in proportion, and occupy much more of the leaf than on the other variety ; and although stunted leaves
of the common Spruce may be found almost as acute, their proportions are not the same, as may be
seen by comparing the above figure with fig. 3, from a stunted leaf of a branch of Spruce.
Loudon doubts whether such a stunted variety as this was ever found in a bed
of seedlings, and thinks it more probable that it is a continuation by cuttings of one of
y ^ M those bird-nest-like monstrosities that are occasionally found on all trees.
It is readily propagated by cuttings, and is the best Fir that one can have for
growing in a pot. What a treasure it would have been to the Chinese !
There are many other horticultural varieties. These are mere individual idiosyncrasies, and do not
deserve special notice ; a mere allusion to their names, which will suggest their qualities, will be sufficient.
We find among them — Abies excelsa pendilla, monstrosa, gigantea, tenirifolia, nana, ftygnuea, strict a,
mucronata, elegans, columnaris, Sibirica, demidata, virgata, conica, dumosa, inflexa, Cratistoni, attenuata,
concinna, putnila, miniata, procumbens, parvata, microphylla, gracilis, phylicoides, variegata, aurea, integrisqtiamis,
&c.
Nowadays every trifling variety is seized upon by nurserymen, and dubbed a species. Those above
enumerated, we believe, have all been dubbed, if not on carpet consideration, on some consideration not
more worthy. The varieties nigra, Carpathica, and Clanbrasiliana arc the only ones we know deserving
of recognition. There is another Spruce from the extreme north of Finland which some consider a variety
of this species ; but this we regard as a distinct species, and shall give a separate account of it. 11 has
been described by Nylander under the name A. medioxema, and is chiefly distinguished from this by the
smaller leaves and cones, and by the scales of the latter being rounded instead of truncate. It may be the
same as the variety called by Carrière integrisquamis, as that has the scales rounded too ; but as Carrière
gives no other character of his variety, nor mentions its country, we are not in a position to make out its
identity with medioxema, and must therefore leave it standing as he has put it—a variety of excelsa. I n
all cones, as already said, before they have reached maturity, scales with rounded margins will be met with.
Loudon (" Arboretum," iv. p. 2295) mentions some other varieties, which are apparently no longer in
existence ; but we quote his statement, to place the record of them alongside the other information on the
subject. Me says :—
•' Bosc mentions a variety which was cultivated in the Royal Nurseries at Paris, and had been sent thither from the Vosges. It had the
leaves flatter and more pointed than the common Spruce, and different cones. Bosc says that this kind might perhaps form a distindl species, but
that the plant was torn up when the Royal Nursery in which it grew was destroyed, and he had neglected previously to describe it. Hayes
speaks of a seminal variety of the Spruce, which has been denominated the long-coned Cornish Fir, the cones being frequently nearly a foot long,
and of which, in the year 1790, there was a fine tree in the park of Avondale, in the county of Wicklow (" Pract. Treat," p. 165). According to
Gartner, the species is exhibited in two forms, called the White and Red Norway Spruce, one with pale and the other with deep coloured cones,
but the timber of both is white."
Linnasus, in his " Flora Suecica," notices four varieties of the common form. They are as
follows—viz. :
" 1. Abies procera, ramis a caudice caulem prosequentibus, folio crassiore, cortice subrubro.—Lind. Wiksb. 1.
" 2. Abies procera, viminalis ramis caudicem prosequentibus reflexis, folio tenero, cortice subrubro.—Lind. Wiksb. 1.
" 3. Abies Candida, elatior ramis rarioribus, folio tenui, cortice subcincreo.—Lind. Wiksb. 1.
" 4. Abies pyramidalis, ramis ad caudicem crebris frutescens.—Lind. Wiksb. 1."
The difference between these different kinds seems slight, and chiefly confined to the disposition of
the branches. The first has them growing upright, and a thickish leaf and reddish bark. The second
has the branches twiggy and reflexed, with a slight leaf and reddish bark. The third has lower branches,
a slender leaf, and subcinereous bark ; and the fourth is pyramidal, with close branches, and bearing much
fruit.
All
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
appear to have been so well defined as to have been observed by the natives, who applied different designations
to them. The first was called Gargran (1Gran being the Swedish name of the Spruce itself); the
second, Hangran and Tunbindaregran; 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
1 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
Exhibition 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 2 5 feet of length. I n 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. Until 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, " Geographie Botanique
Raisonn^e," 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
[ 24 J c case.