ABIES EXCELSA. 
m 
5 
All these seem to us to indicate different degrees of health or strength, age and prosperity, in the 
tree , but it may be that they are characteristics of different soils, exposures, or climates. At any rate, they 
appeal to have been so well defined as to have been observed by the natives, who applied different desig¬ 
nations to them. The first was called Gargran (Gran being the Swedish name of the Spruce itself); the 
second, Hangran and Punbindaregran ; the third, Myrgran ; and the fourth, Granbuske. None of these 
are known among practical cultivators in Britain, which is an additional argument for their being local 
results of condition. 
The rate of growth of the Spruce is very similar to that of its companion, Pinus sylvestris, on its 
native hills in the north of Europe. Both, after they are fairly started, grow at about the rate of from 
i to 3 feet in a year. Plants in the neighbourhood of London in ten years attain the height of 12 or 15 
feet, and in 50 years, the height of from 90 to 100. In Scotland they attain nothing like such a 
growth. If they reach 60 feet in 50 years we should say it is fully above the average. The 
duration of the tree in its native habitats is considered to be from 100 to 150 years; but it endures 
much longer in the parts of the forests which, from their inaccessible position, have escaped the axe of 
the lumberer. When old, its trunk reaches 18 or 20 feet in circumference at the base. In the Great 
Kxhibition at London in 1862 some remarkable sections of Pines were exhibited—one, a section of 
a Spruce, 108 feet high and 44 feet free from branches; another, 83 feet high and 27 feet free from 
branches. A remark by Mr Laing, in his “Residence in Norway,” p. 62 (1856), which corroborates 
their size when full grown, is very suggestive of a falling off in the size of the timber in that country. He 
says: “In building houses in Norway, timber is used of a size far exceeding the dimensions we generally 
suppose its trees to attain. There is a log in this old house which is 3 feet on each square side, and retains 
that size for at least 25 feet of length. In all the houses, especially those of very old date , the logs are as 
large as the Memel or American timber usually brought to England. I understand that the impediments 
in the rivers prevent the floating down of such lengths of great timber to the coast.” With regard to 
these impediments, Mr Bremner, in his “Excursions in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden,” ii. p. 91 
(1840), says: “In most of the rivers of Norway there are some whirlpools at least powerful enough to 
prevent the forests being turned to any account, for their rapids tear the logs so much that it is vain to cut 
timber at any distance from the sea. Land carriage is completely out of the question. U ntil means be 
found for bringing her now inaccessible wilds in connexion with the coast, the boundless wealth which 
waves upon the hills of Norway must remain as useless as the treasures that lurk in her unlimited mines.” 
Geographical Distribution. —So far as the west of Europe is concerned, we are well acquainted with 
the distribution of this species, many authors having contributed information regarding it, which has been 
collected by Professor De Candolle in his great work on geographical botany, “ Geographic Botanique 
Raisonnee,” published in 1855, and from it we take the most of the following details relating to the west 
of Europe. We are not so well informed as to its distribution in the east of Europe and Asia, in 
consequence of the difficulties of synonymy and specific distinction, arising from the species named by 
Russian authors— Pinus obovata and P. Sibirica —which live there, having also formerly been designated 
under the general name of Pinus Abies. We believe that the Norway Spruce is confined to the western 
part of the Old World. Its place is supplied in eastern North America by the White and Black 
Spruces, Abies alba and A. nigra; in the arctic regions of North-West America by a species which 
has been recently described under the name of Abies arctica; in western North America by A. 
Menziesii; in Japan by Abies Alcoquiana and A. microsperma; and in the Himmalayas by Abies 
Morinda. 
In the west of the Old World, speaking in general terms, it stretches in a broad band across the north 
of Europe, as the Silver Fir does across the middle of Europe, the two mingling together at the southern 
frontier of the one and the northern line of the other. 
Coming to details, it is not found wild in Great Britain or Ireland. But this was not always the 
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