VOL. XXXVII. No. 6. 
WHOLE No. 14 «3. 
NEW YORK CITY, FEB. .9. 1878. 
PRICE SIX CENTS. 
$2.50 PER YEAR. 
^rborictilteral. 
OUR PLANT-PORTRAITS. 
THE NORWAY SPRUCE AND ITS VARIETY, ElATA. 
The Norway Spruce is one of the most popu¬ 
lar, if not one of the moat beautiful and hardy 
THE PYRAMIDAL OAK. 
SAMUEL PARSONS. 
All trees have positions on the lawn specially 
suiting their peculiar qualities. There are trees 
of grace, trees of massive grandeur, and trees jaf 
diminutive size and exquisite charms. All will, 
if allowed, produce perfect effects, eaoh after its 
of evergreens. If it were properly treated while } kind. It is for this reason we feel a slight sense 
VmiD CT XV Ofh ilOn 14 ---1 I r -» i • I . 1 i i 
young, we are convinced it would command a 
higher respect during its old age. The desire 
on the part of those who plant trees about their 
homes, to see them grow as fast as possible, and 
their distrust of any pinching or cutting back, 
are natural. Anything that retards growth for 
one year is condemned. It is too long to wait 
for results that at best arc not to be counted 
upon positively, as they believe. Therein lies 
the mistake. The results may be confidently 
counted upon; and in this we speak from our 
own experience. 
The Norway Spruce, if left to itself while 
young, and especially if not well planted, attains 
its fullest beauty in ten years. Afterwards, the 
lower branches begin to lose their foliage, and 
the conical symmetry whioh in this tree consti¬ 
tutes its first charm, is marred. If when first 
set iu its permauont abode, the buds had at once 
been piuched out or, what is the same thing, the 
tips of all the branches except the lower and 
lowermost ones had been cut off, and the same 
course had been pursued the second spring, 
growth would have been confin :d mainly to the 
lower branohee, and a vigor would have been 
imparted to them that would be retained as long 
as the upper branches remained robust, or as 
long as the tree maintained a healthy existence. 
The impression which until of late years has 
been quite general, that evergreen (hardy conif¬ 
erous evergreens, at least) were never to be cut 
back, is still a conviction in the minds of many. 
And it is one that deprives them of the very best 
means both of adding to the attractiveness of 
their evergreens and of preserving that attrac¬ 
tion unimpaired to a good old age. 
For the purpose of inducing this strong de¬ 
velopment of the bottom branches, and at the 
same time a more compact habit throughout, 
instead of cutting off or ‘‘back’’ the brauohes' 
we have, for several years past, merely twisted 
out the vertical of buds which terminates 
them. These budB begin to formas soon 
as the spring growth is completed, and 
they may be removed in the following 
fall, w’inter, or early the next spring. 
Thus only the terminal growth which 
would have been made is prevented, and 
the same objeot is accomplished without 
diminishing the proportions of the tree. 
Our illustration from life, is that of a 
variety of the Norway Spruce called Elata 
(Abies exoelsa elata). The variety known 
as Monstrosa is notable chiefly for* its 
long, straggling branches with few later¬ 
als. It is, indeed, of all evergreens the ^ 
most lawless, if we may so speak. It des¬ 
pises symmetry, and seems to delight in 
destroying any somblanoe of equilibrium. 
The variety which we illustrate pre¬ 
serves much of the long, spreading, 
thickened disposition of the branches of 
the other, while with a little direotion 
by pinching out the buds as we have 
stated, a tree of marked and pleasing 
character, airy, free, commanding, is oh- 
tained. It is as hardy as the species, and 
will please all who seek variety among 
their evergreen collections. ^ 
To the average planter, variety among J=^ 
evergreens in not studied as it is among 
deciduous trees. It is a great pity that ^ 
it is bo, and we ask our friends who pro- 
pose to select this Bpring, to visit nurser¬ 
ies and examine the extremely varied Xaf 
forms and foliage whioh the evergreen 
family presents. 
of wrong done whenever any variety is declared 
the best without exception or qualification. 
