NIV.OF )RONTO IBRARY FACULTY OF FORESTfTT UHIVERSTTY OF TORONTO Ou f^ ^ ^ » » THE TREES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND > Mfl^^ ■ Mff-, '.'4 '..-, . .'.VAi'i- QUEEN BEKCH AT ASH RIDGE From a Drawing lent by the Ear I Brown low. The Trees Great Britain ^ Ireland BY Henrv John FJ^ R Augustine Henry, M.A. vol, U MR T Edinburgh: Privately Printed MCMVl v>. -^ ,,, p /£ -^^-^^ &^, . ^""^ ■%* rees of Great Britain & Ireland BY Henry John Elwes, F.R.S. AND Augustine Henry, M.A. VOLUME I Edinburgh: Privately Printed MCMVI ^•^?aov._ \ /^^ -%i, .K> A% 1 /B/r y DEDICATED BY SPECIAL PERMISSION TO 1bt6 riDajest^ 1Ring iSbwatb VII BY HIS OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANTS THE AUTHORS 1". PREFACE The United Kingdom offers a hospitality to exotic vegetation which finds no parallel in the Northern Temperate region of the globe. Never parched by the heat of a continental summer, the rigour of winter is no less tempered by its insular position. The possession of land still ensures the residence on their properties of a large number of persons of at least moderate affluence. The most modest country house possesses a garden, and not rarely some sort of pleasure ground ; and this usually reaches the dimensions of a park in the case of the larger mansions. While forests for the commercial production of timber such as are found in foreign countries hardly exist, and the methods of their scientific management are little recognised, arbori- culture of some sort may be almost said to be a national passion. In all but purely agricultural districts the free and unrestrained growth of trees enhances, if it does not create, the natural beauty of the landscape. The Roman occupation brought to our shores our fruit-trees and others whose names of Latin derivation bear witness to their foreign origin. One of these, the so-called " English Elm," dominates the landscape of Southern England. Yet, while it perfects its seed on the Continent, it rarely does so in this country, and it holds its own by root suckers, the tenacity of which is all but ineradicable. Down to the reign of Henry the Eighth the native forests supplied the timber necessary for construction. It was not till their area became restricted that planting was commenced to maintain the supply. And if this has never developed into a scientific system as it has done abroad, the reason may be found in the abandonment of wood as fuel for coal, and the facilities for external supply of over-sea water- carriage which attach to a maritime country. From an early time with the growth of continental intercourse, the contents of foreign gardens had gradually been transferred to those of the wealthy at home. The taste, however, for cultivating foreign trees and shrubs simply for their interest, and apart from any useful purpose they might serve, is not more recent than the seventeenth century. The pioneer in this branch of English arboriculture was Henry Compton, Bishop of London, who planted in the garden of Fulham Palace "a greater variety of curious exotic plants and trees than had at that time been collected in any garden in England." Hitherto the European continent had vii vin The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland been the only hunting ground. To this was now added in striking contrast the resources of the North American forests. In the eighteenth century the practice of planting foreign trees became in some degree a fashion amongst wealthy landowners, though still mainly for ornament. This was due in large measure to the example of Archibald, third Duke of Argyll, who formed a large collection at Whitton. After his death in 1 762 all that were removable were transferred to Kew, where an Arboretum had been commenced by the Princess Dowager of Wales. An intelligent taste for arboriculture was at any rate for a time firmly established. Those who care to trace its further history more in detail will find abundant information in Loudon's Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum, a work which, though published more than half a century ago, must always remain indispensable to any student of the subject. Parks and pleasure grounds throughout the country were stocked with specimens of new and interesting trees. And though often neglected and even forgotten, we now possess a wealth of examples which have attained adult development. Loudon catalogued with indefatigable industry every tree or shrub known to be tolerant of the climate of the British Isles. It might have been thought that this laborious undertaking would have excited a new interest in planting. But it began to languish with the beginning of the last century, and Loudon's labours from their very completeness, perhaps, deterred many from engag- ing in an occupation where more than moderate success would seem costly and labori- ous, and anything beyond almost unattainable. In 1845 ^ National Arboretum was projected at Kew, and commenced the following year on a plan prepared by W. A. Nesfield. The latter half of the last century saw a remarkable development of open-air horticulture. In so far as this included woody plants, it was limited to shrubs. Broad-leaved trees were little cared for. The rarer kinds were little in request, and those that were planted were too often drawn from the ill-named stock of some convenient nursery. The neglect was increased when conifers became a fashion. This led, no doubt, to many fine Pinetums being planted, the interest and importance of which will increase with age. But it led also to much unconsidered and scattered planting of trees which, attractive enough in a juvenile state, are often less sightly as they grow older, and can never blend with their broad-leaved neighbours into stately umbrageous masses. If the planting of broad-leaved trees as distinguished from conifers has for the moment fallen into neglect, we still inherit the results of the labours of our pre- decessors. The British Isles for the last two centuries have, in fact, been the seat of an experiment in arboriculture without parallel elsewhere. And the very neglect into which tree-planting has fallen, paradoxical as it may seem, adds to the interest and value of the experiment. For the trees that have come down to us from the Preface IX past have been subjected to the least favourable conditions, and have had in effect to survive a somewhat rigorous process of natural selection. In taking stock of the results, the task which my friend Mr. Elwes has set him- self differs, if I understand his intention rightly, somewhat widely from that which Loudon accomplished. That amounted to little more than a descriptive catalogue of every woody plant the cultivation of which had been attempted in this country. The present work aims at ascertaining the practical results. What are the most favourable conditions for the growth of each species ? What in turn are the most suited for different circumstanafes ? And what, if any, profit can be derived from their cultivation on a large scale ? And to accomplish or even attempt such a task appears to me no small public service. The depreciation of the value of agricultural land has turned the thoughts of many landowners to the possibility of growing timber as a crop for profit. So far little attempt has been made to depart from tradition. Yet it cannot be doubted that there must be many trees suited to our climate whose commercial possibilities are still unascertained. Apart from the larger uses of timber its employment for minor industries is still little regarded among us. If but a single tree can be added to the list of those which can be profitably cultivated the labour spent on the quest will not be unrequited. W. T. THISELTON-DYER. Kew, November 1905. CONTENTS -f' Dedication Preface Contents . List of Illustrations Introduction Fagus. The Northern Beeches Common Beech Ailanthus. Tree of Heaven SOPHORA Araucaria . Ginkgo. Maidenhair Tree LiRIODENDRON Chinese Tulip Tree Tulip Tree PiCEA. Spruce-Firs Servian Spruce Brewer's Spruce . AjAN Spruce Hondo Spruce Menzies' Spruce Taxus Common Yew Crvptomeria Pyrus True Service FAGB V vii xi xiii XV I 6 29 36 43 55 63 64 65 75 78 82 85 89 92 98 100 127 141 146 XI xii The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Wild Service Service Tree of Fontainebleau Swedish Whitebeam Bastard Mountain Ash Whitebeam Taxodium . Thuya Giant Thuya Western Arbor Vit« 'Japanese Thuya Chinese Arbor ViTiE 151 155 IS9 163 166 171 182 184 191 19s 197 > ILLUSTRATIONS y,» Queen Beech at Ashridge (from a drawing lent by the Earl Brownlow) Beech Drive at Cirencester Beech Avenue at Watford Queen Beech at Ashridge Inarched Beech at Ashridge Beech, with Burr, at Ashridge Beech Wood at Slindon Giant Beech at Cornbury Beech at Newbattle . Trunk of Newbattle Beech Beech at Gordon Castle Beech Hedge at Meikleour King Beech at Knole Ailanthus at Broom House Ailanthus at Belton . Seedlings Sophora at Cambridge Araucarias in Chile . Araucaria Forest in Chile Araucaria at Dropmore Araucarias at Beauport Maidenhair Tree at Kew Maidenhair Tree at Frograore Maidenhair Tree in China Tulip Tree in North Carolina Tulip Tree at Woolbeding Tulip Tree at Killerton Tulip Tree at Leonardslee Servian Spruce in Bosnia Brewer's Spruce in America XIU Frontispiece Plate No. I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 IS i6 17 i8 19 20 21 22 23 a4 »s 26 27 28 29 XIV The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Menzies' Spruce at Beauport Japanese Yew at Nikko Yew Avenue at Midhurst Yew Grove at Midhurst Irish Yew at Seaforde Yew at Tisbury Yew at Whittinghame Cryptomeria elegans at Tregothnan Cryptomeria Forest in North Japan Cryptomerias in Japan Cryptomerias at Imaichi Cryptomerias at Nikko Cryptomeria at Hemsted Pyrus, leaves, etc. Pyrus, leaves, etc. Pyrus, buds . Sorb Tree at Arley . Service Tree at Tortworth Service Tree at Rickmansworth Service Tree at Oakley Park . Service Tree at Syon Whitebeam at Camp Wood . Deciduous Cypress in Virginia Cypress Swamp in North Carolina Deciduous Cypress at Syon . Deciduous Cypress at Whitton Giant Thuya in Vancouver Island Giant Thuya at Fonthill The Gladstone Beech at Pinbury Park Western Hemlock growing on fallen log of Giant Thuya in America Thujopsis dolobrata in Japan .... Platk No. 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 INTRODUCTION The object of this work is to give a complete account of all the trees which grow naturally or are cultivated in Great Britain, and which have attained, or seem likely to attain, a size which justifies their being looked on as timber trees ; but does not include those which are naturally of shrubby or bushy habit. Although sixty years have passed since Loudon's great work was published, no book has been written which describes in full the species which in his time were unknown, or so recently introduced that their cultural requirements and economic or ornamental value had not been tested. Many deciduous trees, which were commonly planted before his time, have gone out of popular favour, and are almost forgotten ; whilst the rage for conifers which sprang up about seventy years ago has led to the introduction of almost every species which can be grown in this country ; and many of these have now reached an age at which their value can be accurately judged of Special books dealing with conifers have appeared which may satisfy the wants of a horticulturist, but none exists that at all meets the requirements of land- owners, foresters, and arboriculturists, and will enable them to distinguish the species with certainty, or guide them in selecting the species the best suited for economic culture in different parts of England. Forestry is at last making headway as a science in this country, but too many of the books recently published on the subject have been based on continental experience, which is not directly applicable to the very different conditions of climate, soil, labour, and market existing here. In the cultural part of the work we base our conclusions on home experience and practice ; and in this connection it may be stated that for almost every exotic species there are older specimens of individual trees and of plantations in these islands than on the Continent. After having seen the trees of every country in Europe, of nearly all the States of North America, of Canada, Japan, China, West Siberia, and Chile, we confidently assert that these islands contain a greater number of fine trees from the temperate regions of the world than any other country. Descriptions of the best examples of all of these and of interesting woods and plantations will be a prominent feature of the book. We have the special qualification that we have seen with our own eyes and studied on the spot, both at home and abroad, most of the trees which will be included in the book. XV xvi The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland knowing how difficult it is for the general public to understand the descriptions of nearly allied species, usually made by compilers who are unacquainted with the crucial points of distinction, we hope to supply this information in concise, clear, and simple language. What we understand by scientific knowledge is accuracy, expressed in plain words ; and in order to ensure this we have copied nothing from other authors that we could verify for ourselves. In order to give a history of the finest trees in this country, we have visited during the past five years nearly every important place in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland where large and rare trees are found ; and have received from land- owners, estate agents, foresters, and gardeners an amount of information and assistance which justifies us in believing that our work will be generally appreciated. Though the historic trees of some places in England and of more in Scotland have been described in scattered publications, those of Ireland have been almost totally neglected ; and Dr. Henry has paid special attention to the many interesting properties in that country. A prominent feature of the work will be the illustrations. Modern photography enables the authors to give accurate pictures of the trees as they grow. Almost all the photographs of trees and of forest scenes have been taken by skilful photo- graphers specially engaged for the purpose. In dealing with about 300 species of trees, many of which will require several illustrations to show the best specimens both as park and forest trees, the authors have accumulated a large number of photographs, which are being reproduced by the Autotype Company of London, who guarantee their permanency. With regard to these illustrations we desire to say, that though in some cases they may not be perfect from the point of view of the photographic artist, yet the amount of time, skill, and money that has been spent on them is very far beyond what would be imagined by any one who has not had experience of the difficulty of securing good negatives of trees scattered over so large an area, under all conditions of light and weather, and in situations often extremely difficult to the photographer. In some cases two or three special journeys have been made to obtain a photograph of one tree only, as the object has been to show the finest individual trees known to the authors rather than to make pretty pictures of scenery. Besides these reproductions of photographs there will be lithographed drawings of seedlings, buds, leaves, flowers, and fruit, so far as is necessary to distinguish the trees in winter and in summer. These original drawings have all been done under the personal supervision of Dr. Henry, who has carefully studied the material, living and dead, that exists in the unrivalled establishment at Kew, All measurements have been taken by the authors themselves with Stanley's Apomecometer, or by practical foresters on whose accuracy they could rely, and though in many cases errors to the extent of a few feet may have been made, owing to the shape or position of the tree measured, we believe them to be as accurate as possible under the conditions. FAGUS THE NORTHERN BEECHES Fagus, Linnaeus, Syst. ed. i. V. Monxcia (1735); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Plant, iii. 410 (1880). The genus, as understood by Bentham and Hooker, included all the beeches, those of the southern as well as of the northern hemisphere. Blume' separated the southern beeches as a distinct genus, Nothofagus ; and his arrangement, on account of its convenience, will be followed by us. Fagus belongs to the family Quercineae, which includes the oaks, chestnuts, castanopsis, and beeches. The genus, limited to include only the northern beeches, consists of large trees with smooth bark and spindle-shaped buds arranged alternately on the twigs in two rows. Leaves : deciduous, simple, pinnately-nerved, folded in the bud along the primary nerves. Flowers monoecious : the staminate flowers numerous in pendulous globose heads, the pistillate flowers in pairs in involucres. The male flower has a 4 to 8 lobed calyx with 8 to 16 stamens. The female flower has a 6 lobed calyx, adnate to a 3 celled ovary, with 2 ovules in each cell ; styles 3, filiform. On ripening, the involucre is enlarged, woody, and covered with bristly deltoid or foliaceous processes; it dehisces by 4 valves, allowing the 2 fruits enclosed to escape. Each fruit is 3 angled and contains i seed, which has no albumen. Seven distinct species of Fagus have been described, of which three, the Euro- pean beech, the American beech, and the peculiar Fagus japonica are recognised by all botanists as good species. The Caucasian beech, the two Chinese beeches, and the common beech of Japan are considered by some authorities to be mere varieties of Fagus sylvatica ; but these can all readily be distinguished, and in the following account will be treated as independent species. Key to the Species of Fagus. I. Nuts projecting out of the top of the involucre. I. Fagus japonica. Japan. Involucre very small, covered externally with small deltoid processes, and borne on a very long slender stalk. Leaves with 10-14 pairs of nerves, which bend round before quite reaching the slightly undulating margin. • Blume, in Mus. Lugd, Bat, i. 306. 2 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 1 1. Nuts enclosed in the involucre. A. Involucres with linear, awl-shaped, bristly appendages. Species 2, 3, and 4. 2. FagTis sylvatica. Europe. Fruit-stalks short and pubescent throughout. Leaves : under surface glabrous except on the nerves and midrib ; lateral nerves 5-9 pairs ; margin not regularly serrate. 3. Fagrus ferruginea. North America. Fruit-stalks short and pubescent throughout. Leaves : under surface glabrous except on the nerves and midrib ; lateral nerves 10 12 pairs, ending in the teeth ; margin serrate. 4. Fagfus sinensis. Central China. Fruit-stalks short, pubescent only close to the involucre. Leaves : minutely pubescent over their whole under surface ; lateral nerves 9-10 pairs ending in the teeth ; margin serrate. B. Involucres with their lower appendages dilated and foliaceous. Species 5, 6, 7. 5. Fagns opientalis. Caucasus, Asia Minor, N. Persia. Fruit -stalks long (twice the length of the involucre or more) and very pubescent throughout. Leaves : broadest above the middle ; lateral nerves about 10 pairs, bending round before quite reaching the undulate margin ; under surface glabrous except on the midrib and nerves. 6. Fagrus Sieboldi. Japan. Fruit-stalks short (cis long as the involucres) and pubescent throughout Leaves : broadest below the middle; lateral nerves 7-10 pairs, bending round before quite reaching the margin, which is crenate ; under surface glabrous beneath except on the nerves and midrib. 7. Fagns Engfleriana. Central China. Fruit-stalks very long (five times the length of the involucre) and quite glabrous. Leaves glabrous and glaucescent underneath ; lateral nerves 1 3 pairs, bend- ing round before quite reaching the undulate margin. Fagus ferruginea. American Beech. Fagus ferruginea, Dryander, in Ait. Hort. Kew. iii. 362 (1789); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. iii. 1980 (1838); Mayr. Wald. von Nordamerika, 176 (1890). Fagus sylvatica atropunicea, Marsh. Arb. Am. 46 (1785). Fagus sitvestris, Mich. fil. Itist. Arb. Am. ii. 170, t. 8 (1812). Fagus atropunicea, Sudworth, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xx. 42 (1893). Fagus americana. Sweet, Hort. Brit. 370 (1826); Sargent, Silva of N. Am. ix 27 (1896). The American beech ranges, according to Sudworth, from Nova Scotia to north shore of Lake Huron and Northern Wisconsin; south, to western Florida; and west, to south-eastern Missouri and Texas (Trinity River). Mayr* says it is at • Mayr, l.c. * Fagus its best in the northern deciduous forest, where it is a stately tree, e.g. at Lake Superior. The finest individual trees occur on the small hills of the Mississippi valley, but the timber is not so good as that of trees farther north. Pure woods of American beech rarely if ever occur.^ Elwes saw the American beech principally near Boston and in Canada, and remarked one peculiarity which may not be found in all places. This was its tendency to throw up suckers from the roots, a feature which is very marked in Professor Sargent's park at Brookline, and in the beautiful grounds of the Arnold Arboretum, There is a group of beech here by the side of a drive, of which the largest was 65 feet by 7 feet 8 inches, surrounded by a dense thicket of suckers. Beech seedlings, however, seem to be much less common here than in Europe, and on moist ground are often suppressed by maple and other trees. The rate of growth of young trees in the Arboretum was about equal to that of the European beech at twenty years, and the bark of the latter was darker in colour. Near Ottawa Elwes gathered ripe fruit of the American beech ^ — which here is not a large or tall tree — in the end of September ; the mast was smaller and less abundant than in the European beech, and the tree — as near Boston — did not seem to have the same tendency to outgrow and suppress other hardwoods which it shows in Europe. The roots, judging from seedlings sent from Meehan's nurseries at Philadelphia, are larger, deeper, and less fibrous than those of the European beech, though this may be caused by a deep soil. A good illustration of the American beech in the open is given in Garden and Forest, viii. 125, taken from a tree at South Hingham, Massachusetts. The American beech is rare in collections in England. We have only seen speci- mens at Kew Gardens, Beauport, Tortworth, and Eastnor Castle. In no case do these attain more than 15 feet in height. As the tree, no doubt, was often planted even a century ago, and no large trees are known to exist in this country, it is very probable that, like many other species from the Eastern States, it will never reach timber size in this climate. The specimen from Eastnor Castle has very dull green leaves, somewhat cordate at the base, and probably belongs to the following variety. Var. caroliniana, Loudon, ex Lodd. Cat. (1836). — In cultivation in Europe, dis- tinguished from the common form by the leaves being more rounded at the base, said to be more dwarf in height, and to come out in leaf fifteen days before ordinary Fagus ferrugmea? Fagus orientalis. Caucasian Beech. Fagus orientalis, Lipski, Acta. Hort. Petrop. xa. 300 (1897). Fa^s sylvcUica, Linnaeus, j8 macropkylla, DC, and -/ asiatica, DC. (ex parte). Prod, xvi 2, 119 (1864). Lipski says that the beech which occurs in the Caucasus, Asia Minor, and • But Sa^ent says that it attains its laigest size in the rich land of the Lower Ohio valley, and in the Soathem Alleghanies, and that it often fonns pure forests. He quotes an old author (Morton) as follows : — " Beech there is of two sottes, red and white, very excellent for trenchers or chaires, also for oares," and says that these different coloured woods, recognised by lumbermen, are produced by individual trees, which are otherwise apparently identical, and for which Michanz and Pursh tried to find botanical characters which he cannot allow to be specific * Sargent says that the sweet nuts are sold in Canada, and in some of the middle and western states. » Jooin, " Les HHres" in Le Jardin (1899), p. 42. 