2332 



ARBOUETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PAUT III. 



scarcely grows higher, but continues to increase slowly in thickness till it 

 has attained the age of 150 years; when it begins slowly to decay. The rate 

 at which the tree tapers, in the Jura, is about 1 in. in 6 ft. ; so that a trunk 

 60 ft. high, and 6 ft. in diameter at the lower end, would be 5 ft. 2 in. at the upper 

 end. In England, in favourable situations, the growth of the silver fir seems 

 to be at least twice as rapid as in the Jura ; but it is apt to lose its leader by 

 very severe spring frosts; and, hence, we frecjuently find old silver firs with 

 forked trunks and branchy heads. Even young plants in the nurseries are 

 apt to lose their leaders from the same cause; ior which reason, in the Gold- 

 worth and Knaphill Nurseries, in Surrey, the common silver fir and the balm 

 of Gilead silver fir are always sown and transplanted under a spreading deci- 

 duous tree; most commonly the apple or pear. The silver fir does not bear 

 the knife, and cannot be made into hedges, like the spruce; but, after it has 

 attained 20 or 30 years' growth, the lower brandies may be cut off to a con- 

 siderable height up the trunk, with advantage to the progress of the head. A 

 silver fir, planted when two years old, at Harefield Park, in Middlesex, in 1603, 

 which was one of the first planted in England, was in 1679, according to Evelyn, 

 81 ft. high, though forked at the top ; and the girt, a little above the ground, 

 was 13 ft. The quantity of timber in the trunk of tliis tree was estimated at 

 140 ft. In Ireland, Lord Farnham had many silver firs of 4-0 yeiu-s' growth, 

 which had trunks 12 ft. in circumference at the ground; and one still thicker, 

 which contained 76 ft. of solitl timber. In the Park at Woburn Abbey, there 

 is a tree which, on the 1st of February, 1837, was exactly 114 ft. high, with a 

 trunk II ft. 1 in. in circumference at 4 ft. from the ground. This tree was 

 measured eight years before (viz. in 1829); and its increase during this short 

 period was, in height, 4 ft. ; in circumference, 7 in. ; in cubic feet of timber in 

 the trunk, 1 1 ft. ; and in cubic feet of timber in the branches, 24 ft. The 

 total amount of available timber in the trunk of this tree, on the 1st of Fe- 

 bruary, 1837, was 210i cubic feet; and in the larger branches, 139 ft. 6 in. ; 

 making a total of 350 cubic feet of marketable timber, exclusive of 20 ft. 

 of forked head. The age of this tree was probably not much above 100 

 years, as most of the old pine ami fir trees at Woburn are said to have 

 been planted in the time of iVIiller. The loftiest silver fir in England is 

 believed to be a tree at Longleat, which, in JH34, being then 180 years 

 planted, was 1.38 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 5 ft. 8 in., and of the head 

 44 ft. The largest tree in Scotland is supposed 

 to be one at Roseneath, 124ft. high; the most 

 remarkable one is also at Roseneath, of which 

 a portrait was published by Mr. Strutt, in his 

 Sj/lva Britunnica, and of which Jig. 2239. is a 

 copy, reduced to the scale of 1 in. to 50 ft. 

 This tree, we were informed by Lord Frederick 

 Campbell, in 1835, was then in much the same ,„-^j^ 



state in which it was when Mr. Strutt made his 



drawing, about 1829 : it was at that time 90 ft. 



high; the diameter of the trunk, at 1 ft. from 



the ground, was 7 ft. 7 in. ; and the diameter of 



the head was 66 ft. Its solid contents were 



estimated at 619 cubic feet 10 in.; and it was 



supposed to be 200 years old. The largest tree 



in the neighbourhood of London is one at 



Whitton, planted by the Duke of Argyll, pro- -^'^ 



bably about 1720, which, in 1837, was 97 ft. high, with a trunk 3 ft. 9 in. in 



diarneter. In the immediate environs of London, the tree does not thrive ; 



nevertheless, sve found in the Layton Nursery the young tree figured in our 



last Volume, which had attained the height of 22 ft. in about 15 years. The 



silver fir ripens its seeds freely both in England and Scotland. In the woods 



at White Knights, wherever there are old silver firs, there are numerous 



young plants arising around them from self-sown seeds. 



