Abies 795 



now the property of Mr. J. H. Wall, I saw a good specimen of Abies magnified in 

 1906, which measured 53 feet by 5 feet 7 inches. 



The largest reported 1 at the Conifer Conference in 1891 was at Revesby Abbey, 

 Lincolnshire, and then measured only 40 feet by 5 feet. 



In Scotland it is more numerous and larger. The late Malcolm Dunn, who had 

 an exceptionally wide experience in the cultivation of conifers in Great Britain, 

 wrote of it as follows in a paper 2 which he sent to the Conifer Conference : 

 "It is in truth a stately tree and one of the handsomest of all the taller-growing 

 conifers for ornamental purposes. It is one of the very hardiest of the firs, and is 

 seldom affected by spring frost, and the timber being straight, clean-grained, and of 

 good quality, it will no doubt be a useful forest tree." But this latter opinion has 

 not so far received any proof so far as we know, for the tree is, and seems likely to 

 remain, difficult to obtain, and like most of its congeners is slow and costly to raise 

 from seed. 



Probably the finest trees in Scotland are one at Durris, 8 Aberdeenshire, which 

 was, in 1904, 80 feet high by 6 feet 6 inches in girth, and when I measured it in 1907 

 had increased to about 85 feet ; and another (Plate 223) at Bonskeid, near Pitlochry, 

 of which Mr. J. Forgan has been good enough to send me a photograph, and which 

 measured, in 1908, 87 feet by 8 feet. When he first knew it thirty-five years ago it 

 was about 12 feet high; it has not produced cones. Mr. Bean 4 noticed in 1906 a 

 tree at Abercairney 70 feet high, and another at Blair Castle 60 feet high. 



At Farthingbank, Drumlanrig, there is, growing on clay loam at 650 feet above 

 sea-level, a tree 50 feet by 5 feet 3 inches in 1905, which was planted, according 

 to Mr. Menzies, the forester, thirty-one years previously. 



The tree is rare in Ireland, but there is a specimen 5 at Castlewellan, which was 

 47 feet by 6 feet in 1906; and at Powerscourt, a tree, planted thirty-five years ago, 

 was 57 feet by 6 feet 8 inches in 1906, and is said to bear cones nearly every year. 



(H. J. E.) 



1 Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiv. 568 (1892). 2 Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiv. 83 (1892). 



* A. magnifica closely resembles A. nobilis, but in strong contrast as regards seed-bearing. It does not seem as if the 

 tree is likely to become acclimatised in this respect as, although planted in considerable numbers throughout the policy 

 grounds and plantations, and most of those trees now between fifty and sixty years of age, cones have been produced only on 

 one occasion, and that on only a few trees. The timber when closely grown is closer in texture, richer in colour, and better 

 in quality than A. nobilis. Like that species it is impatient of side shade and sheds its branches freely. Constitutionally it 

 is less robust than its near relative, and also less accommodating in its demands on site and soil. (J. D. Crozier.) 



4 Kew Bulletin, 1906, pp. 264, 267. 



* Figured in Garden, June 28, 1890, p. 591. 