4 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland North Persia, is a peculiar species. Radde/ while not admitting it to be a distinct species, considers that it is a form which approaches the Japanese Fagus Sieboldi, Endl., rather than the typical European beech, which occurs in the Crimea. Speci- mens in the Kew herbarium from the Caucasus, Paphlagonia, Phrygia, and Ghilan (a province of North Persia), differ markedly in fruit from the common beech. This tree occurs throughout the whole of the Caucasus, both on the north and south sides, often ascending to the timber line, but descending in Talysch to the sea-level. On the north side of the Caucasus the beech reaches to 5900 feet altitude ; while in the Schin valley, on the south side of the range, it attains 7920 feet. It occurs mixed with other trees, or forms pure woods of considerable extent. It sometimes occurs in the forests in the form of gigantic bushes (springing from one root), of which the individual stems measure 6 feet in girth, and are free from branches to 30 or 40 feet. The largest trees recorded by Radde were : — one 380 years old, 7 feet in girth, and 123 feet high; and another 250 years old, 8 feet 4 inches in girth, and 120 feet high, which contained 370 cubic feet of timber. This species has been introduced into cultivation on the Continent, and is said ' to have a crown of foliage more slender and more pyramidal than the common beech. Fagus japonica. Small Beech of Japan. (Native name, Inubuna.) Fagus japonica, Maximowicz, Mel. Biol. xii. 542 (1886). Shirasawa, Iconographie des Essences Forestiires du Japan, vol. i. t. 35, figs. 1-13 (1900). This species is much rarer in Japan than Fagus Sieboldi, and was not seen by Elwes or Sargent, who says that it had not been collected since a collector in Maximowicz's employ found it on the Hakone mountains, and in the province of Nambu. Very little is known about it, and it has not been introduced into Europe. Shirasawa, however, says it has the same distribution as Fagtis Sieboldi, and grows almost always in mixture with it, but beginning at a lower level ; and that it often occurs in a bushy form, and does not attain the dimensions of the other species. Fagus Sieboldi. Common Beech of Japan. (Native name, ^««a.) Fagus Sieboldi, Endlicher, Gen. Suppl. iv. 2, 29 (1847). Fagus sylvatica, L., y asiatica, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, 119 (1864). Fagus sylvatica, L., S Sieboldi, Maximowicz, Mil. Biol. xii. 543 (1886). Shirasawa, I.e. t. 35, figs. 14-26. This is the common beech which occurs in Japan, and it is considered by Japanese botanists' to be only a variety of the European beech. Shirasawa* has given some details concerning its distribution, in connection with a figure which illustrates well the botanical characters of the species. Sargent ^ was doubtful if the common beech in Japan was not quite identical in all respects with the European beech. Elwes saw it in many places in Central Japan, but not in Hokkaido. Near Nikko it grows to a large size at 2000-4CXX) feet, but not in pure woods, being, so ' Radde, Pflanzenverbrtitung in dm Kaukasusldndern, 182 (1S99). ^ Schneider, Laubhohkunde, 152. ' Matsumura, Shokubutsu-mei-i, 123. ♦ Shirasawa, I.e. 86. ' Sargent, Feresl Flora of Japan, 70. Fagus far as he saw, always mixed with other trees, though Goto says ' that it occurs in Honshu and in the southern half of Hokkaido in almost unmixed woods, and that in Aomori, Iwate, Echigo, and Yamagata, pure woods of vast dimensions are seen in the mountains above looo feet elevation. It is one of the most important trees for firewood and charcoal, but little valued for building. It grows well in shade, and cor'^inues to grow to a great age, sometimes attaining enormous size. The Ainos in old Japan are said to have used the tree for dug-out canoes. The largest trees measured by Elwes were in the Government forest of Atera, in the district of Kisogawa, where there were tall straight trees in mixed deciduous forests of beech, magnolia, oak, birch, and maple, about lOO feet high and 9-10 feet in girth. Here the wood was not of sufficient value to pay the expense of carriage. Fagus sinensis. Fagus sinensis, Oliver, in Hook. Icon. Plant, t. 1936 (1891); Diels, Flora von Central China, 284 (1901). Fagus sylvatica, L., var. longipes, Oliver, in scheda ad Hook. Icon. Plant, t. 1936 (1891); Franchet, Jour, de Bat. 1899, p. 90. Fagus longipetiolata, v. Seamen, in Engler, Bot. Jahrb. xxiii. Beibl. 57, p. 56 (1897). This tree was discovered by Henry in the mountains south of the Yangtse, near Ichang, in Central China. It occurs scattered in deciduous forests at 3000-4000 feet altitude, and sometimes attains a considerable size, one tree being noted as 15 feet in girth. Von Rosthorn subsequently found the same species in the mountains south of Chungking, in Szechuan. Fagus Engleriana. Fagus Engleriana, v. Seemen, in Diels, Mora von Central China, 285, cum figura (1901). Fagus sylvatica, L., var. longipes, Oliver, "var. bracteolis involucri exterioribus spatulalim dilatatis," Oliver, in scheda ad Hook, Icon. Plant, t. 1936 (1891). Fagus sylvatica, L., var. chinensis, Franchet, y^wr. de Bot. 1899, p. 201. This species was also discovered by Henry, but in the mountains north of the Yangtse from Ichang in Central China. Subsequently specimens were sent to Europe by Pere Farges from North- East Szechuan, and by von Rosthorn from Southern Szechuan. It is a smaller tree than F. sinensis, and was seen by Henry on wooded cliffs. Neither of the Chinese beeches form pure woods. A beech of considerable size was seen by Henry in Yunnan, in a mountain wood near Mengtse, at about 5000 feet elevation, and is possibly a distinct species. This rare tree is remark- able in that it extends the southern limit of the northern beeches to as low as 23° N. ' Forestry of Japan (1904), p. 22. The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland FAGUS SYLVATICA, Common Beech Fagus syivatica, Linnaeus, i^. PI. 998 (1753). Loudon, Arb. tt Frut. Brit. iii. 1950 (1838). A large tree, commonly 100 feet high (attaining 130 to 140 feet under very favourable conditions), with a girth of 20 feet or more. Bark ' usually grey and smooth, but often in old trees becoming fissured and scaly, especially near the base. Branchlets of two kinds ; the short shoots ringed and bearing only a terminal bud in winter and one, two, or three leaves in summer ; the long shoots slender, glabrous, with many leaves in two lateral rows (in winter the buds are seen arising from the upper side of the twig, the leaf-scars being on the lower side). Leaves : deciduous, alternate, two -ranked, varying in size with altitude and vigour, those of trees at high elevations being much smaller ; generally oval, somewhat acuminate at the apex, slightly unequal at the base, undulate or toothed in margin, with 6-10 pairs of lateral nerves, which with the midrib are raised on the under surface of the leaf, and are more or less pubescent. Flowers : arising in the axils of the leaves of the young shoots ; the male heads by long pendulous stalks, the female involucres by short erect stalks above the male flowers on the same branchlet or on separate branchlets. The true fruits are usually two together enclosed in a woody involucre, which is beset by prickles. Each fruit contains a seed, triangular in shape like the fruit containing it. The seed hangs from the top of the cell and has no albumen. Seedling : the seedling of the beech "^ has a long primary root and a stout radicle, 1-2 inches long, bearing 2 large sessile oval cotyledons, which are dark green above and whitish beneath. The first true leaves of the beech are opposite, ovate, obtuse, and crenate, borne on the stem an inch or so above the cotyledons. Above this pair other leaves are borne alternately, and the first season's growth terminates in a long pointed bud with brown imbricated scales. The common beech is distinguishable at all seasons by its bark, which is only simulated by the hornbeam ; but in the latter tree the stem is usually more or less fluted. In winter the pointed buds, arranged distichously on the long shoots and composed of many imbricated scales, are characteristic ; while in length they exceed • There is much difference in the colour and roughness of the bark, which varies with age, soil, situation, and exposure. On the dry, sandy soil of Kew Gardens this bark of the beech is so different from that seen on calcareous soils that it might almost be mistaken for a hornbeam, and Elwes has observed the same in the Botanic Gardens at Edinbui^h, where the trees are exposed to the salt east wind. These variations are not, however, entirely caused by local conditions, but are sometimes found in trees standing close together. Professor Balfour pointed out to Elwes two beeches in the Edinburgh garden of which one has the bark rough and scaly, and regularly comes into leaf fifteen to twenty days before another tree similar in size which grows next to it, whose bark is smooth and silvery. Whether these variations are correlated with any differences in the wood does not seem to have been proved in England ; but it is evident that for cold and exposed situations it would be advantageous to sow only the seed of the late leafing and flowering trees. 2 The beech seedling has its cotyledons green and above ground ; those of the oak and chestnut remain in the soil. In the hornbeam, hazel, and alder, the cotyledons are aerial, but the first pair of true leaves above them are alternate. Fagus those of any tree ordinarily cultivated in England, being about f inch long. The buds of the European beech are wider at the middle than at either end ; while in the American beech they are as narrow in the middle as they are at the base. Varieties A great number of varieties of the common beech occur, some of which have originated wild in the forests, whilst others have been obtained in cultivation. Van purpurea, Aiton, Purple Beech. A complete account of the origin of this variety appeared in Garden and Forest} 1 894, p. 2. From this it would appear that a purple beech ^ discovered in the eighteenth century in the Hanleiter forest near Sondershausen in Thuringia, is the mother tree of those which now adorn the pleasure grounds of Europe and America. This is the only authenticated source from which horticulturists have derived their stock. The purple beech was, however, long known before the Thuringian tree was discovered. In Wagner's Historia naturalis Helvetice curiosa (Zurich, 1680) mention is made of a beech wood at Buch, on the Irchel mountain in Zurichgau (commonly called the Stammberg), which contains three beech trees with red leaves, which are nowhere else to be found. These three beeches are again referred to in Scheuzer's Natural History of Switzer- land, published in 1 706 ; and the legend is stated that according to popular belief five brothers murdered one another on the spot where the trees sprang up. Offspring of these trees were carried into a garden, where they still retained their purple colour. The purple beech has also been observed in a wild state in the forest of Darney in the Vosges. The purple beech has delicate light red-coloured foliage, which is of a pale claret tint in the spring, becoming a deep purple in summer. In early autumn the leaves almost entirely lose their purple colour, and change to a dark dusky green. The buds, young shoots, and fruits are also purple in colour. The involucres are deep purple brown in autumn, becoming browner with the advance of the season. The purple beech often fails to fruit regularly ; still many individuals of this variety do produce fruit, and this has been sown, and in some cases produced plants almost all with purple leaves, not 5 per cent reverting to green.' The colour in the leaves, etc., is due to a colouring matter in the cells of the epidermis. The variety submits well to pruning or even to clipping with the shears ; and may therefore, if necessary, be confined within narrow limits or grown as a pyramid in the centre of a group of trees. A fine purple beech* grows in Miss Sulivan's garden, Broom House, Fulham, which is 82 feet high and 12 feet 2 inches in girth. ' See also Gartenflara, 1893, p. 150. • This tree is still living. See Lutze, Mitth. des Thuringer Bot. Vereines, 1892, ii. 28. ' Elwes saw at the Flottbeck Nurseries near Hamburg, formerly occupied by the celebrated nurseryman John Booth, a fine hedge of purple beech, which Herr Ansorge told him was raised from a cross between the purple and the fern-leaved beeches. Of the produce of this cross 20 to 30 per cent came purple, but none were fern-leaved. This coincides exactly with his own experience in raising from seed. But in Miitheihmgen Deutschen Dendrologischen Gesellschaft, 1904, p. 198, Graf von Schwerin describes as A. sylvatica ansorgei a hybrid from these two varieties which seems to combine the characters of both. < Figured in Card. Chron. 1898, xxiv. 305. See also ibid. 1903, xxxiii. 397, for notes on sub-varieties of the purple beech. 8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Another occurs at Hardwick, Bury St. Edmunds, the seat of G. M. Gibson Cullum, Esq., which in 1904 was 11 feet 9 inches in girth, and about 80 to 90 feet in height. Bunbury * considered this to be the finest purple beech in England, and says it produces abundance of fruit, from which young trees have been raised. Var. cuprea, Loddiges, Copper Beech. — This is only a sub -variety of the purple beech, distinguished by its young shoots and leaves being of a paler colour. The largest purple or copper beech which Elwes has seen is in the park at Dunkeld, Perthshire, not far from the Cathedral. This measures 86 feet high, with a girth of 1 5 feet 3 inches, and does not show any evidence of having been grafted. There is a very fine one at Corsham Court, the seat of General Lord Methuen, 85 to 90 feet high, by 14 in girth, forking at about 10 feet. At Scampston Hall, Yorkshire, Mr. Meade-Waldo tells us of two large spreading trees on their own roots, II feet 6 inches and 10 feet 6 inches in girth respectively. At Beauport, Sussex, the seat of Sir Archibald Lamb, Bart., a copper beech measured 12^ feet in girth in 1904. At Syston Park, Lincolnshire, the seat of Sir John Thorold, Bart., there is one nearly as large (12 feet 2 inches girth). A copper beech at Bell Hall, York, which was planted in 1800, measured in 1894, 9 feet in girth, the diameter of the spread of the branches being 74 feet. At Castle MacGarrett, Claremorris, Ireland, the seat of Lord Oranmore, there is a beautiful copper beech, which in 1904 was 70 feet high and 9 feet 10 inches in girth. In Over Wallop Rectory grounds, in Hampshire, a copper beech measured 9 feet 4 inches in 1880. Two fine trees occur at Clonbrock, in Co. Galway, the seat of Lord Clonbrock. One measured in 1904 a length of 76 feet and a girth of 12 feet 9 inches. The other was 7 feet 6 inches girth in 1871, and in 1880 it had increased to 8 feet 5 inches. The copper beech ^ is rarely used as a hedge, but there is one in the gardens of Ashwellthorpe Hall, Norwich, which is 138 yards long, 8 feet high, and about 5 feet through. It was planted about seventy years ago from seedlings by the Hon. and Rev. R. Wilson. The colouring in spring is very beautiful. There is a sub-variety* of the copper beech in which the leaf is edged with pink whilst young, but later in summer it becomes nearly like the type. This variety has been called Fagus purpurea roseo-marginata, and it has been recom- mended as a hedge-plant, to be clipped two or three times during summer so as to obtain several crops of young shoots. Var. atropurpurea, — The leaves in this are of a darker colour than in the ordinary purple beech. Var. atropurpurea Rohani is quite different from the last, as the form of the leaves is similar to that of the fern-leaved beech, but their colour is like that of the copper beech. Var. purpurea pendula. — This is a weeping form of the purple beech. It is of slow growth. • Arboretum Notes, p. 117. ^ Garden, July 30, 1904, Answers to Correspondents. ' Card. Chron. June 23, 1888, p. 779. Fagus Var. Zlatia, Spath/ Golden Beech. — This was found wild in the mountains of Servia by Professor Dragaschevitch. It is known in Servia as Zladna bukwa (golden beech). Var. striata, Bose.^ — This was discovered many years ago in a forest in Hesse. Soon after opening, the leaves show a regular golden striation parallel with the nerves, and this appearance lasts till the leaves fall off in autumn. It was introduced in 1892 by Dippel. Various other coloured varieties have been obtained by horticulturists. In var. variegata the leaves are particoloured with white and yellow, interspersed with some streaks of red and purple. In var. tricolor the leaves are dark purplish green, spotted with bright pink and shaded with white. There are also gold-striped (var. aureo-variegatd) and silver-striped (var. argenteo-variegatd) varieties. Var. heterophylla, Loudon, Fern-leaved Beech. — The leaves are variously cut, either in narrow shreds like some ferns, or in broader divisions like the leaves of a willow. This variety has received a great number of names, as laciniata, comptonicBfolia, incisa, salicifolia, asplenifolia, etc. The tree occasionally bears normal and cut leaves on the same twig, or normal and cut leaves on different twigs. It bears fruit occasionally, which, according to Bunbury,^ is smaller than that of the common beech, the cupule being shorter in proportion to the nuts. The leaf-buds are considerably smaller than those of the common form ; and the twigs are often very pubescent. The origin of this variety is unknown. There is a good specimen of this tree at Devonshurst House, Chiswick, which measured in 1903 55 feet in height, and 8 feet 2 inches in girth at 3 feet, just under a great horizontal branch. At Barton, Bury St. Edmunds, a fern-leaved beech in 1904 was 53 feet high, with a girth of 5 feet i inch. This tree^ was planted in 1831, but grew slowly, in 1869 being only 15 feet high, with a trunk 3 feet round. In 1868 the tree bore some twigs with ordinary leaves; and it first fruited in 1869, the crop being a very small one. There are large and well-shaped trees of this form at Strathfieldsaye measuring 50 feet by 7 feet 5 inches ; at Fawley Court of the same size exactly, and weeping to the ground ; and at Stowe near Buckingham. Var. guercoides, Pers., Oak-leaved Beech. — The leaves in this variety are long- stalked, with an acute base and acuminate apex ; margins pinnately and deeply cut, the individual segments being acute. Var. cristata, Lodd. (also known as var. crispa). — Small and nearly sessile leaves, crowded into dense tufts, which occur at intervals on the branches. This form rarely attains a large size. Var, macrophylla (also known as latifolia). — The leaves in this form are very large. In a specimen at Kew, from the garden of the Horticultural School at Vilvorde, they attain 7 inches in length and 5 inches in width. A large specimen of this tree, some fifty years old, occurs at Enys in Cornwall. The buds, as might ' Card. Chron. 1892, xii. 669. This is an account of Spiith's novelties by Dr. Edmund Goze of the Greifswald Botanic Gardens. 2 Arboretum Notts, p. 118. I C lo The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland be expected, in this variety are considerably larger than those of the ordinary form. Var. rotundifolia, Round-leaved Beech.' — The leaves are very small, round, and bright green, and are set close on the twigs. This variety has an upright habit of growth, and was introduced in 1894 by Jackman of Woking. Var. grandidentata. — A form with conspicuously toothed leaves. Var. pendula, Loddiges, Weeping Beech. — Several forms of this variety occur, but in all the smaller branches^ hang down. The main branches are irregularly disposed, so that the tree often has a very rugged outline. This variety should be grafted at a good height, as otherwise many of the pendulous branches will lie upon the ground ; and the main branches, if they show a tendency to droop too much, should be supported. Weeping beeches may be tall and slender, or low and broad, or quite irregular, depending upon the direction of the larger branches, which may grow outwards or upwards, or in almost any direction ; the smaller branches only are uniformly pendulous. The weeping beech has been observed wild in the forest of Brotonne, in Seine- Inf^rieure, France. A good example of a tall, slender, weeping beech may be seen near Wimbledon Common, on the estate lately owned by Sir W. Peek. A fine specimen occurs at Barton, which in 1904 was 77 feet high and 5 feet 2 inches in girth. Elwes has noted a very picturesque and well-shaped one at Endsleigh, near Tavistock, the Devonshire seat of the Duke of Bedford. Several have been figured in the Gardeners Chronicle, e.g. a group of three trees ^ at Ashwick Hall, Gloucestershire, which were planted about i860. In the Knap Hill Nursery' at Woking, and in the nursery ^ of R. Smith and Co. at Worcester, there are fine specimens. Another good specimen,* occurring in Dickson's nursery at Chester, is figured in the Garden. Many forms of weeping beech have been described as sub - varieties, as purpurea pendula, mentioned above ; var. miltonensis, with branches less pendulous, found wild in Milton Park, Northamptonshire ; varv borneyensis, found wild in the forest of Borney, near Metz, and described as having an erect stem and distinctly pendulous branches ; var. pagnyensis, discovered in the forest of Pagny in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle in France ; var. remillyensis, found in the forest of Remilly, near Metz. Var. toriuosa, Parasol Beech.