IH° 
6 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
case. In the forest bed near Cromer, on the coast of Norfolk, remains both of the Spruce Fir and Scotch 
Fir have been found. These, however, lie below the boulder clay or drift of the Glacial Epoch, and refer 
to a state of things antecedent to the great changes effected by that period. Remains, however, have been 
found in the peat beds of Orkney and Shetland, which were certainly subsequent in date to it. According 
to Dr Neill, cones of the Silver Fir have been found in the peat-moors of Orkney; and a large tree, 
referred to that species on what appear to us questionable grounds, has been found in Unst, one of the 
Shetlands. The statement is made by Mr T. Edmonston, in a list of Shetland plants published in 1841 
in the “ Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” vol. vii. p. 295. 
“ Extinct Species. —Pinus Picea. — An old man told me that he found a Fir-tree about 6 feet below the surface of the ground when digging 
peat at the east side of Unst. It was about 40 feet in length and about 6 feet in circumference. It was much decayed on the outside, but quite 
sound in the heart. The cones of the Silver Fir (according to Dr Neill) have been found in the peat-moors in Orkney, although I am not aware 
of their being observed in Shetland; and as this species seems, when planted, to succeed the best of all its tribe, it may be supposed that the 
tree in question was of this species.” 
We can neither agree with Mr Edmonston’s premises nor his conclusion. If he refers to Shetland, 
the Silver Fir will not grow there at all; if he refers to Scotland, it does not succeed best of all there. 
Even in Orkney we all know that no natural wood grows there (with the exception, we believe, of some 
bushes of Mountain Ash, Birch, and Aspen Poplar found in some sheltered nooks in the Island of Ploy); 
and with regard to introduced trees, Dr William Traill of St Andrews tells us, in an interesting paper 
lately read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh (May 9, 1867), “On the Submarine Forests of 
Orkney,” that although the old notion that trees would not grow at all in Orkney is now quite disproved, 
still “ evergreen Firs and Pines in general do not appear suitable.” As to Scotland, again, proof is 
surely not required that the Spruce is hardier than the Silver. We say so nostro ftericnlo, and shall 
assume that our statement is not disputed. The geographical distribution of the two trees at once shews 
that it must be so. If we look to the isothermal lines of these species in the present day, we find the 
northern limit of the Spruce in the north of Norway and Sweden, while that of the Silver is south of 
Breslau and Dresden. Moreover, as the climate of Europe, according to geologists, has gradually ameli¬ 
orated since the close of the Glacial Epoch (four successive periods, each milder than the other, having been 
made out by M. Lartet and accepted by other geologists), the tree which is most in correspondence with 
such colder temperature is rather the Spruce than the Silver. So far as regards the Unst tree, therefore, 
the probability is that it was a Spruce. The only other authority for cones of the Silver having been 
found, either in Orkney or Shetland, is that above noticed, of Dr Neill, that they had been found in 
the peat-mosses of Orkney. Now, in the first place, admitting the reference to Dr Neill as correct, 
although we have not been able to verify it, Dr Neill was more of a horticulturist than an 
arboriculturist; and, without depreciating his knowledge more than we think he himself would have 
readily admitted, it is possible that he may have referred the cones to the Silver by mistake, 
instead of to the Spruce. We are led to this remark by certain doubts which we feel as to the 
possibility of the cone—that is, the entire cone—of a Silver Fir being preserved in a fossil state. In its 
mature state it falls to pieces, and all that remains for preservation are the single scales or the central core, 
neither of which, of course, fulfils the condition implied in the term cone; and in its young green state it 
has not yet acquired the woody texture of the scales which fits them for preservation, and is composed 
mainly of chlorophyll, which comparatively speedily decays. There probably is a sort of interregnum, or 
period when, having lost the flaccidity of extreme youth, they have acquired the consistency of age without 
its fragility; but we have never been able to hit upon the happy moment. All our specimens of cones 
of Silver Firs either shrivel up or fall to pieces, unless we provide against the latter contingency by tying 
them up in a bag of netting. Neither have we ever seen a fossil cone of any species of Silver Fir ; and 
the one or two which are recorded seem to us very questionable. 
We therefore feel little doubt that it was the Spruce and not the Silver which has left its remains in 
Orkney 
