XX. 
THE SILVER FIR. 
Stnver Frr.—This is the genus Picea of Linneus, but the 
Abies or spruce fir of the ancient and of some of the modern 
botanists. It is one of the most ornamental trees belonging 
to the natural order Conifere, and consists of several species, 
natives of Europe, Asia, and America. Some of the kinds 
are only recently introduced into Britain, and are still very 
rare trees. All the species advance in a uniform habit of 
growth, and yield a straight bole, of regular taper, large in 
proportion to the lateral branches, which range horizontally 
in regular whorls, each of which presents a flat or frond-like 
surface of foliage. The genus bears a striking resemblance to 
the spruce fir, but the leaves are less numerous, and lie more 
flat on both sides of the branchlets, and thus form two ranks ; 
and the cones stand erect on the branches, and, when ripe, 
their scales being deciduous fall away, while the spruce fir 
cones are pendant, and their scales are persistent. 
Picea pectinata (Loudon).—The common silver fir is found 
indigenous in the north of Africa, and throughout central 
Europe, abounding on the lower slopes of the mountains, and 
in glens in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. On the 
Carpathian mountains and on the Alps it occupies an eleva- 
tion between 3000 and 4000 feet. In narrow valleys in the 
south of Germany, between the Swiss mountains and the 
Black Forest, on rich, friable, loamy soil, it attains the height 
of 150 feet, with a trunk sixteen to twenty feet in girth. 
From this district it was introduced into England in the year 
1603, by Serjeant Newdigate, who then planted two two-year- 