* — In this curious form, the branches, both large and small, and the branchlets are all directed towards the ground. It is not to be confounded with the preceding variety, in which only the slender branches are pendulous ; and is analogous rather to the weeping ash. Beeches of this form have, even in old age, a very short and twisted stem, with a hemispherical crown, which sometimes touches the ground ; and it scarcely ever grows higher than 10 feet. This variety has been found wild in France, in the forest of Verzy, near Rheims, and also • Card. Mag. 1894, p. 339, with figure. ^ Card. Chron. June 20, 1903, fig. 155. ' Ibid. Dec. 24, 1870, p. 70. * Ibid. Dec. 29, 1900, suppl. ' Garden, Dec. $, 1903, p. 167. " For a complete account of the occurrence of this curious form in the forests of the east of France, see Godron, Les Metres tortiilards des environs de Nancy, Mem. de I'Acad. de Stanislas, Nancy, 1869. Godron says that their growth is infinitely slower than that of normal beech. See also Rev. Hort., 1861, p. 84, and 1864, p. 127. Fagus 1 1 in the neighbourhood of Nancy. Fruits of this form have been sown in the garden of the Forest School of Nancy, and have reproduced the twisted form in about the pro- portion of three-fifths; the other two-fifths of the fruit produced form like the common beech and intermediate varieties.^ Many other varieties have been described ; and other forms possibly occur wild which have not been noticed. Major M'Nair sent to Kew in 1872 from Brookwood, Knaphill, Surrey, a specimen from a tree growing there, and reported to be in vigorous health, in which the leaves are remarkably small and have only four pairs of lateral nerves. (A. H.) Distribution The beech is indigenous to England. Remains of it have been found in neolithic deposits at Southampton docks, Crossness in Essex, in Fenland, in pre- glacial deposits in the Cromer forest bed, and at Happisburgh, Norfolk.^ Names of places of Saxon origin, in which the word beech occurs are very common, as Buckingham, Buxton, Boxstead, Boxford, Bickleigh, Boking, etc. The exist- ence of the beech in Britain in ancient times has been questioned on account of the statement by Julius Caesar^ that Fagus did not occur in England. H. J. Long* has discussed what tree the Romans meant by Fagus, and the evidence is conflicting. Pliny ^ described as Fagus a tree which is plainly the common beech. However, Virgil's* statement that Castanea by grafting would produce yizfoj indicates rather that Fagus was a name used for the sweet chestnut ; and this view is confirmed by the fact that out of the wood of Fagus the Romans made vine-props and wine-casks. The Latin word Fagus is derived immediately from the Greek ^9^70? ; and the ^1770? of Theophrastus is certainly the chestnut, probably the wild tree which is indigenous to the mountains of Greece. Caesar's statement probably implies that in his day the sweet chestnut did not occur in Britain. The beech is not believed to be indigenous in Scotland and Ireland,^ and no evidence is forthcoming of its occurrence in prehistoric deposits in those countries. An able writer in Woods and Forests (1884, June 1 1, p. 404) contests this view, and speaks of the existence of two beech woods in the north of Scotland, not 10 miles from the most easterly point of Britain, where the trees were larger than any other timber tree, not excepting the Scotch fir, and where it produced fertile seed, while that of the oak was abortive. These woods were high and exposed, but the soil was good. In view of the way in which the beech ascends in the Vosges and the Jura to cold, bleak situations, finally becoming at 4000 feet a dwarf shrub, which ' The parasol beech, or a form closely like it, has been found in Ireland, according to a correspondent of Woods and Forests, Jan. 1885, who writes as follows :—" Near to Parkanour, in Tyrone, the residence of Mr. J. Burgess, stand two beeches, which at a short distance resemble heaps of leaves more than trees. They were found in the woods sixty years since, and are from 6 feet to 8 feet in height and 15 feet diameter, and of dense drooping habit. Upon creeping inside, I found them to branch off at 2 feet or 3 feet from the ground, where one was nearly 5 feet in circumference. The arms and branches are not unlike corkscrews. The inferior branches and malted rubbish, if cleared out, would greatly improve their appearance, as the singular growth would then be visible. They might, if sent out, become a valuable adjunct to the upright yew, which flourishes in Ireland, the finest of which I have yet seen being 24 feet high and 12 feet through, and well filled in the centre.— C. I." ' C. Reid, Origin of British Flora, 28, 69, 146. ' B. G. v. 12. ♦ Loudon, Card. Mag. 1839, p. 9. ' N. H. xvi. 7. " Georg. ii. 71. ' The name in Irish is crann sleamhain, the "slippery tree," so-called from the smoothness of the bark. 12 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland forms the ti'mber line, it would be remarkable if the beech had not in early days gained a footing in Scotland and Ireland. The mere negative evidence is of little value, as scarcely any scientific work has yet been done in the way of exploration of the peat-mosses and other recent deposits ; and the woods, from which are made the handles of numerous prehistoric implements preserved in our museums, have rarely been examined/ The beech occurs in a wild state throughout the greater part of Northern, Central, and Western Europe, usually growing gregariously in forests which, when undisturbed by man, have a tendency to spread and take the place of oak, which, owing to its inability to support such dense shade, is often suppressed by the beech. In Norway, according to Schubeler,^ it is called bok, and is wild only near Laurvik, where he believes it to be truly indigenous, and is a small tree, the largest he measured being 7 feet 4 inches in girth. At Hosanger, however, a planted beech had in 1864 attained 75 feet at 81 years old, with a diameter of 27 inches. It ripens seed as far north as Trondhjem in good years, and exists in Nordland as far north as lat. 67°. 56. In Sweden its most northerly wild habitat is Elfkalven, lat. 6o°.35, though it has been planted as far north as lat. 64°. In Russia the beech extends only a little way, — its eastern limit in Europe passing the Prussian coast of the Baltic between Elbing and Konigsberg, about 54° 30' N. lat., and running south from Konigsberg, where the last spontaneous beeches occur on the Brandenburg estate, continuing through Lithuania, eastern Poland, Volhynia, where beech woods still occur between lat. 52° and 50°, and PodoHa to Bessarabia. It is absent from the governments of Kief and Kherson, but re- appears in the Crimea, where, however, it is only met with in the mountains of the south-east coast. In the Caucasus, Persia, and Asia Minor it is replaced by the closely allied species, Fagus orientalis. In Finland and at St. Petersburg it exists as a bush only, but is not wild. On the southern shores of the Baltic it forms large forests, and in Denmark is one of the most abundant and valuable timber trees, growing to as large a size and forming as clean trunks as it does farther south. Lyell speaks of it as follows :' — " In the time of the Romans the Danish isles were covered as now with magnificent beech forests. Nowhere in the world does this tree flourish more luxuriantly than in Denmark, and eighteen centuries seem to have done little or nothing towards modifying the character of the forest vegetation. Yet in the antecedent bronze period there were no beech trees, or at most but a few stragglers, the country being then covered with oak." At page 415 he says further — " In Denmark great changes were taking place in the vegetation. The pine, or Scotch fir, buried in the oldest peat, gave place at length to the oak ; and the oak, after flourishing for ages, yielded in its turn to the • In a paper by H. B. Watt on the " Scottish Forests in Early Historic Times," printed in Annah of the Andersonian Nat. Soc. ii. 91, Glasg., 1900, which contains many interesting particulars of the oak and other trees, no mention is made of the Beech. In the Highland Society's Gaelic Dictionary {\%2%), faidhbhile is given as the word for beech ; here faidA is cognate with/ equal to about 9634 feet. And off 4 acres of the same wood in 1875 he sold beech to the value of ;^i 100, being at the rate of ;^2 75 per acre. This was supposed to be about 150 years old, and is the best actual return of value from timber on such land which I know of. He also bought a beech wood of 26 acres growing on similar soil in 1 898, on which the timber, supposed to be about seventy years old, was valued at ;^2200, equal to ;i^85 per acre. He cut ;^6oo worth of thinnings out of it the year 1 6 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland following ; and as the trees are growing fast, considers that it might now be valued at the same price per acre. Sir John considers, from experience in his own plantations, that planted beech will do as well as when naturally seeded. His old woodman, now dead, was for long of a contrary opinion, but changed his mind latterly from his own experience. It is necessary to say something about the actual conditions and returns from the Buckinghamshire beech woods, which have been held up by some writers as an example of what may be done by following the system known 2&jardinage in France, which consists in thinning out the saleable trees every ten or twelve years and allowing natural seedlings to come up in their places. During a visit of the Scottish Arboricultural Society on July 30, 1903, to this district, in which I took part, it was stated by one of the principal land agents in the district that £2 per acre was a common return over an average of years on woods managed on this system, which seems to have grown up during the last sixty years, partly through the legal disability of the owners to make clear fellings, and partly owing to the regular demand for clean beechwood of moderate size for chair-making. But what I saw myself led me to believe that though such a return may have been obtained for a short period on the best class of beech woods, it is not likely to continue, and that if an owner had a free hand and was not liable for waste, clear felling of the mature timber about once in 60-100 years would probably in the long- run be a better system. And this opinion was confirmed by Mr. George James, agent for the Hampden estate, who thinks that 15s. per acre, which is about the average rateable value of these woods, is as much as they are actually worth, and that when you get fine timber clean and well grown, as on Mr. Drake's estate at Amersham, many natural seedlings do not occur, but that on Earl Howe's estate at Dunn where, forty years ago, all or nearly all of the timber was cut, there is a good growth of young seedlings. Professor Fisher of Cooper's Hill has written a very instructive article^ on the Chiltern Hill beech woods, in which he states that^ these are probably the northern and western British limit of the indigenous beech forest, which was probably eradicated during the glacial period in the north of England ; though remains found in the submarine forest-bed at Cromer, in Norfolk, prove that it existed before this period farther east. He quotes measurements taken by Mr. A. S. Hobart Hampden, now director of the Forest School at Dehra Dun, India, which show that on the average it takes ninety years in this district for beech to attain 3 feet in girth at breast height, and that a full crop of seed cannot be expected from trees much younger than eighty years when grown in dense order. He agrees with me that in many of the woods, including those which belong to Eton College, over- thinning has been prevalent, and states that rabbits and brambles have in many cases prevented the natural regeneration from being as complete as it must be to keep such woods in profitable condition under the decennial selection system.* And as ' Land Agenfs Record, April 9 and 16, 1904. 2 A paper by Mr. L. S. Wood, in the Tram. Eng. Arbor. Soc. v. 285 (1903), gives many particulars of the beech woods in this district. Fagus 17 the furniture factories of High Wycombe are now largely supplied with American birch and other foreign timber, which can be imported at a cheaper rate than beech is locally worth, I am inclined to think that where these woods have become too thin to be profitable, they would pay better if the seeding of ash — which grows well on this land though not to the largest size — was encouraged, and the vacant spaces filled up with larch, which, when mixed with beech, usually keeps healthy and grows to a larger size than it does alone. It is probable, however, that as our coal supplies diminish, the value of firewood in England will increase, and as beech is one of the best firewoods we have, and one of the most economical to convert into suitable sizes, I should advise its being more largely planted in districts where coal is distant and costly. As a nurse to other forest trees, especially larch and oak, it has a value greater than any deciduous tree, because, if not allowed to overtop its neighbours, its shade and the decay of its leaves preserve the soil in a cool, moist, and fertile condition. On poor calcareous and chalk soil it is specially valuable, and should be planted in mixture with most kinds of other trees, provided rabbits can be permanently excluded; but on account of its thin bark it is never safe in a deep snow or in hard winters from rabbits, which will bark the roots of trees 100 years old as readily as young trees. The distance apart at which beech should be left in plantations, must depend on the goodness of the soil and on the size at which the trees can be most pro- fitably cut. The better the land the thicker it may stand, but on really poor soil it grows so slowly if crowded, that as soon as it has attained a sufficient height and cleaned itself from branches up to 30-50 feet, it should be thinned to about 150 trees or even less to the acre. And I have often observed that on soils which are not naturally favourable for beech, it will not under any circumstances grow so straight and clean as in woods where natural regeneration is easy. Notwithstanding what Loudon and some German foresters say about the beech being unfit for coppice-wood, I can show beech stools of considerable age which have been regularly cut over at intervals of about eighteen years for at least a century ; whilst the growth of shoots from the stool on the dry^rocky bank in Chat- combe Wood, near Seven Springs, on the Cotswold Hills, is faster than that of ash similarly treated. In the mountains of Calabria also, I have seen hillsides covered with beech scrub which appeared to have been coppiced for firewood for a very long period. Therefore, in cases where the beech has been planted merely as a nurse to oak or other trees, and there is no deciduous tree better adapted to this purpose, I should not hesitate to cut over the trees if they seemed likely to smother their neighbours, with the expectation of getting a quantity of excellent firewood or small poles fit for turning, fifteen to twenty years later. As a clipped hedge the beech is useful, but does not grow so fast at first as the hornbeam. An excellent example of this fact may be seen near the entrance to Dr. Watney's place at Buckholt, near Pangbourne, where the two are growing in the same hedge ; the beech treated in this way keeps its leaves all the winter and makes good shelter.' • Cf. Loudon, loc. cit. p. 1965. D 1 8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Beech Avenues Sir Hugh Beevor has sent me a photograph of a remarkable avenue of beech trees called Finch's Avenue, near Watford, which is composed of straight, clean, closely planted trees up to 120 feet high (Plate 2). As an avenue tree the beech is one of the most stately and imposing that we have ; but probably because of the difficulty of getting tall, straight standards from nurseries, and their tendency to branch too near the ground when planted thinly, they are not so much in vogue as they were two centuries ago. One of the finest examples I know of in England is the grand avenue in Savernake Forest, the property of the Marquess of Ailesbury. This was planted in 1723, and extends for nearly 5 miles from Savernake House to the hill above Marlborough. It is described and figured in the Transactions of the English Arboricultural Society, v. p. 405, and though the trees are not individually of quite such fine growth as those at Ashridge, yet, forming a continuous green aisle meeting overhead, for such an immense distance, it is even more beautiful than the elm avenue at Windsor, or the lime avenue at Burghley, and surpasses both of them in length. The Savernake avenue, however, is not like those above mentioned, planted at regular distances, but ^-seems to have been cut out of a belt. The beech avenue at Cornbury Park, the property of Vernon Watney, Esq., to whom I am indebted for the following particulars, is, on account of the great size of the trees, one of the most imposing in England. It was probably planted or designed by John Evelyn, whose diary, 1 7th October, 1664, says : " I went with Lord Visct. Cornbury to Cornbury in Oxfordshire, to assist him in the planting of the park, and beare him company, dined at Uxbridge, lay at Wicckam (Wycombe)." They reached Cornbury the following day, and among the entries for that day is the following : " We designed an handsom chapell that was yet wanting as Mr. May had the stables, which indeed are very faire having set out the walkes in the park and gardens." This Lord Cornbury who, after his father's death, became Lord Clarendon, records in his diary, " 1689, September 25. Wednesday. — The elms in the park were begun to be pruned." This avenue is 800 yards long, and runs from the valley where the great beech grew, up the hill to the house. Many of the trees seem to have been pollarded when young at about 15 feet high, but have shot up immense straight limbs to a height of 100 to no feet, some even taller. The Ten Rides in Cirencester Park affords a good illustration of the value of the beech for bordering the broad rides through a great mass of woodland ; but the trees here, as at Cornbury and in so many of our old parks, have seen their best days, and when blanks are made by wind or decay, it is beyond the power of man to restore the regular appearance of such a vista. Whatever pains may be taken to replant the gaps, the trees never seem to run up as they do when all planted together, and the art of planting avenues does not seem to be so well understood or so much practised now, as it was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Fagus 19 Remarkable Trees As an instance of the rapid growth of the beech, I will quote from a letter of Robert Marsham of Stratton Strawless, near Norwich, to Gilbert White, dated 24th July 1790, in which he says : " I wish I had begun planting with beeches (my favourite trees as well as yours), and I might have seen large trees of my own raising. But I did not begin beeches till 1741, and then by seed ; and my largest is now at 5 feet, 6' 3" round, and spreads a circle of + 20 yards diamr. But this has been digged round and washed, etc." In Gilbert White's reply to this letter, dated Selborne, 13th August 1790, he says: "I speak from long observation when I assert, that beechen groves to a warm aspect grow one-third faster than those that face to the N. and N.E., and the bark is much more clean and smooth." Marsham, replying to White on 31st August (it seems to have been at least fifteen days' post in those days from Norfolk to Hants), says : " Mr. Drake has a charming grove of beech in Buckinghamshire, where the handsomest tree (as I am informed by a friend to be depended on) runs 75 feet clear, and then about 35 feet more in the head. I went on purpose to see it. It is only 6 F. 6 I. round, but straight as possible. Some beeches in my late worthy friend Mr. Naylor's park at Hurst- monceux in Sussex ran taller and much larger, but none so handsome." In a later^ letter he speaks of one being felled here in 1750 which "ran 81 feet before it headed." Sir Hugh Beevor informs me that he found it impossible to identify with certainty the trees measured at Stratton Strawless by Marsham, which we shall have occasion to allude to later.