176 Capt. S. E. Cook on the Genus Pinus and Abies. 



Cembra, and being superior in quality to the sylvestris, would 

 require trial as soon as seeds could be procured in sufficient 

 quantity, which at present must be done from the forests in 

 the Spanish Pyrenees. The sylvestris of course would have 

 its place in localities suited to it. 



The spruce would claim the greatest consideration, especially 

 in damp soil, which might be found unfavourable to the larch, 

 and where warmth and shelter were required. It is extraor- 

 dinary that in a country so congenial Avith Norway this tree 

 should not have been tried on a larger scale by the Highland 

 proprietors. We remember being struck with the grandeur it 

 would impart to the magnificent though denuded fall of Fyers. 



The silver fir would no doubt repay the cultivation in cer- 

 tain localities suited to it, its growth being very rapid ; and it 

 resists the wind much better than its last-mentioned congener. 

 The writer knew an instance where, near Plymouth, the pro- 

 prietor of an estate there was offered by the people of the 

 dock-yard 100 guineas for a single tree of this species ; it was 

 during the war and the highest prices ; but as that tree would 

 not occupy a space of more than forty feet in diameter, we may 

 conceive the value of an acre covered with such trees*, and its 

 age probably was not above seventy years. An establishment 

 of the sort we are contemplating would require space to be 

 devoted to trials of such other species as might prove desi- 

 rable to acclimatize, such, for instance, as the P. austriaca 

 and Pallasiana, A. Douglasii, A. pichta, &c. &c. 



We must now conclude with a few hints to individuals on 

 other species, more especially to those who reside or have pro- 



• Since this paper was read the writer has received a communication 

 from Mr. Salvin of Croxdale, near Durham, who possesses extensive woods 

 and has given much attention to the subject. He states that the silver fir, 

 when felled and left on the ground, resists the effects of a humid climate and 

 damp soil, well fitted for such a trial, better than the larch. As it is per- 

 fectly well known that the timber of the one species is very much inferior to 

 that of the other, we were at first rather struck with this curious fact. It is 

 strongly denied that there is any inferiority or defect in the larch such as is 

 apt to be the case when grown in soil unsuited to it, which indeed rather 

 affects the inside than the outside of the tree. The solution we suspect to 

 be the following : that the heart of the timber is preserved by the turpentine, 

 which is deposited in the outer layers ; and we hasten to announce this most 

 important and valuable information, in order that experiments may be made 

 on the silver fir as pile timber, for which, if the phacnomenon here men- 

 tioned be general, the tree will, in every respect, be most admirably suited. 



