194 SPRUCE FIR. 
feet high, and the yearly shoots of these are sometimes up- 
wards of two feet long. The young plants from British 
grown seed are now getting so plentiful and cheap, that land- 
owners possessed of suitable soil may insert them profitably 
by the thousand. 
Hitherto, on account of their value, the seeds have been 
sown and the plants grown under glass ; but the open ground 
treatment, adapted for the common spruce or for the Scotch 
fir, is found quite suitable. 
According to Douglas, the trunks of this species in the 
forests of the North-West of America vary from two to ten 
feet in diameter, and from 100 to 180 feet in height. He 
gives the dimensions of a stump of this tree near Fort-George, 
on the Columbia river, which measured, exclusive of the 
bark, and at three feet from the ground, forty-eight feet in 
circumference. In this country the tree frequently forms 
leading shoots three feet long in one season, and notwith- 
standing that circumstance it generally appears bushy in 
proportion to its height. Its foliage is of the richest descrip- 
tion, and bears a striking resemblance to that of a vigorous 
yew-tree. The flag-staff at Kew Gardens is of the timber of 
this tree imported from its native country, and stands 150 
feet high. 
It is believed, like other spruces, to thrive best in ground 
having a moist subsoil, unaffected by the drought of summer, 
particularly in sheltered ravines. Instances have occurred 
of the tree having grown freely on gravelly and open sub- 
soil, and died suddenly after protracted drought; and it is 
to be expected, that with this, as with other species of 
Conifer, excess of drought, or adverse circumstances in any 
form, will be more fatal to trees of vigorous growth, than 
to those whose previous progress had been of a more moderate 
rate. 
A. Canadensis (Michaux) : The Hemlock Spruce Fir.—This 
is a handsome ornamental tree from Canada, of a pendulous 
habit, but not worthy of cultivation in this country as a 
timber-tree on account of the slowness of its growth. 
