THE NORWAY SPRUCE FIR. 57 



inferior qualities, and its knotty appearance from its 

 large branches. As pillars for rustic cottages and 

 porticoes with the knobs of the branches left, and 

 the bark on, or barked and painted green, the small 

 trunks, or large branches of the spruce, are very orna- 

 mental. Rough ladders are also sometimes made 

 of it, but their strength is by no means equal to their 

 weight. 



The lofty and perfectly straight firs of Norway 

 have long been celebrated throughout Europe, as 

 furnishing masts for the largest ships. Milton, in 

 his splendid description of Satan, in the First Book 

 of Paradise Lost, alludes to this peculiar excellence: 



"His spear, to equal which the tallest pine 

 Hewn on Norwegian hill?, to be the mast 

 Of some great ammiral, were but a wand." 



The masts of our men of war are principally 

 brought from Riga; but " the White Pine" (Pinus 

 strobus} of North America is exclusively used for the 

 masts of American shipping ; and many fine trees 

 are exported to this country for a similar purpose, 

 principally from the district of Maine. Before the 

 separation of her North American colonies from 

 England, very severe ordinances were issued to pre- 

 vent the cutting down of those firs adapted for masts, 

 which were growing on the Crown Lands. These 

 ordinances were issued as early as 1711. 



At the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI., a 

 pine was extensively planted in France, Pinus lari- 

 cto, which has the peculiar property of growing well 

 in a chalky soil. It is a very magnificent tree, but 

 the timber is not so strong as that of the Pinus syl- 

 vestris. It has, however, been used in France for 

 ship-building. 



The CEDAR OF LEBANON (Pinus cedrus) would, if 

 the rapidity of its growth were at all correspondent 



