ed strongly when seen
at its best either in the uncut forest, or in a planted avenue. We of
the North are helping to ruin the next generation of Southern pines by
lavish use, for decorations, of the young trees of about two feet high,
crowded with the long drooping emerald needles. The little cut-off pine
lasts a week or two, in a parlor--it took four or five years to grow!

All pine-cones are interesting, and there is a great variation between
the different species. The scrub-pine one sees along the railroads
between New York and Philadelphia has rather stubby cones, while the
pitch-pine, beloved of the fireplace for its "light-knots," has a
somewhat pear-shaped and gracefully disposed cone. A most peculiar cone
is that of a variety of the Norway pine, which, among other species
brought from Europe, is valued for ornament. The common jack-pine of the
Middle States hillsides wears symmetrical and handsome cones with
dignity. Cones are, of course, the fruits or seed-holders of the pine,
but the seeds themselves are found at the base of the scales, or parts
of the cones, attached in pairs. Each cone, like an apple, has in its
care a number of seeds, which it guards against various dangers until a
kindly soil encourages the rather slow germination characteristic of the
order.

The nurserymen have imported many pines from Europe, which give pleasing
variety to our ornamental plantings, and aid in enriching the winter
coloring. The Austrian pine and the Scotch pine are welcome additions to
our own pine family. In these days of economic chemistry and a
deficient rag supply, every reader of these words is probably in close
proximity to an important spruce product--paper. The manufacturers say,
with hand on heart, that they do not use _much_ wood pulp, but when one
has passed a great paper-mill flanked on all sides by piles of spruce
logs, with no bales of rags in sight anywhere, he is tempted to think
otherwise! Modern forestry is now planting trees on waste lands for the
pulp "crop," and the common poplar is coming in to relieve the spruces.

Beautiful trees are these spruces and firs, either in the forest or when
brought by the planter to his home grounds. The leaves are much shorter
than those of most pines, and clothe the twigs closely. There is a vast
variety in color, too, from the wonderful whitish or "glaucous" blue of
the Colorado blue spruce, to the deep shining green of Nordmann's fir, a
splendid introduction from