174 



Remarkable Spruce Fir at Braco Castle. 



travellers. This plant, in common with many of the genus 

 J'icus, readily emits roots at the joints of the young wood ; the 

 young side-shoots are pendulous, and on reaching the ground 

 they readily strike root under the genial climate, and in the 

 rich soil, of Hindoostan. The plants which compose the genus 

 Pinus are, for the most part, more difficult to raise by layers or 

 cuttings than those of any other genus of trees which abound 

 in our northern forests ; and yet it is among the pine tribe 

 that the nearest approach is made to the Indian banyan. A 

 beautiful tree of the black American spruce (^^bies nigra), 



about forty years old, stands in the woods at Braco Castle, 

 Perthshire, the property of James Masterton, Esq., of Braco ; 

 from its side-shoots a number of young trees have sprung up 

 of different altitudes around the mother-plant. The circum- 

 ference is regularly and gradually extending, and fresh shoots 

 strike root and grow perpendicularly all around the original 

 plant. Should this beautiful assemblage of evergreen spires 

 be allowed to extend, and be protected from the inroads of 

 cattle, it may be difficult to assign limits to the beautiful mass 

 of vegetation which time may form. The above sketch 

 {fig, 49.) will give some idea of its present appearance. It 

 may be proper to add that a natural seedling from this tree, 

 standing not far distant from the mother-plant, apparently 

 about twelve years of age, is also in its turn already surrounded 

 by a numerous and healthy rising family. Both these trees 

 were pointed out to me by Major F. H. Elliot, Royal Engi- 



