THE SILVER FIR. 197 
old seedlings at his residence at Harefield Park, Middlesex. 
According to Evelyn, these in 1679 had become “ goodly 
masts,” the largest being eighty-one feet high and thirteen 
feet in circumference. The other tree was of a less size, 
in consequence of its having been scorched on one side 
by the burning of the house adjoining to the spot where it 
stood. 
The silver fir, when young, is one of the most tender 
timber-tree plants in British cultivation, and although its 
progress is tardy during the first ten or fifteen years of its 
age, yet, after it gets a little established in a suitable soil, and 
attains the height of eight or ten feet, it advances with a 
rapidity both in height and girth which is seldom surpassed 
by any species of the Coniferz. 
The cones of this tree become ripe in the beginning of 
winter, and the scales fall away, allowing the seeds to be 
extracted without the aid of artificial heat. They should be 
sown in April, in a well-pulverized soil. The fertility of the 
seeds, which varies exceedingly in different seasons, and is 
indicated by their being full and plump, should, in sowing, 
regulate their closeness, or the quantity which should be 
deposited in a given space. The distance of two inches is 
the space most suitable for the young plants to stand asunder 
in the seed-bed. The mode of laying down the crop described 
in the article PINE-TREE is suitable for the silver fir, and the 
soil should form a cover on the seed about half-an-inch deep. 
The seed-beds should be protected from birds until the end 
of May, when the crop of -young plants generally appears 
above the surface of the ground. 
When the plants appear above ground earlier in May, it is 
sometimes necessary to protect them, as the slightest touch of 
frost destroys them. The protection may consist of a cover 
of broom, or of the branches of any evergreen trees, which 
may either be spread flat on the surface, or the smaller 
branchlets may be stuck into the ground, close enough to 
protect the plants, and yet so open as to admit enough of air. 
Another mode, which is sometimes the most convenient, and 
