, by the superlative 
beauty which graces its early years. As a hedge 
plant for this climate, Abies Menziesii presents quali¬ 
ties possessed by no other plant, and when it be¬ 
comes, as it should before long, as common and 
cheap in our nurseries as the Norway Spruce, it will 
be used for this purpose in preference to that, or 
any other evergreen. 
Abies Englemanni, the third of the Colorado 
Spruces, is the most alpine in character, forming in 
the southern Rocky Mountains vast forests above 
8,000, and reaching even 11,500 feet above the sea- 
lcvel. This tree forms a shapely, tapering spire, 
from 60 to 80 feet high, with a trunk slender for its 
liight, and which is covered with a thin, scaly, red¬ 
dish-gray bark. In general appearance A. Engleman¬ 
ni resembles the Black Spruce of Eastern America, 
for which it was mistaken by all botanical travelers 
in the Rocky Mountains, until Dr. Parry detected its 
specific distinctions, and dedicated it to the distin¬ 
guished botanist, whose name it bears. Of its 
merits as an ornamental tree, I can not as yet speak 
with so much confidence as of the two trees al- 
