February 20, 1904. 
fHE Gardening World 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“Shower and storm and blast had blown the lake beyond his limit, and all was flooded.” — Tennyson. 
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COUNTESS OF WARWICK. 
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*** The priae last week in the Readers’ 
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Views and Reviews,, 
The Scotch Fir. 
Four speoiesi of Conifer are natives of the 
British Isles', including two Junipers, the 
Yew, and the Scotch Fir. The Yew is a) 
treei that was famed in history in the days 
of airchery and the long-bow, but since than 
it has chiefly been notable for the great, age. 
that many trees have attained in different 
parts of the country. 
T'hei Scotch Pine (Pinusi sylvestris) is aa 
important as ever, and is notable from the 
fact that it isl the oldest of which we have 
any evidence of a true native of this country 
and of its having returned to this country 
after the Glacial epoch. In the forest bed 
of Cromer the remains of seventy-five 
•species of plants have been recovered from 
the deposit, showing that all these were 
natives of this country before the culmina¬ 
tion of excessive cold and the deposit of 
boulder clay in the east of England. All of 
these plants are still natives of this country 
with the exception of the Norway Spruce, 
which did not return after the Glacial epoch. 
This is rather surprising, seeing that it grows 
so freely and produces cones abundantly 
when planted at the present day. 
On the other hand, the Scotch Fir took 
possession of the greater part of the country, 
including England, Scotland and Ireland. 
We have evidence of this in the Thames 
Valley at Reading, in the valley of the 
Rennet, at Bovey Tracey in Devonshire, in 
submerged forests of Scotland and peat¬ 
mosses of Ireland, where cone® are found 
and also portion® of huge trunks of trees, the 
latter being embedded in the bog soil which 
is cut for peat. Peat which contains the re¬ 
mains of the Pine make® excellent fuel, and 
is found in some peat-mosses' much more 
abundantly than in. others. 
Since that period, when it practically 
formed whole forests extending over the coun- 
try, it hais gradually been diminishing in area 
until now it is reckoned to. be truly native 
and primeval only in such places a.s Bal- 
lochbuie and Rothiemurchu®. 
Specimens from the forest in the last- 
named district may be seen in the wood 
museum at Kew. Watson, in his ‘ Topo*- 
graphieal Botany,” mention® a. number of 
counties in which it is described by various 
botanists as native—namely, York, Perth, 
Aberdeen., Elgin, Inverness, the island of 1 
Mull, Roes and Sutherland. It. is generally 
conceded tHt it is truly native only in In¬ 
verness-shire, although it would be difficult 
to prove it, .seeing that the Scotch Fir ripens 
seeds in such abundance and of first-class 
quality. 
Modem botanists whoi have .studied the 
subject, deeply consider that the only area in 
which it is now truly native is gradually 
diminishing in extent, and our contemporary 
“ The Scotsman ” some time ago expressed 
the opinion that the forest is now retiring 
within narrower bounds in obedience to some 
law of Nature. We concur with our con¬ 
temporary that it isi a natural and correct 
view of the case, seeing that we have 
evidence of it elsewhere ini the forest® of 
Europe, where tree® of one kind gradually 
disappear from districts and others take 
their place. Whatever this law of Nature 
is, a. gardener’s view of it would be that the 
land was sick or tired of that kind of tree. 
T'hei same tiling happens in the case of fruit) 
orchard®, where it is convenient if success is 
desired not to replant, the same ground with! 
the same kind of tree at. all events, because 
other kinds grow more satisfactorily and give 
better results. 
Another opinion advanced on the subject 
is that the Scotch Fir is not so truly a 
northern tree even a® the Spruce, and that 
it has reached the most northern limit at 
which it can grow with any degree of satis¬ 
faction. Judging from what we have seen of 
it wei think it largely a question of shelter, 
because when we commence to ascend the 
mountains we find that it has difficulty in 
advancing beyond the creeks and valleys and 
lower slopes of the mountains, where it is 
relatively sheltered. We think the whole 
question of forestry too much under the in¬ 
fluence of man, and that the deforestation of 
whole areas makes it difficult for the trees 
that may be planted afterwards to make pro¬ 
gress on account, of the bleakness of the situa¬ 
tion and the exposure to frequent and heavy 
gales. At remote intervals, also, hurricanes 
arise which level acres of planted wood in a 
y .m o-1 e night, and those trees which are not. 
uprooted are usually broken sheer away from 
the root, often at ai few feet above the 
ground. 
Another point which we should suggest is 
that so great value is placed upon home- 
saved seeds of the Scotch Fir by nurseiymen 
that, the cones must be very extensively col¬ 
lected in the Highlands. This alone would 
have a considerable effect upon the natural 
spread of the tree. The country is also get¬ 
ting more populated than used to be the case, 
and many parts are subjected to the ravages 
