86 AfelES, OR SILVER FlRS 



whitened stomatiferous side, which was lying wrong 

 side up after the fall, had, from all evidences, firmly 

 refused to face exposure to the heavens. The sun 

 had dominated the situation and made the leaves 

 to grow according to his lights, and that was in upside- 

 down arrangement. A weird picture of the rules 

 and laws of topsy-turvydom. 



GROUP III 



A. NORDMANNIANA, AmABILIS, ReLIGIOSA, MaRIESII, 



Veitchii, Sachalinensis, Sibirica 



Oh ! forest deep and gloomy, 

 Oh ! woodland, vale, and hill. 



From Mendelssohn's Open- Air Music. 



A. NoRDMANNiANiA. — Of all the trees in this group, 

 first and foremost upon terms of more intimate 

 familiarity, stands out this dark and grim Caucasian 

 Silver Fir. 



Their leaves are generally written down as dark 

 green and glossy. Glossy they are, as the best of 

 polished patent leather, but when you come to 

 compare at close quarters there are many Silver Firs 

 whose leaves are as dark and darker than are they, 

 and there is a good deal more of the green of grass hue 

 in their composition than perhaps in any other of 

 the nearer relations of the family. It is rather the 

 density of their leaf system, and the opaque shadows 

 they in consequence cast, that suggests ideas of black 

 forests and sombre depths with which they have been 

 associated, or those " forests deep and gloomy" 

 with which we announced their introduction upon 

 our scene. 



To sum up their merits, they bear a character all 

 round for robust hardiness. 



They time their annual growth to such a season 

 that they can afford to display a spontaneous dis- 



