feet in diameter, covered, till its fortieth or fiftieth year, with a
whitish-gray bark, tolerably smooth; but, as it increases in age, it
becomes cracked and chapped. At a still greater age, the bark begins to
scale off in large pieces, leaving the trunk of a dark brown colour
beneath. The branches stand out horizontally, as do the branchlets and
spray, with reference to the main stem of the branch. The leaves on
young trees are distinctly two-rowed, and the general surface of the
rows is flat; but, as the tree advances in age, and especially on
cone-bearing shoots, the disposition of the leaves is less perfect. In
every stage of growth they are turned up at the points; but more
especially so on old trees, and on cone-bearing branches. The leaves are
shorter and broader, and are set much thicker on the spray, than those
of other firs and pines. The upper surface of the leaves is also of a
darker and brighter green, while underneath they have two white silvery
lines running lengthwise on each side of the midrib, which make a
conspicuous appearance on the partially turned up leaves; whence its
name. The cones of the Silver Fir are large and cylindrical, being from
six to eight inches long, erect, and bluntly pointed at both ends. When
young they are green, but, as they advance to maturity, the scales
acquire a rich purplish colour, and when quite ripe are deep brown; they
remain upwards of a year upon the tree, as they first appear in May,
when they blossom, and do not ripen the seed till October of the
following year. The scales are large, with a long dorsal bract, and fall
from the axillar spindle of the cone in the spring of the second year.
The seeds are irregular and angular, with a large membranaceous wing.
Cones with fertile seeds are seldom produced before the tree has
attained its fortieth year; though without, seeds often appear before
half that period has elapsed.
Gilpin remarks that "the Silver Fir has very little to boast in point of
picturesque beauty. It has all the regularity of the spruce, but without
its floating foliage. There is a sort of harsh, stiff, unbending
formality in the stem, the branches, and the whole economy of the tree,
which makes it disagreeable. We rarely see it, even in its happiest
state, assume a picturesque shape." In this opinion Sir T. D. Lauder
does not entirely coincide, for, in his remarks upon Gilpin's text, he
says, "As to the picturesque effect of this tree, we have seen many of
them throw out branches from near the very root, that twined and swept
away from them in so bold a manner, as to give them, in a very great
degree, that character which is most capable of engaging the interest of
the artist."
The rate of growth of the Silver Fir is slow when young, but rapid after
it has attained the age of ten or twelve years. In England, under
advantageous circumstances, it attains a magnificent size, some recorded
trees being from 100 to 130 feet in height, with trunks varying in
diameter from three to six feet, and containing from two hundred to
upwards of three hundred feet of timber. In Scotland, also, it has
reached dimensions equally great. At Roseneath Castle, Argyleshire,
there are two Silver Firs which Sir T. D. Lauder considered the finest
specimens he had ever seen. When measured in 1817, he says, "the
circumference of one of them, at five feet from the ground, was fifteen
feet nine inches; at three feet from the ground, it was seventeen feet
six inches; and just above the roots, it was nineteen feet eight inches.
The second tree was sixteen feet two inches in girth at five feet from
the ground; seventeen feet eleven inches at three feet from the ground;
and nineteen feet ten inches when measured immediately above the roots."
The Silver Fir likewise grows to a large size in Ireland, much more
rapidly than any other tree. Some planted in a wet clay, on a rock, have
measured twelve feet in girth at the base, and seven feet six inches at
five feet high, after a growth of forty years.
[Illustration: THE NORWAY SPRUCE.]
THE NORWAY SPRUCE.
[_Abies[T] excelsa._ Nat. Ord.--_Coniferæ_; Linn.--_Monoec. Mon._]
[T] _Generic characters._ Flowers monoecious. _Barren_ catkins
crowded, racemose. Scales of the cone thinned away to the edge, and
usually membranous or coriaceous. _Leaves_ never fascicled.
Though a native of the mountains of Europe and Asia in similar parallels
of latitude, the Spruce Fir is not considered indigenous to Britain. It
must, however, have been introduced at an early period, as it is
mentioned by our oldest writers on arboriculture. It is most common in
Lapland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and throughout the north of Germany.
