16 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
Mr M‘Nab, of the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, as occurring on the estate called the Whim, in the 
Pentlands, Peeblesshire, the property of Sir Graham Montgomery, Bart., whose grandfather purchased it 
in 1762 from the Duke of Argyle, of arboricultural celebrity, by whom 
it was planted, chiefly with Spruces, about 1730. Most of these were 
cut down about fifty years since, but one in the part of the grounds 
called the Wilderness had taken this habit upon it, whence it had 
received the name of the Travelling Fir, although, says Mr M‘Nab, 
“ it might have been more appropriately called the Banyan Spruce, 
on account of its branches having taken root whenever they have 
come in contact with the spongy soil.” [Fig. 29.] Mr M‘Nab 
accounts for this natural layering by suggesting the probability of an 
excessive weight of snow bending the branches towards the ground, 
and perhaps slightly sinking them into it, during a severe season ; 
the branches being thus held in contabf with the spongy peat for a 
considerable time, 
The depth of the peat soil where the Banyan Spruce grows is about 
14 feet. It is also to be noticed that “that portion of the branch 
between the stem and the ground, sometimes several feet in length, 
does, not appear to increase in diameter after the extremity has 
rooted” [fig. 30]; the exception being when it has rooted close 
to the parent stem. When Mr M‘Nab wrote, it had formed 
a double series of concentric circles of young trees round the 
parent trunk. Mr M‘Nab mentions that some of the branches 
proceeding both from the main stem and from primary sub¬ 
stems, vary from 2 to 6 feet in length, by i~ to 2 inches in 
diameter, while some of their extremities, which have rooted in 
the ground and assumed the appearance of stems, reach 2 feet in 
circumference. Mr M‘Nab speaks of other specimens at the 
far inferior to the first in 
Fig. 30. 
size, from cattle having got access to them. In the largest, the 
stoloniferous branches had rooted themselves 18 feet from the main stem. The same disposition shews 
itself at the Whim in Spruces which have been blown down, the trunk resting on the mossy ground 
sending out roots, and the branches on its upper side growing into trees, so large as to have occasioned 
one specimen to be called the Man of War Tree, from stems like masts growing out of the large trunk. 
A similar case occurs at Blair Drummond, where, under similar circumstances, a number of Spruces 
have naturally struck root, and formed fine trees around the mother plant, a circumstance which Loudon 
says he had “ often observed to take place with the black American Spruce in mossy soil, but never had 
observed to do so with the Norway Spruce till he saw it in Blair Drummond.” One of these Spruces 
produced Fir trees from natural layers, all as high as the mother plant. By the weight of a heavy 
rain in the summer of 1855 the mother plant gave way, but the motherless children are still standing, 
a beautiful group. 
The rearing and management of the Spruce is very similar to that of the Scots Fir. d he cones are 
gathered in winter, and should only be taken from healthy trees. The seeds are easily removed from them, 
the mere keeping the cones in a warm place being sufficient to cause the seed to drop out when 
shaken. Fifteen gallons of cones produce about 2 lb. of seeds with their wings, or i[ lb. without them. 
Like other Conifer seeds, they will keep for three or four years. Their treatment in the nursery is the 
same as that of the Scots Fir; but, being more prolific in fibrous roots, they will bear transplanting 
oftener, and so may be kept in the nursery until they are larger trees. 
Whim also striking by natural layers, 
causing them permanently to assume this position. 
Fig. 29. 
In 
