STEMS OF CONIFEROUS PLANTS. 18 



past twenty-five years, show that the rate of growth of Conifers in tho 

 south-west and west .of England is much greater than in the Eastern 

 Counties And so in Scotland. On the west coast, the annual rainfall 

 reaches 40 inches, in particular spots very much more, while on the east 

 side of the country, it is not more than 25 inches.* The finest Coniferae 

 in Scotland are found where the temperature and rainfall are highest. 



In further illustration of these laws, the following are well-attested 

 instances. The mountain ranges in the North American Continent in 

 the neighbourhood of the Pacific Ocean, extending through California, 

 Oregon, and British Columbia, are covered with the densest coating 

 , of Coniferous vegetation known, and there the temperature during 

 the summer is high and the rainfall copious. In the eastern parts 

 of the Continent, where it is much drier and colder, the Weymouth 

 Pine (Pinus Strobus) attains a height of 100 feet; in nearly the 

 same latitude, near the Pacific Coast, its close ally, the Sugar Pine 

 {Pinus Lambertiana), towers to nearly three times that height. Tho 

 Balsam Eirs of Canada and Carolina (Abies balsamea and A. Fraseri), 

 are low short-lived trees, not often more than 40 feet high ; their 

 congeners, the Western Balsam Eirs of California and Oregon (A. 

 grandis and A. concolor) are giants 200 feet high, and live for 

 centuries. In the humid climate of the Himalayas, the Deodar 

 Cedar, Hemlock Fir (Abies Brunoniana), and some of the Junipers 

 attain dimensions far exceeding those of their nearest alhes in other 

 parts of the Eastern Continent. In Europe, all the principal moun- 

 tain ranges abound in Coniferous forests, affording valuable timber; 

 while in the plains, where the rainfall is much less, many kinds are 

 dwarfed, and others cannot be made to thrive even under cultivation. 

 Under the tropical rains of Mexico, the deciduous Cypress rivals in 

 size its great Californian cousins, while further north in the United 

 States, it is a moderate sized tree, 120 feet high or thereabouts. 

 The stems or trunks of the larger Coniferous trees increase in 

 height and diameter very rapidly after the first years of their 

 "infancy," when the plant has become established. Thus the 

 Wellingtonia in this country grows at the rate of from 24 to 30 

 inches in one year, and Thuia gigantea and Cupressus macrocarpa have 

 been known to make an addition of nearly four feet to their height 

 in one season. Abies Nordmanniana and A. nobilis, which commence 

 their growth late in the season, will add to their leaders from 15 to 

 18 inches in the short space of six or eight weeks. Abies Douglasii 

 makes an average growth of from 21 to 27 inches annually, 

 and Pinus imignis\ even more. The rate of growth varies in each 

 * See Physical Geography of Great Britain, by Dr. Ramsay, Fourth Ed., p. 197-200. 

 t The growth of Pinus insignis in the warm and more equable climate of New Zealand 

 is very rapid. A correspondent in the Canterbury district recently informed us that he 

 had measured shoots of the preceding year's growth 9 feet long ; the average growth of 

 a number of trees in a plantation was quite 6 feet. 



