8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



growth, while two or three of the trees run 5 inches diameter by 

 31 feet high. The official catalogue of the arboretum has much 

 to say in favour of this silver fir as compared with the common 

 silver fir. Its appearance is more ornamental, its growth more 

 vigorous, and it suffers less from spring frosts. There are some 

 fine specimens of this tree in the Ardennes. Does well generally 

 in Belgium, says M. Drion, especially at the Pare Royal 

 d'Ardenne where there is a good natural reproduction. I may 

 add that in Australia (from whence I am despatching these 

 notes) it shows a beautiful growth in the cooler parts of the 

 country, e.g. in the mountains of Victoria and Tasmania. 



Abies pectinata. The common silver fir. \^Abies alba (after 

 Engler) is the more correct botanical name which is happily 

 coming into use : appropriate not only in describing the silvery 

 leaves, but the whiteness of the bark in the forest, the only 

 distinction, at a distance, from the spruce.] Our old friend of 

 the Black Forest and the glory of the Apennines gives one the 

 impression of being one of the most vigorous-growing and 

 healthy conifers here. At 22 years the average growth, however, 

 is only 3 inches diameter by 18 feet total height, or perhaps less ; 

 and further, the growth is uneven and difficult to estimate. It 

 is sending up strong leading shoots now. 



Abies Pinsapo. A failure here. Does well in the Ardennes, 

 says M. Drion. It grows well too in Tasmania, and as a planted 

 tree on the mountains of Southern Spain, far from its present 

 natural habitat there, 



Pseudotsuga {Abieiia) Douglasii. Oregon Douglas fir. This 

 is easily the best amo?ig all the conifers here for healthy and rapid 

 growth. At 23 years it averages in this plot, which is one of the 

 worst, 5 inches diameter (with maximum of 7 inches) by 33 feet 

 high (with maximum of 43 feet). M. Drion cites another plot 

 of Douglas, which, at 19 years of age, with a somewhat irregular 

 growth, had (on the stems which were not dominated) an 

 average growth of 5I inches diameter; heights about 26 feet. 

 He cites also the dictum of Crahay (the head of the Belgian 

 Forest Department), that Douglas fir should not, in Belgium 

 be planted in dry, hot localities. Another plot, 25 years old, 

 has trees which are now 14 inches by 70 feet high, or an 

 average height-growth of nearly 3 feet per year. 



Quercus rubra var. Texana. The trees here average 11 feet 

 high at 12 years of age, and have a vigorous look. They take a 