^ It would be impossible to mention more than a few of the finest beech trees in this country, but the photographs which have been reproduced represent a few of those which I have seen myself In Hants there are many fine beeches in the New Forest, of which the wood called Mark Ash contains some of the most picturesque, and is to my eyes one of the most beautiful woods from a naturalist's point of view in England, or even in Europe, though it is, like so many of the fine old woods in the New Forest, deteriorating from causes which are described elsewhere. One of the finest trees here is over 100 feet high and 24 feet in girth, dividing at about 10 feet into six immense erect limbs, and entirely surrounded, as are many of the trees in this wood, by a dense thicket of holly. There is another beech in Woodfidley in the New Forest which Mr. Lascelles considers the finest beech in the forest, and of which the measurement as given by him is 120 feet high, 14 feet 6 inches in girth at 5 feet, carrying its girth well up, with an estimated cubic content of 650 feet. In Old Burley enclosure is another magnificent beech, rather shut in by other trees, and therefore difficult to measure for height. I estimated it at 1 10 feet high. The girth was 18 feet, dividing at about 25 feet into two main trunks, which carried a ' Cf. Trans, of the Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. ii. 133-195. ao The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland girth of perhaps 8 feet up to a great height. I have no doubt this tree contains 7CX) to 800 feet of timber. At Knole Park, near Sevenoaks, there are some splendid trees of the park type, with very wide-spreading limbs, two of which are known as the King and Queen Beeches. The King Beech is surrounded by a fence, and many of its branches are supported by chains. Strutt, who figures it, gives its height as 105 feet by 24 in girth at 13 feet. When I measured it in 1905 it was about 100 feet by 30 in girth at 5 feet, with a bole 10 feet high. It has the largest girth of any beech I know of now standing in England (Plate 12). The Queen Beech is 90 to 100 feet high and 28 feet in girth. I am not sure whether this or the last is the one recorded by Loudon, iii. 1977, as having a diameter of 8 feet 4 inches, a height of 85 feet, and a spread of branches of 352 feet diameter. There are many fine tall beeches in the park of Earl Bathurst at Cirencester, of which Plate i gives a good idea, and shows the reproduction from seed in this part of the park to be very good, though a considerable number of other trees, such as ash and sycamore, are growing as well or better than the young beeches under the shade of the tall ones, which in this view are not so remarkable for their size as for their clean cylindrical trunks. At Ashridge Park, Bucks, the property of Earl Brownlow, are perhaps the most beautiful and best grown beeches in all England, not in small numbers, but in thousands. Though the soil is neither deep nor rich, being a sort of flinty clay overlying lime- stone, it evidently suits the beech to perfection, and in some parts of the park there is hardly a tree which is not straight, clean, and branchless for 40 to 60 feet, whilst in other parts, where the soil is heavier and wetter, and where oaks grow among the bracken to a great size, the beeches are of a more branching and less erect type. The largest and finest beech, from a timber point of view, at Ashridge, known as the King Beech, was blown down about 1891, and was purchased for ^36 by Messrs. East of Berkhampstead. Loudon says that this tree in 1844 was 114 feet high, with a clear trunk of 75 feet, which was 5 feet 6 inches in girth at that height. Evidently this was less than its real height. Mr. Josiah East tells me that as it stood it had about 90 feet of clean trunk, of which the lower 15 feet was partly rotten and not measured. The sound part was cut into three lengths as follows : — 17 feet X 29 inches, ^ girth 28 „ X 25 „ „ . 30 .. >< 23 .. » • butt, say, 15 „ x 36 „ „ . . 90 480 The branches were partly rotten and much broken in falling, so that they were only fit for firewood. But the celebrated Queen Beech remains, and though in one or two places it shows slight signs of decay, it may, I hope, live for a century or more, as it is in a fairly sheltered place, and has no large spreading limbs to be torn off by the wind. This extremely perfect and beautiful tree was photographed with great = 99 cubic feet = 136 j> >j = 110 » »j = 135 n )) Fagus 21 care from three positions by Mr. Wallis (Plate 3), and as carefully measured by Sir Hugh Beevor and myself in Sept. 1903. We made it as nearly as possible to be 135 feet high (certainly over 1 30), and this is the greatest height I know any deciduous tree, except the elm, to have attained in Great Britain. Its girth was 12 feet 3 inches, and its bole straight and branchless for about 80 feet, so that its contents must be about 400 feet to the first limb.^ Other extraordinary beeches at Ashridge are figured. Plate 4 is an illustration of natural inarching of a very peculiar type : the larger tree is 1 7 feet 6 inches in girth, the smaller, 4 feet 9 inches, and the connecting branch 12 feet long. It passes into the other tree without any signs to indicate how the inarching took place, and might almost have been a root carried up by the younger tree from the ground, as it has no buds or twigs on it. There are several beeches at Ashridge with very large and curious bosses on the trunk ; one of these (Plate 5) at the base measured 21 feet over the boss, another had a large burr growing out of the side of a straight, clean, healthy tree at 40 feet from the ground. Such burrs are formed on the trunks of healthy as well as of diseased beeches, but I am not sure whether they ever have their origin in injuries produced by insects, birds, or other extraneous causes. Sometimes they have a horny or almost coral-like growth. Such burrs when cut through have an ornamental grain, which might be used for veneers when sufficiently compact and solid, but are left to rot on the ground by timber merchants, who as a rule place no value on such products. In some parts of this park the beeches show a remarkably wide -spreading network of snake-like roots on the surface, which, though not uncommon in this tree when growing on shallow soil, are here unusually well developed. There is a remarkable beech clump to the east of the house containing 26 trees in a circle of 197 paces (11 of them grow in a circle of 78 paces), of which every tree is large, clean, and straight. The largest of them is about 125, perhaps 130, feet high, and 13 feet 10 inches in girth, and the average contents of the trees probably over 200 feet. I do not think I have ever seen in England such a large quantity of timber on so small an area. But though it is doubtful whether any place in England can boast so many perfect beech trees as Ashridge, this park contains also some of the finest limes, the largest horse-chestnuts, and the most thriving and bulky chestnuts ; and in a wood not far off is an ash which is much the best-grown tree of its species, if not the largest, that I have seen in England. All things considered, I doubt whether there is a more interesting and beautiful type of an English park than Ashridge, for though it contains few exotic trees, and no conifers except some Scotch pines, it has a magnificent herd of red, of Japanese, and of fallow deer, as well as flocks of St. Kilda sheep and of white Angora goats. At Rotherfield Park, Hants, there is an immense pollard beech, of which I have a photograph kindly sent me by the owner, Mr. A. E. Scott, who gives its girth as 28 feet 3 inches at the narrowest point, 3 feet from the ground. ' According to Loudon, iii. 1977, this tree was in 1844 no feet high, 10 feet in girth at 2 feet, and 74 feet to the first branch. 22 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland At Slindon Wood, near Petworth, Sussex, between the South Downs and the sea, which is seven miles distant, on the property of Major Leslie, there was in 1903 one of the finest beech woods in England, growing on chalk soil, of which I have particulars from Mr. C. H. Greenwood, and of which I give an illustration from a photograph sent me by him (Plate 6). Mr. Greenwood states that 634 trees were recently cut and sold in this wood, many of them being 70 and several 80 to 90 feet long to the first limb, and quarter girthing 20 inches in the middle. One tree now standing measures, without the top, 70' x 26" = 320 feet, and on one acre at the east side of the wood are standing 60 which would average 150 feet each, making 9000 cubic feet to the acre. The tallest tree is 90 feet to the first bough, with 2 1 inches ^ girth = 275 feet. This is perhaps the largest yield of beech per acre of which I have any record in England. In Windsor Park there are some fine old beeches, of which three are figured by Menzies.^ His plate 4 shows a remarkable old pollard at Ascot Gate 30 feet in girth, which he supposed to be 800 years old, and another, his plate 6, on Smith's lawn, of similar age and 31 feet 9 inches in girth. The third. Queen Adelaide's Beech, is a tree of no great size or beauty. It measured in 1864 8 feet 6 inches in girth, when supposed by Menzies to be 140 years old. In 1904 it had only increased 10 inches in girth. The finest beech now growing at Windsor — Mr. Simmonds, the deputy-surveyor of the Park, who was good enough to show it to me, agrees in this — is a tree near Cranbourne Tower, which in March 1904 measured 125 feet by 15, with a fine clean bole, but not equal to that of the Queen Beech at Ashridge. The two largest beech trees, of whose measurement I have exact particulars, were both blown down in the heavy gale of September 1903, I believe on the same night. One of these was at Cowdray Park in Sussex, the property of the Earl of Egmont, and grew on sandy soil near the top of the great chestnut avenue at a considerable elevation, perhaps 400 feet. I saw it lying on the ground not long after, and ob- tained from Mr. Barber, steward on the estate, the following careful measure- ments : — Butt 22 feet by 72 inches \ girth =792 feet. Limbs measured down to 9 inches \ girth only, 43 in number, contained 924 feet 6 inches. Total 17 16 feet 6 inches. Measured on the ground 2 1 St September 1903. The other was the great beech at Cornbury Park, of which I give a photograph taken after its fall (Plate 7), that gives an idea of its immense size. I saw the stump of this tree two years afterwards, and counted about 230 rings in it, which justify the belief that it may have been planted by Evelyn. Mr. C. A. Fellowes, agent for the property, had the tree carefully measured after its fall, and gives its height as 120 feet, girth 21 feet 4 inches. Cubic contents 1796 feet (nothing under 6 inches quarter girth being measured). A magnificent beech growing in Studley Park, the seat of the Marquis of Ripon, was figured by Loudon, iii. 1955, and is there stated to have been 114 feet high. ' History of Windsor Great Park and Windsor Forest, 1864. Fagus 2'3 Mr. O. H. Wade, agent for the estate, tells me that this tree cannot now be identified. Another celebrated tree, mentioned by Loudon as Pontey's Beech, was measured for him in 1837 by the direction of the Duke of Bedford in the Park at Woburn Abbey. It was then 100 feet high, with a clean bole of 50 feet, and was 12 feet 6 inches in girth at 4 feet. When visited in July 1903 it was about the same height and 14 feet 6 inches in girth, and was estimated to contain nearly 600 cubic feet. A tree known as the Gorton Beech at Boyton, Wilts, once the home of Mr. Lambert, author of the Genus Pinus, and mentioned by Loudon as one of the largest in England, was blown down a few years ago, and I have not been able to get its dimensions. There were some very fine beeches at Castle Howard, Yorkshire, the seat of the Earl of Carlisle, one of which Loudon gives as no feet by 14 feet 2 inches, with a clean bole of 70 feet, and the other as containing 940 feet of timber, but when I visited this fine place in 1905 I could not identify either of these trees as still standing, though I saw many in Raywood of great size, with clean boles of 50 to 60 feet. A tree standing outside the garden wall was remarkable for the very rugged bark on its trunk, which up to 8 to 10 feet from the ground was more like that of an elm than a beech. In Scotland, though the beech does not attain quite the same height and size as in some parts of England, it is a fine and commonly planted tree. The self-layered beech at Newbattle Abbey near Dalkeith, the property of the Marquess of Lothian, eight miles from Edinburgh, must be looked on as the most remarkable, if not the largest, of all the beeches of the park or spreading type now standing in Britain ; and though difficult to represent such a tree by photography in a manner to show its great size, every pains has been taken by Mr, Wallace of Dalkeith to do it justice (Plates 8 and 9). This splendid tree is growing in light alluvial soil in front of the house, and not far from the banks of the North Esk river, and may be 300 years old or more. It was in Loudon's time 88 feet high, and the trunk 9 feet in diameter (probably at the base), with a spread of branches of 100 feet. When I visited it in February 1904 under the guidance of Mr. Ramsay, who has known the tree for many years, I made it about 105 feet high, with a girth at about 5 feet — which is near the narrowest part of the bole — of 21 feet 6 inches. The trunk, as will be seen from the figure, is unusual in shape, and shows no sign of decay except where one large limb has been blown off, and this has been carefully covered with lead. But the numerous branches which have drooped to the ground, taken root, and formed a circle of subsidiary stems round the main trunk, are its most peculiar feature, and may remain as large trees for centuries after the central stem decays. The first of these has produced 7 stems of various sizes growing into fresh trees, at a distance of 8 to 12 yards from the trunk. The second has 2 large and 3 smaller stems. The third has 3 large stems about 30 to 40 feet high and 3 to 4 feet in girth. The fourth has 3 large and 6 smaller ones. The fifth is not yet firmly rooted, but is fastened down in several places to prevent the wind from moving it. The total circumference of 24 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland these branches is about 400 feet Detailed measurements by Mr. Ramsay are given below.' A similar instance of self- layering, perfectly natural, was to be seen in the Kew Gardens, where a very fine beech, though by no means such a giant as the Newbattle tree, was surrounded by a fence in order to protect it. This tree, however, having become seriously decayed, had its main stem cut down in 1904. Among the best specimens I have seen in Scotland are those at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, the seat of the Marquess of Linlithgow, where I measured a tree no feet high, with a clean bole of about 50 feet, and a girth of 12 feet. At Blair Drummond, near Perth, the seat of H. S. Home Drummond, Esq., Henry measured one of 117 feet high by 16 feet 6 inches in girth, and at Methven Castle, the seat of Colonel Smythe, another which is 120 feet high by 17 feet 2 inches in girth. This tree divides into three stems at about 20 feet, and is the tallest of which we have any certain record in Scotland. At Gordon Castle is a very fine beech with spreading roots (Plate 10) measuring 95 feet by 15 feet 8 inches. At Castle Menzies, Perthshire, the property of Sir Neil Menzies, is a very fine beech, which is described by Hunter* as a vegetable "Siamese Twins." Whether originally two trees or one is difficult to say, but it seemed to me to be from a single root which had forked a little above the ground and then grown together again, leaving an opening through which Hunter says an ordinary sized person might pass, but which in 1904 was smaller. At Inverary Castle is another example of an inosculated beech, known as the Marriage Tree, which, from a photograph published by Valentine, does not seem to be so striking as the one at Castle Menzies. 1 Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, N.B. Measurement of the great beech tree , August 25, 1903 Girth in feet, inches, etc., of trunk — At the ground . . 43 feet 8 inches About I foot up 37 ., „ 2^ feet „ 27 „ 8 ,. „ 3 .. .. \ ' 25 ,. 9i .. » 4 » » 23 ,. 4 .. „ 4i „ „ 21 „ iii „ „ 5 .. .. 20 „ 3J „ ., 6 „ „ 19 .. ri ,. The ground measurement was taken by allowing the tape to lie on the roots as near to the uprising of the buttresses as possible, and is necessarily vague. The measurement at 6 feet up is the most correct, being taken on a line marked at intervals all round with white paint for fiiture comparison. Circumference of foliage fully 400 feet ; diameter of foliage averages 130 to 140 feet ; height, 1 12 feet. The following are a few of the branches with the girth of them, and the girth of the branches springing up from the main branches rooted in the ground : — No. I. — Branch girth, i foot 10 inches, with two branches growing up from it ; girth of both these new branches, 4 feet 5 inches each. No. 2. — Branch girth, i foot 8 inches, having three branches springing up from it, one 5 feet 5 inches, one 5 feet I inch, one 23 inches by I foot 1 1 inches in girth. No. 3. — Branch girth, 12J inches, having three branches springing up from it, one 4 feet 7^ inches, one 24J inches, one 4 feet 4 inches in girth. No. 4. — Branch girth, 12 inches, with two branches springing up from it, one 2 feet 8^ inches, one 12 inches in girth. No. 5. — Branch girth, 1 foot 7 inches, with three branches springing up from it, one 2 feet 4J inches, one 12 inches, one 18 inches in girth. No. 6. — Branch girth, 2 feet 4 inches, with five branches springing up from it, one 4 feet 4 inches, one 3 feet 8 inches, one 4 feet, one 3 feet 4 inches, one I foot 1 1 inches in girth. * Hunter, iVoods, Forests, and Estates of Perthshire, 1883, p. 397. Fagus 2'5 There are two beeches standing on a mound near the road to Lochfynehead in the Park at Inverary, which are known as the Doom trees, because in former times they were said to have been used as a gibbet for criminals ; the largest of them measures 75 feet by 16 feet 5 inches. The Duke of Argyll, however, doubts this tradition. There is another very fine beech, the largest I know of in the West Highlands, at Ardkinglas, at the head of Lochfyne, under which Prince Charles's men are said to have camped in 1745. Though of no great height it has a girth of 18 feet 8 inches, and spread of branches 30 yards in diameter. In Ayrshire the largest beech is at Stair House. According to Renwick,' in 1903 it was 100 feet high, and 18 feet 9 inches at 4 feet 3 inches above the ground. At Kilkerran, in the same county, Renwick records a beech 21 feet 3^ inches at 3 feet from the ground, which, however, had a bole of only 4 feet. Other large beeches in Scotland occur at Eccles in Dumfriesshire, and at Belton in East Lothian. The Eccles Beech, according to Sir R. Christison, was little inferior to the Newbattle Beech ; according to Hutchinson, in 1869 it was 20 feet in girth at 4 feet up. I learn from Dr. Sharp that it has been dead for some years. The Belton Beech in 1880 was 20 feet 4 inches girth at 5 feet, with a 13-feet bole and a height of 63 feet. One of the most striking effects produced by the beech in Scotland is the celebrated beech hedge of Meikleour, in Perthshire, on the Marquess of Lansdowne's property. An account of this hedge is given in the Gardeners Chronicle, Dec. 15, 1900. This hedge forms the boundary between the grounds and the highway, and has to be cut in periodically, which is done by men working on a long ladder, from which they are able to reach with shears to about 60 feet. Local history says that this hedge was planted in 1745, and that the men who were planting it left their work to fight at the battle of Culloden, hiding their tools under the hedge, and never returning to claim them.^ It is 580 yards long, and composed of tall, straight stems planted about 18 inches apart, and nearly touching at the base. The average height of the trees, as I am informed by Mr. Donald Matheson, is 95 feet, and their average girth at 3 feet is 18 to 36 inches. He adds that "close to the ground they are as fresh and green as a young hedge." An illustration of this hedge, taken specially for our work by Mr. D. Milne of Blairgowrie, gives a good idea of its appearance in October 1903 (Plate 11). I am informed by Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P., that a remarkably similar occurrence is on record at Achnacarry, on the property of Cameron of Lochiel ; here the trees were laid in ready to plant in 1715, and the men were also called off to take part in the rebellion of that year. The trees were never planted, and have grown up in a slanting position close together just as they were left. In a paper on the " Old and Remarkable Trees of Scotland," published in 1867 by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, many other remark- ' Renwick in British Association Handbook, p. 140 (1901). We are much indebted to Mr. John Renwick for measurements and descriptions of large and interesting trees in the south-west of Scotland. ' Hunter, loc. cit. 379. I E 26 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland able beeches are mentioned, of which one at Edenbarnet in the parish of Old Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire, is said to be 140 feet high ; but the measurements of many of the trees in this compilation are so unreliable that I cannot believe them without confirmation. J. Kay, in Scottish Arb. Soc. Transactions, ix. p. 75, mentions a tree in the Beech Walk at Mount Stuart in Bute, which in 1881 was 120 feet by 11 feet 9 inches, with a clean bole 60 feet high, and contained 450 feet of timber. In Ireland the beech is probably not a native tree. According to Hayes* it was first introduced at Shelton, near Arklow, where, in 1794, there were beech trees as much as 15 feet in girth, and many carrying a girth of 10 feet for more than 40 feet high. Another growing at Tiny Park was 16 feet 3 inches in girth, and continued nearly of that girth for 36 feet. Hayes also mentions, as an instance of the rapid growth of the beech in Ireland, "several at Avondale, which were trans- planted within thirty years on a swelling ground at that time much exposed to storm, are now (1793) from 7 feet 6 inches to 6 feet 6 inches at a foot from the ground, and continue nearly of that size from 8 to 20 feet in height. Of two which were planted in a richer soil near the river, and are now (1793) just fifty-four years from the mast, one measures 9 feet round, the other 9 feet 6 inches." The finest beeches in Ireland, probably, are those occurring at Woodstock (Co. Kilkenny), the seat of E. K. B. Tighe, Esq. — a property which is remarkable all round for magnificent trees of many kinds, and which is in the possession of a family that for generations has been deeply interested in forestry and arboriculture. The measurements of many trees have been taken periodically for nearly a century. The best beeches on this beautiful property occur in the meadow land by the River Nore, close to the village of Inistioge. The following table gives an interesting series of measurements of these beeches : — No. Girth. Height. 1825. 183a 1834. 1846. V I9OI. 1904. 1901. 1904. As C7 B3 B5 Be B2 Bi B9 Bs ft. in. 10 9 12 I 11 10 II 4 II 0 II 9 ft. in. 11 I 12 10 12 3 II II II 6 ft. in. 11 6 14 4 13 8 12 10 12 7 12 9 9 5 ft. in. 12 6 12 7 12 5 15 4 14 10 13 8 13 8 14 0 10 I ft. in. 20 6 17 3 14 0 18 9 17 9 15 8 16 6 16 7 12 3 ft. in. 20 7 17 9 18 10 16 4 81 97 91 113 108 112 106 120 100 86 99 117 109 The measurements up to 1901 are from the foresters' records; those of 1904 were taken by Henry. The beech Aj, has a great bole, dividing into three limbs at 18 feet up, and is a very wide-spreading tree. Cj is pressed on each side by two lime trees, and is narrow in shape. The most remarkable of all is B^, which is probably the tallest beech in Ireland. ' Hayes, A Practical Treatise on Planting (1794), pp. 109, 1 18. Fagus 27 As showing the rate of growth of the beech in Co. Galway, a beech measured by Lord Clonbrock at Clonbrock was 11 feet 3 inches in girth in 1871, and 15 feet in 1903. A beech hedge at Kilruddery, Co. Wicklow, the seat of Lord Meath, said to be 300 years old, was measured by Henry in 1904, when it was 18 feet through and 29 feet high. It is clipped regularly, and forms a dense, impenetrable mass. Beech Coccus We are indebted to Mr. R. Newstead of the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, for particulars of the coccus which in some seasons, and in certain parts of England, has been of late years very injurious to the beech. A fuller account of this insect has been written by him in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. 