Trees of this kind should be sufficiently numerous to make the place pleasant, even when other trees are leafless; yet deciduous trees should so abound as to give the premises a new and heightened charm during the vernal season. As among ornamental shrubs, those are the most desirable whose foliage is persistent and fresh throughout the summer, and which take on new attractions when in flower, so a country-place is best planted when it has evergreens sufficient in its composition to make it always cheerful, yet has also deciduous trees enough to give it additional beauty on the opening of summer.

Not the least argument for evergreens is the sense of protection and comfort they afford to a country residence. Here, use and beauty are happily combined, the use itself becoming an element of beauty. The value of evergreens as a protection during the stormy months of the year, can hardly be over-estimated. In all situations, but especially on elevated sites, the winds batter in pieces, and often kill, flowering plants; they nip the buds of fruit-trees, and break down and mutilate choice ornamental trees. Considering that it is chiefly the violence of the winds, and not the severity of the cold that harms our plantations, we see the importance of giving them suitable shelter. Surround a bleak spot with a belt, or with scattered groups of evergreens, and the effect will be at once perceptible. Ton may then plant the finest trees upon the glade behind them, and they will grow erect and unmarred; the choicest shrubs and most delicate plants will develop all their beauty of leaf and flower; fruit-trees will grow luxuriantly, their blossoms will not be blighted, and their fruit will hang to the stem until it is fit for the planter's use.

And would not the presence of a goodly number of such trees prevent the frost from penetrating the ground as deep as it would, if left naked to the winds? Certain it is, that when planted on the exposed sides of dwellings, they protect them sensibly from the blasts of winter, and cheat the cold season of half its dreariness. They may make little difference in the temperature as marked by the thermometer, yet they break the force of the wind, subdue its angry tones, and prevent it from rushing in at every cranny and crevice of the building. They give the premises without a sheltered and warm aspect, even in the severest weather, and make out-door labor and recreation comfortable and pleasant. The quiet, home-like took of such a place, as well as its actual comfort, is a strong argument for the liberal planting of evergreens.

Thus much for the beauty and usefulness of this class of trees. Let us now enumerate, as well as we can, the leading hardy varieties. And here it is in place to remark, that several varieties which were considered hardy, a few years ago, must now be ranked as tender. For example, before they had been fully tested, the Cedar of Lebanon, Deodar Cedar, Himalayan Spruce, Picea Webbiana, and P. cephalonica, Torreya taxifolia, Araucaria imbricata, Cryptomeriajaponica, and others with still harder names, were classed by sanguine amatenrs as " perfectly hardy." Some of them, perhaps, had been sadly frost-bitten, and others killed outright, by the winter; but that was owing merely to some mistake in planting, or to an unsuitable location, or to the severity of the season, or to a want of familiarity with the vicissitudes of our climate - a pardonable fault, surely, in newly-landed foreigners! But somehow or other, those mistakes have continued to be made. The location and soil are only seldom just right; trying, "peculiar," "unprecedented" winters continue to succeed each other, and the natives of warmer countries persist in being pinched by our hyperborean climate.

Here and there, a persevering arboriculturist manages, by dint of draining and blanketing, to carry a few shivering, adopted citizens through several winters; but they come out each successive spring with the loss of several limbs, or of their heads, and, after that, their life isn't worth much. All honor to such enterprising planters I They deserve the thanks of their countrymen for their difficult and often costly experiments. We can appreciate somewhat the feelings of those who "With unsparing hand, Would cull the beauties of each land, And blend them in one favored spot".

We are not wholly strangers to the delight of carrying safely through the winter trees indigenous to milder latitudes. " Stolen waters are sweet." And with those who have the means and leisure for this pastime, we can find no fault; but as for calling such trees "hardy," and recommending them for general planting, what sane mind can do it f There are hardy evergreens, both native and foreign, and sufficient in variety to satisfy any reasonable taste; those which long experience has proved to be hardy in the latitude of Central New York, and to deserve general recommendation, are chiefly the following, and named in the order of their excellence: -

1. Norway Spruce

We place this first not only because of its beauty, but for its superior hardiness, rapidity of growth, the ease with which it may be transplanted, and the freshness of its color at all seasons of the year. Its foliage is heavier and less rigid than that of its American cousin. Its limbs sometimes take a drooping and graceful sweep, and the shorter side-branches hang down like rich fringes or tresses, in an exceedingly pleasing manner. It is a beautiful tree when young, every year improves it, and, in old age, it is truly venerable. It makes an excellent lawn-tree, and answers well for groups, and belts, and hedges. It is fast becoming a popular rival of the old-fashioned Balsam Fir.*

2. The Hemlock

This tree is more impatient of removal than the last-mentioned, is slower in growth, and though perfectly hardy, the extremities of its twigs are sometimes slightly damaged by the winter winds. Otherwise, it deserves the first place on our list. Its foliage is dense, yet feathery and graceful, and retains its color fresh throughout the year. Whatever charges of stiffness and monotony may be brought against other evergreens, none can be sustained against this. Its branches do not shoot out stiff like rods from the trunk, but each one has a slender and flexible termination, even the central and highest shaft bending over at the top, and giving the whole tree an air of graceful and modest beauty. Perhaps the most favorable condition for viewing this tree is when its branches are wreathed with newly-fallen snow, or jewelled with drops of dew or rain. We wonder not at the fond enthusiasm with which the poet Willis writes of the hemlocks around his mountain home. Speaking of this tree in its spring dress, he says: "Of all Nature's renewals, I think this is the fairest. The old foliage forms such an effective contrast for the new.