It grows in the south of Norway at an elevation of 3000 feet above the
level of the sea, and in the north on mountains in 70° N. lat. at 750
feet. In the valleys of the Swiss Alps, the Spruce is frequently found
above one hundred and fifty feet in height, with trunks from four to
five feet in diameter. This tree requires a soft moist soil. Among dry
rocks and stones, where the Scotch fir would flourish, the Spruce Fir
will scarcely grow.
The Norway Spruce Fir is the loftiest of European trees, attaining, in
favourable situations, the enormous height of one hundred and eighty
feet; with a very straight upright trunk, from two to six feet in
diameter, and widely extending branches, which spread out regularly on
every side, so as to form a cone-like or pyramidal shape, terminating in
a straight arrow-like leading shoot. In young trees, the branches are
disposed in regular whorls from the base to the summit; but in old trees
the lower branches drop off. The trunk is covered with a thin bark, of a
reddish colour and scaly surface, with occasional warts or small
excrescences distributed over its surface. The leaves are solitary, of a
dark grassy green, generally under one inch in length, straight, stiff,
and sharp-pointed, disposed around the shoots, and more crowded together
laterally than on the upper and under sides of the branchlets. The
barren flowers, about one inch long, are cylindrical, on long catkins,
curved, of a yellowish colour, with red tips, and discharging, when
expanded, a profusion of yellow pollen. The fertile flowers are
produced at the ends of the branches, first appearing as small pointed
purplish-red catkins; they afterwards gradually assume the cone-like
form, and become pendant, changing first into a green and latterly into
a reddish brown, acquiring a length of from five to seven inches, and a
breadth of above two inches. The scales are rhomboidal, slightly
incurved, and rugged or toothed at the tip, with two seeds in each
scale. The seeds, which are very small, and furnished with large
membranous wings, are not shed till the spring of the second year.
[Illustration: Foliage and Cones of _A. excelsa_.]
As an ornamental tree, all admirers of regularity and symmetry are
generally partial to the Spruce. Gilpin was, however, no great admirer
of the tree; but still he allows it to have had its peculiar beauties.
"The Spruce Fir," he says, "is generally esteemed a more elegant tree
than the Scotch pine; and the reason, I suppose, is because it often
feathers to the ground, and grows in a more exact and regular shape: but
this is a principal objection to it. It often wants both form and
beauty. We admire its floating foliage, in which it sometimes exceeds
all other trees; but it is rather disagreeable to see a repetition of
these feathery strata, beautiful as they are, reared tier above tier, in
regular order, from the bottom of a tree to the top. Its perpendicular
stem, also, which has seldom any lineal variety, makes the appearance of
the tree still more formal. It is not always, however, that the Spruce
Fir grows with so much regularity. Sometimes a lateral branch, here and
there taking the lead beyond the rest, breaks somewhat through the order
commonly observed, and forms a few chasms, which have a good effect.
When this is the case, the Spruce Fir ranks among picturesque trees.
Sometimes it has as good an effect, and in many circumstances a better,
when the contrast appears still stronger; when the tree is shattered by
some accident, has lost many of its branches, and is scathed and ragged.
A feathery branch, here and there, among broken stems, has often an
admirable effect; but it must arise from some particular situation. In
all circumstances, however, the Spruce Fir appears best either as a
single tree, or unmixed with any of its fellows; for neither it, nor any
of the spear-headed race, will ever form a beautiful clump without the
assistance of other trees."
The Spruce Fir is raised from seed, which should be chosen from healthy
vigorous trees. The young plant appears with from seven to nine
cotyledons, but makes little progress till after the third year, when it
begins to put out lateral branches. Its progress from this time, till
its fifth or sixth year, is at the annual rate of about six inches,
after which age its annual growth, in favourable soils, is very rapid,
the leading shoot being frequently from two to three feet in length, and
this increase it continues to support with undiminished vigour for forty
or fifty years, many trees within that period attaining a height of from
sixty to eighty feet. Its growth after this period is slower, and the
duration of the tree, in its native habitats, is considered to range
between one hundred and one hundred and fifty years.
[Illustration: THE SYCAMORE, OR GREATER MAPLE.]
THE SYCAMORE, OR GREATER MAPLE.
[_Acer[U] pseudo-platanus._ Nat. Ord.--_Aceraceæ_; Linn.--_Polyg.