1900, vol. xxiii. p. 249, and in a leaflet recently published by the Board of Agriculture. From this we take the following precis : — The trunks and, less frequently, the main branches of good-sized beech trees are often covered, to a greater or less extent, with irregular spots of a white cottony substance. The latter is really the covering of white felted wax fibres secreted by the felted beech coccus (Cryptococcus fagi, Barensprung), a minute, hemispherical, lemon-yellow insect, about one twenty-fifth of an inch long, without legs, but fur- nished on the underside with a well-developed beak, which it buries in the bark for the purpose of sucking up the juices of the tree. When once a tree is attacked the number of individuals of the pest becomes in time so great that it is doubtful whether a badly-infected tree ever recovers unless active measures be taken against the insect. The waxy covering of the latter is sufficient to protect it against the effects of any of the insecticides usually applied by spraying, and its habit of preferring the deepest part of the fissures in the bark makes it difficult to remove with certainty. The only remedy at all likely to succeed is that of thoroughly scrubbing the bark with a stiff brush and soap and water, the latter mixed in the proportion of half a pound of soft soap to each gallon of water ; and the success of this treatment depends for the most part on the amount of care taken to dislodge the insects by means of the brush. Timber The timber of the beech is not valued so highly in England as abroad, where it is considered as the best fuel in general use, and is little used in carpentry or building, as it is hard, brittle, and liable to be attacked by beetles. It weighs when green about 65 lbs. to the cube foot, when dry about 50. Its durability is said to be increased by seasoning it in water, and it is more durable when entirely under water than most timbers, being highly recommended by Matthews and Laslett for planking the sides and bottoms of ships. In France it is used, when creosoted, for railway sleepers, but requires more than twice as much creosote to preserve it as oak does, and is not used in England, so far as I know, for this purpose. It is also used for tool handles, rollers, butchers' blocks, brush heads, planes, and general turnery, but decays rapidly when exposed to the weather. 28 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland The principal centres for beechwood furniture in England are at High Wycombe, and Newport Pagnell in Bucks, and the price of clean trunks in these districts is from IS. to IS. 6d. per cube foot standing, according to the situation. Beechwood is also used largely for making saddle-trees, and in consequence of the great demand for these during the South African war, went up to a very high price in 1901, when I was offered is. 4d. a foot standing for beech trees which in ordinary times would not be worth more than 8d. or gd. a foot. Being easy to split it is, where there is a demand for firewood, easier to dispose of the branches and rough parts of the tree for this purpose, but the amount of waste is much greater in the beech than in some other trees, unless grown in thick woods. For more minute particulars of the characters and uses of this timber. Stone's Timbers of Commerce, p. 231, and Loudon, pp. 1959-64, may be consulted with advantage. (H. J. E.) J ^ AILANTHUS Ailanthus, Desfontaines, Mem. Acad. Farts, 1786 (1789), 263, t. 8 ; Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL i. 309 (1862); Prain, Indian Forester, xxviii. 131, Plates i. ii. iii. (1902). Lofty trees with very large alternate imparipinnate leaves. Flowers small, polygamous, bracteolate, in panicles. Calyx 5-toothed, imbricate. Petals 5, valvate, disk lo-lobed. Stamens 10 in the staminate flowers, 2-3 in the hermaphrodite flowers, and absent in the pistillate flowers. Ovary present in pistillate and hermaphrodite flowers, rudimentary in staminate flowers, deeply 2-5 cleft with connate styles: ovules i in each cell. Fruit of 1-5 samaras, with large mem- branous wings, each samara containing i seed. Ailanthus belongs to the Natural order Simarubeae, and consists of about eleven species occurring in India, Indo-China, China, Java, Moluccas, and Queensland. Most of the species are tropical trees, Ailanthus glandulosa being until lately the only species which was known to occur in temperate regions ; but Ailanthus Vilmoriana, Dode,' must be here mentioned. This is a tree remarkable for its prickly branchlets, of which only one specimen is known, namely, a young, healthy, vigorous tree grown in M. de Vilmorin's garden at Les Barres.^ It was raised from seed sent by Pere Farges in 1897 from the mountains of Szechuan in Central China ;^ and is certainly a very distinct species. I saw it in the summer of 1904, and in general aspect there is little to distinguish it from the common species. It is now about 20 feet in height. The leaflets in this species are less abruptly acuminate, not falcate, much duller above and paler beneath, with larger glands than in Ailanthus glandulosa. All the parts of the tree are much more pubescent than in that species. Ailanthus grandis,^ Prain, a new species from Sikkim and Assam, which attains 120 feet high, may be here mentioned, as it is possible that it might be grown in Cornwall or in Kerry. It has not yet been introduced. • Revue Horticole, 1904, p. 445, fig. 184. ' Figured in Fruticetum Vilmorinianum, 1 904, p. 31 ; where it is called Ailanthus glandulosa, var. sphwsa. ' Mr. E. H. Wilson informs us that it is very common in the valleys of the Min, Tung, and Fou rivers, between 2000 and 4500 feet. He says that it is much more spiny in the young than in the adult state, and that it has much larger foliage than the common species. A plant is now growing at Kew, and is referred to by Mr. Bean in Gardener^ Chronicle, xxxviii. 276(1905). * Indian Forester, xxviii. 131, Plate i. (1902). 29 30 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland AILANTHUS GLANDULOSA, Ailanthus Tree Ailantkus glandulosa, Desfontaines, Mim. Acad. Paris. 1786(1789), 263, t. 8; Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 490 (1838); Britten and Brown, Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, ii. 355, Fig. 2272 (1897). A tree attaining 100 feet in height and 13 feet in girth; branches massive and forming an oval crown, which becomes flattened at the top in old trees. Bark smooth, grey, or dark brown, and marked by longitudinal, narrow, pale-coloured fissures, which are very characteristic. Leaves deciduous, compound, 1-3 feet long, imparipinnate, with 7-9 (sometimes even 20) pairs of leaflets, which are either opposite or nearly so, shining above, pale and glabrous (occasionally slightly pubescent) beneath, and unequally divided by the midrib. Each leaflet is stalked, ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate at the apex, cordate or truncate at the base, entire in margin, except that near the base there are 1-4 pairs of glandular teeth. Stipules absent. The leaves appear late in spring, and exhale when rubbed a disagreeable odour which renders them distasteful to animals. They fall off late in autumn, absciss layers being formed at the base of the leaflets as well as of the main stalk ; the former usually drop first. Flowers appearing in July and August in large panicles at the summit of the branchlets, either unisexual or hermaphrodite ; but as a rule the trees are practically dioecious, and those bearing staminate flowers give off an objectionable odour. Fruit, 1-5 keys, resembling those of the ash, linear or oblong, membranous veined, with a small indentation above the middle on one side, close to where the seed is located ; and the wings on both sides of the seed are slightly twisted, so that the fruit in sailing through the air moves like a screw. The keys are bright red or purplish brown in colour, and are very conspicuous amidst the green foliage. Seedling : the cotyledons appear above the* soil on a caulicle about an inch long and are foliaceous, coriaceous in texture, oboval, obtuse, shortly stalked, entire in margin, and pinnate in venation. The stem above them is pubescent, and at a short distance (about \ inch) up bears two leaves, which are trifoliolate and long- stalked, the terminal leaflet being lanceolate, acuminate, and entire, the two lateral shorter and toothed.^ Higher up ordinary pinnate leaves are borne. Plate 15 a shows a seedling raised by Elwes from seed ripened on a tree overhanging Dr. Charles Hooker's garden at Cirencester in 1900;'^ sown November 26, germinated under glass in May 1901, and photographed on August 28 of the same year, when it measured about a foot high ; the roots, which were very succulent and brittle, were 1 3 inches long. The seedlings were planted out in May 1902, and grew very rapidly, attaining 5 feet in height, but did not ripen their wood, which was killed back in some cases nearly to the ground. They are now (January 1905) 4-6 feet high. • See Plate 14, fig. B. ' As I know of no other tree in the neighbourhood this case seems to confirm Bunbury's observation that the tree in some cases is capable of self-fertilisation. — (H. J. E.) i Ailanthus 3 1 Identification In summer the Ailanthus is readily distinguished from all other trees cultivated in England by its large pinnate leaves, which have at the base of the leaflets on each side one or two glandidar teeth. The black walnut, butternut, and Cedrela sinensis have somewhat similar foliage ; but in these the glandular teeth are wanting. The bark of Ailanthus is quite peculiar, and when once seen cannot be confounded with that of any other tree. In winter Ailanthus is easily recognised by its bark in trees of a certain size ; but in all stages of growth it is well marked by the characters of the buds and branchlets. The buds are alternate, uniform in size, small and hemispherical, and show externally 2 or 3 brown tomentose scales.^ The buds are set obliquely on the twigs just above the leaf-scars. The latter are large, heart-shaped, and slightly concave ; and on their surface may be seen about 7 little elevated cicatrices which correspond to the vascular bundles of the fallen leaves. No true terminal bud is formed ; and at the apex of the twig there is an elevated small circular scar, which marks the spot where the tip of the branchlet fell off in summer. The twigs are very coarse, glabrous, or finely pubescent, shining and brown in colour, with a few plainly visible lenticels. The pith is large, buff or yellowish in colour, showing clearly on section the medullary rays. In Cedrela there is a large terminal bud, and the leaf- scar has 5 cicatrices. The chambered pith of Juglans will readily distinguish the black walnut and butternut. Varieties Several varieties are mentioned in books ; aucubcefolid, pendulifolia, rubra, and flavescens being recognised by Schelle ; ^ but it is doubtful if any of these are sufficiently marked to deserve recognition. The Ailanthus flavescens^ of gardens was determined by Carriere to be Cedrela sinensis. A form with variegated leaves is mentioned by Koch,* but it is exceedingly rare. The Kew Hand-list only admits one variety, pendula, a form somewhat weeping in habit. Distribution Ailanthus glandulosa has been only found truly wild on the mountains of the province of Chihli in Northern China ; but it is cultivated in most parts of China, and doubtless was once a constituent of the forests of the northern coast provinces, most of which have been destroyed by the Chinese. I never saw it wild in any of the mountain forests of Central or Southern China. When first introduced ' A plate showing buds will appear in a later part. * Laubhoh-Benennung, 279 (1903). ' See article on the " Ailanto or Tree of Heaven " by Nicholson, in Garden, 1883, xxiv. 63, with figure of flowers, fruit, and foliage, and many interesting details concerning propagation, etc. * Koch, Dendrologie, i. 569 (1869). 32 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland into Europe it was supposed to be the species of Rhus which yields Japanese varnish or lacquer; and even now it is often called in France Vernis du Japan. The tree, however, is unknown wild in Japan, and is seldom or never cultivated there. The Chinese in classical times were well acquainted with Ailanthus, which they called cKu, a word explained as meaning "useless wood," as it was in ancient times (as well as at present) used only for firewood.* Popularly Ailanthus and Cedrela are now called cfiun trees, the former being distinguished as the "stinking ch'un," and the latter as the "fragrant ch'un," In China the Ailanthus grows to be a large tree; but the timber is little valued. The root-bark is used, as a strong infusion, in cases of dysentery.' In the Pharma- ceutical Museum, London, there are several specimens of barks bearing the Chinese name for Ailanthus ; but these are doubtfully referable to that species ; and the whole subject of the use of Ailanthus bark for dysentery requires further investigation.* In the Kew Museum there are specimens of silkworms {Atiacus Cynthia, Drury), which feed on the leaves of Ailanthus in North China ; and there are also samples of the " wild silk " produced, which is made into one kind of pongee. This species of silkworm was introduced into France in 1858; and large numbers of Ailanthus trees were planted with a view to the feeding of the silkworms. The winter of 1879 killed off all the silkworms; and apparently the cultivation of the tree in France for the production of silk is a thing of the past. In the Kew Museum there is a note attached to a specimen of the wood of Ailanthus glandulosa from Tuscany, which says that the bark yields a resinous juice ; but there is no account of such a resin from Chinese sources ; and exudation from the bark has not been observed in trees growing in England or in France. In India, however, the resin, called muttee-pal, is derived from the bark o{ Ailanthus malabarica, and is used both as an incense and as a remedy for dysentery. Introduction ^ Ailanthus glandulosa was first introduced from China in 1751. In Hortus Collinsonianus* p. 2, a memorandum is copied which was left by Collinson, stating :"A stately tree raised from seed from Nankin in 1751, sent over by Father d'Incarville, my correspondent in China, to whom I sent many seeds in return ; he sent it to me and the Royal Society." P^re d'Incarville'* was a French Jesuit missionary, who died at Peking in 1757. In Trans. Phil. Soc, 1757, a paper is printed, which was read on 25th November 1756, being a letter from John Ellis to P. C. Webb ; and it mentions two trees which were growing, one in Webb's ' In the Sku-Ching, it is said : " In the ninth month they make firewood of the cVu tree." * On the therapeutical value of this drug, see articles by Drs. Dudgeon and Robert, in London Pharmaceutical Journal, ser. iii. iv. 890, and vii. 372. 3 The bark has been found to be an excellent vermifuge in cases of tapeworm. See Hetet, in U.S. Dispens, 15th edition, 1564. * Compiled by L. W. Dillwyn, and published at Swansea in 1843. » In Cibot, M/m. Cone. Chinois, ii. 1777, 583, d'Incarville's " M^moire sur les vers i. soie sauvage" is published, in which he speaks of the Ailanthus as K\\e frlne puant (stinking ash) of North China. Ailanthus 33 garden at Busbridge, near Godalming, and another in the Chelsea Physic Garden, both raised from the seed sent by Pere d'Incarville. The tree is here first described as Rhus sinense foliis alatis, foliolis oblongis acuminatis ad basin subrotundis et dent at is} Tree of Heaven This name is often given to the tree in England, corresponding to the German Gotterbaum. It is not the translation of any Chinese name, as has often been erroneously stated. Desfontaines' original description occurred in a rare book which has not been looked up by most writers on the tree. He was well aware that the tree came from China, but in selecting a name for the genus he took it from another species which he found figured in Rumphius' Hortus Amboinensis, v. cap. 57, tab. 132. This species, left undescribed by Desfontaines, is Ailanthus moluccana. Rumphius calls it arbor coeli, the equivalent of the native name in the Amboyna language, Aylanto, which signifies "a tree so tall as to touch the sky." " Tree of Heaven " is accordingly a translation of the name of Rumphius, and is more properly applied to the tall tropical species than to Ailanthus glandulosa, which does not attain any remarkable height. Cultivation The Ailanthus is easily propagated from seeds; but as trees bearing male flowers are objectionable on account of their odour, it is preferable to propagate the tree from root-cuttings obtained from female trees. In addition to the disagreeable odour of the male flowers, there may be some foundation for the belief prevalent in the United States that they cause stomachic disturbance and sore throat. The pollen from staminate flowers, doubtless, occasions a kind of hay fever. The tree suckers freely from the root and to a great distance, as far as 100 feet from the parent stem. At Kew these suckers frequently appear between the tiles of the floor of one of the buildings near which an Ailanthus stands. At Oxford ^ a root-sucker sent up a flowering shoot, and, what is more remarkable, produced simple leaves, giving some support to the idea that plants with compound foliage originated from those with simple leaves. The tree has extraordinary vitality. Dr. Masters^ gives an account of a tree which was cut down, the stump being left in the ground below the surface. Several years elapsed during which nothing was observed, but after about ten years suckers were seen coming up in a gravel path adjacent, and these, being traced, were found to issue from the old stump. Ailanthus reproduces itself freely from stools, and the coppice shoots thus obtained are very vigorous. It was long supposed that Ailanthus would succeed even on the worst soils, but this is an error. It only does well on permeable soils, which are fairly moist, ' In the herbarium of the British Museum there is a specimen labelled Hort. Busbridge, which is undoubtedly from the original tree. It was cut down in 1856 owing to the great amount of shade it produced near the house {Card. Chron. 1857, p. 55). There is another specimen from Kew Gardens, 1779, showing that the tree was cultivated early there. 1" Card. Chron. 1887, ii. 364. I F 34 T^he Trees of Great Britain and Ireland and for this reason it is successfully used to cover railway and road embankments in France. It will not grow well on compact clay or on chalky or absolutely poor soils. In England it has only been planted as an ornamental tree, and it is very suitable for planting in towns, as it is not injured by smoke and is free from insect attacks and fungous diseases. Though it suckers freely, this is no objection in streets, where the pavements or wheel traffic prevents them from making an appearance. The young shoots are often killed by frost, but this only serves to keep the tree within bounds without the use of the pruning knife. The Ailanthus only makes one shoot annually, late in the spring, which continues to grow till October or November, and this is the reason why it is spring tender, as the tips of the shoots do not become properly lignified. The tree, however, bears the greatest cold in winter, and was not injured by the severe frost of 1879. The tree produces flowers in England when it is about 40 feet high ; and it fruits pretty frequently, but the seeds are often infertile. When the Ailanthus is cut back annually, it grows rapidly and produces foliage of enormous size, suitable for the so-called tropical garden. Leaves of plants so treated have measured as much as 4 feet long and 15 inches wide. The Ailanthus succeeds in a great variety of climates, and is planted in regions so diverse as Northern India, the United States, France, Germany, and Italy. In France it has not been successful as a forest tree, as it is not a social species, and is speedily dominated by native trees, if it survives the seedling stage, when it is sensitive to spring frosts. In warmer climates it easily regenerates by seed, and in consequence has become naturalised in many parts of Europe (as on the arid slopes of Mount Vesuvius, where it stands very well the drought), and in the United States,^ where it often runs wild in old fields. American writers praise the tree for the value of its wood and the rapidity of its growth, as it is said to make timber faster than any of the native trees that are used for firewood. The wood is yellowish or yellowish green, and is not clearly distinguishable into well-marked heart and sap woods, though in old trees the centre of the stem becomes deeper in colour. The wood has a specific gravity of 0.6, and is easily worked, taking a good polish. It rives easily. It is used by wheelwrights as a substitute for elm and ash ; but is inferior to these, as it does not possess their elasticity or their capability of resistance to fracture. It is said, however, to bear well alternations of dry and wet. Mr. J. A. Weale of Liverpool, who has paid great attention to the study of timbers, and knows more about them than any one in the trade in this country, writes to us that this wood resembles that of the ash so closely in structure, that the only real difference between the two is in the large cellular compound pores which are formed in the Ailanthus, as shown in the microscopical section which he enclosed. Elwes is assured by Prof. C. S. Sargent that it makes nice furniture, and he has a specimen from a large tree which was cut down in the Palace Gardens at Wells, Somerset, of which the timber was bought by Mr. Halliday, a cabinetmaker, for £%. ' Also in Southern Ontario. See Britton and Brown, loc. cil. Ailanthus 35 Remarkable Trees The largest Ailanthus was that at Syon, which was 70 feet high in Loudon's time, and nearly icxD feet in 1880.