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ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART 111.

not so well clothed, especially near the surface of the earth.” (Gen. Rep. Scot.,vol. iv. p. 477.)

No tree is better adapted than the spruce fir for planting in narrow stripsfor shelter or seclusion ; because, though the trees in the interior of the stripmay become naked below, yet those on the outside will retain their branchesfrom the ground upwards, and effectually prevent the eye from seeingthrough the screen. The tendency of the tree to preserve its lower branchesrenders it an excellent protection to game; and for this purpose, and also forthe sake of its verdure during winter, when planted among deciduous trees,and cut down to within 5 ft. or 6 ft. of the ground, it affords a very good andvery beautiful undergrowth. The tree bears the shears; and, as it is of rapidgrowth, it makes excellent hedges for shelter in nursery gardens. Such hedgesare not unfrequent in Switzerland, and also in Carpathia, and in some partsof Baden and Bavaria. In 1814, there were spruce fir hedges in somegentlemen’s grounds in the neighbourhood of Moscow, between 30 ft. and 40 ft.high. At the Whim, already mentioned, p. 2297., a spruce fir hedge ( jig. 2223.)was planted, in 1823,with plants 10ft. high,put in 3 ft. apart; and,with the exception ofthree left to shoot up,for the purpose of be-ing clipped into or-namental figures, thewhole were cut downto 5 ft., and after-wards trimmed to theshape represented inthe figure. The hedgewas first cut on Ja-nuary 25., the yearafter planting ; and,as the plants werefound to sustain noinjury, about the endof that month hasbeen chosen for cut-ting it every yearsince. Every portionof this hedge, Mr. M'Nab observes, “ is beautiful and green ; and the annualgrowths are very short, giving the surface of the hedge a fine healthy appear-ance.” (Gard. Mag., vol. xiii. p. 254.)

As an ornamental tree, all admirers of regularity and symmetry are partialto the spruce, unless we except the author of the Planter’s Kalcndar, whosays that, next to the Lombardy poplar and the Scotch pine, it is the leastornamental of common trees ; the meaning of the writer probably being,that it has less variety in itself. Gilpin is evidently no great admirer of thetree ; but still he allows it to have its peculiar beauties. “ The spruce fir,”he says, “ is generally esteemed a more elegant tree than the Scotch pine; andthe reason, I suppose, is, because it often feathers to the ground, and growsin a more exact and regular shape: but this is a principal objection to it.It often wants both form and variety. We admire its floating foliage, inwhich it sometimes exceeds all other trees; but it is rather disagreeable tosee a repetition of these feathery strata, beautiful as they are, reared tierabove tier, in regular order, from the bottom of a tree to the top. Itsperpendicular stem, also, which has seldom any lineal variety, makes theappearance of the tree still more formal. It is not always, however, thatthe spruce fir grows with so much regularity. Sometimes a lateral branch,here and there, taking the lead beyond the rest, breaks somewhat through

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