8S ABIES, OR SILVER FIRS 



decade or so revivalists have not spoken and written 

 in vain. Books on the subject were published, 

 Chinese explorers brought back arboricultural gifts 

 rich and rare : a Royal Arboricultural Society was 

 formed ; forestry exhibitions and plantation com- 

 petitions were organized by the Royal Agricultural 

 Society ; other agricultural societies followed suit. 

 The very Board of Agriculture nodded approval and 

 began to fumble for their purse ; in short, all was 

 going well and happy as marriage bells, till war 

 sounded its alarum-call, — War ieterrimum, horriduniy 

 infandum, heap upon it all you can recall, from 

 languages ancient and modern, in the superlative 

 degree for choice, but not omitting Pliny's dictum 

 that it should be non provocandum, as a pronounce- 

 ment of acquittal to those by whom it was un- 

 sought — ^and brought about the suppression of many 

 an aim and object, that was careering gaily on the 

 high road to success and many-sided improvement. 

 Perhaps a day may dawn, in years to come, when 

 more dark masses of the Caucasian Silver Fir will 

 greet the eye of travellers as they journey to and fro 

 on the highways and byways of our island home. 



As experience with these relays of imported trees 

 progresses, it gradually and slowly impresses ideas 

 as to the chances or off-chances of success or failure 

 that we are likely to encounter in our effort to 

 cultivate them. If mathematically minded we might 

 mentally review them as hardy, possible, or hopeless, 

 or catalogue them as " Well-to-does," '* Non-well-to- 

 does,'* and " Ne'er-do-weels." The A. Religiosa, 

 Sachalinensis, and Sibirica are to be classed in the 

 third of these departments, and without much hope 

 of any remove or redemption. 



A. Religiosa, although a tall tree in Mexico, and 

 in spite of the fact that it had a good testimonial 