Monoec._]
[U] For the generic characters, see p. 139.
Turner, who wrote in 1551, considered the Sycamore as a stranger, or
tree that had been introduced. On the Continent it is spread over the
mountains of middle Europe; and is found in Switzerland, where it
particularly abounds, growing at an elevation of from 2000 to 3000 feet
above the level of the sea, where the soil is dry and of a good
quality.
[Illustration: Leaves, Bunch of Flowers, and Samaræ of _A.
pseudo-platanus_.]
The Sycamore is "certainly a noble tree," vieing, in point of magnitude,
with the oak, the ash, and other trees of the first rank. It presents a
grand unbroken mass of foliage, contrasting well, in appropriate
situations, with trees of a lighter and more airy character. It has
round spreading branches, and a smooth ash-coloured bark, frequently
broken into patches of different hues, by peeling off in large flakes,
like the planes. The leaves have long foot-stalks, are four or five
inches broad, palmate, with five acute, unequally serrated lobes; the
middle one largest, pale or shining beneath. The flowers are green, the
size of a currant blossom, disposed into axillary, pendulous, compound
clusters; stamens of the barren flower twice as long as the corolla.
Ovary downy, with broad-spreading wings. Selby observes that "from the
strength of its spray, and the nature of its growth, which is stiff and
angular, the Sycamore is especially calculated to act as a shelter or
break-wind in exposed situations, whether it be upon the coast where it
braves the cutting eastern blasts, or upon bleak and elevated tracts,
subject to long continued and powerful winds; for even in such
localities, provided the soil be dry, and of tolerable quality, it
attains a respectable size, and shows an upright form, unconquered by
the blast. It is, probably, for these peculiar and enduring qualities
that we see it so frequently in the north of England and in Scotland
planted by itself, or sometimes in company with the ash, around farm
houses and cottages, in high and exposed situations." This custom is
evidently alluded to by the Westmoreland poet, in his description of
the landscape on the banks of the Wye:--
Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under the dark Sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
Among the woods and copses, nor disturb
The wild green landscape. Once again I see
These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms
Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke,
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!
With some uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,
Or of some hermit's cave, where by his fire
The hermit sits alone.
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration:--feelings, too,
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime: that blessed mood,
In which the burthen of the mystery--
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world
Is lightened:--that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on,
Until the breath of this corporeal frame,
And even the motion of our human blood,
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul:
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
If this
Be but a vain belief, yet, O! how oft,
In darkness, and amid the many shapes
Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir
Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,
Have hung upon the beatings of my heart,
How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,
O sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer thro' the woods,
How often has my spirit turned to thee!
Wordsworth.
The Sycamore is not unfrequently planted in streets and before houses,
on account of its spreading branches and thick shade, for which it bears
a high reputation. Of this tree Sir T. D. Lauder says, "the spring tints
are rich, tender, glowing, and harmonious. In summer, its deep green hue
accords well with its grand and massy form; and the browns and dingy
reds of its autumnal tints harmonize well with the other colours of the
mixed grove, to which they give a depth of tone. It is a favourite
Scotch tree, having been much planted about old aristocratic residences
in Scotland."
The Sycamore, in the language of flowers, signifies curiosity, because
it was supposed to be the "tree on which Zaccheus climbed to see Christ
pass on his way to Jerusalem, when the people strewed leaves and
branches of palm and other trees in his way, exclaiming, 'Hosanna to the
Son of David!' The tree which is frequently called the Sycamore in the
Bible, was not the species under description, _A. pseudo-platanus_, but
a species of fig, _Ficus sycomorus_, a native of Egypt, where it is a
timber-tree exceeding the middle size, and bearing edible fruit."
The common Sycamore is generally propagated by seed; and its varieties
by layers, or by budding or grafting. It will also propagate freely by
cuttings of the roots. It is a tree of rapid growth, frequently
attaining a diameter of from four to five inches in twenty years. It
arrives at its full growth in fifty or sixty years; but it requires to
be eighty or one hundred years old before its wood arrives at
perfection. It produces fertile seeds at the age of twenty years, but
flowers several years sooner. The longevity of the tree is from one
hundred and forty to two hundred years, though it has been known of a
much greater age. There are many fine Sycamores in different parts of
the kingdom; the largest of which, one at Bishopton in Renfrewshire, is
sixty feet in height and twenty feet in girth. This tree is known to
have been planted before the Reformation, and is therefore more than
three hundred years old, yet it has the appearance of being perfectly
sound.
