CHAP. cxni. coni'feiue. ^bies. 2297 



kiln, to extricate them. The wings of the seeds are oval, and pale brown ; 

 forming at the base a kind of spoon, in which one of the sides of the seed 

 is enclosed, while the other is exposed to view. The seed does not es- 

 cape immediately that the cone is ripe, but requires heat and drying winds 

 to open the scales. This generally takes place between the months of 

 February and May of the second year. The cones have each eight rows 

 of scales in a spiral direction from the base to the summit ; each row has 

 from 20 to 23 scales, in each of which there are two seeds; and, conse- 

 quently, an ordinary-sized cone contains from 320 to 368 seeds. The 

 rate of growth in the spruce is nearly as great as that of the Scotch pine. 

 For three or four years, at first, it does not average a growth of more than 

 from 6 in. to 8 in. a year ; but, after the plants are 3 ft. high, and till they 

 attain the height of 50 ft., the rate of growth is from 2 ft. to 3 ft. a year, 

 in favourable soils. In 10 years from the seed, the plants will attain the 

 height of 12ft. or 15ft. in the climate of London; and, in 50 j ears, the 

 height of from 90 ft. to 100 ft. The tallest specimens that we know of in 

 the neighbourhood of London are at Syon, where it is drawn up among 

 other trees, with a slender trunk, to nearly 100 ft. in height ; but the most 

 vigorous specimens are at Whitton, and they are from 85 ft. to 90 ft. high, 

 with trunks from 2 ft. to 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter. The largest in England, 

 that we have had any account of, is a tree at Studley, of which a portrait 

 by H. W. Jukes, Esq., is given in our last Volume, and which is 132 ft. 

 high, with a trunk 6 ft. 5 in. in diameter, regularly clothed with branches 

 from the base to the summit. This tree is said to have been planted by 

 Eugene Aram, who was steward of the Studley estate, about the middle 

 of the last century. This spruce stands in the pleasure-grounds, near 

 one of the cascades. We remarked its great height and fine appearance 

 when we visited Studley, in 1806 ; and Mr. Jukes informs us that it is 

 still in a state of vigorous growth, and adding to its height yearly. The 

 lower branches form an ample canopy, beneath which a person may stand, 

 and look up close to the bole of the tree to its very summit; the insertions 

 of the branches being naked, the trunk perfectly straight, and the remainder 

 of the branches being densely clothed with leaves, and forming a thick casing 

 which excludes the light, and acts on the vision of a spectator below 

 like the tube of a telescope. The duration of the tree in its native ha- 

 bitats is considered to be from 100 to 150 years. The trunk seldom, if 

 ever, attains so great a thickness as that of P. sylvestris; but it is uniformly 

 straighter; and the wood is whiter, more elastic, less resinous, and con- 

 sequently lighter, than the timber of that tree. 



From the pendent habit of the lower branches of the spruce, some 

 curious anomalies are occasionally found in its habit of growth. The 

 shoots next the ground, when they have attained a considerable length, 

 naturally rest on the soil at their extremities ; and the soil being kept moist 

 by the shade of the branches, these often root into it; and the points of 

 their shoots taking a vertical direction, a series of new trees are formed 

 in a circle round the old tree. Some of the most remarkable examples 

 of this kind that we are aware of are to be found at the Whim, an 

 estate formerly belonging to the Duke of Argyll whose name, as an 

 arboriculturist, has been so frequently mentioned in this work. An ac- 

 count of these spruces has been given in the Gardenei^s Magazine, by Mr. 

 James M'Nab, of the Experimental Garden, Edinburgh, from which the 

 following is an extract: — " The Whim is situated on the high grounds 

 bordering the Pentland range of hills, 14 miles south-west of Edinburgh. 

 The soil is chiefly composed of brown moss or bog earth, which is deep 

 and spongy ; the subsoil is various, but is chiefly a retentive whitish clay. 

 A large proportion of this property was planted with the Norway spruce 

 and a few black spruces, by the Duke of Argyll, soon after 1730. Nearly 

 all the fine old specimens of spruces and other trees on this estate were 

 cut down about 1810; but there are still some spruce firs, about 60 ft. high. 