^ It is now dead. At Kew a vigorous tree is growing in the garden behind the Palace, which measures y^ feet high and 8 feet in girth. Not far off a number of Ailanthus trees of varying size, but none very large, occurs in a group, and they seem to be root-suckers ; probably one of the original trees was planted in this spot in the eighteenth century. At Milton Rectory, Steventon, Berks, there are two trees of equal height (78 feet), one girthing 9 feet i inch, and the other 8 feet 6 inches. Both these trees bloom freely every year, producing fruit of a bright red colour on the south side of the trees ; and the seeds, as they fall in the garden near hand, produce seedlings which are very vigorous.^ At the Mote, Maidstone, there are two large trees, one of which is 70 feet high and 8 feet in circumference. At Linton Park, Maidstone, is a tree growing in a shrubbery which was nearly 80 feet high by 6 feet 6 inches in 1902. At Broom House, Fulham, the residence of Miss Sulivan, is a tree 80 feet high, with a bole 9 feet long and 10 feet in girth, which divides into two main stems (Plate 13). At Fakenham, Norfolk, Sir Hugh Beevor has measured a tree 75 feet by 8 feet 1 1 inches. At Barton, Bury St. Edmunds, an Ailanthus which was planted in 1826' measured in 1904 55 feet high, with a girth of stem of 5 feet 2 inches. Bunbury says that it is perfectly hardy at Barton, and did not suffer in the least from the severe winter of i860. It was 2)h ^^^^ S'l'th at 3 feet from the ground in 1862. It flowered abundantly in August of 1861, the greater part of the flowers being herma- phrodite, and a considerable number of fruits were formed, but all dropped off before coming to maturity. It fruited abundantly in 1868. Bunbury says, generally there is only one samara to each flower, but not unfrequently two or three ; he never saw more than three. At Belton Park, the seat of Earl Brownlow, is a fine specimen of the tree, for a photograph of which (Plate 14) we are indebted to Miss F. Woolward, who gives its height as 83 feet, and its girth as 6 feet. This seems to be the tallest tree recorded in England. At Burwood House, Cobham, Surrey, the seat of Lady Ellesmere, Colonel H. Thynne has measured an Ailanthus 71 feet high by 10 feet 10 inches girth, which, though partly fallen down and supported by a prop, is still a fine tree. The tree seems to require a climate which is at once both warmer and drier in summer than that of the northern and western counties of England, and we do not know of any trees of any great size now existing in Scotland, Ireland, or Wales, though Loudon states that there was one at Dunrobin Castle, Sutherlandshire, 43 feet high. (A. H.) * Garden, 1880, xviii. 629. 2 The Rev. II. Hamilton Jackson kindly sent us this information in a letter dated Dec. 10, 1903. ' Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 88. SOPHORA Sophora, Linnaeus, Gen. PL 125 (1737); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL i. 555 (1865). Trees, shrubs, or perennial herbs, with naked buds and imparipinnate leaves. Flowers papilionaceous, in simple racemes or terminal leafy panicles. Calyx five- toothed, imbricate. Stamens ten, not united together, or rarely sub-connate. Ovary short-stalked, with many ovules. Pod moniliform, indehiscent, or tardily dehiscent. The name Sophora was taken by Linnaeus from the Arabic word Sophera, which indicated some leguminous tree. The genus belongs to the tribe Sophorese (Natural order Leguminosae, division Papilionaceae) characterised by imparipinnate leaves and ten free stamens. There are about twenty-five species of Sophora, generally spread throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of the globe. The only species of importance which attain to timber size are Sophora japonica and Sophora platycarpa. Sophora macrocarpa from Chile and Sophora tetraptera from New Zealand are shrubs or small trees, which are frequently cultivated in the southern counties of England, and do not come within the scope of our work, although they are said to attain a height of 50 feet in the wild state. Sophora platycarpa, Maximowicz, in Mel. Biol. ix. 70 (1873), [Fuj'i-ki in Japan), only lately^ introduced into cultivation in England ; but in the United States, where it has been grown for some time, it is said to have proved hardier than Sophora Japonica."^ It is a tree of considerable size, occurring in woods in Japan on the side of Fusiyama and in Nambu. It is similar in leaves and flowers to Sophora japonica; and, as will be pointed out in our account of that species, has been probably confused with it by writers on Japanese trees. The leaves are larger than in Sophora Japonica, the leaflets being 2 to 3^ inches long, alternate, acuminate, glabrous or nearly so. The flowers are ^ inch long, white, and loosely arranged. The main difference is in the pod, which is membranous, flat, narrowly winged on each side, and irregularly constricted.* ' There are two plants at Kew which were raised from seeds obtained in 1896 from Spath of Berlin. See Mittheil. der Deut. Dendr. Gesell. 1896, p. 27. ' A. Rehder in Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, p. 1684 (1902). ' Sophora shiiokiana, Makino, in Tokyo Botanical Magazine, 1900, p. 56 (Yuko-noki in Japan), is described as a species closely allied to S. platycarpa, and as being widely distributed throughout the mountain districts of Japan. It is said to be a tree of considerable size. 36 Sophora 3 7 SOPHORA JAPONICA, Sophora Tree Sophora japonka, Linnaeus, Mantissa i. 68 (1767); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 563 (1838); Shirasawa, Iconographie des Essences Forestieres du Japon, i., Text, p. 86, Plate 50 (1900). A large tree, with a straight cylindrical stem of considerable height in some cases, but more often in cultivated examples dividing at no great distance above the base ; branches tortuous, with pendent tips ; crown of foliage, large, broad, and rounded in shape. Bark brown or greyish and scaly, fissured longitudinally, but to no great depth ; on young shoots and older branchlets, smooth and dark green. Leaves deciduous, alternate, unequally pinnate, with nine to fifteen leaflets, which are sub-opposite, oval, pointed at the apex, often ending in a short bristle, dark green and opaque above, glaucous beneath. In the ordinary cultivated form they are apparently glabrous, but with a lens minute hairs may be detected on both surfaces. The petiolules are velvety ; the main stalk is greenish, swollen at the base, and slightly pubescent. In certain wild specimens from China they are green and not glaucous beneath ; and in Hupeh a well-marked variety occurs, in which the under surface of the leaflets, the petiole, and young shoots are densely white pubescent. Flowers in large, loosely branched terminal panicles. They are somewhat vari- able in colour ; in Central China white, at Canton a bright yellow, in cultivation in England pale yellow, sometimes tinged with purple. Calyx small, bell-shaped, five- toothed. Corolla, standard large, obtuse, round, recurved ; wings oval-oblong ; keel semi-orbicular, rounded, and of the same length as the wings. Pod long- stalked, I to 2 inches long, glabrous, fleshy, compressed, with a beak at the apex, and constricted between the seeds, which are one to five in each pod, dark brown in colour and kidney shaped.^ In England the tree produces flowers regularly, late in the season, in August, September, and October, but seldom if ever fruits. Identification Sophora japonica is readily distinguished in summer by the leaves, the characters of which have been already given, and by the branchlets, which are angled, very smooth and dark green, both in the young shoots and those of the second year. When the young shoots are cut they emit a strong peculiar odour. In winter the characters of the buds and branchlets must be noted. The buds are spirally arranged on the shoots ; solitary or in pairs, one placed above the other ; naked, i.e. not surrounded by any true scales, and dark violet densely pubescent. They are ' Seedling. — Seeds sown early in the year at Colesborne produced two or three young plants, which showed the following characters in July : — Caulicle an inch or more in length, terete, green, glabrous, ending in a long whitish tap-root with numerous lateral fibres. Cotyledons oblong-spathulate, | inch long, entire, rounded at the apex, tapering at the base, sub-sessile, coriaceous, dark green and minutely pubescent above, pale green below. Stem white appressed pubescent, giving off alternately about six compound leaves ; the lower three with five leaflets, the terminal leaflet being larger and broader in proportion to its length than the others ; the upper three with 7 to 9 leaflets, uniform in size and shape ; all the leaflets oval, entire, shortly-stalked, their under surface with a scattered appressed pubescence, dense on the midrib. Small ovoid densely pubescent buds are produced, one in the axil of each leaf, the shoot being terminated by an oblong white pubescent larger bud. 38 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland very small and lodged in the leaf-scar, which is oval, with the bud in the centre, and displays three crescentic small cicatrices left by the vascular bundles of the petiole. The leaf-scar is set obliquely on a projecting leaf-cushion. The branchlets in winter are the same as in summer, but they show more clearly their zig-zag nature, and at their apex will generally be seen a little stub which indicates the point where the end of the branchlet fell off in summer, no true terminal bud being developed. Occasionally a true terminal bud may be seen at the apex of the shoot, which is open and not concealed in the leaf-scar, minute, bearing two scales out- wardly, and very pubescent.' Varieties In addition to the pubescent form of Central China, not yet introduced, a few varieties occur, concerning the origin of which little is known. Van variegata. — Leaves dull yellowish white in patches. This form is neither robust in growth nor attractive in appearance. Var. pendula "^ (Weeping Sophora). — One of the most formal of weeping trees. It is usually grafted by budding on seedlings of the common Sophora about 6 to 8 feet high ; and from this elevation the branches hang down until on reaching the ground their tips spread out or turn up. It can be used as an arbour; and even in winter the light, smooth, green branches make it ornamental. The only trouble is in procuring smooth, straight stems of the ordinary Sophora of a sufficient height. F. L. Temple* says: "In spring plant dormant Sophoras about f inch in diameter in the fairly rich earth bottom of a greenhouse. Cut them back to the ground, and set them i foot apart each way ; and by December first they will be out of the top of the house and as smooth as willows. Then lift and keep them protected in a cellar or frame, or heel them deep in a well-drained place till spring, when they can be planted in nursery rows, and grafted at the same time with the most gratifying results." With regard to the origin of the weeping Sophora nothing is known definitely; but Fortune* states that at Shanghai in 1853 he saw "pretty specimens of Sophora japonica pendula, grafted high as we see the weeping ash in England." It is probable that this variety was imported early from China. Var. crispa. — Leaves curled, the points of the shoots resembling as it were clusters of ringlets. We have never seen a specimen of this curious variety, which is not mentioned in the Kew Hand-list. Var. Korolkowii {Sophora Korolkowii, Cornu).* — This has longer and narrower leaflets than the type, and the young shoots, leaf-stalk petiole, and under surface of the leaflets, are whitish pubescent. The flowers are said to be of a dirty white in colour. Kohne * states that one of Dieck's introductions from Mongolia is identical with the plant cultivated at Segrez under this name, the origin of which is unknown. In the summer of 1904 I visited the Arboretum at Segrez, and saw this > A Plate showing buds will appear in a later part. ' An excellent article upon different species of weeping trees was published in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1900, xxviii 477 ; and on p. 479 there is a good figure of a fine specimen of the weeping Sophora. * Garden and Forest, 1889, 164. * Fortune, Residence among the Chinese, 139. ' Cornu's name is given on the authority of Zabel, in Laubhch-benennung (1903), p. 256. We have l)een unable to find Comu's description of the species. " Kohne, Dendrologie, 1893, p. 323. Sophora 39 specimen, which is about 30 feet high with a stem a foot in diameter, bearing a large roundish crown like the common Sophora. In the absence of flowers or fruit, it is impossible to say whether it is a distinct species ; but in foliage and other characters it differs so little from Sophora japonica, that probably ZabeP is correct in considering it to be only a form of that species. It seems to be well worth cultivation, judging from the vigorous growth and dense foliage of the fine specimen at Segrez. Van violacea. — This variety has also whitish pubescence on the shoots, petiole, and under surfaces of the leaflets, which are longish, with an acute or acuminate apex. The flowers are violet according to Dieck.^ It does not appear to be in cultivation in England. I incline to the belief that we have in these forms to deal with only two varieties of Sophora japonica, which is a widely spread species, and presents considerable variation in pubescence and in colour of the flowers in China. Var. oligophylla, Franchet* — This is a curious variety found by Pere David at a tomb near Peking, where he observed two trees. The leaflets are very few in number, three or four, and the end one is trilobed ; they are thicker in texture and more glaucous than is ordinarily the case. This variety would be well worth introduction. Distribution and History Sophora japonica, in spite of its name, does not appear to be really wild in Japan, although it is recorded from that country by Franchet * and Matsumura.* Shirasawa,' the latest Japanese authority, says it is planted around habitations in both the sub-tropical and temperate regions of Japan, and that it was introduced from China. Sargent^ observes: "Even Rein {The Industries of Japan), usually a most careful observer, states that ' Sophora japonica is scattered throughout the entire country, especially in the foliaceous forests of the north.' He had evidently confounded Sophora with Maackia,* a common and widely spread tree, especially in Yezo. Sophora, which is only seen occasionally in gardens, does not appear to be a particularly popular tree with the Japanese." The Kew Herbarium specimens from Japan are from gardens near Nagasaki, no wild specimens having been ever received. Sophora japonica is undoubtedly a native of China, and it is recorded from nearly all the provinces where Europeans have made botanical collections ; but of its occurrence as a forest tree there is little information. It appears to be really wild in the province of Chihli. I have never seen it in the numerous mountain forests which I visited in Central China or Yunnan ; and it is difficult to decide whether the trees seen at lower levels, where cultivation has been going on for centuries, are wild or planted. It has a wide range as a cultivated plant in China, as it flourishes from Pekin to Hongkong and from Shanghai to Yunnan. ' See note 5 supra. ^ Kohne, loc. cit. ' Franchet, Planta Davidiance, i. 100 (1884). ' Franchet et Savatier, Enum. Plant, in Japonia, i. 1 15. ' Matsumura, Shokubutsu-nitt-i, 279 (1895). * Shirasawa, loc. cit., Text, i. 86. The tree is called Enju in Japan. ' Sargent, Forest Flora of Japan, I. ' Maackia is another name for Cladraslis amurensis ; but it is possible that the tree confused with Sophora japonica in Japan is Sophora platycarpa, Maxim, which is very similar to it in foliage. Dupont, Les Essences Forestiires du Japon, p. 66, gives a very complete account of the wood and the uses of a forest tree in Japan, which he considered to be Sophora japonica ; but as it is evidently not that species, and as it is uncertain whether he referred to Sophora platycarpa or Cladrastis amurensis, I have not quoted his description. 40 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland It has been known to the Chinese from the earliest times, and has been always named by them the Huai tree. In the Chou Li, a Chinese classical book, dating from several centuries before the Christian era, it is mentioned as having a place in official audiences. In front of the high officials were placed three Sophora trees, beside which stood the counsellors. It was also used as firewood, and was planted in cemeteries, being the tree prescribed by law to be planted beside the tumulus, 4 feet high, in which officials of low degree were buried. The tumulus of the emperor was 30 feet high, and around it pine trees were planted. Feudal princes were honoured with cypresses ; and common people were only permitted to have willows around their tombs. The Sophora was also used medicinally from the earliest times in China, the flowers, fruit, bark, and root being all employed. In the Erh-ya, the oldest Chinese dictionary (twelfth century B.C.), the Huai tree is called the guardian of the palace ; and it is said to open its leaves by night and close them by day. The text is probably corrupt, and the periods of expanding and folding of the leaves are reversed. This is perhaps the first reference in any literature to the phenomenon of the sleep of plants. The term guardian of the palace no doubt refers to its use in official audiences. With regard to the uses of Sophora in China at the present day, in addition to its ornamental character as a tree planted frequently in the courtyards of temples, it is also of considerable economic importance. In commerce the flower-buds (^Huai- mi, huai-hua, huai-tze), and pods [kuai-chio, huai-shih) are met with everywhere ; but considerable confusion has arisen in books as to the exact uses of these products. Shirasawa {I.e.) is inaccurate in stating that the Chinese use the bark to dye paper and cloth of a yellow colour. Mouillefert ^ says the leaves are used for dyeing ; but this is also an error. The facts are simple : the flower-buds are used as a dye, and the pods as a medicine. The flower-buds, as seen for sale, are mixed with stalks, etc., and are evidently collected when quite young as they are only about ^ to ;|^ inch long. They are oval and pointed at the stalked end, dark greyish in colour, and tasteless. When immersed in water they impart to it a fine yellow colour. These flower-buds, packed in large sacks, are exported in considerable quantity from Shanghai and Tientsin. Consul Meadows in a letter to Kew gives an account of the process of dyeing, which is one for dyeing blue cloth a green colour rather than for obtaining a yellow colour.^ Debeaux ' asserts that the buds are moistened with water, and a quantity of common salt is added ; the mixture is then put in a press, which squeezes out a liquor with which cotton or silk may be dyed yellow. He adds that the leaves do not contain any yellow colouring matter. Every part of the tree abounds in a purgative principle ; and it has been asserted that it is dangerous to work with the wood when it is fresh, owing to the ' Mouillefert, Traiti des Arbres, 629. * The process, according to Meadows, is as follows : — " To dye a piece of cotton cloth of narrow width (I J feet) a thousand feet long, a mixture is made of 42 lbs. of Sophora buds, 8 lbs. of alum, and 666 lbs. of water, which is boiled in a large pot for six hours. In Chekiang both cottons and silks are first dyed a light blue, and .ire then put in the mixture just described, and all is boiled over again for three or four hours ; the cloth is then taken out and dried in the sun. It is afterwards boiled and sun-dried once or twice again, according as a lighter or darker tint of green is required." ^ Debeaux, Note sur guelques maiiires tinctoriaUs des chinois (1866). Sophora 41 distressing symptoms which ensue ; and turners of the wood suffer especially. The active principle resembles the cathartine which occurs in senna leaves. In the botanical garden at Dijon there is a well beneath a Sophora tree, and when its leaves or flowers are about to fall the gardener covers the well, having found by experience that the water acquires laxative properties by the infusion in it of the Sophora leaves or flowers.^ The wood, according to Shirasawa (I.e.), differs remarkably in the colour of the heart-wood and sap-wood ; the specific gravity is in dry air 0.74. It is tough and durable, though light and coarse grained ; and the annular layers are marked by broad bands of open cells. In Japan it is used for the pillars and frames of their wooden houses, but is not of sufficient importance to have been included in the Japanese Forestry exhibit at St. Louis, nor is it mentioned in Goto's Handbook of the Forestry of Japan as a valuable wood. Introduction Petiver^ [y'jo^y or a little earlier) speaks of " Hai-hoa, Chinensibus, flare albjo, siliquis gummosis articulatis" evidently the Sophora, and it is probable that the specimen was collected in the island of Chusan by Cunningham in 1700. Desfontaines,^ quoting Guerrapain,* states that the tree was first raised in Europe from seeds sent by Pere d'Incarville (a Jesuit stationed at Peking) in 1747, the first trees being planted at the Petit Trianon by B. de Jussieu. It was unknown to what genus the tree belonged, until it flowered near Paris in 1779. It was introduced in 1753 into England by James Gordon, a celebrated nurseryman at Mile End.