For purposes of timber probably the common (A. pectinata) and the Caucasian silver fir (A. nordmanniana) are the pick of the genus, but there are also many other species of singular beauty. Their beauty, indeed, especially in a young state, has proved somewhat of a snare, inducing people to plant them in gardens and pleasure-grounds where they soon outgrow their environment, and, being isolated from their kind, are apt to send up many leaders and so forfeit their true character. Several years ago I was staying in a country house in the south of England, where a royal personage was paying a visit. It was arranged that the said personage should plant a memorial tree; a site was selected on a close-shaven lawn, and I could not but deplore the tree chosen for the honour. It was perhaps the least majestic of all the silver tribe, namely, the Spanish fir (A. pinsapo), a species which seldom responds freely to the conditions provided in this country, and, when it does so, is of gloomy appearance.
The largest silver fir in the world is the North American (A. grandis), which in a young state might easily be mistaken for A. pectinata, but soon exhibits its true nationality by the extraordinary rapidity of its growth. It races upwards at the rate of three feet a year, and, distancing all surrounding growth, suffers the penalty inevitable in our stormy climate, unless it should be provided with shelter from a sufficient company of its peers. At the Avondale School of Forestry A. grandis is reported to be less liable to injury from spring frost than the common silver fir. No doubt there are spaces in the wilder parts of this island where this grand tree might be grown into splendid forest, but as an isolated specimen it can never develop its true dimensions, which are out of all proportion to our native woodland. The timber is neither strong nor durable; indeed, of the nine species of North American silver firs, Professor Sargent reports favourably in this respect upon one only, Abies nobilis to wit, a tree of which, personally, I have formed a very high opinion for the climate of the northern and western parts of the United Kingdom. It has suffered in reputation with many experienced planters, owing to a liability to lose its leader when it outgrows its surroundings, as it very speedily does; but, as in the case of the common silver fir, that is the consequence of bad forestry; if A. nobilis were planted in masses, the trees would protect each other. No forester can look unmoved at the group at Murthly in Perthshire, several of which are well over 100 feet high. This fir is also exceedingly ornamental in a young state, some of the seedlings from every sowing having foliage with a lovely glaucous bloom. A. magnifica and A. amabilis are not easily distinguished from A. nobilis in a young state, until cones are produced. They are beautiful, but comparatively useless trees, and there are no specimens in this country approaching the dimensions already attained here by A. nobilis.
Of the Asiatic silvers I will mention but two, both from the Himalayas. Abies pindrow, a beautiful tree of columnar growth and fine glossy foliage, has proved quite hardy in Britain. The finest specimen I have seen is at Gordon Castle, Banffshire, about 70 feet high and a picture of health. A. webbiana is a tree of wider spread than A. pindrow, and excels all other silvers in its splendid foliage, two broad white bands on the under sides of the large needles thoroughly justifying the epithet "silver." When the boughs are set with great violet-blue cones this tree is indeed a beautiful object. Individuals of this species vary a good deal in their endurance of British climate, at least in the west. Its tendency to early growth renders it very vulnerable by spring frosts, and when it has been debilitated by the destruction of the young growth, it falls a prey to the attacks of aphis.
The Spruce Firs
When a British forester talks of a spruce fir he may be understood to refer to Picea excelsa, commonly known as the Norway spruce, although in fact much of the Norwegian spruce forest is composed of the Siberian spruce (P. obovata), a species closely resembling the other, but incapable of thriving in the moist and relatively mild climate of Great Britain.
The so-called Norway spruce is not a native of the British Isles, its natural range extending from the Pyrenees on the south to Scandinavia on the north, and eastward through the Carpathian Mountains to Western Russia; but, next to the Scots pine and larch, it is the conifer most commonly seen in British woodland, and, where undergrowth is not too rank, it may reproduce itself from self-sown seed. It has, indeed, been far too extensively planted with us, probably owing to its cheapness and easiness to handle. It is only to be found well developed in inland districts, such as the valley of the Tay and Deeside, where it forms really fine forest, and where noble specimens may be seen.
At Blair Atholl there was a grand spruce blown down in 1893, measuring 142 feet in height and containing about 420 cubic feet of timber. There are still many lofty spruces in the woodland about Dunkeld and Dupplin, containing well-grown, clean timber, and Messrs. Elwes and Henry have recorded a number of trees in various parts of the United Kingdom from 130 to 150 feet high. As a rule, however, in this country spruce, even when the requisite shelter has been secured, is not grown under sufficiently strict forest conditions to produce the best deals; it is commonly raised in mixed plantations, wherein, being patient of side shade, it retains its branches, a habit that renders the timber coarse and full of knots.