PLANTING IN SCOTLAND. 37 



lings have been reared, and are all equally hai'dy with the parent 

 tree. 



The usual method of growing seedlings in this country is to 

 sow the seeds in tlie open nursery ground in the month of April, 

 the details of treatment being the same as for the seeds of the 

 other Conifers. They prove quite hardy and braird well, nor is 

 the young braird liable to be cut down by late spring frosts. 

 Their subsequent treatment, after being two years transplanted in 

 the nursery lines, is generally to plant them out in a mixed 

 plantation of Scots fir and larch ; and should the soil happen to be 

 rich in organic matter, the trees will make larger and more rapid 

 annual growths than if placed in clay and gravel or thinner soils. 

 The young plants thrive remarkably well on peat-bog, especially 

 where the bog is decomposed and is intermixed with some soil. 

 In such sites it is no unusual thing to see the young trees making 

 annual shoots of 20 to 24 and even 30 inches under favourable 

 circumstances of exposure and season. Planted out singly and 

 in an open situation, the P. nohilis frequently makes slow progress 

 at first, and for some years in light soil this is also the case. In 

 such cases, and also if it be a grafted specimen or a cutting, much 

 pinching in, when young, is required to induce it to throw up a 

 good top shoot ; indeed, careful treatment, by disbudding supera- 

 bundant side shoots; when the young seedlings have been trans- 

 planted into the nursery-rows, will assist them materially in 

 forming good leaders ; and the stronger growth thus induced into 

 the terminal shoot of the seedling is of great use in promoting a 

 more rapid growth in the tree when planted out in its destined 

 situation. 



It is, of course, somewhat premature to report on the value of 

 the wood of the P. nohilis from any of the specimens grown in this 

 country, which have been felled or been blown down by the fury 

 of the gales from wliich our coasts are so liable to suffer, and 

 which are more injurious in our climate than anything else to the 

 C'oniferaj. Still, from what small experience has been gathered from 

 such trees as have been cut up, we may state that the wood 

 proved to be close-grained and " clean," and is apparently superior 

 to, and as durable as, the white or yellow pine of commerce. We 

 have the testimony of the introducer Douglas, who said that its 

 timber was " good." Some planters think that although its wood 

 will not prove " first class," — fearing it may prove soft and white, 

 — they are still justified in planting it extensively on account of 

 its alleged durability ; but until it has been longer in this country, 

 and had ample time to develop its timber-producing capabilities, 

 it would be wrong to condemn a tree whose pre-eminent quality 

 (if it had no other), viz., its unequalled value for ornamental 

 effect, must render it an acquisition, whose more extended intro- 

 duction throughout the country is much to be desired ; and as we 



