This section is from the book "What England Can Teach Us About Gardening", by Wilhelm Miller. Also available from Amazon: What England Can Teach Us About Gardening.
How the soul of a Californian must rejoice when he sees a Sequoia gigantea that has grown a hundred feet in fifty years! I saw one at Dropmore that was ninety-eight feet high and planted about i860. The oldest specimens I have seen in the East are at Rochester and Dosoris, and they are "homelier than sin." To tell the truth, the big tree is not beautiful in our gardens. (See plate 63.)
The only equivalent of it we can have is Cryptomeria Japonica, the most important timber tree of Japan. Both have a bunchy foliage effect which is produced by long strings, like those of the cypress or club moss. But even the Cryptomeria is hardy only as far north as New York, unless in sheltered positions, and this type of conifer is only for collections. We do not want it in our landscape.
 
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