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ARBORETUM AND FKUTICETUM.

I’ART HI.

scarcely grows higher, but continues to increase slowly in thickness till ithas attained the age of 150 years; when it begins slowly to decay. The rateat which the tree tapers, in the Jura , is about 1 in. in 6 ft.; so that a trunk60ft. high, and 6 ft. in diameter at the lower end, would be 5 ft. 2 in. at the upperend. In England, in favourable situations, the growth of the silver fir seemsto be at least twice as rapid as in the Jura ; but it is apt to lose its leader byvery severe spring frosts; and, hence, we frequently find old silver firs withforked trunks and branchy heads. Even young plants in the nurseries areapt to lose their leaders from the same cause; for which reason, in the Gold-worth and Knaphill Nurseries, in Surrey , the common silver fir and the balmof Gilead silver fir are always sown and transplanted under a spreading deci-duous tree; most commonly the apple or pear. The silver fir does not bearthe knife, and cannot be made into hedges, like the spruce; but, after it hasattained 20 or 30 years’ growth, the lower branches may be cut off to a con-siderable height up the trunk, with advantage to the progress of the head. Asilver fir, planted when two years old, at Harefield Park, in Middlesex, in 1603,which was one of the first planted in England, was in 1679, according to Evelyn,81 ft. high, though forked at the top ; and the girt, a little above the ground,was 13 ft. The quantity of timber in the trunk of this tree was estimated at140 ft. In Ireland , Lord Farnham had many silver firs of 40 years’ growth,which had tranks 12 ft. in circumference at the ground; and one still thicker,which contained 76 ft. of solid timber. In the Park at Woburn Abbey , thereis a tree which, on the 1st of February, 1837, was exactly 114 ft. high, with atrunk 11 ft. 1 in. in circumference at 4 ft. from the ground. This tree wasmeasured eight years before (viz. in 1829); and its increase during this shortperiod was, in height, 4 ft.; in circumference, 7 in.; in cubic feet of timber inthe trunk, 11 ft.; and in cubic feet of timber in the branches, 24 ft. Thetotal amount of available timber in the trunk of this tree, on the 1st of Fe-bruary, 1837, was 210J cubic feet; and in the larger branches, 139ft. 6in.;making a total of 350 cubic feet of marketable timber, exclusive of 20 ft.of forked head. The age of this tree was probably not much above 100years, as most of the old pine and fir trees at Woburn are said to havebeen planted in the time of Miller. The loftiest silver fir in England isbelieved to be a tree at Longleat, which, in 1834, being then 180 yearsplanted, was 138 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 5 ft. 8 in., and of the head44 ft. The largest tree in Scotland is supposedto be one at Roseneath, 124ft. high; the mostremarkable one is also at Roseneath, of whicha portrait was published by Mr. Strutt, in hisSylva Britunnica, and of which fig. 2239. is acopy, reduced to the scale of 1 in. to 50 ft.

This tree, we were informed by Lord Frederick Campbell , in 1835, was then in much the same .state in which it was when Mr. Strutt made hisdrawing, about 1829 : it was at that time 90 ft.high; the diameter of the trunk, at 1 ft. fromthe ground, was 7 ft. 7 in.; and the diameter ofthe head was 66 ft. Its solid contents wereestimated at 619 cubic feet 10in.; and it wassupposed to be 200 years old. The largest treein the neighbourhood of London is one atWhitton, planted by the Duke of Argyll, pro- ^239

bably about 1720, which, in 1837, was 97 ft. high, with a trunk 3ft. 9in. indiameter. In the immediate environs of London , the tree does not thrive;nevertheless, we found in the Layton Nursery the young tree figured in ourlast Volume, which had attained the height of 22 ft. in about 15 years. Thesilver fir ripens its seeds freely both in England and Scotland . In the woodsat White Knights, wherever there are old silver firs, there are numerousyoung plants arising around them from self-sown seeds.

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