Scots fir, it is true, has rather a superior adaptation to dry, sharp, and rocky soils; yet there are many {338} situations of poor wet till and clay, and even peat-moss ground, where it will be advantageous to plant Scots fir in preference to any other kind of timber; for this plain reason, that no other kind will thrive so well in those cold moist moors. Both Larix and Abies have a much narrower range of adaptation than Pinus sylvestris. Larch will not thrive in the dead sand nor till flats of the low country, often not in the dead sand and till of rising grounds, in both of which the Scots fir, if allowed sufficient room for side branching, will reach good-sized timber. There is a considerable formation of peat-moss near Dunmore, in which the Scots fir has shown superior adaptation to the Norway spruce. We have also seen, in the moss of Balgowan, Perthshire, fine thriving Scots firs, many of them two feet in diameter, growing in very moist, rich, mossy loam,—so moist, that although in a rather protected situation, a number of the trees, while young, had been laid on their sides by the wind, and were growing luxuriantly in the form of a quadrant of a circle, with as much as six and eight feet of the stem upon the level ground, affording a curve sufficient to reach from the keel of a vessel to the deck at midships. We examined the timber of several of these, and found it superior to the average of home P. sylvestris. The superior {339} quality of the timber may be ascribed to the richness and moisture of the soil, and to the full branching of the trees from their rather open arrangement. There is nothing which conduces so much to the good quality of Scots fir as exposure. Under the great shelter of the close _planted_ woods, the timber is soft and porous, without much resin; but under great exposure, especially to dry air, the timber is hard, close, and resinous. This is, however, considerably modified by the soil. The quality of natural grown timber is considered superior to the planted. Is this occasioned by the former having generally more branches and leaves in proportion to the length of the stem, and being more exposed than the latter? Can root fracture at transplanting, or the kiln-drying of the cones, have any influence to diminish the strength of the fibre or quantity of resinous deposit? We have been told by several old people, in the neighbourhood of Dunsinane, that Scots fir plants, brought more than half a century ago from Mar Forest to Dunsinane Wood, succeeded much better than some which had been procured from nurseries, and also produced better timber.