200 THE SILVER FIR. 
the species has been employed chiefly for ornamental effect. 
In Devonshire, Sussex, Bedfordshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, 
Derbyshire, and Northumberlandshire, its height is consider- 
ably above the ordinary size of timber trees, and the best 
specimens range from 110 to 120 feet high, many of which 
measure 300 cubical feet of timber; and several instances 
are recorded both in England and in Scotland, of a single tree 
having produced upwards of 200 cubical feet of timber at the 
age of seventy years. In the latter country the tree is of 
more recent introduction, but specimens nearly a century old 
are found interspersed throughout plantations, and ornament- 
ing park scenery adjoining many of the principal residences 
in North Britain. At Duff House, Cullen House, Ballin- 
dalloch Castle, Balnagown Castle, it has long since become 
conspicuous by the regularity of its pyramidal head, tower- 
ing above all other trees, and generally ranging from 90 
to 100 feet high; and instances seldom occur where a 
tree of this species, of advanced age, in ordinarily favour- 
able soil, is not very far beyond the size of other trees of 
equal age. 
The wood of the silver fir is generally of a pale yellow, and 
the texture of its grain is commonly very irregular, even in 
different parts of the same tree, if it has had space to become 
of great girth. This arises from its unequal growth at different 
periods of its existence. A transverse section of the trunk, 
cut near to the surface of the ground, generally exhibits fifteen 
to twenty circles, very closely arranged around the pith; after 
which every year’s circle or growth of wood usually becomes 
greater in diameter, to the number of twenty, thirty, or forty, 
according to the quality of the soil. In ordinary cases, after 
that period the layers are formed of smaller diameter, and the 
timber is consequently of finer grain. Grown into large timber, 
it is commonly formed into deal for the purposes of flooring ; 
for which it is very suitable from its never showing any ten- 
dency to warp. When grown in masses the timber is generally 
finer, more equal, and adapted for masts, joists, rafters, and all 
the ordinary purposes of carpentry, and it is sometimes used 
