CHAP. CXIII. CONi'FERjE. y/ V BIES. 2305 



when trodden on, a refreshing odour ; the more necessary in countries where 

 the rooms being heated by stoves, for the sake of saving fuel, are badly 

 ventilated. At funerals, the road into the churchyard and to the grave is 

 strewed with these green sprigs ; the gathering and selling of which is a sort of 

 trade for poor old people about the towns. In both Sweden and Norway, the 

 inner bark is made into baskets ; and the canoes, which are made of the 

 timber of the large trees, and which are so light, as Acerbi informs us, as 

 to be carried on a man's shoulders when a rapid or cascade interrupts the 

 navigation, have their planks fastened together with strings or cords made of 

 the roots, so that not a single nail is used in their construction. The long and 

 slender roots are made use of to form this kind of strings ; and they are ren- 

 dered flexible by splitting them down the middle, and by boiling them for two or 

 three hours in water mixed with alkali and sea salt. After this, they are dried 

 and twisted into cordage, which is used as a substitute for hemp, both for naval 

 and agricultural purposes. In Britain, the frond-like branches form an excel- 

 lent protection to the blossoms of fruit trees on walls ; being tucked in among 

 the shoots of the fruit trees, when the blossom buds of the latter are beginning 

 to expand, and left in that position till they have shed their leaves ; by which 

 time the fruit is set, and requires no farther protection. Spruce fir branches 

 are also used for sticking early peas, to which they form a secure protection 

 from spring frosts ; and they might be used with excellent effect for protecting 

 half-hardy plants, whether against walls or in the open garden. 



The Spruce Fir is one of the best Nurses for other trees, not only from its dense 

 mass of foliage, which may be considered as a reservoir of heat, but because, 

 from its conical form, and its being abundantly furnished with branches on 

 the surface of the ground, it acts as a non-conductor, and keeps the soil from 

 cold and drought ; and, while it protects the plant to be sheltered from high 

 winds, it admits the top of that plant to the free enjoyment of light and air. 

 From the great abundance of resin in the leaves and bark, the tree is consi- 

 dered a powerful non-conductor ; and it is said that the snow that falls on its 

 branches melts much faster than that which falls on any other tree, which 

 is another argument in its favour as a nurse plant. William Adam, Esq., of 

 Blair, in Kinross-shire, a planter of great experience, gave the following opinion 

 as to the comparative merits of the larch, the spruce, and the silver fir, in 

 1794, : " The larch being deciduous, is not a good nurse ; and, from its quick 

 growth, it is probable that it is a great robber of the nourishment of other 

 trees. From my own experience, I have no hesitation in saying that the 

 spruce is to be preferred beyond all the other trees as a nurse. I have thou- 

 sands of instances of oaks and elms growing up uninjured in the bosom of 

 spruces. The fact is most important, and reason at the same time supports 

 it. Deciduous trees send their roots downwards, particularly the oak : the 

 spruce spreads its roots close under the surface ; and their nourishment is 

 drawn from different sources. The larger the oak grows, the more it derives its 

 nourishment from the subsoil, and, consequently, the less its roots interpose 

 with those of the spruce. This last rises, in a regular and very pointed cone, 

 so that it leaves full space for the spreading top of the oak. The spruce is thickly 

 clothed with leaves, and its branches are of a strong unpliable nature ; conse- 

 quently, it gives much protection, and does little injury to its neighbour; 

 and, as it is very much feathered and bushy at the root, it protects the forest 

 tree from being'wind-waved. The larch, on the contrary, is naked of leaves 

 during the worst of the season ; and, from its boughs being thin and pliable, it 

 lashes the neighbouring trees unmercifully, and it is in a condition, from its 

 nakedness, to make every lash be felt just at the time when its neighbours 

 begin to spring. It has also no peculiar thickness at the bottom, to protect 

 the others from wind-waving. It might be supposed that the silver fir would 

 make as good a nurse as the spruce ; but, in point of fact, I have not observed 

 that the forest tree grows so kindly with this fir as with the spruce ; and it 

 may be observed that the silver fir is not so thoroughly leaved as the spruce : 

 the sides of the bough only are coveVed with leaves ; and the tree itself is 



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