"There is a lamentable poverty of evergreens," said Mr. Downing, "in the grounds of many country places in this country. Our plantations are mostly deciduous; and while there are thousands of persons who plant in the country such trashy trees as the Ailanthus, there is not one planter in a hundred but contents himself with a few fir trees as the sole representatives of the grand and rich foliage family of evergreens.

"They forget that, as summer dies, evergreens form the richest back-ground to the kaleidoscope-coloring of the changing autumn leaves; that in winter they rob the chilly frost-king of his sternest terrors; that in spring, they give a southern and verdant character to the landscape in the first sunny day, when not even the earliest poplar or willow has burst its buds.

"More than this - to look at the useful as well as the picturesque, they are the body guards, the grenadiers, the out-works and fortifications, which properly defend the house and grounds from the cold winds and the driving storms that sweep pitilessly over unprotected places in many parts of the country. Well grown belts of evergreens - the pines and firs - have, in their congregated strength, a power of shelter and protection that no inexperienced person can possibly understand, without actual experience and the evidence of his own senses. Many a place, almost uninhabitable from the rude blasts of wind that sweep over it, has been rendered comparatively calm and sheltered; many a garden so exposed that the cultivation of tender trees and plants was almost impossible, has been rendered mild and gentle in its climate by the growth of a close shelter, composed of masses and groups of evergreens".

Plants or trees that retain their verdure through the winter of northern cli-mates are called evergreens, to distinguish them from those that shed their foliage, and remain leafless during our cold seasons. The most common evergreens are those belonging to the pine; spruce and fir may serve as specimens.