CHAP. CXI II.

coni'fervE. ^'bies.

2305

when trodden on, a refreshing odour; the more necessary in countries wherethe rooms being heated by stoves, for the sake of saving fuel, are badlyventilated. At funerals, the road into the churchyard and to the grave isstrewed with these green sprigs ; the gathering and selling of which is a sort oftrade for poor old people about the towns. In both Sweden and Norway, theinner bark is made into baskets; and the canoes, which are made of thetimber of the large trees, and which are so light, as Acerbi informs us, asto be carried on a man’s shoulders when a rapid or cascade interrupts thenavigation, have their planks fastened together with strings or cords made ofthe roots, so that not a single nail is used in their construction. The long andslender roots are made use of to form this kind of strings; and they are ren-dered flexible by splitting them down the middle, and by boiling them for two orthree hours in water mixed with alkali and sea salt. After this, they are driedand twisted into cordage, which is used as a substitute for hemp, both for navaland agricultural purposes. In Britain, the frond-like branches form an excel-lent protection to the blossoms of fruit trees on walls ; being tucked in amongthe shoots of the fruit trees, when the blossom buds of the latter are beginningto expand, and left in that position till they have shed their leaves; by whichtime the fruit is set, and requires no farther protection. Spruce fir branchesare also used for sticking early peas, to which they form a secure protectionfrom spring frosts ; and they might be used with excellent effect for protectinghalf-hardy plants, whether against walls or in the open garden.

The Spruce Fir k one of the best Nurses for other trees, not only from its densemass of foliage, which may be considered as a reservoir of heat, but because,from its conical form, and its being abundantly furnished with branches onthe surface of the ground, it acts as a non-conductor, and keeps the soil fromcold and drought; and, while it protects the plant to be sheltered from highwinds, it admits the top of that plant to the free enjoyment of light and air.From the great abundance of resin in the leaves and bark, the tree is consi-dered a powerful non-conductor; and it is said that the snow that falls on itsbranches melts much faster than that which falls on any other tree, whichis another argument in its favour as a nurse plant. William Adam, Esq., ofBlair, in Kinross-shire, a planter of great experience, gave the following opinionas to the comparative merits of the larch, the spruce, and the silver fir, in1794 : — “ The larch being deciduous, is not a good nurse ; and, from its quickgrowth, it is probable that it is a great robber of the nourishment of othertrees. From my own experience, I have no hesitation in saying that thespruce is to be preferred beyond all the other trees as a nurse. I have thou-sands of instances of oaks and elms growing up uninjured in the bosom ofspruces. The fact is most important, and reason at the same time supportsit. Deciduous trees send their roots downwards, particularly the oak : thespruce spreads its roots close under the surface ; and their nourishment isdrawn from different sources. The larger the oak grows, the more it derives itsnourishment from the subsoil, and, consequently, the less its roots interposewith those of the spruce. This last rises, in a regular and very pointed cone,so that it leaves full space for the spreading top of the oak. The spruce is thicklyclothed with leaves, and its branches are of a strong unpliable nature; conse-quently, it gives much protection, and does little injury to its neighbour;and, as it is very much feathered and bushy at the root, it protects the foresttree from being wind-waved. The larch, on the contrary, is naked of leavesduring the worst of the season ; and, from its boughs being thin and pliable, itlashes the neighbouring trees unmercifully, and it is in a condition, from itsnakedness, to make every lash be felt just at the time when its neighboursbegin to spring. It has also no peculiar thickness at the bottom, to protectthe others from wind-waving. It might be supposed that the silver fir wouldmake as good a nurse as the spruce; but, in point of fact, I have not observedthat the forest tree grows so kindly with this fir as with the spruce ; and itmay be observed that the silver fir is not so thoroughly leaved as the spruce :the sides of the bough only are covered with leaves ; and the tree itself is

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