CONIFER.?:. 



79 



to "be infected with, wood-moths : it is ricli ruby red in colour, somewhat 

 resembhng mahogany in appearance. It is hardy, and when under 

 conditions favourable to its growth, it makes rapid progress ; yet, 

 strange to say, I would not award to it even a third-class certificate as 

 a timber tree for the climate of Great Britain and Ireland. It has 

 some most serious constitutional defects, some of which it may yet over- 

 come, after it has become thoroughly acclimatized, and if once we could 

 obtain seeds from home-grown and healthy trees. I doubt much, 

 however, if ever it will get naturalized to our variable climate, 

 inasmuch, as it seems to have no particular liking to a fixed season for 

 growth and rest ; always growing late in the autumn, and seldom 

 maturing its summer growths in time to encounter our early winters ; 

 being thereby always more or less injured, and predisposed in each 

 succeeding season to produce a mass of spongy growths. Moreover, it 

 is very irregular in starting, and likewise in making its annual growths ; 

 and but few perfectly healthy or handsome specimens of it have I yet 

 seen; for, even in the best soils, warmest localities, and most sheltered 

 situations, which are indispensable to its growth in Albion's Isles, it is 

 rampant and somewhat coarse in its deportment. It must needs, 

 therefore, have a nurse properly qualified, a nursery specially constructed, 

 a cook to prepare its food, and a doctor to correct any errors which 

 may perchance be committed in " training it up in the way it should 

 grow," before we can expect to find much true beauty, much less to 

 find real utility or profit in cultivating this distinct and gigantic 

 fir. 



It has no quasis, but varieties are beginning to appear, amongst 

 which may be mentioned Compacta, (compact-branched var.,) Lawson- 

 iana, (Lawson's large thick-leaved var.,) and Variegcda, (variegated- 

 sprayed var.) 



GiGANTABIES WeLLINGTONIANA : Wellington's Giant Fir. 



Flowers, male and female, on the same plant, but separate ; generally 

 solitary and terminal. 



Leaves, the cotyledons, (seed-leaves,) generally four, exceptionally 

 three or more ; the perfect leaves are various ; on young plants they are 

 somewhat needle-shaped, spirally alternate, spreading, and of a light 

 green colour ; and upon adult plants or trees they are scale-formed, 

 closely inlaid, more rounded on the back, and more concave on their 

 inner face, while on the larger branches or stem-shoots, they are longer, 

 looser, more acute pointed, more decurrent at base, and even at times 

 obtuse ; on the branchlets the leaves are much shorter, and heath-like, 



