4 HARDY CONIFEROUS TREES. 



nearly at right angles, and great wealth of intense bluish-green 

 fragrant foliage, rendering it as unique as it is beautiful. The 

 leaves, which are nearly of equal length, and about an inch long, 

 are densely clustered on the upper side of the branches. They 

 are of a dark, glossy green above, and with two broad glaucous 

 lines beneath. The cones are very beautiful, being of a rich, 

 deep purple, 4J inches long by about half that in width; 

 while the broadly bell-shaped scales arc nearly double the 

 length of the abruptly pointed bracts. The pretty pinky 

 male catkins are quite a feature of the tree in spring. ,From 

 the nearly allied but perfectly distinct A.grandiSyit may at 

 once be distinguished by the more crowded, darker and 

 usually shorter foliage, and particularly by the deep purple 

 cones. When planted in suitable soil (the finest specimens 

 I have seen are growing in reclaimed peat bog on an estate 

 in the North of Ireland^), this tree is of rapid growth, one 

 specimen in particular, growing under very favourable con- 

 ditions, having for several consecutive years made an upward 

 growth of fifteen inches. 



A. ba,lsamea., Miller. Balsam Fir. {Synonyms: Pinus 

 baisa7?ieay Lihnaeus ; Picea balsamea, Loudon.) Canada and 

 North-East United States. 1697. In a young state and 

 when grown under favourable conditions, this is by no means 

 an inelegant species, but before the age of twenty years the 

 lower branches have usually given way, and, in consequence, 

 the tree wears a scraggy and bare appearance. Unfortun- 

 ately, too, it has the tendency to form early growths, which 

 are not unfrequently destroyed by frost. It is of medium 

 height, and slender growth, with flat regularly arranged leaves, 

 about \\ inches in length, and purplish or violet cones, each 



1 As I will often have occasion to refer to the trees on the Churchill estate, in 

 the County Armagh, Ireland, I may here take the opportunity of mentioning that 

 the c ^llection is unique in its way, comprising, as it does, unusually large specimens 

 of many of the rarer and less known conifers. The various species of Cephalo- 

 taxiis, Torreya^ Athrotaxis^ and the Fitzroya^ all revel in the peaty soil and 

 humid atmosphere of this part of Ireland ; while many of the rarer species of 

 Pinus and Abies have attained to unusual dimensions. Here the first cones 

 of the true A. viagnifica were produced ; also those oi A. nobilisy the latter being 

 sold at a guinea each. 



