84 ABIES. OR SILVER FIRS 



excelleth darkness," so does the Webbiana rise su- 

 perior to the Pindrow in the vivid underneath of the 

 leaf. 



The light-coloured branchlets of the Pindrow 

 gleam at you between the leaves as they do in the 

 Webbiana, but on close inspection they will be found 

 to be composed of a softer and different surface than 

 that of the corrugated Webbiana, but we have 

 pointed out some differences, which in this case call 

 for less mental confusion than such subjects often 

 present. 



A. Pectinata, or Common Silver Fir. — 



You may tire of mountains and rivers, you may tire of the sea, but 

 you can never tire of trees. 



Lord Beaconsfield. 



So spoke the departed statesman (more familiarly 

 known as " Dizzy ") of the Victorian era. 



There are some of us old enough to recall a cartoon 

 in Punch that depicted the eminent statesman swung 

 in a hammock under a tree in his garden, and mur- 

 muring self-complacently a measure of an Ariel's 

 spirit song : 



Dizzily, dizzily let me drowse 



Under the shadow of Hughenden boughs. 



Though he. Lord Beaconsfield and ex-Prime Minis- 

 ter of a Victorian age, was probably reposing in 

 Virgilian attitude, after the manner of Tityrus, under 

 the covering of a spreading beech on this particular 

 occasion, we take it that the quoted expression of his 

 untiring admiration for trees referred rather to the 

 trees of landscapes generally than to any tree in 

 particular. Be that as it may, it was a high compli- 

 ment he paid to them ; and if any Conifer deserves 

 its share of the praise bestowed more than other, it 



