Picea 



l 3S l 



girth, and that about 300 years is the maximum age at which this tree remains 

 sound. 



The spruce is not a native of Britain at the present epoch ; but remains 

 of it have been found in pre-glacial beds at Cromer, Mundesley, Bacton, and 

 Happisburgh in Norfolk. 1 



Cultivation 



It appears to have been introduced early in the sixteenth century, as Turner 

 includes it in his Names of Herbes published in 1548; and both Gerard and 

 Parkinson state that it was found in different parts of Britain. 



The spruce is easy to raise from seed, but the seedlings grow very slowly 

 for the first three or four years, and are rarely large enough to plant out until they are 

 four to six years old. I have noticed a great deal of variation in the time at which 

 their new growth appears, and it is well to separate the earliest, which are very 

 liable to be injured by spring frost, whilst those which do not start into growth till 

 June remain uninjured. Few conifers are easier to transplant either in spring 

 or autumn, provided the roots are not allowed to become dry ; but if exposed to 

 the air in dry or cold weather a good many will die, or languish for two or three 

 years after planting. 



The tree grows on almost any soil, but requires a sheltered situation to 

 attain a great height and only comes to perfection where the soil is moist 

 and not liable to dry up in summer. Grown in dense woods, the spruce is liable 

 to be blown down by the wind ; but isolated trees make much stronger roots and 

 are moderately storm-firm. In places near the sea the foliage is often injured by the 

 salt contained in the air, and even as far as forty miles from the Bristol Channel I 

 have seen the spruce completely browned on the side exposed to the wind in March. 



Though the seed ripens freely in most seasons and germinates readily, the 

 spruce rarely reproduces itself from seed in England owing to its slow growth 

 at first and the weak hold of its young roots on the soil, which cause the 

 seedlings to wither up in summer or to be thrown out of the ground in winter. 

 I only know a few places on my estate where self-sown spruce can be found ; 

 and the seedlings have grown so slowly that I am convinced it is not an 

 economic practice to reproduce spruce by seed, except in places where the ground is 

 under snow for a long period. In the Highlands among heather self-sown seedlings 

 are much commoner ; and on the shores of Loch Rannoch and in some of the old 

 pine woods at Castle Grant there are considerable numbers of self-sown seedlings, 

 but nothing like the number seen in Scandinavia or in the German forests, where 

 they are protected by deep snow for a long period in winter. 



The spruce is a tree which has been planted more largely in England than 

 it deserves to be ; for though it will, when established, grow on poor ill-drained soil 

 faster than most conifers, yet the value of its timber when felled is less than 

 that of almost any other tree ; and it is, on account of its shallow rooting habit, 

 very likely to be blown down if the wind once gets into the plantation. 



1 C, Reid, Origin of British Flora, 151 (1899). 

 VI D 