Some there are, of course, that have defects 
which unquestionably limit their usefulness, 
but a very large number may be counted on to 
perform their proper work most admirably. 
Charity should exert, itself to condone the faults, 
even of trees, for the sake of their good quali¬ 
ties, especially whenwekuow that the bad ones 
may be improved or veiled by pruning and 
other methods. Even Silver Maples and Nor¬ 
way Spruces, so generally popular, we can ac¬ 
cept gladly, despite all our prejudice against 
them. They are attractive during particular 
stages of their growth, and may be cut down af¬ 
ter reaching the ugly period, when indeed their 
use as screens to other plants ceases, because 
ipspi? 
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m 
the age of such plants has usually by this time 
rendered them quite enduring. 
Desiring to express the most catholio views 
concerning the graces and peculiar fitness of 
most trees in one way or another, we must yet 
acknowledge a fondness for certain rugged, en¬ 
during species. Not that they are necessarily 
any finer in their prime than shorter-lived plants, 
but they have been with us so loDg; there is 
such a sense of permanence and long continued 
relation. In our childhood they were with us, 
and in our maturity they still retain that perfect 
vigor and completeness that preserve so entirely 
their identity with their remembered forms of 
years ago. Associations cling about them, and 
we seem to know them better than their more 
recent companions. 
Chief among these trees of peculiar vigor and 
longevity are the oaks, and were it not for their 
slow growth (which produces, however, their 
real strength and attraction) we doubt not that 
our lawns and avenues would be more often 
graced by their presence. We have been too 
much in a hurry, moat of us, but patience will 
come as the country grows older, when oaks 
will attain, in public estimation, their proper 
dignity as shade trees. Thera are some oaks, 
however, that receive an unusually small modi¬ 
cum of attention, and on one of these, the Pyra¬ 
midal Oak, we should like to dwell a few mo¬ 
ments. It is a slow growing, massive tree with 
rich, green foliage hanging on its compact, 
thick-set boughs until late in fall. The 
bark is smooth for an oak, and dark, and the 
leaves cut rnuoh after the fashion of those of an 
English Oak, its proper type in very many ways. 
It grafts readily on the English Oak, and has all 
its good qualities. But the special attraction the 
Pyramidal Oak must always offer to the lands¬ 
cape gardener is its peculiar compactness and 
lack of spread in the branches. The outline 
would be truly remarkable any where, although 
the term pyramidal is perhaps a misnomer, for 
the contour bwoIIb po regularly from a miniiimm 
at the base to a maximum about half way to the 
crown, then diminishing to a distinct point at 
the summit, that It becomes more properly an 
ovoid than a pyramid. 
It must, at once, appear that such a decided 
and striking form, always uncommon among de- 
cidious trees, can be utilized with great 
effect upon the lawn. Heretofore it has 
failed to secure the attention which its 
elegance of outline and other good qual¬ 
ities merit. We ehonld like much to see 
it more extensively employed in land¬ 
scape design, for its nature is sterling 
j. and of lasting value. 
[We have had this oak for three years. 
^ It makes yearly a growth of not less than 
four feet, and assumes the outline which 
Mr. Parsons’ describes. But every 
spring we find most of the last season’s 
growth winter-killed, and two years ago 
jigP the stock of one was severely injured. 
Whether it becomes hardier as it grows, 
older, or whether this injury is due to 
peculiarities of our soil, we cannot say.— 
Eds.] 
- ♦ « »- 
CELASTRUS SCANDENS. 
0 ; This is a vine too much neglected. 
(A. The Bittersweet is fresher in the memory 
of “ the oldest inhabitant’’ than it is in 
S'-L that of the amateur gardener of to-day. 
In the rush for new things, it sometimes 
» ; happens that the best of the old are for- 
|r gotten for years. Then it is revived, and 
** not unfrequently under a new name, is 
re-introduced, creating as much interest 
§ as if it had never been “old.” It so 
^ twines itself about the branches if plant 
ed near the trunk of some old tree, as in 
a few years to appear a part of the tree 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
