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feet. (Plate 221.) A stump close by showed 360 rings on a diameter of 4 feet, the first fifty being twice as wide as any of the later ones. I could find no seedlings of the noble fir in this part of the forest, and my guide said that he had seen none except at higher elevations.

The wood of this tree, though not of equal value to that of Douglas fir, is beginning to be more appreciated, and I saw it being cut up at the mill at Bridal Veil where the owner, Mr. Bradley, told me it was worth twenty to twenty-five dollars per 1000 feet, and was sent east to be used for the same purposes as white pine.

This tree was discovered by David Douglas on the south side of the Columbia river in September 1825, and introduced by him five years later on his second journey. Ravenscroft,’ after quoting Douglas’s account of the collection of the seeds, which was published in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine, vol. ii. p. 130, says that the seeds arrived in good condition, and were successfully grown and distributed among the Fellows of the Royal Horticultural Society for whom at that time Douglas was working. "Extravagant prices were paid for the plants, fifteen and twenty guineas being then no unusual price.” As it usually does, the demand called forth a supply, but for a long time this supply was in a great measure obtained by making grafts and cuttings from the older plants. Plants grown from this source, however, seldom have the same beauty as seedling trees.

The next importation was a small package of seed sent by Mr. Peter Banks, who was drowned soon after. After him Jeffrey sent a quantity to the Oregon Association, but not a plant came up, as the seeds had been destroyed in the cone by the larva of a hymenopterous insect, Megastigmus pini, and the same thing happened to the greater part of the seeds sent by William Murray and Beardsley. Afterwards Lobb and Bridges sent more consignments.

Ravenscroft says that plants raised from home-grown seeds are not so strong and healthy as those from imported seed, and have often died from a fungoid attack.

Among the silver firs of North America none has had a greater success as an ornamental tree than this, but it is only after many years of cultivation that we are able to say with confidence, what are the conditions of soil under which it will preserve its beauty.

When first introduced it became so popular that seedlings could not be pro- cured in sufficient quantity to supply the demand, and grafting was resorted to by nurserymen ; the silver fir being usually the stock selected. These trees grew well for a good many years, and some grafted trees are still thriving; but the majority of

1 In Lawson, Pinet. Brit. ii, 184.