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Among the shrubs such smooth-leaved, hardy sorts as the lilacs,privets, golden bells, buckthorns, and barberries seem to withstand thedrawbacks of smoke, soot, and drought the best. Most of the coniferous evergreens have a hard time even existingin any closely built up town. The Colorado blue spruce, silver fir,Scotch pine, and dwarf mountain pine have withstood the soot and gasbetter than any others, and some recent experiments with the Carolinahemlock seem to show that it, too, will survive in the heart of a city, 118 providing it receives a certain amount of care. The common arborvitaehas generally proved a failure. The exact reason why conifers are sounsuccessful has not so far appeared. Their short life seems to be dueto the accumulation of soot which clogs the pores of the leaves andslowly suffocates them. They transpire so much water also duringthe hot summer droughts that they need an excessive amount ofmoisture, and they need numerous showers or washings from thehose also to keep them clean and cool. As most evergreens grow-ing under city conditions do not get any care they rarely succeed, andwhen they do live, they lose their colour and are therefore not recom-mended. |
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