390 THE SPRUCE FIR. 



able resinous flavour. Eemains of the kernels were found 

 among the domestic stores during the excavations at 

 Pompeii. Sir George Staunton also informs us that they 

 are much prized by the Chinese, In Italy and the South 

 of France, where this tree is called by English visitors 

 the Umbrella Pine, the empty cones, which are highly 

 inflammable, are commonly used for lighting fires. 



THE SPEUCE FIR. 



Abies excelsa. 



The Spruce Fir was known to the ancients hy the name 

 of Picea. Pliny describes it as delighting in a lofty and 

 cold situation. Fie compares its form to that of the Larch, 

 with moderately long branches, or arms spreading from the 

 main trunk close to the root; but the leaves, he says, are 

 scattered, short, rigid, and prickly, and abound in resin. 

 Being a gloomy tree, its branches were used to attach to 

 doors as a sign of a funeral about to take place.^ Under 

 the influence of the sun, it sometimes exudes drops of 

 resin. The timber is used for beams, laths, &:c, Linnceus, 

 by a strange oversight, considered the Picea of the ancients 

 identical with our Silver Fir, and the Abies of Pliny 

 and other Latin writers he supposed to be our Spruce Fir : 

 but there can be no doubt that he was here in error, the 

 description quoted above being much more applicable to 

 the tree now under consideration. 



The Spruce or N"orway Spruce Fir is a native of the 

 mountainous parts of Europe and Asia, preferring a moist 

 soil and cold climate. It is most freqiient in the north, 



^ In Sweden and Norway at the present day, when a funeral is 

 about to take place, the road into tlie churchyard and to the grave 

 is strewn with these green sprigs, the gathering and selling of which 

 is a sort of trade for poor old people about the towns. 