* Mr. Nicholson obtained from Mr. James Smith, former curator of Kew Gardens, some interesting details concerning the Kew trees. Five plants were early planted at Kew, all of which were still there in 1864, but two no longer exist. One of the three trees remaining is near the rockery ; not far off is the famous specimen in chains, while the third tree is in the village at Kew beside the house once occupied by Mr. Alton, the first director of the Kew Gardens. These three trees, according to Mr. Nicholson,^ are probably as old as any existing elsewhere in England. There is, however, another tree at Kew beyond the Pagoda of which there is no history. Cultivation Sophora japonica is an ornamental tree, the peculiarities of which make it interesting. The leaves are dark, glossy green, of an unusual tint, and the younger branchlets are of the same colour. The leaves fall very late in autumn, and keep on • Loudon (ii. 564), quoting from Duhamel, states that the bark and green wood of this tree exhales a strong odour which produces on those who prune it a remarkable effect. A plank cut from a tree at Kew in Elwes' possession shows a hard, compact, yellowish brown wood. * Petiver, Musei Petiveriani Centuria decern rariora Natura continens, No. 930 (1692- 1 703). ' Dcsfontaines, Hhtoire des Arbres, ii. 258 (1809). * Guerrapain, Notice sur la culture du Sophora. ' Hort. Kew, first edition (1789), ii. 45. In Andrews Repository, ix. 585, there is a figure of a specimen from a tree 40 feet high in the collection of John Ord at Purser's Cross, Fulham, which was planted by him forty years before. Ord is stoted to have received his jilants from Gordon, " who introduced the species from China in 1753." It is also stated that the Sophora first flowered in England at Syon in August 1797. Loudon, however {loc. cit.), states that " the oldest tree near London is at Purser's Cross, where it flowered for the first time in England in August 1807." ' Nicholson in Woods and Forests (1884), p. 500, I G 42 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland the tree fresh and green long after most trees have lost their foliage. The time of flowering is also very late, and this is a point of interest, although the flowers are not conspicuous or remarkable for size or colour. It is a very hardy tree in England,' and seems to be free from all attacks of fungi and insects. Its roots do not sucker, which is a point in its favour when planted in towns or in gardens or parks. It has been freely used as a street tree in Italy, where its dense foliage is an advantage in the hot summers. It is remarkable how little the foliage is affected by the hottest and driest seasons, and on this account it might be tried in dry and hot situations. It thrives fairly well in all soils that are deep and not too compact, but it will only grow vigorously in deep rich soils, where seedlings will sometimes attain a height of 12 feet in four or five years.** It is propagated by seeds, which should be sown in spring. Remarkable Trees The trees in the Kew Gardens have been alluded to as regards their history. The one which occurs near the Pagoda, in 1903, was 68 feet high and 8 feet 3 inches in circumference. The old tree, with the branches held together by chains, now measures (1905) 50 feet high and 13 feet in girth at a foot from the ground, the narrowest part of the short bole, which branches immediately into three main limbs. A fourth limb, very large, was blown off some years ago. Not far off is a smaller tree about 6 feet in girth near the ground ; it branches from the base, forming a wide-spreading low tree. At Syon, two trees of considerable size are now living, each about 70 feet high ; one measured in 1903 12^^ feet in girth, the other 12 feet.' The tree in the Oxford Botanic Garden was 65 feet high by 12 feet 3 inches in girth in 1903 when measured by Elwes.* That in the old Botanic Garden at Cambridge is one of the finest trees in England, as it has a very symmetrical bole. It measured in 1904, 73 feet high by II feet in girth. It is figured in Plate 16.^ We are not acquainted with any large specimens of the Sophora now growing in Scotland, Ireland, or Wales, though Loudon mentions one at Tyninghame, Haddingtonshire, 42 feet high,* one at Castletown near Dublin 35 feet high, and one at Oriel Temple, Co. Louth, of the same height. In France and Germany there are probably larger specimens than in this country. (A. H.) • The Sophora has withstood, without injury, the severest frosts in Perthshire. See pamphlet by Col. H. M. Drummond Hay, The Comparative Hardihood of Hardwooded Plants, from Observations made at Seggicden, Perthshire (1882). 2 Nicholson, in an excellent article on the Sophoras in Woods and Forests, July 30, 1884. ' One of these is mentioned by Loudon, ii. 565, as being the largest near London, and measured in 1838 57 feet high and about 9 feet in girth. ■• This is said by Loudon {I.e.) to have been twenty years planted in 1844, though probably this is an error, as it was then 35 feet high. • Loudon says there were two trees in the garden, both 50 feet high, which had flowered occasionally. • There is a splendid Sophora in the grounds at Cobhani Park, Kent, which I measured in 1905, and found to be 85 feet by 10 feet. There is also one in the Tilt Yard at Arundel Castle, 62 feet by 9 feet 6 inches. — (H. J. E.) ♦ ARAUCARIA Araucaria, Jussieu, Gen. PL 413 (1789); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL iii. 437 (1880); Masters, Journ. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xxx. 26 (1893). Dombeya, Lamarck, Diet. ii. 301 {non Cavanilles) (1786). Tall evergreen trees, with naked buds and coriaceous leaves, which are widest at their bases and spirally arranged on the shoots.^ Usually dioecious. Male flowers in catkin-like masses, solitary or in fascicles at the ends of the branchlets ; anthers numerous, with a prolonged connective, from which hang six to fifteen pollen sacs. Female flowers terminal, composed of many scales spirally arranged in a continuous series with the leaves, there being no obvious distinction between the seed-scale and the bract ; each scale bears one ovule attached to the scale along its whole length. Cones globular, composed of imbricated wedge-shaped scales thickened at the apex. Seeds, one on each scale and adnate to it, flattened and without wings. The genera Araucaria and Agathis constitute the tribe Araucarineae, which are distinguished from the other Coniferae by having a single ovule on a simple scale. In Agathis the ovule is free from the scale, while in Araucaria it is united with it. Cunninghamia, which was considered by Bentham and Hooker and by Masters to belong to this tribe, is now generally classed with the Taxodineae ; in it each scale bears three ovules. There are about ten species of Araucaria, inhabitants of South America, Australia, New Guinea, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and Norfolk Island. Araucaria Cunninghami has been reported several times as growing in the open air in England; but in some cases it is evident that Cunninghamia sinensis was the tree in question, while in other cases small plants were referred to which were speedily killed by the cold of our winters.^ Araucaria imbricata is the only species which is hardy in this country. There are fine specimens of some of the other species in the Temperate House at Kew, viz. Araucaria Bidwilli, 48 feet high ; Araucaria excelsa, 48 feet ; Araucaria Cunninghami, 47 feet ; and Araucaria Cookii, 30 feet. 1 Araucaria Bidwilli has the leaves also spirally arranged, but by twisting on their bases they assume a pseudo- distichous appearance. * In a letter in the Gardeners' Chronicle, May I, 1869, Mr James Barnes, then gardener at Bicton, states, in reply to a suggestion that the tree there might be Cunninghamia., that it was really Araucaria Cunninghami, and that it had attained a height of 36 feel, with a diameter of branches of 28 feet, in a sheltered plantation in that favourable locality. But this tree was no longer living when I visited Bicton in 1902. — (H. J. E.) 43 44 "The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA, Chilean Araucaria Araucaria imbricata, Pavon; in Mem. Acad. Med. Madrid, i. 199 (1797); Lambert, Genus Pinus, 106, t. 56, 57 (1832); Loudon, Arb. et. Frut. Brit. iv. 2432 (1844); Kent in VeitcKs Man. Coniferce, ed. 2, 297 (1900). Araucaria Dombeyi, A. Rich. Conif. 86, t 20 (1826). Araucaria ckiiensis, Mirb., Mem. Mus. Par. xiii. 49 (1825). Araucaria araucana, C. Koch, Dendr. ii. 206 (1873). Pinus araucana, Molina, Sagg. Storia Nat. Chile, 182 (1782). Dombeya ckiiensis, Lamarck, Eneycl. ii. 301 (1786). Araucaria imbricata is the oldest name under the correct genus Araucaria, and is, moreover, the one most generally used. Pifwn is the Spanish name in Chile, Pelmen the Indian name. Araucaria imbricata is a tree usually 50 to 100 feet high,' with a cylindrical stem, only slightly tapering in adult trees, and attaining 3 to 5 feet in diameter. The bark is very rough and divided into large thick irregularly pentagonal or hexagonal scales. The branches, in whorls of 6 or 7, are at first very spreading, and in young or isolated individuals persist for a long time, but in the forest generally fall off until a broad umbrella-shaped crown of very crowded branches remains. In certain cases,* secondary shoots appear on the trunk among the older branches as they die off. Leaves : all of one kind, spirally crowded on the branches, sessile, coriaceous, rigid, ovate-lanceolate, with a sharp point at the apex, slightly concave on the upper surface, glabrous, bright shining green, marked with longitudinal lines, bearing stomata on both surfaces, margins cartilaginous; persistent for 10 or 15 years, withering during the later period of their life ; their remains may be seen for a long time on the trunk and branches as narrow transverse ridges. Male flowers : catkins almost cylindrical in shape, solitary or 2 to 6 in a cluster, terminal, sessile, erect, 3 to 5 inches long, yellow in colour, composed of densely packed anther scales, the tips of which afe sharply pointed and recurved ; pollen sacs 6 to 9. The male flowers frequently remain intact on the tree for several years ; they generally in Europe appear early in spring, the pollen escaping in June or July. Female flowers : ovoid, solitary, terminal, erect, about 3 inches long, composed of numerous wedge-shaped scales, terminating in long, narrow, brittle points. Cones : globular, brown in colour, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, falling to pieces when the seeds are ripe (in England in late summer, in Chile in January or February). The cones take two years to ripen, fertilisation occurring in the second year in June or July, when the scales open and expose the ovule to the pollen blown from neighbouring staminate trees. Three months after fertilisation the seeds are fully matured. Seeds : adnate to the scale and falling with it, i to i^ inch long, wingless, covered by a thick brown coat. There are about 300 seeds in a cone. ' I have seen in Chile trees exceeding even 100 feet in height. — (H. J. E.) ' Such a case exists in a large tree at Tortworth Court. — (H. J. E.) Araucaria 45 Seedling. — The cotyledons are two in number, and on germination remain below the soil enclosed in the seed (Plate 15F). The caulicle, to which is attached the cotyledons, is thick, fleshy, and carrot-shaped, serving as a store of nutriment for the plant after that of the cotyledons is exhausted ; it is directed downward into the soil, and terminates in a long, slender, fibrous root, which gives off a few lateral rootlets. The plumule, the portion of the axis with its accompanying leaves, which is formed in the embryo prior to generation, protrudes between the stalks of the cotyledons, speedily becomes erect, and develops into the young stem, which bears leaves similar in shape to those of the adult plant. The cotyledons sometime after the stem has grown well above ground wither away, the ends of their stalks being visible on the upper part of the caulicle. At the end of the first season the stem is 4 or 5 inches long, and bears alternate leaves about f inch long, gradually increasing in size from below upwards and forming a crowded tuft at the summit. The lower end or so of the stem is reddish, with leaves small and scale-like. , The fusiform caulicle, about an inch in length, is continued below into a root 8 or 9 inches long. Sexes. — The Araucaria is usually dioecious, the trees being either male or female. It was long supposed that there was a difference in the habit of the two sexes, due, doubtless, to Pavon's account of the matter. Araucarias differ, however, remarkably in habit, and no inference can be drawn as to sex from the habit or character of the growth of an individual. Monoecious trees (as is the case in nearly every dioecious species) are of exceptional and very rare occurrence. The most noted of these occurred at Bicton.^ Other cases have been recorded from South Lytchett,^ near Poole, and Pencarrow in Cornwall,^ (A. H.) Distribution This remarkable tree was discovered in or about 1780 by a Spaniard, Don Francisco Dendariarena, who was employed by the Spanish Government to examine the trees in the country of the Araucanos, with the object of finding out those whose timber was best suited for shipbuilding. His account of its discovery, as quoted by Lambert, pp. 106-108, is as follows: — "In September 1782 I left my companion, Don Hippolito Ruiz, and visited the mountains named Caramavida and Nahuelbuta belonging to the Llanista, Peguen, and Araucano Indians. Amongst many plants which were the result of my two months' excursion, I found in flower and fruit the tree I am about to describe. " The chain or cordillera of the Andes offers to the view in general a rocky soil, in parts wet and boggy, on account of the abundance of rain and snow which fall in these regions, similar to many provinces in Spain. There are to be seen large forests of this tree which rises to the amazing height of 150 feet, its trunk quite straight and without knots, ending in a pyramid formed of horizontal branches which decrease in length gradually towards the top, and is covered with a double bark, the ' GarJ. Chron. 1890, viii. $88, 593, Fig. 118. ''■ L.c. 753. ^ Specimens in the museum at Kew. 46 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland inner 5 or 6 inches thick, fungous, tenacious, porous, and light, from which as from almost all other parts flows resin in abundance ; the outer is of nearly equal thickness, resembling cork cleft in various directions, and equally resinous with the inner," I may say that the district spoken of is not really part of the Andes at all, but a coast range separated from the Andes by a wide tract of low country, mostly covered with forest. And as regards the bark, though I did not see any old trees felled in Chile, the bark of trees of 40-50 years old felled in England does not show bark at all approaching the thickness described. Neither have I seen in the districts I visited myself any trees as tall as he describes, or more than about 120 feet He states that it is also found "juxta oppidum Conceptionis." There are no mountains near Concepcion high enough for the Araucaria, and I think this must be based on false information. Don Dendariarena goes on to say that " the wood of this tree is of a yellowish white, fibrous, and full of very beautiful veins, capable of being polished and worked with facility. It is probably the best adapted for shipbuilding, as has been shown by the experiments made in the year 1780, in consequence of which orders were given to supply the squadron commanded by Don Antonio Bacaro, then at anchor in the port of Talcahuano." " The resin abounding in all parts of the tree is white, its smell like that of frankincense, its taste not unpleasant. It is applied in plaster as a powerful remedy for contusions and putrid ulcers, it cicatrises recent wounds, mitigates headaches, and is used as a diuretic, in pills, to facilitate and cleanse venereal ulcers. The Indians make use of the fruit of this tree as a very nourishing food ; they eat it raw as well as boiled and roasted, with it they form pastry, and distil from it a spirituous liquor." Lambert says : "In a letter which I have lately received M. Pavon mentions an important particular, not noticed in the above description, namely, that the male tree is not above half the size of the female, and seldom exceeding 40 feet in height." I am not able to confirm this from personal observation either in Chile or England, and Dr. Masters^ says that there is no reliable distinction between the male and female tree, whilst it is said in an account of the Araucarias in the Piltdown Nurseries ^ that the habit of the tree is no guide to the sex. It was first described by the Abbe Molina, who called it Pinus araucana. Ruiz and Pavon who explored parts of Chile soon afterwards sent specimens to Europe to a Frenchman named Dombey, which were described by Lamarck under the name of Dombeya chilensis, but the generic name he gave cannot stand because it was previously used for a genus of Sterculiaceae. In 1795 Captain Vancouver visited the coast of Chile, accompanied by Archibald Menzies, who procured some seeds which he sowed on board ship,' and succeeded in bringing home living plants, which he gave to Sir Joseph Banks, who planted one of them in his own garden at Spring Grove, and sent the remaining five plants to Kew. One of these, after being kept in the greenhouse till about 1806 or 1808, • Card. Chron. 1 890, ii. 667. ^ Ibid. 1 89 1, i. 342. ' Sir Joseph Hooker, who knew Menzies personally, tells me that he took these seeds from the dessert table of the Governor. Araucaria 47 was planted out on what is now called Lawn L, and was at first protected during winter by a frame covered with mats. Here it grew for many years and attained the height of 12 feet in 1836 {fide Loudon), but eventually died in the autumn of 1892 at the age of nearly 100 years.^ This is probably the tree figured by Lambert. The first person who gives any account of the tree in its native forests, so far as I know, is Dr. Poeppig, whose account of the tree is printed in Cotnpanion to Bot. Mag. i. 351-355. It did not, however, become common in cultivation till the celebrated botanical traveller William Lobb, who was sent to South America by the firm of Veitch, sent home in 1844 a good supply of seeds which produced most of the finest trees now in England. No account of his travels were, however, published, and on applying to Messrs Veitch before I went to Chile in 1901 I was informed that his journals, which I wished to consult, could not be found. The late Miss Marianne North was the first English traveller who published any account of the tree in its native forests, which she visited on her last journey in November 1884, mainly, as she says, for the purpose of painting this tree. But, owing to the difficulty and danger at that time of reaching the Andes, she went to the coast range of Araucania, called Nahuelbuta, which lies between the sea and the town of Angol, in the same district where the tree was probably first discovered. After describing her ride up from Angol to the mountains, which are here covered with a beautiful vegetation, among which Gunnera, Lapageria, Embothrium, Fuchsia, Buddleia, Alstroemeria, and many other favourite plants in English gardens are conspicuous, she says : ^ — " The first Araucarias we reached were in a boggy valley, but they also grew to the very tops of the rocky hills, and seemed to drive all other trees away, covering many miles of hill and valley ; but few specimens were to be found outside that forest. The ground underneath was gay with purple and pink everlasting peas, and some blue and white ones I had never seen in gardens, gorgeous orange orchids, and many tiny flowers whose names I did not know, which died as soon as they were picked, and could not be kept to paint. I saw none of the trees over 100 feet in height or 20 in circumference, and, strange to say, they seemed all to be very old or very young. I saw none of the noble specimens of middle age we have in English parks, with their lower branches resting on the ground. They did not become quite flat at the top, like those of Brazil, but were slightly domed like those in Queensland, and their shiny leaves glittered in the sunshine, while their trunks and branches were hung with white lichen, and the latter weighed down with cones as big as one's head. The smaller cones of the male trees were shaking off clouds of golden pollen, and were full of small grubs ; these attracted flights of bronzy green parrakeets, which were busy over them. Those birds are said to be so clever that they can find a soft place in the great shell of the cone when ripe, into which they get the point of their sharp beak, and fidget with it until the whole cone cracks and the nuts fall to the ground. Men eat the nuts too, when properly cooked, like chestnuts. The most remarkable thing about the tree is its bark, ' Cf. Kew Bull. 1893, p. 24. ' Marianne North, Recollections of a Happy Life, 2nd ed. ii. 323, 324 (1892). 