[Illustration: THE COMMON WALNUT TREE.]
THE COMMON WALNUT TREE.
[_Juglans[V] regia._ Nat. Ord.--_Juglandaceæ_; Linn.--_Monoec.
Polya._]
[V] _Generic characters. Flowers_ monoecious. _Stamens_ 18 to 24.
_Drupe_ with a 2-valved deciduous sarcocarp, or rind; and a
deeply-wrinkled putamen or shell.
The Walnut tree is a native of Persia, and is found growing wild in the
North of China. It was known to the Greeks and Romans, and was probably
introduced into this country by the latter. It is now to be met with in
every part of Europe, as far north as Warsaw; but it is nowhere so far
naturalized as to produce itself spontaneously from seed. It ripens its
fruit, in fine seasons, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, as a
standard; and it lives against a wall as far north as Dunrobin Castle,
in Sutherlandshire.
The Walnut forms a large and lofty tree, with strong spreading branches,
attaining even in this country to the height of ninety feet. The leaves
have three or four pairs of oval leaflets, terminated by an odd one,
which is longer than the rest. The barren catkins are pendulous, and are
produced near the points of the shoots. The bark is thick and deeply
furrowed on the trunk; but on the upper branches it is gray and smooth.
The fruit is green and oval; and, in the wild species, contains a small
hard nut. In the most esteemed cultivated varieties, the fruit is of a
roundish oval, and is strongly odoriferous; nearly two inches long, and
one and a half broad. The nut occupies two-thirds of the volume of the
fruit. Towards autumn the husk softens, and, decaying from about the
nut, allows it to fall out.
The nuts are used in different ways, and at various stages of their
growth; when young and green, and before the shells become indurated,
they make an excellent and well-known pickle, as well as a savoury kind
of ketchup, and a liqueur is also made from them in this state. Previous
to their becoming fully ripe, and while the kernel is yet soft, they are
eaten in France with a seasoning of salt, pepper, vinegar, and shallots.
When fully ripe, they are both wholesome and easy of digestion, so long
as they remain fresh, and part freely from the pellicle, or skin, which
envelopes the kernel. An oil is expressed from the nuts, which is of
great service to the artist in whites, and other colours, and also for
gold size and varnish.
[Illustration: Leaves, Catkins, and Nuts of _J. regia_.]
When Walnuts are plentiful, it has been observed that there is also a
plentiful harvest. Virgil mentions this observation in the first of his
_Georgics_, which is thus translated by Martyn:--"Observe also when the
Walnut tree shall put on its bloom plentifully in the woods, and bend
down its strong, swelling branches: if it abounds in fruit, you will
have a like quantity of corn, and a great threshing with much heat. But
if it abounds with a luxuriant shade of leaves, in vain shall your floor
thresh the corn, which abounds with nothing but chaff."
The Walnut is far from being an unpicturesque tree, and planted at some
distance from each other they form shady and graceful avenues, and
prosper well in hedge-rows. The Bergstras (which extends from Heidelberg
to Darmstadt) is planted entirely with this tree; for by an ancient law,
the Borderers were compelled to plant and train them up, chiefly on
account of their ornament and shade, so that a man might ride for miles
about that country, under a continued arbour or close walk--the
traveller as well refreshed by its fruit as by its shade. Amid other
trees whose foliage may be of a vivid green, its warm, russet-hued
leaves present a pleasing variety about the end of May; and in summer
that variety is still preserved by the contrast of its yellowish hues
with the darker tints of other trees. It puts forth its leaves at such
an advanced period of the year, and sheds them so early, that it is
never long in harmony with the grove. It, therefore, stands best alone,
as the premature loss of its foliage is then of less consequence.
The Walnut tree is found abundantly in Burgundy, where it stands in the
midst of their corn fields, at distances of sixty and a hundred feet,
and is said to be a preserver of the crops by keeping the ground warm.
