192 SPRUCE FIR. 
near London ; and at Brahan Castle, Ross-shire, it has attained 
the height of upwards of fifty feet. The tree seldom exceeds 
these heights in Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 
and the districts of Main, where it constitutes indigenous 
forests of great extent. 
In this country it is esteemed only as an ornamental tree, 
for the richness and density of its foliage, and for its hardi- 
ness. It luxuriates in a moist soil, and affords great shelter and 
seclusion. In favourable circumstances its lateral branches 
often strike root into the ground, and form a circle of young 
plants around the parent tree. This species seldom produces 
trunks of great diameter ; but it is remarkable for thriving 
and maintaining its ordinary girth when the trees stand 
unusually near to one another. It is raised from seed in 
the same manner as the Norway spruce. It is of much 
slower growth than that species, but its timber is strong and 
elastic. 
A. alba (Michaux): The White American Spruce Fir.— 
This tree was introduced at the same time as the species last 
described, but this in every respect is an inferior species— 
weaker in growth, and less ornamental. Under the most 
favourable circumstances it rarely attains to the height of 
forty feet. 
The seeds of this tree are often imported from America in 
large quantities, at a very low price, and it is sometimes to 
be met with in British nurseries in lots of many hundred 
thousand plants, which can be sold at a very cheap rate. 
When young it has a striking resemblance to, and is often 
mistaken for, the Norway species. When four years old, and 
in after life, the plants have a more twiggy appearance; the lead- 
ing shoot is generally short and slender, and destitute of that 
robust habit of growth that distinguishes the Norway species. 
But in poor soil the Norway plant generally assumes a white 
or pale appearance, and then the sorts are the more difficult 
to recognise; yet the one species yields a trunk fit for the 
mast of a large ship, while that of the other seldom exceeds 
the dimensions required for the mast of a fishing-boat. 
