l] FLOWERING PERIOD 7 



Silver Fir, 30 to 60, or even 70 years. 

 Larch, 15 to 30 years. 

 Yew, 20 years. 

 Some Willows will bear flowers when 2 3 years old. 



Where the differences are great, the lowest numbers 

 refer to dry, poor soils in the open ; the medium numbers 

 to well-grown isolated trees ; and the highest to trees 

 crowded in forests or plantations, &c. In many cases 

 the flowers are barren during the earlier years of flower- 

 ing; and it is a common result that a heavy crop of 

 fertile flowers, resulting in exhaustion of the stores of 

 reserve-materials, is followed by two or three years with- 

 out flowers, a fact well known also to fruit growers. 



Individual trees occasionally bear flowers much earlier 

 than the normal age, especially such as are growing in 

 poor, hot soils, or from coppice. 



