88 ABIES, OR SILVER FIRS 
decade or so revivalists have not spoken and written 
in vain. Books on the subject were published, 
Chinese explorers brought back arboricultural gifts 
rich and rare: a Royal Arboricultural Society was 
formed ; forestry exhibitions and plantation com- 
petitions were organized by the Royal Agricultural 
Society ; other agricultural societies followed suit. 
The very Board of Agriculture nodded approval and 
began to fumble for their purse; in short, all was 
“going well and happy as marriage bells, till war 
sounded its alaruni-call,—War teterrimum, horridum, 
infandum, heap upon it all you can recall, from 
languages ancient and modern, in the superlative 
degree for choice, but not omitting Pliny’s dictum 
that it should be non provocandum, as a pronounce- 
ment of acquittal to those by whom it was un- 
sought—and brought about the suppression of many 
an aim and object, that was careering gaily on the 
high road to success and many-sided improvement. 
Perhaps a day may dawn, in years to come, when 
more dark masses of the Caucasian Silver Fir will 
greet the eye of travellers as they journey to and fro 
on the highways and byways of our island home. 
As experience with these relays of imported trees 
progresses, it gradually and slowly impresses ideas 
as to the chances or off-chances of success or failure 
that we are likely to encounter in our effort to 
cultivate them. If mathematically minded we might 
mentally review them as hardy, possible, or hopeless, 
or catalogue them as ‘‘ Well-to-does,” ‘“‘ Non-well-to- 
does,” and ‘‘ Ne’er-do-weels.”” The A. Religiosa, 
Sachalinensis, and Sibirica are to be classed in the 
third of these departments, and without much hope 
of any remove or redemption. 
A. Re iciosa, although a tall tree in Mexico, and 
in spite of the fact that it had a good testimonial 
