Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol04B.djvu/47

this tree in 1908, informed me that it was marked on a plan about 200 years old, and though still vigorous in appearance, it seems to be hollow for some way up. It measures from 115 to 120 feet high, with a girth of 18 feet 10 inches; and at about 20 feet from the ground throws out four large branches, which become erect, and form a tree of the candelabra type. (Plate 211.) At Carton, the seat of the Duke of Leinster, a tree was 16 feet 1 inch in girth in 1904, but the top had been blown off by the great gale of 1903. The finest silver firs in Ireland are probably those growing at Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny, where the biggest tree was in 1904 over 120 feet high by 15 feet 4 inches in girth, There are also here four trees standing so close together that they can be encircled by a tape of 30 feet; one of these is 133 feet high by 10 feet 10 inches in girth, At Avondale, Co. Wicklow, Mr. A. C. Forbes measured a tree in 1908, 125 feet in height and 15 feet 4 inches in girth. At Tykillen, Co. Wexford, the silver fir grows well and seeds itself freely, but does not attain anything like the dimensions above noted. There are fine trees at Castlemartyr, Co. Cork, one of which measures 114 feet by 14 feet 8 inches.

Though on the Continent the wood of the silver fir is in some districts, and for purposes where strength combined with lightness is required, valued more highly than that of the spruce or pine, yet in England it is little appreciated, because it seldom comes to market in any quantity, and the trees are rarely clean enough to make good boards. But I am assured by Dr. Watney that, when slowly and closely grown, it is distinctly superior in quality to that of the spruce, and that he uses it in preference on his own property for estate building ; and Mr. H.E. Asprey, agent to the Earl of Portsmouth at Eggesford, Devonshire, where this tree grows very well, tells me that he finds the timber quite equal to that of spruce for all estate purposes. The Marquess of Bath informs me that a lot of 22 trees, averaging 140 feet each, were sold privately at 54d. per foot, and used at Trowbridge for making tin-plate boxes ; but most of his silver fir timber goes to the Radstock coal pits, where it is used underground.

Laslett says’ that "the pinkish white and scarcely resinous wood works up well, with a bright silky lustre, and is of excellent quality for carpentry and ship-work. It is light and stiff, and like spruce takes glue well. Nevertheless it is as yet far less in request than the latter, though it is employed in the making of paper pulp, as well as for boards, rafters, etc.”® So little is it known, however, to the English timber merchant that the author of Euglish Timber does not even mention it, and I am not aware that it is imported to England as an article of commerce.

Strasburg turpentine, which was formerly extracted from the resinous glands found on its bark and largely used for the preparation of clear varnishes and at one time used as medicine, is now apparently superseded by other resins, though, according to Fliickiger and Hanbury,‘ it was still collected to a small extent in the Vosges in 1873. (H.J.E.)

1 Cf. Mouillefert, Essences Forestires, 338 (1903).

2 Timber and Timber Trees, 343 (1896).

3 Christ, Flore de la Suisse, 255 (1907), says that its white wood is delicate and not so much in request as the more resinous wood of the spruce.

4 Pharmacographia, 615 (1879).