THE SCOTS FIR— continued. 
Since Pinus sylvestris forms a vast belt of forest land from Kamtschatka across 
Siberia and Northern Russia into Prussia, Sweden, and Norway, and is shown by 
its occurrence beneath the peat-bogs and in the submerged forests to have been 
formerly also indigenous in Denmark, England, and Ireland, it has been suggested that 
it may be known as the Northern Pine rather than bear a name taken from the one 
part of the British Isles where it now grows truly wild in a very restricted area. The 
name “Fir,” moreover, might well be restricted to another group, the Silver Firs, 
so as to make the popular names Pine, Spruce, and Fir correspond to the three distinct 
genera — Pinus, Picea, and Abies. Whilst in the Scottish Highlands this species does 
not grow at altitudes of over 2,200 feet above sea-level ; at its southern limit, in the 
mountains of Southern Europe, such as Etna, it reaches 7,000 feet, and in the 
Caucasus 8,000 feet, though only in a stunted form. 
At first conical in general outline, with its slender branches rising slightly from 
the main stem, the Scots Fir in Britain reaches full maturity in from seventy to a 
hundred years, and is generally felled at a less age ; but it is stated to grow much 
more slowly in Norway, where it has attained an age of four centuries. Accustomed 
as we are to the shorter much-branched stems of most of our deciduous broad-leaved 
trees, this tree has become the very type of lofty uprightness. Its straight stem, 
seldom exceeding twelve feet in girth, reaches fifty to a hundred feet in height, while 
its branches are comparatively insignificant. When old, the tree assumes a spreading, 
flat-topped, Cedar-like outline, and its boughs are often twisted into gnarled forms. 
One of its great beauties is the rough reddish or copper-tinted bark, made up of 
flaky scales above, but thicker, darker, and deeply ridged towards the base of the stem. 
The needles in this species are in pairs on the short shoots, not more than two 
or three inches long, pointed, grooved along their upper surface, curved, and often 
twisted, finely toothed throughout their length, and coated with wax, which contributes 
to the remarkable dark indigo tint that lends to the tree its air of gloom. This is 
more especially true of the flat upper surface of the needle, its rounded under surface 
being a dark green. The needles remain on the tree for from two to five years, and 
the short shoots are shed whole, each with the two needles it bears. 
The flowers open in May or June, both male, or pollen-bearing flowers, and 
female, or seed-bearing ones, being borne on the same tree. The male flowers are 
egg-shaped, yellow cones of scale-like stamens, a number of flowers, each about a 
quarter of an inch long, being clustered together. As the anthers split they discharge 
clouds of sulphur-yellow pollen. The female cones are purplish, egg-shaped, and at 
first erect ; but after fertilisation, which process takes more than a year to complete, 
they hang downwards on short stalks. By August they become greyish-brown ; but 
they never acquire the high polish characteristic of some other species of Pine. 
