76 THE FLORIST. 



If you cxnnot r fford a south wall for the varieties comprising the 

 two last sec ions, 1 advise you not to attempt to grow them out of doors. 

 You will on.y meet with disappointment. 



A. S. H. 



DESCRIPTIVE LIST OP HARDY CONIFERS.— No. XIX. 



ABIES MENZIESII — MENZIES' SPRUCE FIR. 



In a short description of the Pinetum at Nuneham Park, Oxon, which 

 we gave at page 305 of our last year's volume, we alluded to the many 

 fine Conifers we found in that Pinetum, and having obtained permission . 

 from the liberal proprietor, George Vernon Harcourt, Esq., to figure any 

 we thought proper for the Florist, we now avail ourselves of this kind- 

 ness by presenting our readers with a woodcut of A. Menziesii, which 

 represents one of the handsomest trees of the kind we have met with. 



Menzies' Spruce Fir is an upright-growing tree, forming a regular 

 pyramid, und closely resembling in its general outline the common 

 Spruce ; but is readily distinguished from all other Firs by its glaucous 

 hue, which makes it a conspicuous object even at a distance. It grows 

 to the height of 70 or 80 feet, and with branches produced very regu- 

 larly in whorls ; these, when the tree is in good health, are thickly 

 clothed with leaves of a light vivid green, marked with distinct silvery 

 lines underneath ; both branches and branchlets are covered with 

 tubercles, and hence this Fir is sometimes called " the warted-branched 

 Spruce." The leaves are resupinate, or turned upwards, from being 

 twisted at their base ; and this peculiarity, by turning the under sides 

 of the leaves upwards, and exposing the silvery lines beneath, gives the 

 tree the peculiar glaucous appearance we have just alluded to, and which 

 adds very considerably to its character as an ornamenial tree. The 

 cones are pendulous, cylindrical, and about three inches long. Seeds 

 very small. 



As an ornamental tree, Menzies' Spruce is entitled to consideration. 

 Its regular mode of growth has something attractive in it, but it is to 

 the peculiar silvery hue of its foliage that we wish most to direct the 

 attention of planters. When the professors of landscape gardening have 

 made more progress in their art, by paying greater attention to the 

 colour of foliage in grouping trees, our present subject will form an 

 important item in landscape composition. Those who may have seen 

 what Mr. Barron has done at Elvaston, by grouping different foliaged 

 evergreens, will be able to judg6 what may be effected by artistically 

 grouping the various Pinuses, Spruces, &c., in masses. Menzies' 

 Spruce Fir, the Pinus cembra, and other light-foliaged Conifers, will 

 contrast admirably with the Stone Pine, Pinus austriaca, and other 

 dark-foliaged species. 



Our esteemed friend Mr. Bailey informs us, that the Pinetum at 

 Nuneham was planted in the autumn of 1846. The soil is a deep 

 sandy loam, in places mixed with the gault clay. The ground was 



