1885.] HISTORICAL NOTICE OF CELEBRATED TREES. 109 



about 1-^- inch annually. But the finest of these firs in Britain are 

 within 30 miles of Glasgow, in the woods of lioseneath, where there 

 are two called the Carnsaile Trees. Their height is estimated at 80 

 feet, and their girth at 5 feet from the ground is 18 feet in the one 

 and 19 in the other. Their age is between 150 and 160 years. 

 They were the first trees of the species which were introduced into 

 this country. It is a native of the Alps of Switzerland and 

 Germany. The Norway spruce is probably the loftiest of the pine 

 tribe in Europe, reaching in its native country from 150 to 200 

 feet in length. It has therefore been long celebrated as furnishing 

 masts for the largest ships. 



Milton, in his description of Satan, thus alludes to this excel- 

 lence : — 



" His spear, to equal wliicli the tallest pine 

 Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 

 Of some great amiral, were but a wand." 



But it is the Norfolk Island pine (not, however, a true pine, but 

 the Araucaria cxcelsa), which was lately so highly prized for masts 

 in our navy, that the British Government sent vessels to bring home 

 this timber from the distant shores of Australia. The tree springs 

 with a perfectly straight stem 200 feet high, and has a diameter in 

 proportion. I believe many now consider the wood too heavy for 

 masts. In New England, North America, the white pine, on account 

 of its pre-eminence in height over other trees, had long been selected 

 as the emblem of the colonists ; and at the time of the separation 

 of the United States from their allegiance to this country, was 

 stamped on their coins. Although it does not flourish well in 

 Europe, it rises in its native soil to the height of 150 or even 200 

 feet, and was long considered as the tallest of North American 

 timber trees : — 



" Xot a Prince 

 In all that proud old world beyond the deep, 

 E'er wore his crown as loftily, as he 

 Wears his green coronal of leaves." 



Yet this white pine is overtopped by the Douglas pine or spruce 

 (Pinus Dourjlasii), which forms the principal part of the gloomy 

 forests of the Columbia Piiver, or Oregon territory. The extra- 

 ordinary height to which this species attains was first recorded by 

 Lewis and Clarke, who state that the trunk is very commonly 27 

 and often 36 feet in circumference at 6 feet from the surface of the 

 soil, and rises to the height of 230 feet, of which 120 are without 

 a single limb. One measured by their party is said to have been 

 42 feet in girth at a height beyond the reach of an ordinary man, 

 and was estimated to reach the height of 300 feet. Another is said 

 to have " measured 318 feet in length, although its diameter was 



