GROWTH OF YOUNG SILVER FIR. 127 



they should be carefully lifted, and planted out in the 

 situations in which they are intended to stand, or 

 replaced in lines standing at a wider distance, if they 

 are required to be of larger size before being 

 planted out. 



Their slowness of growth is so remarkable when 

 compared with the quicker growing species, that plants 

 of the age of six years seldom exceed a foot in height, 

 though their roots will be found to be large and bulky 

 compared with the size of their tops, and their stems 

 are also thick in proportion to their diminutive height, 

 which has been a cause of disappointment very often 

 to those who have raised them for the first time from 

 seed, and have taken all necessary precautions during 

 the period of their early growth. As, however, before 

 stated, when they have once become established in 

 favourable situations their growth becomes quick and 

 regular. 



Like most of the other species, it is very pro- 

 ductive of resin, and yields the Strasburg turpentine, 

 which takes its name from the forest contiguous to 

 that place, where an extensive trade is carried on in it. 

 Essential oil of turpentine is the production of this 

 tree, which is resorted to for sprains and bruises, and 

 its turpentine is also used in the preparation of clear 

 varnishes, and artists' colours. 



Balm of Gilead Silver Fir (P. balsamed). This is 

 a hardier tree than the preceding when young, and of 

 much more rapid growth, grown in the same manner, 

 and yielding its cones abundantly when at maturity. 

 This tree also owes its introduction to Bishop Compton, 

 who imported it from America at the close of the 

 seventeenth century. Its growth is so much quicker 



