COMMON, OR NORWAY SPRUCE FIR. 457 



is very rapid, the leading shoot being frequently from two 

 to three feet in length, and this increase it continues to 

 support with undiminished vigour for forty or fifty years, 

 many trees within that period attaining a height of from 

 sixty to eighty feet. Its growth after this period is slower, 

 and the full extent or duration of the tree is considered 

 to range between one hundred and one hundred and fifty 

 years, though many, no doubt, attain a greater age before 

 decay and death ensue. In full-grown trees the trunk 

 sometimes acquires a diameter of five or six feet ; but it 

 may be stated generally, that it is a tree of more slender 

 growth, in proportion to its height, than the Silver Fir. 



Though a native of northern countries and found in simi- 

 lar parallels of latitude, the Spruce Fir is not considered 

 indigenous to Britain, as no remains of ancient forests of 

 this species are recorded as having existed in any of the 

 mountainous districts of this island, nor have its remains 

 been recognized amongst the other trees deposited in the 

 peat mosses, beneath whose surfaces the Common Pine 

 is so frequently and profusely met with. Its introduction, 

 however, must have taken place at an early period, as 

 it is mentioned by some of our earliest writers upon arbori- 

 culture. Turner, who published his work, entitled "Names 

 of Herbes," in 1548, includes it in his list ; Grerard, also, 

 and Parkinson, figure and speak of it in their works. 



Upon continental Europe it occupies a surface, in some 

 of the more northern countries, scarcely inferior to that 

 covered by the forests of the Common Pine. Thus in 

 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Lapland it is the prevailing 

 species upon all the moister description of soil, extending as 

 high as 69° and 70° north latitude. It grows in the south 

 of Norway at an elevation of three thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea. and on the Lapland mountains as high 



