Cbe national IRurscr^man. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated 
Vol. XXIII. ROCHESTER, N. Y., DECEMBER, 1915. No. 12. 
CONIFERS AND OTHER EVERGREENS 
AT THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
T he Pinetum. The abundant rains of the past sea¬ 
son have been a great benefit to the conifers in 
the Arboretum and many of these plants are 
now in an unusually good condition in 
spite of the severity of several recent win¬ 
ters. It is the province of the Arboretum to 
teach as far as it is possible to do so the value of all trees 
in this climate and to show those which fail as well as 
those which succeed, a duty which sometimes interferes 
with the beauty of the Arboretum as a garden. It has 
been shown by the Arboretum, for example, that the Bal¬ 
sam Fir, of the northeastern United States (Abies bal- 
samea) and its near relatives, the Fir of the southern 
Appalachian Mountains (A. Fraseri ), the Fir from the 
northern Rocky Mountain region (A. lasiocarpa ), and 
the species of central Siberia, A. sibirica, can live here 
but soon become unsightly, and they are not worth 
growing in this climate for ornament or as timber trees. 
It has been shown here, too, that eastern Massachusetts 
is not cold enough for the White Spruce of the north. 
Picea canadensis. This beautiful tree grows here ra¬ 
pidly until it is about twenty-five years old and then, save 
in exceptional situations, it begins to become thin and 
soon loses its beauty. 
Pacific Coast Conifers. Of the conifers of the Pa¬ 
cific coast region of North America the White Pine, Pinus 
monticola, is the most successful. It is hardy, grows 
rapidly and, although not more beautiful or as valuable 
as the native White Pine, Pinus Strobus , it is a tree well 
worth attention in New England. The Sugar Pine, 
Pinus Lambertiana, which on the California Sierra Ne¬ 
vada becomes the largest of all Pine trees, is perfectly 
hardy here and is in good condition although it grows 
slowly. The White Fir of the California Sierras. Abies 
concolor, lives here in good condition lor many years 
but is a less valuable tree in this climate than the plants 
of the same species derived from Colorado. Abies 
nobilis can live here in sheltered positions but does not 
become a tree, although the beautiful Abies amabilis 
which grows with it on the mountains of Oregon and 
Washington does better but grows slowly and has now 
been in good condition in the Arboretum for several 
years. Another tree which is rarely seen in northern 
collections, Libocedrus decurrens, the Incense Cedar of 
Caifornia, is in good condition in the small collection of 
exotic conifers near the top of Hemlock Hill in an ex¬ 
ceedingly sheltered position. The Incense Cedar is a 
tree of narrow columnar habit with bright green foliage, 
and in California sometimes grows to the height of one 
hundred and fifty feet and forms a massive trunk. There 
are good specimens in the District of Columbia and it may 
well be more generally planted in the middle and south¬ 
ern states. The two beautiful White Cedars of the 
northwest coast, Chamaecyparis Lawsoniana and C. 
nootkatensis, can just be kept alive in the Arboretum 
where they drag out a miserable existence. Jeffrey’s 
Pine, Pinus ponderosa, var. Jeffreyi, lives but that is all 
that can be said of it. None of the other coast conifers 
of western North America are hardy here, but fortun¬ 
ately a few of the northern species range inland to the 
western slope of the northern Rocky Mountains, and 
when plants of these species are obtained from the in¬ 
terior cold region they can be successfully grown in 
Massachusetts. Thus the Arboretum is able to keep in 
good condition the so-called Red Cedar of the northwest, 
Thuya plicata, or as it is more often called. T. gigantea. 
This is one of the noblest trees of which North America 
can boast and, although it will never grow to its largest 
size or become an important timber tree here, it is an or¬ 
namental tree in the Arboretum of considerable value 
and another witness to the importance of raising trees 
for cold climates from seeds gathered in the coldest parts 
of the area such trees naturally inhabit. It is possible, 
too, to grow here in the Arboretum the White Fir of the 
