HOUSE AND GARDEN 
August, i 
910 
Pines do not like close, heavy, clay soil, nor will they do well 
on shallow soil because they have a long tap root. Loose sandy 
earth suits them best, and because they have this tap root that 
reaches deep for moisture, they can endure dry soil. The White 
Pine is not so particular as the rest of the family, however, and 
will adapt itself to uncongenial places very cheerfully. Pines are 
very intolerant of shade, but the latter will make the best of a 
certain amount of this, too. 
Cedars are at home on wet, even swampy, soils, though as 
a matter of fact they will do better where it is dry. They will 
stand some shade. 
Spruces are shallow-rooted trees, which always means adapted 
to soil that is moist—and they thrive in extreme cold, being na¬ 
tives of high altitudes. They mind shade less than either of the 
two first named. 
Firs are trees of high regions too, and some can not endure 
a dry, hot climate at all, unless shaded and given the coolest spots. 
Hemlocks are not exacting and will grow in almost any kind 
of soil providing it is moist. Plemlocks and White Pines, by the 
way, are one of Nature's combinations and may often be found 
growing together in large forests, which is a bint toward group- 
A newly set clump of Mugho Fines at the corner of a drive. P. 
Montana is a good dwarf form and will stand shade 
evergreen will be found repeated more or less 
often, in any patch of woods or within any 
special area, just as we have noted previously 
that one variety of deciduous tree is to be found 
dominating nearly always in a similar growth. 
The reason of course lies in the fact that all. 
the conditions are exactly suited to give to that 
variety a little advantage, and though other 
trees may not be crowded out altogether they 
do not multiply as rapidly as the favored one. 
This leads to a “mass effect" quite in line with 
what Nature continually offers — and furnishes 
the best example possible of ideal planting, 
from the practical as well as the esthetic side, 
being in the last analysis a survival of the fittest. 
Learn what evergreens are best suited to a 
place before planting any, by ascertaining what 
are native to the region, to the immediate ter¬ 
ritory ; then make use of these or their nearest 
relatives in all broad scale planting, governing 
the selections, of course, by the soil conditions 
of the particular piece of land to be planted. A 
tree that may thrive on a mountain side will not 
tolerate the moist valley at the mountain’s feet 
very often, hence the caution to judge from those 
trees found growing in the immediate territory. 
Five-hundred-years-old Cypresses around the pool at the Villa Falconieri, Italy. 
We can approximate the grandeur of this effect with our Junipers 
In planting evergreens allow one or two kinds to predominate 
ing. Hemlocks stand shade well and are good for hedge service. 
Of the native Pines, Pinus Strobus, Pimps resinosa and Pinus 
rigida are the best; Juniperus Virginiana is the choice among 
cedars. The White and the Red Spruce (Picea Canadensis and 
Picea rabens), respectively, and the Douglas Spruce, which after 
all is not a true Spruce (Pseudotsuga mucronata ) are preeminent 
among their kind. The native Firs do not do well “in captivity,” 
but Abies Nordmanniana, which is an importation from the Cau¬ 
casus mountains, is a splendid tree that may be planted with 
confidence in its good behavior. Tsuga Canadensis is the fine 
native Hemlock, one of the most satisfactory evergreens in the 
world, while Thuya plicata — the giant Arborvitse, very little 
known as yet but rapid-growing and beautiful and deserving 
great popularity, closes the list of the nine very best—a list from 
which a selection to suit any locality may be made. 
The use of two or three varieties of a species is not to be 
(Continued on page 114) 
