34 ON THE PICEA NOBILIS, AND ITS VALUE FOR 



altitude of fully 900 feet, it is now 46 feet in height, although 

 only twenty-seven years planted, and perfectly hardy.* In this 

 situation there are also several smaller sj)ecimens of the species 

 recently planted which are doing very well, and invariably 

 give promise of withstanding with impunity the rigours of 

 the climate of Buckden, where the winters are long and severe ; 

 but probably, as has already been suggested, the length of 

 the winter at such an altitude preserves them from meeting 

 the fate of many of the species in milder climates, as their 

 development of buds is retarded till all danger from spring 

 frosts is over. 



As a further proof of the preference shown by the P. nohilis 

 for a damp situation, we should not omit to notice that, during 

 last year (1877), which will be generally remembered as a cold, 

 wet, and continuously damp season, the P. noMlis grew actually 

 three feet atSlogarie (Wigtownshire); in that district the rainfall 

 had marked 75 inches, and the plants were growing in a deep, 

 dry, loamy soil, on a subsoil of boulder till. The altitude is 300 

 feet, and the trees have an open northerly exj)0sure. In many 

 other localities also last year, the growths of the P. nohilis were 

 observed to be equally rapid, and unusually long, thus showing- 

 its predilection for damp soils, climates, and seasons. 



In Dorsetshire, the P. nohilis does not thrive so well as in other 

 counties, being so near the chalk. Where this formation is 

 present, the pine family generally languish on in an unhealthy 

 condition for some years, and then succumb from decay on the 

 root-fibres reaching the chalk; and this also has been the 

 consequence of the introduction of P. nohilis in such districts. The 

 only conifers which seem more able to survive under such cir- 

 cumstances are the Pinus austriaca and Cedms Deodara, which 

 will live on for twenty years or so, but they too finally droop 

 and die ; or, if assisted in indi\T.dual instances by adventitious 

 appliances, will linger on, existing, but e\dncing none of the char- 

 acteristics of suitability to the situation. However, in this soil in 

 these districts, the common English yew {Taxus haccata) grows 

 luxuriantly, and attains to a great size and age. At Milton 

 Abbey there is one 14 feet in girth at 4 feet from the ground, 

 and which, at 6 feet from the ground, forms itself into two huge 

 limbs, each measuring 9 feet in girth, — the height of the tree 

 being 55 feet. We know of no other instance of a conifer thriv- 

 ing in the chalk formation so luxuriantly as this. 



Although this Report is limited, strictly speaking, to an inquiry 

 into the progress and suitability in Scottish soil of the P. nohilis, 

 and to its consequent prospective value as a timber tree in North 

 Britain, we have adduced, for the sake of comparison, a few 



* This tree measured only 20 feet in height in 1864. 



