Naturalisation in Extra-Tropical Countries. 379 



PimiS Abies, Du Roi.* (Pinuspicea, Linn^ ; Abies pectinate, De Candolle.) 



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

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

 in Britain already by the Romans. The lowest altitude at which the 

 Silver-Fir can advantageously be cultivated in Northern France is 

 about 700 feet, in the Pyrenees 3,000 feet [C. Brolliard]. 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 elasticity it is even more esteemed 

 tlran 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 is largely 

 this species the wood of which now mainly supplies the material 

 for the paper-mills in Germany. 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 (P. 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 var. Nordmanniana, Parlatore (P. Nordmanniana, Steven), 

 Crimea and Circassia, to 6,000 feet 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 might also again be separated from 

 Sequoia. 



Pinus alba, Alton. (Picea alba, Link.) 



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 



