Abies 727 



Ireland, under conditions of soil and climate very unlike those of its native forests. 

 Though it will endure the severest winter frosts without injury, yet unless under the 

 cover of other trees, or in very sheltered situations, it is often injured by spring frost, 

 on account of its tendency to grow early. As regards soil it is somewhat critical, 

 for though Boutcher^ says that he has seen the largest and most flourishing silver firs 

 on sour, heavy, obstinate clay, yet I have never myself seen fine trees on any but 

 deep, moist, sandy soils, or on hillsides where the subsoil was deep and fertile. He 

 also says it is vain to plant them in hot, dry, rocky situations, and this is my own 

 experience on oolite formations, where I have never seen a large or well-developed 

 silver fir. In the east and midland counties they usually become ragged at the top 

 before attaining maturity, and in this country rarely attain a great age without 

 suffering from drought and wind. 



Though foresters of continental experience recommend this tree for under- 

 planting, on account of its ability to grow under dense shade, yet from an economical 

 point of view it cannot be recommended here ; and I do not know of any place in 

 England where the financial results of planting the silver fir are, or seem likely to 

 be, such as would justify growing it on a large scale ; partly because of its very 

 slow growth when young, and partly because its timber is not valued as it is in 

 France and Germany. Mr. Crozier's experience '^ is very noteworthy. 



The silver fir seeds itself very freely in some parts of England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland,^ but the seedlings are so slow in growth and so delicate for the first few 

 years, that few survive the risk of frost, rabbits, and smothering. Sir Charles 

 Strickland tells me that in a wood of silver firs at Boynton, Yorkshire, which were 

 mostly blown down in 1839, he remembers that a few years afterwards the growth of 

 young seedlings was in places so dense that he could hardly force his way through 

 them. Some of these self-sown trees are now 6 feet in girth and 60 to 70 feet high, 

 but many are stunted from want of space. Their parents are rough and branchy, 

 dying at the top, and 10 to 12 feet in girth. 



Remarkable Trees 



Though the silver fir will probably be in time surpassed in height and girth by 

 some of the conifers of the Pacific coast of America, yet at present it has no rival in 

 size among coniferous trees in Great Britain. Perhaps the tallest which I have seen 

 in England is the magnificent tree (Plate 208) which grows in Gates Wood, at the 

 top of Cowdray Park, Sussex, at an elevation of 500 to 600 feet, and now owing to 

 its being deprived of the shelter of the surrounding trees, likely to be blown down 



1 Boutcher, A Treatise on Forest Trees, 146 (1775). 



2 Formerly one of our most reliable trees, but now hopelessly unreliable as a timber crop, owing to its susceptibility to 

 attack by Chermes. Like the larch, our old trees are practically immune to attack, but the difficulty in getting up young 

 stock — experienced throughout the greater part of the country — is likely to lead to its extinction altogether as an economic 

 species. Has been much recommended by continental trained foresters — even of late years — for the purpose of underplanting 

 in our Scotch woods,' and some of those experiments I saw lately. The result is a hopeless failure in all of them. — 

 (J. D. Crozier.) 



' At Auchendrane, near Ayr, according to Mr. J. A. Campbell, there are several acres of self-sown seedlings ; and in 

 County Wexford I have also seen great numbers. 



