306 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



has now been agreed upon, and we must, in order to 

 understand one another in talking about conifers, strictly 

 accept and adhere to the names at this moment assigned 

 to them by the common consent of botanical authorities. 



The Scots fir is Pinus sylvestris. " Pinus " is the 

 name of a genus of conifers, and includes many species 

 besides sylvestris, our own familar Scots fir, which 

 is often now spoken of by the queer, ill-sounding title 

 of Scotch pine. The Norway spruce or pine, called 

 often " common spruce," also " the spruce fir," and 

 "Christmas tree," is the " Picea excelsa" of correct 

 botany. There are several other species of the genus 

 Picea. A third well-known conifer, the silver fir, is 

 called by botanists " Abies pectinata " ; there are many 

 other species of Abies. Although it has such a familiar, 

 sweet-sounding name, the silver fir is not a common 

 tree in England, where it was introduced only three 

 hundred years ago. It will not thrive at Kew Gardens. 

 It is the common forest-making fir of the centre of 

 France and of much of the mountainous country of 

 Southern Europe, 1 but it is rarely to be seen in the 

 Swiss mountains (only in certain relatively low-lying 

 valleys). The pine forests of those mountains are 

 almost exclusively formed by the spruce, with the addi- 

 tion of a few Scots firs and larches, and in some parts 

 of the Arolla fir or pine. 



1 It is, according to botanical authorities, from the wood of the 

 silver fir, which still grows on Mount Ida, that the Greeks, as related 

 by Virgil, constructed the Trojan horse. 



" Instar montis equum, divina Palladis arte 

 ^dificant, sectaque intexunt abiete costas ! 

 (A horse of mountain size they build 

 By art divine of Pallas helped 

 And weave its ribs with planks of fir). 



ii. 15. 



