THE SPRUCE FIR. 541 
small vessels, oars, scaffolding poles and spars, as 
well as for flooring rooms, for the cases of 
musical instruments, and for sundry purposes by 
cabinet-makers and carpenters. The living Tree, 
which furnishes from its young shoots the material 
for Spruce Beer, and an abundance of resin, 
was introduced into this country about the year 
1548. It is a rapid grower, but thrives with 
greatest: luxuriance in deep, loamy soil, in a 
moist and sheltered situation, where it will retain 
the characteristic pyramidal form of cultivated 
Conifers, but will produce branches which, though 
horizontal in general direction, droop from their 
extreme edges, and often ‘ feather’ to the ground. 
In its Pine-like aspect in the mountain regions of 
Norway and elsewhere, it loses its side branches, 
and developes its head to a height of sometimes 
as much as a hundred and fifty feet above the 
soil. ven in this country there are specimens of 
Abies excelsa a hundred and thirty feet in height, 
and sixteen feet in circumference. Its short 
leaves, following one of the characters peculiar to 
the genus Abies, are produced singly on the twigs. 
They are not confined, however, to any particular 
