A Gigantic Silver Fir. 



By TPI0:\IAS WILKIE, Forester, Ardkixglas, Ixtera:iy,'' 



A MAJESTIC specimen of the silver fir, 115 feet in length, and 13| feet 

 in circumference at 2 -J- feet from the ground, showing unmistakable 

 signs of decay (being quite withered a month ago), has been lately- 

 cut down here, though with great reluctance, as it was standing where 

 a Pinetum is now being formed, and consequently had to be removed. 

 Five of these monarchs grew in a row, and are all grand old pic- 

 turesque-looking trees. The leaders were taken off this, and other 

 three of those still standing, by a weak-minded individual while in their 

 young state. They afterwards sent out strong lateral branches, though 

 the whole of them ultimately formed leaders. The one just cut down had 

 three heavy lateral branches or limbs, one measuring 72 feet in length, 

 another 40 feet, and the third 22 feet, after the tops were cut off. 

 The tree measured in the aggregate 446 cubic feet, being equal to 

 SyV cubic feet of growth per annum, this amount being seldom ex- 

 ceeded. I had the root end dressed with a plane, and counted 126 

 concentric rings on it, thus proving the rapidity of the growth of 

 the tree. Being grown upon rich alluvial soil, some of your readers 

 may be anxious to know what could be ascribed as the cause of its 

 decay. I may state what I believe to be the cause. Two large limbs, 

 the largest and the smallest of the three, grew upon one side of the tree, 

 the smaller one in a direct line above the larger, the latter being only 

 5 feet from the ground, and the former 30 feet. The trunk was 

 shaken, cracked, or split to the opposite side from these limbs for 

 50 feet upwards, and extending from side to side of the bole at the 

 root end. A fungus was traceable in the shake for 19 feet upwards 

 •with the naked eye, and might have been traced farther with the aid 

 of a microscope. The shake, I believe, was produced by the twisting 

 and swaying of the trunk during the time of strong gales of wind, 

 the two limbs referred to acting with great leverage upon it. Even 

 some of the roots in a parallel line with the shake in the trunk were 

 also split, the split or shake in them being full of the resin from the 

 tree. The tree being cut over low down, and not uprooted, prevented 

 me from ascertaining whether any of the roots below the ground were 

 rotten or not. I believe, however, some of them would be, and were 

 the source from whence the fungus got into the bole. AYe mav learn 



