PICE A GLEHNII. 437 



limits of temperature under which it can thrive is not less than 

 10 C. (50 F.) for the average July temperature, nor can it exist 

 Avith an average January temperature below 12 C. (about 10 F.) ;. 

 -although it can endure an average July temperature of 1875 C. 

 (67 F.) it languishes when the average is above this. * 



The wood is light, even in grain, easy to work and durable, but the 

 quality of Spruce timber is influenced by the soil and situation upon 

 which it is produced. It is used for all kinds of building and 

 constructive purposes ; it is sawn into boards for flooring, and planks 

 for roofing and fencing ; poles, ladders, telegraph posts and railway ties 

 are made of it ; toys for children and sounding boards for musical 

 instruments ; for the last-named purpose, a variety of the Spruce Fir 

 found on the mountains of Styria, Bavaria and Bohemia is particularly 

 suitable on account of the relatively broad annual rings of its wood, 

 of which the dark, dense summer growth is very narrow. f Large 

 quantities of the wood are made into charcoal, and still larger 

 quantities are used for fuel ; and in Germany an enormous bulk of 

 Spruce wood is annually converted into paper pulp. The bark is 

 used for tanning leather in localities in which the Spruce Fir is 

 abundant, but it is said to be inferior to the bark of the Larch for 

 this purpose. At Christmas-time thousands of young trees or tree-tops 

 are decorated for the amusement of children. 



The Spruce Fir is mentioned in Turner's "Names of Herbes," 

 published in 1548, which shows that it has been cultivated in 

 Great Britain more than three hundred and fifty years. Many fine 

 specimens are scattered over the country, but the largest occur in 

 the north ; there is one at Studley Koyal, near Ripon, 132 feet 

 high and 12 feet in girth near the base ; J one at Lynedoch, near 

 Perth, 108 feet high and 10 J feet in girth at five feet from the 

 ground; and another at Dronach Haugh, not far distant, 119 feet 

 high and nearly 10 feet in girth. Although not a native of 

 Great Britain undoubted proofs of the Spruce Fir having been a 

 denizen of this country in late Tertiary times are found in the 

 remains met with in the Pliocene Clays of Norfolk. 



Pieea Glehnii. 



A tall tree, in favourable situations over 100 feet high with a trunk 

 usually free of branches for 60 or more feet, but of much smaller 

 dimensions at its northern limit. Bark of trunk reddish brown fissured 

 into broad thin plates. || " Branches spreading with short internodes, 

 reddish, covered with shaggy down ; smaller branches given off at an 



* Willkomm, Forstliche Flora von Deutschland und Oesterreich, ed. II. p. 82. 



f Beissner, Nadelholzkunde, p. 355. 



Conifer Conference Report, p. 498. This tree is mentioned by London in the Arboretum 

 <it Fruticetum Britannicimi, Vol. IV. p. 2297, as the largest Spruce Fir known to him. 



The dimensions of the two Perthshire trees were communicated by Mr. Pitcaithley, 

 forester to the Earl of Mansfield, on whose estate they stand. 



il Mayr, Abietineen des Japanischen Reiches, p. 58. , 



