202 THE SILVER FIR. 
the second and third decades of the present century this was 
the most common silver fir, both in the Scotch and English 
nurseries. It has now become comparatively rare, having died 
off, and disappeared throughout the forests. I observe that 
in seedsmen’s lists the seed is now offered by the ounce, at a 
price which would have bought a few pounds forty years ago. 
This arises partly from the scarcity of the tree now in this 
country, and partly from its nature being better understood, 
and grown only on a small scale, and that not for its timber. 
It yields cones abundantly in this country, and it is readily 
grown from seed by the mode of treatment recommended for 
the P. pectinata, and in the nursery it is of rapid growth, being 
at the age of five or six years twice the size of the common 
silver fir at the same age, and at the age of eight or ten years 
about three times its height ; but its vigour is of short duration, 
and it often ceases to grow before it is twenty years of age. 
In the most congenial soil, deep, moist, and well sheltered, it 
seldom lives beyond the age of thirty or forty years, and it is 
an unusually fine specimen of the tree that reaches forty feet 
in height, or contains twenty cubical feet of timber. Not- 
withstanding this it is a useful tree, on account of its early 
and rapid growth, shelter, and ornamental effect. At the age 
of ten years it is commonly more than that number of feet in 
height. Its foliage is closely set, shorter, and more dense than 
that of the common silver fir. The leaves are of a dark, 
shining green above, and silvery underneath. It advances in 
a pyramidal form, and gives a richness and shelter to all 
newly-formed plantations into which it is introduced, and no 
other tree is better fitted for shelter and ornament in shrub- 
beries and beltings, until plants of greater duration become 
established. But in all light gravelly soil, where the subsoil 
becomes affected by the drought of summer, it assumes a 
sickly aspect and dies, while in a deep rich soil of ordinary 
moisture its foliage is found of the darkest and most luxuriant 
description. Since “ Christmas trees” have become so fashion- 
able in this country, the plant may be recommended as pos- 
sessed of sufficient elegance for that purpose, 
