PLANTING IN SCOTLAND. 29 



silver fir on wliicli tliey are wrouglit ; and in this particular mode 

 of propagation we would only suggest that the grafts should be 

 set on very low and near the ground and neck of the stock, for 

 being very apt to overgrow the parent, by being thus placed low 

 and near the ground, the soil can be earthed up around and over 

 the weak parent, thus placing tlie graft, as it were, almost on its 

 own root ; and should any unduly rapid development of the graft 

 take place, this must be at once checked by simply scarifying with 

 a sharp penknife tlie back of the graft and parent stock over and 

 rather dose to the point of junction, and immediately thereafter 

 earthing up the soil round the graft above the point of union. 

 Cleft grafting is tlie usual method employed in propagating coni- 

 fers by this mode, and the most careful attention to physiological 

 laws is necessary to ensure success. Cuttings should be made 

 with a " heel" as already indicated, and the " heel " bound round 

 with small fine wire to confine any attempt at bleeding, till the 

 cicatrix be formed and healed over. 



But we must now consider the progress which P. nobilis has 

 made since its introduction to this country, in tlie various soils, 

 sub-soils, altitudes, and exposures, into which it has been placed. 

 In doing so we must refer to the two Statistical Tables we have been 

 able, through the kindness and information afforded by trustworthy 

 correspondents in the different localities, to append to this paper. 

 In Table No. I. will be found dimensions of some of the best and 

 oldest specimens to be met with in the country ; but in any inquiry 

 like the present, it is impossible to record all the specimens now 

 to be found adorning the landscape, and therefore, although some 

 equally good trees may not have been specified in the list, enough 

 have been tabulated, from as wide an area of country, and variety 

 of soil and altitude, as to show how generally suitable to our 

 climate is the F. nohilis. Generally speaking, we may state that 

 this pine adapts itself to almost any soil, altitude, or exposure. 

 Like all other coniferous trees, it dislikes wind, from which it is 

 apt to suffer in the loss of its young leading shoot. There is no 

 site or station in this country, we have been able to find, where 

 the P. nohilis has not proved itself thoroughly hardy and perfectly 

 sound in constitution, and of tolerably rapid growth. It seems, 

 however, to succeed best in good, deep, loamy soil, and in a 

 sheltered locality, and dislikes a soil where lime is abundant. 

 Like its congener, the silver fir, it rather affects a damp situation, 

 and luxuriates in a soil retentive of moisture. For example, in 

 No. 14 of Table I., we find it at Keillor, Perthshire, at an altitude 

 of 650 feet above sea-level, although only planted in 1844, now 

 56 feet in height, with a girth of stem at 1 foot from the ground, 

 of 5 feet, growing in a moorland soil very retentive of moisture, 

 on the Old Ked Sandstone formation. And Mr Thomson of 

 Balgowau, who is also proprietor of Keillor, finds that it is quite 



