CONIFERS. — THE ABIES, OR SrilUCE FIR. 
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Abies rubra, Poiret (red Spruce Fir). — 
Leaves equally distributed round the. branches, 
awl-shaped, slender, and with sharper points 
than the foregoing. Cones larger and redder 
than those of A. nigra, and more resinous, and 
having notched scales. A tree very much 
resembling A. nigra; and it is very ques- 
tionable if it is entitled to be considered dis- 
tinct. Its wood is as good as that of the 
foregoing, and its rate of growth in this 
country is the same. One of the finest speci- 
mens in England, is at Hackress, in Yorkshire, 
where it is sixty-five feet high. A variety 
called ccerulea has been originated by Mr. 
Booth, of the Flotbeck nurseries ; and along 
with it, Mr. Knight of King's Road propagates 
a variation called gracilis. These latter are 
propagated by cuttings only. 
Abies Smithiana, Wallich (Smith's Spruce 
Fir). — Leaves somewhat compressed, slender, 
straight, sharp pointed, pale green, somewhat 
glaucous, arising from a faint silvery line in 
the grooves. Cones solitary, pendulous, ovate- 
oblong, seven inches long, with round brown 
smooth scales. 
A beautiful Himalayan tree, quite as hardy 
and growing as freely in Britain as the com- 
mon spruce. It is bej^ond any question that 
this is one of those plants destined to occupy 
a prominent place in the English Arboretum, 
and in woods ; for it is not only very orna- 
mental, but it is reputed as being a tree which 
produces excellent timber. The writer has 
had cones and seeds sent direct to him from 
the Himalaya, and two years' seedlings in his 
nursery are quite equal to those of the common 
spruce of a like age. It promises to have some- 
thing of the gracefulness of the Deodar, the 
tips of the branches assuming a drooping di- 
rection ; and altogether the tree promises to 
have nothing of that stedfast gloom which is 
characteristic of several trees of the genus. 
Plants from four to six inches, are 6s. per 
dozen. (1847.) 
* * Leaves fiat, glaucous beneath, two- 
rowed, or nearly so. 
Abies Douglasii, Lindley (Douglas's 
Spruce Fir). — Leaves spreading almost 
equally round the branches, or imperfectly 
two-rowed, silvery beneath, and blunt. Cones 
terminal, ovate-oblong, bright brown, with 
round concave smooth scales. Seeds of an oval 
shape, bright brown. 
A magnificent tree, discovered by Douglas, 
in immense forests, from 43° to 52° north 
lat. in North-west America, and one with 
regard to which British Arboriculturists 
might well evince some interest. The opinion 
of Dr. Lindley, given some years since, to the 
effect that it would suit this climate, and prove 
a valuable tree, is, so far as experience goes, 
correct ; for there are already some fine trees 
scattered throughout the country, which are 
producing cones in abundance. According to 
Douglas, the trunks of this species in its native 
forests are from two feet to ten feet in dia- 
meter, and from 100 feet, to 180 feet in 
height ; and he mentions, that a stump which 
he found near Fort George, on the Columbia 
river, exclusive of the bark, and at three 
feet from the ground, measured 48 feet in 
circumference. On the banks of the Colum- 
bia, and in the other districts of North-west 
America where it prevails, the trees are to a 
great height devoid of branches, the top being 
of a conical shape, and the bark of a greyish 
brown, very rugged. In England, where it is 
yet planted only as an ornament, it is apt to 
become bushy like the Cedar of Lebanon, and 
to throw up several leaders ; but when it is 
planted in groups, at about four to five feet 
apart from each tree, it will be found to 
assume a much better character in the eye of 
the timber merchant. A tree ten years old 
grows in this country at the rate of eighteen 
inches a year. In Northumberland, at Whit- 
field Hall, which is rather an ungenial climate, 
being 750 feet above the level of the sea, it 
has reached the height of 40 feet ; the circum- 
ference at 2 feet from the ground, is 3 feet 
and 6 inches, the length of some of the 
branches near to the ground being 14 feet, 
and the circumference of the branches at 
bottom, 90 feet. It is thickly furnished with 
luxuriant branches from the ground upwards, 
and Mr. Ord, in the Gardeners' Chronicle, ob- 
serves, that " it would certainly have been 
5 or 6 feet higher, but from the misfortune of 
its having twice lost its leading shoot." Mr. 
Ord further adds that, ." three years ago, a 
shot from a gun pierced the leading shoot, and 
this year (1846) a severe hail storm broke it 
down. In one respect, I am more fortunate 
than Sir C. Lemon, at Carclew, for I have 
fifty fine young plants raised from the seed of 
last year, but which had a narrow escape from 
death by the same hail storm that broke the 
leading shoot of their parent, and were only 
saved by the gardener rushing out with a 
hand-glass ; they would otherwise all have 
perished. I have two or three fine plants 
raised from layers, which seem to be putting out 
shoots on all sides, and growing well and up- 
right. There are no cones upon the tree this 
year." A large specimen is in the garden of 
the Horticultural Society, and there is another 
fine tree at Dropmore. In the pinetum at 
Rozelle, Ayrshire, this species grows luxuri- 
antly. 
Though unquestionably producing valuable 
timber in its native country, there is no evi- 
dence as yet to establish its claim when com- 
pared with other timber trees in this country. 
Lindley has given it as his opinion, that it is 
