SECTION XXXI 

 Conifers and Taxads 



Amongst forest and ornamen- 

 tal trees and shrubs, members of 

 the Conifer family hold a de- 

 servedly high place. Many of 

 them, like the Silver Firs (Abies) 

 and the Spruce Firs (Picea), the 

 Larches, Pines, and Firs, are. 

 valuable timber trees, and are 

 raised in hundreds of thousands 

 annually in several nurseries in 

 the United Kingdom, and are 

 disposed of when two to three 

 years of age. For the purposes 

 of the re -afforestation of our 

 waste lands many kinds of coni- 

 fers might be very largely planted 

 in addition to Oaks, Beeches, 

 Ashes, Birches, Sweet Chestnuts, 

 and many others dealt with in 

 the preceding pages. With the 

 exception of the Larches, the 

 Maidenhair Tree (Ginkgo biloba), 

 the Deciduous Cypress (Taxo- 

 dium distichum), most conifers 

 are evergreen. 



Abies (SILVER FIR). The 

 species have been greatly con- 

 fused with the Piceas and the 

 Pines, and the reader will find 

 the names here given some- 

 times under one genus some- 

 times under another in cata- 

 logues. To put an end to the 

 existing confusion it would be 



Fig. 450. A bies nobUis 



59 



