We present this month the portrait of the cone of Abies nobilig, or noble silver fir. This magnificent tree was introduced to Britain by the lamented Douglas, in 1831, who discovered it on the mountains of Northern California, and which, above all others, excited his admiration. Judging from young specimens, it is likely to display similar beauty in a cultivated state. In its native forests it attains a height of 180 feet, the branches spread horizontally, and are produced with the same uniformity of arrangement as those of the Araucaria excelsa, or Norfolk Island pine. The density and fine incurvature of its foliage divest the tree of that stiffness which characterizes most of the tribe to which it belongs, and impart much of that agreeable gracefulness so well defined in the Deodar cedar and Hemlock spruce. It is perfectly hardy in our climate, and should be one of the first trees planted as a single specimen on a lawn. It is the Picea nobilis of Loudon (whose arrangement of the pine family is now generally followed), and the Finns nobilis of Douglas.

* See Frontispiece.

Fig. l.

Fig. 2. Illustrations Of Ornamental Iron Work.