554 EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 
lines, as in other silver firs. When young the trees have a round¬ 
ish-pyramidal form, with compact and solid masses of foliage, 
which, on account of the spiney character of the leaves, is un¬ 
pleasant to push against or handle. We have, therefore, else¬ 
where suggested the use of this tree for garden hedges. The 
color of the foliage is a bluish-green on top, and grayish-green 
berieath. 
Nordmann’s Silver Fir. Picea nordmaniana .—This is 
quite the finest of the silver firs which have been growing long 
enough in this country to give a fair impression of their qualities. 
Its superiority in beauty to the common European silver fir consists 
mainly in the denser and larger masses into which its foliage 
forms; the horizontal divisions being somewhat less rigid, and 
more rounded in outline, and its lights and shadows less thinly 
stratified. The leaves are soft to the touch, do not prick on 
handling, are set at an angle of 45 0 with the twigs, and have a 
lively warm green color, unsurpassed by any large evergreen; in 
length they are about the same as those of the European silver fir, 
but they curve upwards at the ends, giving to the branchlets the 
appearance of being much more thickly foliaged. The young 
shoots are quite smooth and glossy. A native of the mountains 
around the Black Sea, and there grows to the height of one 
hundred feet. It is not unlikely that with age it will develop more 
of the monotonous formality of expression which distinguishes our 
own balsam fir, but its warmer-toned foliage must always be in its 
favor. Trees of fifteen to twenty years’ growth in this country are 
certainly more pleasing in all respects than any other large species 
of the Picea family. It is quite hardy. 
The Noble Silver Fir. Picea nobilis .—Though this is one of 
the immense trees of Oregon and northern California, where it 
attains a height of two hundred feet, its growth when young is 
much more compact and full-foliaged than most of the trees from 
the Pacific slope, having rather the appearance of a vigorous dwarf 
tree than of a scion of a lofty family. The leaves are about the 
length of those of the balsam fir, and so thickly set on the twigs 
