File:The American garden (1873) (18122973286).jpg

Title: The American garden
Identifier: americangarden121891broo (find matches)
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors:
Subjects: Horticulture; Gardening
Publisher: Brooklyn, N. Y. : (s. n. )
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
PINES, HEMLOCKS AND SPRUCES.
Text Appearing After Image:
The White Pine. — "Torn and broken by storms and disfigured by age." A SUGGESTION FOR WINTER STUDY. HE PINES and their allies are always interesting because they are always wholly unlike other plants. They form a distinct group in the vegetable kingdom. In fact, they are the remnants of an early vegetation, the greater part of which has long since disap- peared. They are widely distributed, and yet they are mostly con- fined to particular geographical or geological regions, where they grow in abundance and usually to the exclusion of most other trees. There are only about 70 species of pines known, and half of these grow in the United States. Comparatively few of them are in general cultivation. The commonest are the Austrian, Scotch and white pines, all of which are excellent for screens and for planting in large grounds. Of these three, the Austrian is the coarsest and least comely, but it grows rapidly and makes a valuable wind-break. t» The Scotch pine, known also as the Scotch fir, is a luxuriant grower in every soil and situation. Its leaves are short and of a bluish green tinge. This species has given us several interesting varieties, one of which is of dwarf, wide-spreading habit, being known in some nurseries as the dwarf mountain pine. A pine which deserves to become better known in cultivation is the Norway pine, a fruiting spray of which is shown about half size in the frontispiece. It is rarely seen in cultivation. It makes a compact, very dark green tree, usually growing sym- metrically and shapely without shearing. In general ap- pearance upon the lawn, it recalls both the white and Austrian pines, but has a warmer aspect, and it is much more comely than the Austrian. It appears to submit readily to cul- tivation, but it is not often sold and is little known. The Norway pine is a native American, and does not occur in Europe. Its common name is, therefore, a misnomer, but it is so generally used, especially among lumbermen, that it would be useless to attempt to change it. It is often called red pine, be- cause of the dark color of its wood. To botanists it is known as Finns resinosa. The Norway pine affords much of the pine lumber of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In parts of these states it is very abundant, occurring in dense forests. In these forests and groves, the trees rise on slender Sb' and nearly smooth ligtit brown trunks to a height often of a hundred feet, their supple boles reminding one of palms. There are no handsomer forests in the north than those composed of Norway pines. The species ranges in less frequency as far south as northern Pennsylvania, and it is known in Massa- chusetts. The Table Mountain pine is a species which pre- vails in the Alleghany mountains, and from thence southward to North Carolina. It is a small tree, with short, stout, crowded leaves of bluish hue. i

Note About Images