554 EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 



lines, as in other silver firs. When young the trees have a round- 

 ish-pyramidal form, with compact and solid masses of foliage, 

 which, on account of the spiney character of the leaves, is un- 

 pleasant to push against or handle. We have, therefore, else- 

 where suggested the use of this, tree for garden hedges. The 

 color of the foliage is a bluish-green on top, and grayish-green 

 beneath. 



NORDMANN'S SILVER FIR. Picea nordmaniana. This is 

 quite the finest of the silver firs which have been growing long 

 enough in this country to give a fair impression of their qualities. 

 Its superiority in beauty to the common European silver fir consists 

 mainly in the denser and larger masses into which its foliage 

 forms ; the horizontal divisions being somewhat less rigid, and 

 more rounded in outline, and its lights and shadows less thinly 

 stratified. The leaves are soft to the touch, do not prick on 

 handling, are set at an angle of 45 with the twigs, and have a 

 lively warm green color, unsurpassed by any large evergreen ; in 

 length they are about the same as those of the European silver fir, 

 but they curve upwards at the ends, giving to the branchlets the 

 appearance of being much more thickly foliaged. The young 

 shoots are quite smooth and glossy. A native of the mountains 

 around the Black Sea, and there grows to the height of one 

 hundred feet. It is not unlikely that with age it will develop more 

 of the monotonous formality of expression which distinguishes our 

 own balsam fir, but its warmer-toned foliage must always be in its 

 favor. Trees of fifteen to twenty years' growth in this country are 

 certainly more pleasing in all respects than any other large species 

 of the Picea family. It is quite hardy. 



THE NOBLE SILVER FIR. Picea nobilis. Though this is one of 

 the immense trees of Oregon and northern California, where it 

 attains a height of two hundred feet, its growth when young is 

 much more compact and full-foliaged than most of the trees from 

 the Pacific slope, having rather the appearance of a vigorous dwarf 

 tree than of a scion of a lofty family. The leaves are about the 

 length of those of the balsam fir, and so thickly set on the twigs 



