724 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



of great age, about 800 years old, are said ' to have existed there at the beginning of 

 the 19th century. 



In Corsica the silver fir occurs in the great forests of Pinus Laricio, but 

 is not abundant, as it only grows, as a rule, in scattered groups in the gullies, 

 where the soil is deeper and richer than elsewhere; and at Valdoniello I only 

 saw a few trees, none of which were of large size. M. Rotges, of the Forest 

 Service, informed me that it occurs in greatest quantity in the forest of Pietropiano, 

 near Corte. 



In Italy the silver fir is unquestionably wild on the Apennines, and considerable 

 forests exist at Vallombrosa and Camaldoli, which are now owned by the govern- 

 ment. That at Camaldoli is particularly fine, the total area covered by the silver 

 fir being about 1600 acres. The trees are dense on the ground and very vigorous 

 in growth ; and this is easily explained by the heavy rainfall, which, as measured at 

 St. Eremo, in the middle of the forest, at 3600 feet altitude, averages about 80 

 inches annually. I saw, when I visited Camaldoli, in December 1906, no trees 

 of great size ; but one was cut down in 1884, and a log of it shown at the National 

 Exhibition at Turin in that year, which measured 140 feet in height and 17 feet in 

 girth. 



The silver fir also occurs in Sicily in small quantity, on the higher mountains, 

 and specimens without cones, which I saw in the museum at Florence, are peculiar 

 in the foliage, and form possibly a connecting link between A. pectinata and A. 

 numidica. 



In Germany, towards the northern part of its area of distribution, the silver fir 

 is met with growing wild on the plains, as in Saxony, Silesia, and Thuringia. 

 Towards the south it is entirely a tree of the mountains, occupying a definite zone of 

 altitude, which, in the Bavarian forest, lies between 950 and 4000 feet. The largest 

 forests, which are nearly pure, occur in the Black Forest and in Franconia ; those in 

 Bavaria, Bohemia, Thuringia, and Saxony being smaller in extent. 



In Switzerland small forests occur at Zurich, Payerne, and on Mount Torat ; 

 the silver fir ascending in the Swiss Alps to 5300 feet altitude. (A. H.) 



As to the size ^ which the silver fir attains in its native forests, many particulars 

 are given by French and German foresters, some of which have been quoted above. 

 None exceed, however, what I have seen in the virgin forests of Bosnia, where I 

 measured near Han Semec, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, a fallen tree over 180 

 feet long, whose decayed top must have been at least 15 to 20 feet more. Loudon 

 states that he saw, in the museum at Strasburg, a section of a tree of the estimated 

 age of 360 years, cut in 181 6 at Barr, in the Hochwald, which was 8 feet in diameter 

 at the base and 1 50 feet high. 



The virgin forests of Silesia and Bohemia contain silver firs of immense size, 

 of which very interesting particulars are given by Goppert,' who states that, in 

 Prince Schwarzenberg's forest of Krummau, there existed many silver firs of from 



1 Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, II 6, note (1887). 



2 Kerner, Nat. Hist. Plants, Eng. trans, i. 722, gives the " certified height " of Abies pectinata as 75 metres, or 250 

 feet ; but this is not confirmed by other authorities. 



3 H. R. Goppert, Skizzen zur Kenntniss der Urwalder Schlesiens und Bdhmens, 18 (1868). 



