sents exactly the pure forest conditions, and makes accessible to
thousands the full beauty and soothing that nothing but a coniferous
forest can provide for man. There is the great collateral advantage,
too, that to reach Hemlock Hill, the visitor must use a noble entrance,
and pass other trees and plants which, in the adequate setting here
given, cannot but do him much good, and prepare him for the deep sylvan
temple of the hemlocks he is seeking. To visit the Arboretum at the time
when the curious variety of the apple relatives--pyruses and the
like--bloom, is to secure a great benefit of sight and scent, and it is
almost certain to make one resolve to return when these blossoms shall,
by nature's perfect work, have become fruit. Here the fruit is grown for
its beauty only, and thus no gastronomic possibilities interfere with
the appreciation of color, and form, and situation! But again, to come
to the Arboretum some time during the reign of the lilacs is to
experience an even greater pleasure, perhaps, for here the old farm
garden "laylock" assumes a wonderful diversity of form and color, from
the palest wands of the Persian sorts to the deepest blue of some of the
French hybrids.

The pines themselves will well repay any investigation and appreciation.
Seven species are with us in the New England and Middle Atlantic States,
seven more are found South, while the great West, with its yet
magnificent forests, has twenty-five pines of distinct character. The
white pine is perhaps most familiar to us, because of its economic
importance, and it is as well the tallest and most notable of all those
we see in the East. From its first essay as a seedling, with its
original cluster of five delicate blue-green leaflets, to its lusty
youth, when it is spreading and broad, if given room to grow, it is a
fine object, and I have had some thrills of joy at finding this splendid
common thing planted in well-placed groups on the grounds of wealthy
men, instead of some Japanese upstart with a name a yard long and a
truly crooked Oriental disposition! In age the white pine dominates any
landscape, wearing even the scars of its long battle with the elements
with stately dignity. A noble pair of white pines on the shore of Lake
Champlain I remember especially--they were the monarchs of the lakeside
as they towered above all other trees. Ragged they were, their symmetry
gone long years ago through attacks of storms and through strife with