Whenever a tree is felled, which is only when old and decayed, a young
one is planted near it; and in Evelyn's time, between Hanau and
Frankfort, in Germany, no young farmer was permitted to marry a wife,
until he had brought proof that he had planted a stated number of these
trees. M. Sorbiere mentions the Dutch plantations of Walnut trees in
terms of praise, remarking, that even in the very roads and common
highways, they are better preserved and maintained than those about the
houses and gardens belonging to the nobility and gentry of most other
countries.
The Walnut was formerly in great request as a timber-tree; its place is
generally now supplied by foreign woods, which excel that of our own
growth. It was much used by cabinet-makers for bedsteads, and bureaus,
for which purposes it is one of the most durable woods of English
growth. It is also used for gun-stocks. Near the root of the tree the
wood is finely veined--suitable for inlaying and other ornamental works.
The sweet-leafed Walnut's undulated grain,
Polished with care, adds to the workman's art
Its varying beauties.
Dodsley.
The Walnut is propagated by the nut; which is best sown where it is
finally to remain, on account of the tap-root, which will thus have its
full influence on the vigour of the tree. The plant is somewhat tender
when young, and apt to be injured by spring frosts: it, however, grows
vigorously, and attains in the climate of London the height of twenty
feet in ten years, beginning about that time to bear fruit.
The Walnut sometimes attains a prodigious size and a great age.
Scamozzi, a celebrated Italian architect, who died in 1616, mentions his
having seen at St. Nicholas, in Lorraine, a single plank of the wood of
this tree twenty-five feet wide, upon which the Emperor Frederick III.
had given a sumptuous feast.
There is a remarkable specimen of this tree at Kinross House, in
Kinross-shire, which measured nine feet six inches in girth, in
September, 1796, and is supposed to have been planted about 1684. Sir T.
Dick Lauder says it is probably the oldest Walnut tree in Scotland, and
is evidently decaying, though whether from accident or age is uncertain.
Collinson tells us of another, in his _History of Somersetshire_, which
he says grew in the Abbey Church-yard, on the north side of St. Joseph's
Chapel. This was a miraculous Walnut tree, which never budded forth
before the feast of St. Barnabas (that is, the 11th June), and on that
very day shot forth leaves and flourished like its usual species. It is
strange to say how much this tree was sought after by the credulous, and
though not an uncommon Walnut, Queen Anne, King James, and many of the
nobility, even when the times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave
large sums of money for small cuttings from the original.
[Illustration: THE WEYMOUTH PINE.]
THE WEYMOUTH PINE.
[_Pinus_[W] _strobus_. Nat. Ord.--_Coniferæ_; Linn.--_Monoec. Monan._]
[W] For the generic characters, see p. 207.
This Pine is a native of North America, growing in fertile soils, on the
sides of hills, from Canada to Virginia. It was introduced about 1705,
and was soon after planted in great quantities at Longleat, in
Wiltshire, the seat of Lord Weymouth, where the trees prospered
amazingly, and whence the species received the name of the Weymouth
Pine.
In America, in the state of Vermont, and near the commencement of the
river St. Lawrence, this tree is found one hundred and eighty feet in
height, with a straight trunk, from about four to seven feet in
diameter. The trunk is generally free from branches for two-thirds or
three-fourths of its height; the branches are short, and in whorls, or
disposed in tiers one above another, nearly to the top, which consists
of three or four upright branches, forming a small conical head. The
bark, on young trees, is smooth, and even polished; but as the tree
advances in age, it splits, and becomes rugged and gray, but does not
fall off in scales like that of other Pines. The leaves are from three
to four inches long, straight, upright, slender, soft, triquetrous, of a
fine light bluish green, marked with silvery longitudinal channels;
scabrous and inconspicuously serrated on the margin; spreading in
summer, but in winter contracted, and lying close to the branches. The
barren catkins are short, elliptic, racemose, pale purple, mixed with
yellow, and turning red before they fall. The fertile catkins are
ovate-cylindrical; erect, on short peduncles when young, but when
full-grown pendulous, and from four to six inches long, slightly curved,
and composed of thin smooth scales, rounded at the base, and partly
covered with white resin, particularly on the tips of the scales; apex
of the scales thick, and seeds oval, of a dull gray. The cones open to
shed the seeds in October of the second year.
[Illustration: Foliage, Cones: Scale opened, with two winged Seeds of
_P. strobus_.]