460 CONIFERS. 



that gibbosity, at their junction with the trunk, which 

 we see in large Spruce trees which have long retained 

 them. These dead branches remain undecayed for a great 

 many years, their wood being hard, matured, and of a 

 red colour, and they may be knocked out, or cut off close 

 by the stem, without any apprehension of the small por- 

 tion remaining within the bark communicating decay to 

 the trunk. In two or three years a deposit of new wood 

 covers the parts previously occupied by the branch, aud 

 a clean bole, without knots or gibbosities, is thus obtained 

 by the time the tree acquires a large scantling and becomes 

 fit for felling. 



As a nurse-plant, or intermediate occupant in mixed 

 plantations, where the surface soil is light and suitable 

 to its habit, the Spruce is one of the most eligible and 

 profitable trees that can be grown, as it not only advances 

 at a rapid rate, and produces wood of a more durable 

 consistence than the Scotch Fir in its immatured state, 

 but it is much better adapted, from its more regular and 

 very pointed pyramidal form and the stiifness of its growth, 

 to accompany, and be mixed with, deciduous trees, its 

 arrowy or spire-like top not interfering, to any injurious 

 extent, with the expansion of their more spreading heads, 

 and allowing the full enjoyment of light and air, at the 

 same time that the dense mass of foliage it carries beneath, 

 supported by stiff unyielding branches, resists the influence, 

 and softens the effects, of high and boisterous winds, thus 

 preventing wind-waving, and other injurious effects to the 

 trees in its immediate neighbourhood. Where shelter from 

 prevailing winds, or the exclusion from view of particular 

 objects is required, no tree is better adapted for these pur- 

 poses than the Spruce, provided the soil is such as to suit 

 its habit. In such cases, the principal object to be attended 



