2302 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART HI. 



Fig. 2220. is a view of a lake, 

 and the surrounding hills and moun- 

 tains, near Wasbotten, between the 

 towns of Porsgrund and Laurwig, 

 shewing the spruce fir, together '^ 

 with some groups and masses of \ 

 Scotch pine on mountain scenery. 



Fig. 2221. is a view on the road 

 from Porsgrund to Laurwig, not far 

 from the town of Porsgrund, which 

 shows the effect of the spruce fir on 

 low hills and in bottoms. 



Fig. 2222. is a view of Illoe 

 Fors, near Schion, showing an ex- 

 tensive forest of Scotch pine on an 

 extent of table land, with groups of 

 the spruce, as contrasted with those of the birch ; and .showing the fine effect 

 of the latter tree when standing singly, or in small loose groups. In this 

 respect, indeed, the birch differs from most other trees, at no period of its 

 growth having a picturesque effect in masses. 



History. Pliny frequently men- 

 tions the spruce fir, which he calls 

 picea (whence the French names 

 E'picea and Sapin-Pesse), and 

 which, he says, produced tears of 

 resin that could scarcely be dis- 

 tinguished from incense. He also 

 mentions its use in funeral ceremo- 

 nies, on which occasions a branch 

 was placed at the door of the house 

 of the deceased ; and informs us 

 that it was used when green for the 2 22l 



funeral pile. 



Though the spruce fir is generally allowed not to be a native of 

 Britain, it appears to have been introduced at a very early period, as Turner 

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

 and Parkinson not only give very good engravings of it, but speak of its 

 being found in great quantities in different parts of the island. The early 

 British writers on trees, however, appear to have often confounded the 

 Scotch pine with the spruce fir ; and it is remarkable, that neither of the 

 above-mentioned writers mentions the Scotch pine at all, though it is probably 

 the tree Parkinson means, when he speaks of the "firre tree" growing wild 

 in Scotland. The name of the fir tree, according to Gerard, was originally 

 fire tree, in allusion to the use of the wood for torches and fuel ; and it was 

 also called the mast tree, and the deale tree. The spruce fir has always been 

 considered, in Britain, as an ornamental tree; and, from the time of Miller, 

 it has been introduced as such in parks and pleasure-ground scenery. About 

 the end of the last century, and in the beginning of the present one, it was 

 recommended by Adam, Sang, and others, in Scotland, and by Pontey in 

 England, as well adapted for sheltering other trees ; but it has never been 

 planted in immense masses in Britain, as a timber tree, like the Scotch pine, 

 though it has been so in Germany ; and, from the various uses to which 

 it may be applied even in a young state, it well deserves to be so in every 

 country where it will thrive. The timber, which is called, in Norway, spruce 

 pine, has been for an unknown period imported from that country into 

 Britain, chiefly in the form of entire trunks, which are used for scaffolding- 

 poles, spars, oars, and masts for small craft; but partly, also, sawn into planks 

 or deals, known in commerce as white deal, white Baltic deal, and white 

 Christiania deal ; the red deal being, for the most part, the timber of P. syl- 



