Notice of the A!~bies cephalonica. 81 



work ; they will be found to bear but a small proportion to 

 the number in the whole diameter. Cleft-grafting, too, I think 

 objectionable, in two "ways : first, from having the leader broken, 

 although a few leaves may be left; and, in the next place, a cleft, 

 or split, being made down the stock, it is evident that but few of 

 the vessels of the stock can be at work, unless a shoulder is 

 formed upon the scion, to cover the vessels which would other- 

 wise be left open at the top of the stoclc. Pines, comparatively 

 speaking, have but few buds i hence, it is of importance to 

 destroy as few as possible; and, by diverting that portion of the 

 leader which is above the graft into a side shoot, I think more 

 is gained by leaving it on than by removing it. The remarks 

 in the Arhoretum JBritannicum respecting the proper selection of 

 stocks for grafting are very judicious, and of much greater 

 importance than most propagators of the present day seem to 

 be aware of. I am sorry to see a great many fine plants of 

 deodar cedar sacrificed by being grafted on larches, merely 

 because cedars of Lebanon are expensive stocks. ISlow, it 

 requires very little foresight to predict their ultimate failure ; 

 not only because the larch is deciduous, but it never can swell 

 in the same ratio as the deodar. On the contrary, I am per- 

 suaded that it will make a tree sooner upon the cedar of Lebanon 

 than upon its own bottom. 



In April, 1836, we grafted several deodar cedars upon the 

 cedar of Lebanon, and, in February, 1837, many more; in all, 

 about 200 ; and several of those grafted last spring have grown 

 more than 18 in. from the graft. 



JElvaston Castle^ Dec. 12. 1837. 



Art. VL Descriptive and Historical Notice of the A^bies cephalonica. 

 By the Conductor. 



i J^BiEs cephalo'nica. The Cephalonian Silver Spruce Fir. 



Synonymes. Koukounaria, and also Elatos, in Cephalonia; ^. ^axifblia liort,; ^. luscombe^na 



Ho7t. ; the Mount Enos Fir. 

 Engravings. Out Jigs. 6. and 7-, from living specimens received from Hampton Lodge, Luscombe, 



and Dropmore. 



S23ec. Char. Cones, ?. Leaves subulate, flat ; dark green above, and silvery 

 beneath ; tapering from the base to the summit, which terminates in a sharp 

 spine. Petioles very short, dilated lengthwise at the point of their attach- 

 ment to the branches ; the dilated part of a much lighter green than the rest 

 of the leaf. A tree, in its native country (Cephalonia), upwards of 60 ft. high, 

 with a trunk 9 ft. or 10 ft. in circumference, and numerous side branches, 

 which, when young, give it the general appearance of an araucaria. Intro- 

 duced in 1824. 



Description. General Charles James Napier, who, when governor of 

 Cephalonia, paid great attention to this tree, and first sent seeds of it to 

 England, informs us that the largest specimens which he saw of it in Cepha- 

 lonia were 60 ft. high and upwards ; and that the side branches, when the tree 

 is not crowded by others, are very numerous, and spread out to a great 

 - Vol. XIV. — No. 95. g 



