APRIL. 105 



the exhibitors ^vho furnish the sho^YS have a fair share of the pro- 

 ceeds: as it is, the prizes have often failed to cover the cost of carriage; 

 and alter the days of exhibition from Saturday to some other day, so 

 that it may be possible for persons to get their plants home again 

 before the Sabbath : the exhibitors themselves have formally asked for 

 this change. The schedule for 1858 contained 41 classes, and 4 for 

 amateurs for competition ; 45 in all : the present one contains 25 classes 

 and 1 for amateurs; 26 in all, including 2 new ones, being a diminu- 

 tion of 21 classes; the intending exhibitors in which have especial 

 cause for complaint: they have been cultivating their specimens for 

 six months, and now at the eleventh hour they find their time and 

 laboiu*, and consequently money, thrown away; in common justice 

 they ought to have had earlier notice. 



Scrutator. 



DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF HARDY CONIFERS. No. lY. 



VIII. ABIES NOBILIS — THE NOBLE SILVER FIR. 



According to Endlicher's synopsis of Coniferous plants, whose 

 arrangement is followed in the Horticultural Society's Journal, the 

 genus Picea, Avhich formerty comprised the Silver- Fir section, is now 

 associated, under Abies, wdth the Larches and Cedars, forming the 

 first division of Abietinae, or Fir tribe. 



The general character of the Silver-Fir tribe is that of tall-grow- 

 ing trees, of great symmetry and regularity, both as regards mode of 

 growth and the disposition of their branches, which are produced in 

 whorls, forming trees wdth heads, of a very regular pyramidal shape. 

 As compared with the Spruce-Fir section, they are on the whole 

 more ornamental, the foliage generally being of a deeper green 

 colour, relieved by silvery-white lines on the under side ; and as 

 the leaves in all the Silver-Fir section are partially turned upwards, 

 the white lines contrast with the upper surface of the leaf, producing 

 a silvery appearance, from whence the tree has derived its popular 

 name. 



The common Silver Fir is indigenous to the mountains of central 

 and southern Europe; and is so well known, that we need not further 

 mention it, except to point it out as the principal representative of 

 the European species. For it is in that fertile region of Coniferae, 

 the north-west of America, that the most remarkable species are 

 found; among which, the one presented to our readers in the annexed 

 engraving is unquestionably the most beautiful ; and from the time 

 when Douglas, in 1831, recorded his admiration of this tree, on first 

 discovering it, to the present, it has been a great object with admirers 

 of Coniferous plants to possess this stately and noble tree. 



We are indebted to Sir Joseph Paxton for permitting us to take 

 a sketch, for our present woodcut, from the fine tree at Chats- 



