212 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



are of a purple colour ; each cone contains 

 about 365 seeds, being generally eight rows 

 of scales, of twenty-three each, and every 

 scale contains two seeds. 



This towering tree is a native of the North 

 of Europe, and abounds in the vast woods of 

 Norway, from whence immense quantities of 

 this timber are annually imported into this 

 country for the purposes of building, it being 

 the white deal so much used in modern 

 houses. 



It seems to have been cultivated in this 

 country at an early period. It was noticed 

 as long back as 1548 ; and Gerard tells us, 

 in 1 597, that he had seen it growing in Che- 

 shire, Staffordshire, and Lancashire ; and as 

 this author had visited Norway, where he 

 had seen " the goodliest trees in the worlde 

 of this kinde," we cannot suppose that he 

 could have been mistaken. Nor can we be sur- 

 prised that Evelyn should only have noticed 

 a few solitary trees of this kind, when Plot 

 tells us, that during the civil contest in the 

 reign of Charles the First, " wood has be- 

 come so scarce, that it is a common thing to 

 sell it by weight, not only at Oxford, but in 

 other places in the northern parts of the 

 shire; if brought to moreat (market), it is 

 ordinarily sold for about one shilling the hun- 



