Naturalisation in Extra- Tropical Countries. 343 



Finns Abies, Du Eoi.* (Pinus picea, Linne.) 



Silver-Fir, Tanne. Middle and South-Europe, extending to the 

 Caucasian mountains, ascending the Pyrenees to 6,000 feet. It 

 will endure the climate of Norway to lat. 67 66 ' [Schuebeler]. A 

 fine tree, already the charm of the ancients, attaining about 200 

 feet in height and 20 feet in circumference of stem, reaching an age 

 of fully 400 years. A variety with pendent branches exists. 

 It furnishes a most valuable timber for building as well 

 as furniture, and in respect to lightness, toughness and elas- 

 ticity it is even more esteemed than the Norway- Spruce, but it 

 is not so good for fuel or charcoal ; it is pale, light, not very 

 resinous, and is mostly employed for the finer works of joiners and 

 cabinetmakers, for sounding boards of musical instruments, largely 

 for toys, also for lucifer-matches, for coopers' and turners' work, 

 and for masts and spars. It also yields a fine white resin and the 

 Strasburg-turpentine, similar to the Venetian. Besides the above 

 normal form the following two main varieties occur : P. Abies var. 

 Cephalonica, Parlatore (/'. Cephalonica, Endlicher), Greece, 3,000 

 to 5,000 feet above the sea. A tree, 60 feet high, with a stem- 

 circumference of 10 feet. The wood is very hard and durable, and 

 much esteemed for building. General Napier mentions, that 

 in pulling down some houses at Argostoli, which had been built 

 150 to 300 years, all the woodwork of this fir was found as hard as 

 oak and perfectly sound. The very resinous wood probably of a 

 variety of this or an allied species was used by Stradivari and his 

 sons for making the famous Italian violins in the last century. 

 P. Abies rar. Nordmanniana, Parlatore (P. Nordmanniana, Steven), 

 Crimea and Circassia, to 6,000 above the sea. Can be grown in 

 Norway to lat. 61 15'. This is one of the most imposing firs, 

 attaining a height of about 100 feet, with a perfectly straight stem. 

 It furnishes a valuable building- timber. The Silver-Fir is desirable 

 for mountain-forests. It will grow on sand, but only half as fast 

 as P. Pinaster. In Britain the upward growth is about 50 feet in 

 30 years. If the genera Abies, Picea, Tsuga, Pseudotsuga, Cedrus 

 and Larix are to be maintained in the phytographic system and 

 nomenclature, then Wellingtonia needs also again to be separated 

 from Sequoia. 



Pinus alba, Alton. 



White Spruce. From Canada to Carolina, up to the highest 

 mountains. It resembles P. picea, but is smaller, at most 50 feet 

 high. Exudes a superior resin. It bears the shears well, when 

 trained for hedges, which are strong, enduring and compact [J. 

 Hicks]. The bark richer in tannin than that of the Hemlock- 

 Spruce. The timber well adapted for deal-boards, spars and many 

 other purposes, but on the whole inferior to that of the Black Spruce. 

 The tree grows in damp situations or swampy ground. Eligible 

 for alpine regions. Hardy in Norway to lat. 70 56'. P. Engel- 



