MO 
CONIFERS. THE PICEA, OK SILVER FIR. 
ramification which forms the delight of the 
painter, nor is it calculated to elevate the 
mind when the winds are high, or during a 
storm: we hear not the shouting of the tempest ' 
in its lofty top. In the oak, for instance, the 
voice of Nature is loud and deep; but in all the 
individuals of the Coniferas there is only a 
shrill, hissing sound, which in minds attuned 
to such things, awakens a feeling of extreme 
solitariness. Its leaves are full of beauty, and 
will suffer the minutest examination ; its 
branches are disposed horizontally, and some- 
times may be observed at a great distance, 
and to advantage, against a clear sky. The 
trunk is straight and unbending, rising to a 
majestic height, and the tree altogether 
may be justly considered as one of those 
which adds dignity to the spot where it rises. 
The propagation and culture of this plant 
are accomplished much in the same way as 
in the common pine. The cones should be 
gathered in December, subjected to a very 
slight degree of kiln-drying, and then thrashed 
on a floor, as recommended in the case of the 
larch in a succeeding page. When sifted, and 
freed as much as possible from the broken 
pieces of the cones, &c, they should be kept 
in a dry place till the middle of March, and 
sown in beds of light loamy soil, placing the 
seeds so as that the plants may rise at about an 
inch apart from each other ; and this will be 
best insured by reckoning one seed out of 
every four as likely to vegetate. 
This, perhaps, will be better understood 
when it is stated that Silver fir seed is always 
bad, and requires to be sown very thick, in 
order to have a good close crop. In moist soil, a 
covering of half an inch will be sufficient, and 
in dry soils it may be increased to three- 
quarters of an inch, and even one inch. 
When the plants have been two years in the 
seed-bed, they may be transplanted into 
nursery lines, in the very richest soil that can 
be had, only it is not proper to use fresh 
manure. They should stand about two inches 
apart, in lines six inches asunder ; for, if 
planted at a greater distance apart, they will 
be found to make strong side branches, often 
robbing the leading shoot, which is, besides, 
very liable to injury by frost. It will be 
found worth while to insert dead branches 
(cut in summer, so as to retain their leaves,) 
throughout the lines : this will ward off the 
effects of spring frosts, and will be found 
to answer better than planting them under old 
trees, as is done in several nurseries in Surrey. 
Two years' seedlings are lO.y. per 1,000, and 
transplanted plants, nine inches high, are 
from 15.?. to 20s. per 1,000. Amongst the 
synonymes which are applied to this plant are 
P. taxi folia and P. excelsa. 
There are two varieties, one with twisted 
branches, called tortuosa, which, amongst 
painters, would be considered as preferable to 
the species; and another with variegated leaves, 
which cannot be depended upon as remaining 
true. There are plants of the former in the 
Exotic Nursery of Mr. Knight, and in Messrs. 
Loddiges' Arboretum, Hackney. 
Picea Nordmanniana, Loudon (Nordmann's 
Silver Fir). — Leaves broad-linear, obtuse, 
solitary, curved upwards, of unusual length, 
and of a silvery hue. Cones large, erect, 
ovate, growing either separately or in twos or 
threes, resinous, with obtuse scales, having 
obcordate reflexed bracts ; the seeds have a 
broad oblique wing. 
A noble tree, growing from eighty to a 
hundred feet high, w T ith smooth bark, and 
densely formed branches, the lower ones hori- 
zontal, the upper ones springing at a more 
acute angle. It is found in the north of Asia, 
at a considerable elevation (6,000 feet), and 
there is therefore no doubt as to its hardiness in 
this country ; but it has not been long intro- 
duced, and consequently the plants are but 
small. The leaves resemble those of P. grandis. 
It is a finer tree than the common Silver fir ; 
its silvery foliage and abundant cones giving 
it a distinctive appearance. When full grown 
it is said that the whole crown of the trees, for 
a fourth of their height, is covered with the 
cones. It was first met with by Professor Nord- 
mann on the summit of a mountain called 
Adshar. Being rare, it yet bears a high price. 
Picea ce/phalonica, Loudon (Cephalonian 
Silver Fir). — Leaves almost flat, shining, dark 
green on the upper side, with two obscure 
silvery lines underneath, almost sessile, dagger- 
shaped, somewhat resembling those of Arau- 
caria braziliensis. Cones erect, from six to 
eight inches long, slightly tapering, and about 
an inch and a half in diameter, with scales a 
good deal like those of P. pectinata. 
A fine tree, sixty feet high, introduced by 
General C. J. Napier, about the year 1824. 
Minutely considered, it has some resemblance 
to an Araucaria. Its general outline is like 
the Cedar, dense and spreading. It belongs 
to the Black Mountain of Cephalonia, or to 
what was, in classic times, Mount .iEnos, now 
Eno, and skirted Hebrus as it rolled towards 
the ^Egean over golden sands ! The ridge of 
mountains on which this tree grows is nearly 
5,000 feet above the sea, and about fourteen 
miles in length, lying in the direction of north- 
west and south-east. In Napier's Colonies, it 
is stated that a great part of this forest was 
burned down, but that it is still extensive, 
though materially injured by the goats, which 
are allowed to range at pleasure amongst the 
trees, biting off the leading shoots of the young 
ones. The same author states that when Count 
Mataxa, one of the nobles of the island, was 
