"Far fetched and dear bought" is an old maxim; the pertinency of its application is seen in many of our social phases; but in none where its force is more evident, or its rebuke more deserved, than in our arboriculture and landscape gardening. And in my first term I would include every thing which bears leaves and branches - like the multifarious knowledge of wise King Solomon, "from the Cedar of Lebanon even to the Hyssop that springeth out of the wall." As we are prone to send across the water for our fashions, our luxuries, and - alas! that it should be - sometimes a little tincture of our morals, too, so we must needs go there for the arboreal adornment of our homes and the beautifying of our lawns. The "Schottisch," the "Polka" et id genus omne, being received upon trust as the perfection of grace and social enjoyment, why should not our gardening beauties need the same approval? Trees and shrubs must smaek of the salt-water and have a foreign and traveled air, to be appreciated by us Yankees. And it seems - so we learn from competent authority - that some of our rustic aboriginals, as the Kalmia, uncared for, when its wealth of laurel-like foliage and crowns of dazzling bloom were found in every wood, are imported in hot haste by our discriminating countrymen, now that their beauties and claims are appreciated and recognized in foreign courts of taste.

Just as our Connecticut tobacco, being too vulgar to grace the lips of our careful smokers, is exported to the West Indies and comes back without breaking bulk, stamped as genuine Havana by the seal of the custom house, and the approval of delighted connoisseurs.

This arises from our careless ignorance of the beauties patent in our woods and fields, and our indolence in allowing others to furnish our judgment of nature, as they do in some degree, our standards of literature and art. But the signs of the times are plain to be seen; indifference is vanishing; a wide-awake spirit (I speak not as a Know-Nothing) is abroad in the land, and our modest natives, content to bide their time, are beginning to be appreciated as they deserve. The day has come when beautiful things shall not be condemned because common, nor ugly strangers be welcomed because they are foreigners.

Why, my dear Mr. Editor, need you lament and say, "Oh! for the Hollies, and Laurels, and Rhododendrons that flourish so gaily in England, and give such charms to the country landscape"? Have we not Hollies,* and Laurels†, and Rhododendrons ‡ as good as the best Englishman of them all? - that are natives, too, of our frozen and thawed northern climate? (1) Let us be convinced that we cannot grow the Wads-worth Oaks in the time of a cucumber vine, nor the Elms of New Haven like Ailan-thuses, and that Nature, care, and time, will work wonders. "Let patience have its perfect work," and all will be well.

To deduce a practical conclusion from the above, we will discourse awhile anent some of our favorites, and try to show what can be done with common things. And first, I will mention the Red Cedar, (Juniperus Virginiana,) which grows abundantly in many of our Northern States, seeming to seek as of preference the driest and most sterile soils along our road-sides and in our neglected pasture-fields, which latter I have seen almost covered in a few years by a luxuriant growth of this desirable evergreen. Although its native habitats are generally- sterile, no tree will show more quickly the effects of a deep and moderately rich soil, in which it will grow with great rapidity. It is beautiful as a tingle tree. It seems to sport from seed into almost innumerable varieties, of every habit of growth and every shade of green; - some throw out long and sparsely-foliaged branches at stiff right-angles with the trunk, - some have- the loose and airy appearance of the Hemlock, that queen of evergreens, - and others are as closely conical as an Arbor Vitas. Their shades of color vary as their forms, from the liveliest green to the most sombre mixture of that color and blackishness (excuse the word - none other can express my idea so well). I have one now on my lawn, of that glaucous green so much admired in the Deodar; it is almost perfectly conical, and its foliage more resembles the Hemlock than the Cedar, making as beautiful a little evergreen as you would wish to see.

*Ilex opaes. † Kalmialatifolia. ‡ Rhododendron maximum.

As a hedge or a screen it is equal to almost any of its fellows. I speak from experience, having thoroughly tried it Its great hardiness and thrifty growth insure success, if the least care is used in its transplantation. If the plants are set about a foot or eighteen inches apart in a continuous line and suffered to grow untouched by the shears, they will in a few years form an impervious and picturesque screen, whose beauty is exceeded by few evergreens. But it bears trimming as well as the Buckthorn, and you may make of it as trim and beautiful a verdant wall as you may desire. It loses somewhat of its brightness in the winter, but not near as much as the Arbor Vitae; and withal, it is not that dead, yellowish, Russia-leather look, which belongs to the latter, but rather a sober and becoming livery. It has an evanescent and borrowed beauty, for which it is well worth cultivating - a single specimen, if no more. When the first still snow-storm of winter comes, its dark branches become sprinkled over with a fleecy burden, which gradually increases until they bend beneath it, and the tree looks like a fairy chandelier, prepared for Titania's revels.

I have a long, irregular screen of them in front of my drawing room windows, separating the lawn from the street, which it is right pleasant to look upon through the white veil of a snow-storm, its branches bending with their weight of beauty.

But to secure all these things - if you live where Cedars are not - you may have recourse to the nurseries; but if you live as I do, where they grow by thousands, you may obtain them more to your liking and the benefit of your purse, by going into the fields, spade in hand. I am not what would be called an expert, but my experience may be of use to some one, so herewith it is presented: I find an old pasture or roadside where they are abundant, and selecting those which have a thrifty, bushy habit of growth, from one to four feet high, according to circumstances - though of course the smaller ones are more easily removed. I drive a sharp spade down as deep as I can on four or more sides of the plant at six to eighteen inches from the trunk; then, by carefully prying around with the spade, I loosen the young tree, when it may be easily pulled up, bringing its ball of earth with it, which will be held firm by the grass and Cedar roots. You may pack your spring-wagon full of them thus, and carry them as far as you please with safety.

The great hardiness and tenacity of life of this tree, are some of its recommendations. It is almost as patient of bad usage as an Elm. Within the last two years, I have set a hedge of nearly sixty plants, and have lost only two, which were carelessly transplanted by a servant in my absence. During the last spring, a half-dozen of these trees, with their balls of earth attached, lay in my yard upon the surface of the ground, exposed to a week of dry, sunshiny weather. When I returned, with many misgivings, I set them out, and somewhat to my surprise, they grew as thriftily as if never moved, and promise soon to be an ornament to the homestead.

I would say something in praise of the Hemlock, but it has had abler advocates than I, and can well afford to do without my humble advocacy. At another time I may do what I can to aid the claims to notice of some other denizens or our woods and home-fields, for I am fond of rambling in out-of-the-way places, and sometimes find things worth looking at But to all who are not yet aware of the beauty of this neglected tree, I would say, plant the Red Cedar, for it is easily obtained, it will grow in a poor soil, it is hardy and easily transplanted, it is beautiful, either singly or in groups, or better yet, as a screen or hedge. Hand inexpertus loquor.

(1) We regret not that we have no Hollies, or Laurels, or Rhododendrons, for we have ail these in abundance, but that it is so difficult, to succed with them on our open lawns. It can not nor need be denied that our northern climate is exceedingly severe upon all broad-leaved evergreens, and we never expect to see them as under the cloudy sky, equable temperature, and humid atmosphere of Great Britain. - Ed].