370 Economical Use of Fir Cones. 



Seafield's estates ; and I have no doubt that you might get useful 

 information on the subject generally, by making application at 

 CuUen House. 



I do not know of any plantations in this quarter composed 

 solely of silver fir or spruce . A few of these trees may be seen 

 in ornamental plantations near gentlemen's houses. They are 

 not usually pruned. Their chief beauty consists in the branches 

 being well spread near the ground. There are six large silver 

 fir trees in the centre of the garden here, which have been 

 planted about 80 years. They are still healthy, and grow in rich 

 loam about 2 ft. deep on a subsoil of clay. 



Huntley Lodge, Nov. 7. 1837. 



Art. IV. Remarks on an economical Use of the Cones of the Pine 

 and Fir Tribe ; and more particula7-ly of those of the Vhius sylvestris, 

 or Scotch Pine. By William Howison, M.D., Lecturer on Botany, 

 Edinburgh. 



Happening, during the commencement of the month of May, 

 1838, to be passing, in the course of a botanical excursion, 

 through the centre of the county of Fife, I paid a visit to an old 

 pupil of mine, who had recently set up as a medical practitioner 

 in a small village in that part of the country. I found him 

 sitting in his parlour without a fire. After giving me a hearty 

 welcome, " I was going to visit a patient at a distance," says my 

 friend to me, " but as it is not every day that you and I meet, 

 doctor, I will defer my business ; and, as the weather is still cold, 

 we will have a blazing fire, and that instantaneously. As I know 

 you to be interested in these matters, I will show you a valuable 

 use to which fir cones aVe a}?plied in this part of the world ; 

 and of which, although a native of a fir-covered part of Scotland 

 myself, I was never, until now, aware. I became possessed 

 of this knowledge in the following way : — 



"Lately I was called upon, in the course of my professional 

 duty, to attend a poor woman residing a few miles off, who was 

 labouring under a cancerous complaint. She could not afford to 

 give me any remuneration for my trouble, and it may be 

 unnecessai-y to inform you that I expected none. A few days 

 afterwai'ds, however, two of her daughters, each of them car- 

 rying a large sack or bag filled with dry fir cones of the 

 preceding season, collected in the neighbouring woods, brought 

 them to me from their mother, in conformity with her anxious 

 request that I would accept of them as a present. Astonished 

 at the nature of the gift, I asked the girls what 1 was to do with 

 them, when they told me that the cones would eidier make 

 an excellent fire of themselves, to those who were so poor as not 

 to be able to purchase coals, or they woidd make a delightful 



