ii 4 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



develop fully in foliage and be able to maintain them- 

 selves against storm-winds by a free formation of their root- 

 systems towards the windward side. 



Whether the setting-out of the plants should take place in 

 squares, or triangles, or rows, is of less importance than 

 the actual number of plants per acre ; practically, planting 

 in squares is the usual method adopted, although in situa- 

 tions where plantations are liable to suffer from accumu- 

 lations of snow or ice, planting in rows of 6 feet x 4 feet, 

 or 6 feet x 3 feet are said to yield the most satisfactory 

 results. Close planting increases the danger from snow, 

 whilst ice causes most breakage when the individual plants 

 have a fair amount of free growing-space. 



As previously remarked, notching is not so well appli- 

 cable to the spruce as to Scots pine, but recommends itself 

 on account of its cheapness wherever the nature of the 

 soil is suitable. The usual methods adopted are planting 

 by means of Meyer's cylindrical spade for one and two- 

 year-old seedlings and three-year-old transplants, and pit- 

 planting, or on wet soil, tumping or planting on mounds 

 when older material is put out. 



3. SILVER FIR (Pinus picea, L. = P. abies, Du Roi = Abies 

 taxtfolia, Desf. =A. exceha, Lk. = ABIES PECTINATA, B.C.). 



Distribution, The silver fir is a tree of the mountains 

 of central and southern Europe, from the Pyrenees east- 

 wards to the Caucasus, northwards to the Vosges, Luxem- 

 burg, the southern edge of the Harz, Silesia, and Galicia, 

 and southwards to Navarre, Corsica, Sicily, Macedonia, 

 and Bithynia. Its vertical distribution averages 5,000 feet 

 in the Bavarian Alps, 4,000 feet on the Vosges, 3,250 in 

 the Black Forest, and 2,700 feet in the Thiiringer Wald. 