48 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland which is a perfect child's puzzle of slabs of different sizes, with 5 or 6 distinct sides to each, all fitted together with the neatness of a honeycomb. I tried in vain to find some system on which it was arranged. We had the good fortune to see a group of guanacos feeding quietly under the old trees. They looked strange enough to be in character with them, having the body of a sheep and the head of a camel ; and they let us come quite near. On the other side of the mountains they are used as a beast of burden, though so weak that ten of them could not carry the load of an average donkey. After wandering about the lower lands, we climbed through the bogs and granite boulders to the top of one of the hills, and came suddenly to a most wonderful view, with seven snowy cones of the Cordillera piercing their way through the long line of mist which hid the nearer connecting mountains from sight, and glittering against the greenish blue sky. Each one looked perfectly separate and gigantic, though the highest was only io,cxx> feet above the sea. Under the mist were hills of beech forest, and nearer still the Araucaria domes, while the foreground consisted of noble old specimens of the same trees grouped round a huge grey boulder covered with moss and enriched with sprays of embothrium of the brightest scarlet. No subject could have been finer, if I could only have painted it, but that ' if ' has been plaguing me for years, and every year seems to take me farther from a satisfactory result," Inspired by this charming description, and by a desire to see the magnificent forests of Southern Chile, whence I hoped to introduce new trees and plants to our gardens, I visited Chile in the winter of 1901-1902, and after various difficulties caused by the dispute about the frontier, which nearly led to a war between Chile and Argentina, I started from the hospitable home of my friends, Mr. George and Senora Bussey at San Ignacio, to see the Araucarias in the Sierra de Pemehue, a region where they attain their greatest perfection, and which, having only been recently conquered from the Indians, had been described by no scientific traveller ; though Senor Moreno has written an excellent account of the Argentine side of the frontier, which I visited later, » The Sierra de Pemehue is a range of mountains lying on the west side of the upper course of the great Bfobio river, and is not, strictly speaking, a part of the Cordillera of the Andes, from which it is separated by that river. The greater part of it is covered with splendid forests, principally composed of beeches, Fagus obliqua and Fagus Dombeyi, and it was near the head-waters of the Renaico river that I first saw what is to me the most striking of all trees hardy in England, and the only Chilean tree which as yet seems to have acclimatised itself thoroughly in this country. They were growing in scattered groups on the cliffs far above us at an elevation of 3000-4000 feet, and we did not enter the Araucaria forest till we got near the top of the pass, which crossed over a mountain called Chilpa, between the Renaico and the Villacura valleys. Here the trees were growing scattered among Coigue trees {Fagus Dombeyi), and higher up in a forest mainly composed of Niere {Fagus antarctica), many of which were killed by forest fires, which had not, however, destroyed the thick-barked Araucarias, though I saw here but few young trees and no seedlings. Araucaria 49 Their average height was 80-90 feet, and the diameter 2-3 feet, and the branches were mostly confined to the top of the tree, where they form a dense, flat-topped crown. On 27th January I saw much finer specimens in the valley above Lolco, on the road to Longuimay, and my companion, Mr. Bartlett Calvert, was successful in getting some excellent photographs which are here reproduced. Plate 17 shows the appear- ance of mature and young trees growing in an open grassy valley at about 4500 feet, with the high volcanoes of Longuimay and Tolhuaca in the background. The old tree on the right of the picture is about 90 feet, and the young one about 20 feet high, showing sixteen years of growth from a point 2-3 feet from the ground where the annual growths could no longer be distinguished. I therefore suppose this young tree to be twenty to twenty-five years old from seed. Farther on in the same valley we came to much larger trees, which showed the curiously irregular slabs of bark of which Miss North speaks. The largest trees I saw had a girth of 24 feet at breast height, and were 90-100 feet high. The longest fallen stems I measured were little over 100 feet, and I should say 80-90 was the average height of full-grown ones. Plate 18 shows the habit which the trees assume when grown thickly at about 3500 feet elevation in the upper Villacura valley. On the wind-swept ridges which we crossed higher up the pass, at an approximate elevation of 6500 feet, the Araucarias were much more stunted and had a very different habit of growth, but the high wind which prevailed, as it usually does at this season, made it impossible to photograph them. Two days later at Los Arcos, the frontier post of Argentina, I found scattered groves of Araucaria for about fifty miles south, as far as the valley of Quillen, but when we reached the country about the head- waters of the Pichelifeu river, about lat. 39° 30' S., I saw no more except a few isolated trees which appeared to have sprung up from seeds dropped by the Indians on their old camping grounds. I had previously been told by Mr. Barton of Buenos Ayres, who is engaged in cutting timber on the north shore of the great lake Nahuelhuapi, about 100 miles to the south, that the Araucaria was found near this lake, and I had great hopes of discovering and introducing a new southern variety or species, which might prove hardier than A. imbricata. But notwithstanding what Poeppig says as to the probability of its extension as far south as lat. 46°, I saw not a single tree on my journey from San Martin via Nahuelhuapi to Puerto Montt in lat. 41° 50', and none of the explorers who have been recently employed in surveying the frontier have, so far as I know, found it south of about lat. 41°. Sir T. Holdich is my authority for this statement. Some of the trees here had much smoother bark covered with long tufts of grey lichen, and in this part of the forest there were plenty of young seedlings coming up, some of which I took up and unsuccessfully attempted to transplant to my friend's garden at San Ignacio. The geographical range of the tree is therefore a very limited one, extending only from Antuco in about lat. 38° 40' to lat. 40° in the Cordillera, and on the coast range from about lat. 38° 30' to an unknown point probably not south of about lat. 41°. For, though Poeppig says it occurs on the Corcovado, he was speaking only from I H 50 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland hearsay, and the sudden change of the cHmate, which here becomes an extremely wet one, is probably the reason why the tree does not exist on the west coast in a much higher latitude, as do the majority of the trees and plants which are associated with it. Another point in which I must differ from Poeppig is the bareness of the Arau- caria forests of other vegetation. Though, of course, where the trees are closely crowded not many plants grow in their shade, yet the number of beautiful terrestrial orchids and other plants which I found in the more open parts of the Araucaria forest was very striking, and Miss North's observations in the Nahuelbuta range quite confirm my opinion that the moderate shade of the Araucaria is not prejudicial to herbaceous plants. The soil on which it grows is mostly of volcanic origin, sometimes covered with deep vegetable mould, but more usually dry and rocky ; and the climate, though warm and dry in the months of December, January, and February, is cold and wet in winter. The only exact particulars I can give of the climatic variations were taken during the winter of 1901 at Rahue in the upper Biobio Valley, near Longuimay, at an elevation of 700 metres, which is lower and thus probably warmer than that of the Araucaria region. These observations I have condensed as follows : — Maximum. Minimum Centigrade. Between April 21 and 30 +26 (on 2Sth) - 3 (on 30th) + 19 (1st, 25th) - 7 (on 13th) snow on 7 days, + 22 (on 27th) - 6 (on 24th) snow on 8 days. + 12 (on 27th) 5 (on loth) snow on 6 days. May I »> 31 June I )} 30 July I )j 31 Aug. I )j 30 Sept. I J) 30 Oct. 1 >» 31 Nov. I >> 23 / .1 \ ,: I .i.\ ( snow on s days. + 12 (on iQth) 6 (on \nu\)\ ■ ^ , ' ^ ^ ' \ ( ram on 7 days. I ^, , , , j\ f snow on i day. + 24 (on 27th) ? 10 (on 2nd)'! . , ' ^ \ I I V I y jain on 12 days. / .i.\ 5 /: / o.i.\ f snow on 2 days. + 30 (on 1 7tn) ? 6 (on 8th) \ . , ' ■^ ^ • ' ^ V ' \^ rain on 5 days. snow on 2 days rain on 7 days. / .. i :> f snow on 2 days. + 2K (on 21st) ? ? -J . ' ^ \ ' \^ rair Reduced to Fahrenheit this register shows a very similar climate to that of some parts of England, very variable all the year round, but probably hotter and more sunny in winter. As regards the summer climate I may say that in the months of January and February, which are the height of summer, it was never cold by day, and the sun and wind often unpleasantly warm, but at night the thermometer often fell to near freezing-point, and on one occasion, on ist February, my sponge was frozen in camp just south of Lake Alumind at about 5000 feet. We know that the Araucaria has borne in Great Britain temperatures below zero Fahr. without injury on dry and suitable soil, but it evidently will not endure the continuous wet of the southern coast region of Chile. In the Forstliche Naturwissenschaftliclie Zeitschrift, 1897, 'v. 416-426, Dr. Neger, who was naturalist on the Chilean Boundary Survey in 1896-97, gives an Araucaria 5 1 account of Araucaria imbricata, which does not add anything of great importance for English arboriculturists to what I have already stated. He says that there are two types of Araucaria forest, one of which is characteristic of the rainy coast mountain range of Nahuelbuta and the west side of the Andes on the Cordillera of Pemehue ; and the other, which is peculiar to the drier plateaux of the Argentine territory, on the east side of the watershed. He refers to Reiche's account of the Nahuelbuta forest in Englers Bot. Jahrbuch, xxii. no, which gives a good account of the flora. He does not confirm the statement that the male trees are smaller in size than the female, and speaks of trees occurring in deep valleys 40-50 metres high, and 2-2| metres in diameter at about 3 feet, but does not give any exact measure- ments, so that this height is probably an estimate by the eye. He says that the seeds do not ripen until May in the year after flowering, but I found them ripe in February and fit to eat in January. He gives some excellent illustrations of Arau- caria forests on Nahuelbuta, one of which shows a wider and more unbroken extent than any that I saw ; another shows the ability of the tree to take root and grow in the crevices of bare rock. Another shows a forest at the foot of the great volcanic peak of Lanin, where some of the trees have been almost buried by sand and still retain their upright position. Lastly, he gives a small map of the distribution which, however, is not sufficiently detailed to be very accurate ; this makes Antuco the most northerly point, and a point somewhere north of lat. 40°, the southerly range of the tree. He says that in the museum of Santiago there are geological evidences of the existence at a former period of Araucaria as far north as the Puna of Atacama. Remarkable Trees The finest tree which until recently existed in England was at Dropmore, which, however, began to die about four years ago, and was dead when the photograph (Plate 19) was taken in June 1903. It is said' to have been purchased at a sale in the Royal Horticultural Gardens at Chiswick in 1829, and in 1893 to have been 69 feet high. When felled in 1905 Mr. Page found it to be 78 feet 6 inches high, and the butt was 2']\ inches in diameter at the base under the bark, which was about 2 inches thick, the measurable timber in it being about 65 cubic feet. There are many fine specimens at Beauport, Sussex, the seat of Sir Archibald Lamb, Bart., where a plantation was made about forty years ago, which gives a better idea of the Araucaria at home than any I have seen in England. It contains 27 trees on an area 102 paces round, and the inside trees are clearing themselves from branches naturally. Twenty of them Sir A. Lamb says are over 50 feet high, and in 1905 I estimated them to contain an average of 25 cubic feet (Plate 20). The largest tree at Beauport, as measured by Henry in 1904, was 74 feet high and 7 feet 9 inches in girth. The trees produce seeds freely, and a seedling growing in a chink of the garden steps was 4 feet high in 1903, and in 1905 had grown at least 2 feet more. At Strathfieldsaye, Berks, the seat of the Duke of Wellington, the Araucaria has produced self-sown seedlings, a group of which is shown in Plate \ 5 e. ' Card. Chron. 1893, i. 232 ; also I.e. 1872, p. 1324. 52 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland At the Piltdown Nurseries in Sussex there are many fine specimens,' one of which is said to have been 50 feet by 9 J feet in girth in 1854. Messrs. Dennett and Sons, the present tenants of this nursery, inform me that they believe this is one of the oldest trees in the country, and that in April 1903 it was about 70 feet high (perhaps more), with a girth of 7 feet at 5 feet, and 1 1 feet close to the ground. But a correspondent of the Gardeners' Chronicle'^ says that in 1891 it was 65 feet by lo^ feet at 4 feet, and that 3^^ bushels of seed were collected in this nursery in 1889, which produced hardier plants than imported seed. He also states that one of the trees which was cut down in 1880 threw up in 1884 a sucker from the roots, which grew 15 feet high in five years, and showed in 1891 no signs of branching out in any way.* He also states that it does not matter when Araucarias are pruned, as they grow steadily all the year. The soil at Piltdown is a deep loam with gravel subsoil, and though, as it is here stated, it is generally thought that a dry, well-drained subsoil is essential to the success of this tree, yet I have seen in the garden of Foss bridge Inn in the Cotswold Hills, in a low damp situation close to the banks of the Coin, two Araucarias, male and female, about 40 feet high, which produced ripe seed in 1903, from which Mr. Holyoake, gardener to the Earl of Eldon of Stowell Park, has raised plants. At Bicton, Devonshire, the seat of the Honourable Mark Rolle, there is a fine avenue of Araucarias, which has been often mentioned in print ; but the trees in it do not appear to be increasing in height so fast as the good soil and climate would lead one to expect. When I saw them in September 1902 the best which I measured was about 50 feet high by 8 feet 9 inches in girth. Ripe seeds were falling at the time, from which seedlings were raised. There are also fine trees at Castlehill, North Devon, the seat of the Earl Fortescue, which have produced seed for many years past. At Tortworth Court, Gloucestershire, the seat of the Earl of Ducie, who has one of the best collections of trees in England, and to whom I am indebted for very much assistance and advice in this work, there arevmany large Araucarias,* the best of which I found to be 53 feet by 7 feet 6 inches in 1904. It is producing many young shoots among the dying branches of the trunk. In Scotland the Araucaria grows well not only in the south-west where, at Castle Kennedy, the seat of the Earl of Stair, there is a fine avenue, 200 yards long, in which the largest tree is 50 feet by 6 feet 2 inches in girth, and from which self-sown seedlings have sprung, but also in Perthshire, where there are fair-sized trees, one of which on the banks of the Tay in the grounds of the Duke of Athole at Dunkeld, I found in 1904 to be 50 feet high, but only 3 feet 11 in girth. It grows well at Gordon Castle exposed to the full force of the north-east wind, and has ripened seeds as far north as Inverness.* But some of the trees recorded in Perthshire and other places in Scotland have been killed during severe frosts, and as a rule the growth is not so rapid as in the south of England. Two ' Card. Chron. 1885, xxiii. 342. ' Ibid. 1891, i. 342. ' Sir Herbert Maxwell informs me that he saw at Cairnsmore an old trunk of Araucaria which had died twenty years ago, still standing, with a young growth 3 feet high from the stool. * Cf. Card. Chron. 1890, ii. 633. ' Ibid. 1868, p. 464 ; 1872, p. 1323 ; 1894, xvi. 603. Araucaria 53 trees at Redcastle, Ross-shire, planted in 1843, measured by Col. A. Thynne, are 47 feet by 7 feet 4 inches, and 40 feet by 6 feet ; the latter, though exposed to the east wind, is branched to the ground. At Ardkinglas there is a very healthy tree 50 feet by 6 feet, and at Inverary, Minard Castle, Poltalloch, and other places in Argyleshire, there are several thriving trees of good size. At Loch Corrie, near Glenquoich, there are two trees at 450 feet above sea-level, one of which in 1905 was 43 feet by 6 feet 2 inches. In Ireland it seems at home almost everywhere. At Fota, in the extreme south, Henry measured one 62 feet by 5 feet ; at Ballenetray, Co. Waterford, a tree was recorded* in 1884 as being 65 feet 6 inches by 6 feet ; at Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny, there is a tree which in 1904 Henry found to be 65 feet by 9 feet 9 inches; and at Castlewellan, Co. Down, the seat of the Earl Annesley, and many other places, good trees occur. In the milder parts of Western France the Araucaria thrives, but does not appear to have grown as large as in England. The best is reported by M. de Vilmorin as growing at Penandreff, near St. Renan, Finisterre, which in 1890 was 50 feet high by 7 feet 4 inches in girth. In the Revue Horticole, 1899, p. 460, this is confirmed. In Germany I have not heard of any fine examples. Cultivation and Soil The Araucaria should always be raised from seed, home - grown seed being preferable ; for though plants have been raised from cuttings, which have grown to a considerable size, this mode of propagation is the cause of much disappointment, and of many ill-shaped and unsightly trees, not only in the Araucaria, but in many other conifers. The seed should be sown singly in pots, laying the seed on its side with the thick end in the centre, and will germinate best in a frame or cold greenhouse, where they can be protected from mice and frost. The young plants should not remain in pots more than one or at most two seasons, for though the tap-root does not become so long as in the case of pines, it wants room ; and if the climate and soil are not very favourable, the young tree should not be permanently planted out till it is I or 2 feet high. The seedlings vary much in vigour, and on cold or calcareous soil many die young ; but under better conditions the tree grows at least I foot a year when established. It should be planted only in a well-drained situation, as severe frosts will often kill the trees when small ; and though not so particular about the constituents of the soil as most Chilean trees, seems to thrive better on a sandy soil free from lime, especially on the red sandstone and greensand formations. In the Gardeners' Chronicle, August 15, 1885, is an excellent note by Mr. Fowler, whose experience of this tree at Castle Kennedy was extensive, on the cultiva- tion of the Araucaria ; and another valuable note on the same subject will be found in the same journal, November 13, 1886, by Mr. C. E. Curtis. Both these authorities consider that the exudation of gum which often occurs in unhealthy trees ' Woods and I'ortsts, Feb. 6, 1884. 54 'T'he Trees of Great Britain and Ireland is due to the roots of the tree having reached a cold wet subsoil, or from exposure to excessive cold. There seems to be no remedy for this disease, which usually kills the tree. Araucarias do not thrive in the smoky atmosphere of a large town, and for this reason are not seen at their best in the immediate neighbourhood of London, nor do I know of any very fine ones in Wales or in the midland and northern counties of England. Uses j The gum which exudes from the bark is used in Chile as a salve for wounds and ulcers. It has a pleasant smell like that of turpentine, and sets hard when dry, but { I am not aware that it contains any special intrinsic virtue. i The seeds are largely consumed by the Araucanos and other tribes of Indians, '■■ and are occasionally sent for sale to the markets of Valdivia and Concepcion. I j have eaten them both roasted and boiled, and found them very palatable, with a ^ nutty flavour somewhat like that of almonds. | . . *- The timber is said to have been formerly used in the dockyards of Chile, but is ^ now considered inferior to that of the Alerce {^Fitzroya patagonica), and perhaps ^ owing to the remote positions in which the trees grow, is not now used except locally. > Through the kindness of the Duke of Bedford I received two planks cut from a tree ,1 grown at Endsleigh, near Tavistock, of which the wood does not show any specially attractive quality. The Earl of Ducie describes it * as " not unlike good deal, but from the absence of turpentine and for some other reason it is smoother to the touch than the ordinary deals of commerce. In this respect its texture is not unlike that of redwood {Sequoia senipervirens). On testing a thin batten by breakage, it proved to be tough and strong for its size ; but the fracture was abrupt, and showed little longitudinal fibre. The wood is somewhat heavier than ordinary deal." The timber is not mentioned in Stone's Timbers of Commerce. (H. J. E.) • Card. Chron. 1 900, ii. 633. GINKGO Ginkgo, Linnaeus, Mantissa, ii. 313 (1771); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pi. iii. 432, 1225 (1880); Masters, y^iwr. Linn. Soc. (Boi.), xxx. 3 (1893). Salisburia, Smith, Trans. Linn. Soc. iii. 330 (1797). Trees, several extinct and one living species, bearing fan-shaped, fork-veined leaves on both long and short shoots. Flowers dioecious, arising from the apex of short shoots, which bear at the same time ordinary leaves. Male flowers : catkins, y6 on one shoot, each being a pendulous axis bearing numerous stamens loosely arranged. Stamen a short stalk ending in a knob, beneath which are 2-4 divergent anthers, dehiscing longitudinally. Female flowers, 1-3, more or less erect on the shoot, each consisting of a long stalk, which bears an ovule on either side below the apex. The ovule is sessile, straight, surrounded at its base by an aril or collar-like rim,^ and naked (i.e. not enclosed in an ovary). Fruit : a drupe-like seed (sessile in the small bowl-shaped little developed aril) consisting of an orange fleshy covering enveloping a woody shell, within which, embedded in the albumen, lies an embryo with 2-3 cotyledons. The albumen is covered by a thin membrane which is only adherent to the woody shell in its lower part. Two embryos often occur in 1 seed, and of the 2 ovules only one is generally developed into a seed. Ginkgo was formerly considered to belong to the Coniferae, but recent investigations show that it is distinct from these, and is the type of a Natural order Ginkgoaceae, which has affinities with Cycads and ferns. The seeds resemble closely those of Cycads, and at the end of the pollen tube are formed two ciliated antherozoids which are morphologically identical with the antherozoids occurring in ferns. Ginkgo, however, is a true flowering plant, as it produces seeds, and is a gymnosperm, since it bears ovules which are not enclosed in an ovary. The extinct species have been found in the Jurassic and succeeding epochs. Gardner ^ considers the specimens which have been found in the white clay at Ardtun in the Isle of Mull to be specifically identical with Ginkgo biloba. * Considered now to be a reduced carpel. ' J. S. Gardner, British Eocene Flora (1886), ii. 100. 55 56 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland GINKGO BILOBA, Maidenhair Tree Ginkgo biloba, Linnaeus, Mantissa, ii. 313 (1771); Kent in VeitcKs Man. Conifera, 2nd ed. 107 (1900); Seward and Gowan, Ann. Bot. xiv. 109 (1900). Salisburia adiantifolia, Smith, Trans. Linn. Soc. iii. 330 (1797); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2094 (1838). The Ginkgo when young is pyramidal in habit, with slender, upright branches : older, it becomes much more spreading and broader in the crown. It attains a height of 100 feet and upwards, with a girth of stem of about 30 feet. Bark : grey, somewhat rough, becoming fissured when old. Leaves : deciduous, scattered on the long shoots, crowded at the apex of the short shoots, which grow slowly from year to year, their older portions being covered with the leaf-scars of former years. The short shoot may, after several years, elongate into a long shoot bearing scattered leaves. The leaves are stalked, and unique in shape amongst trees, recalling on a large scale the pinna of an adiantum fern ; they show much variation in size (2-8 inches in breadth) and in margin, but generally are bilobed and irregularly crenate or cut in their upper part. There is no midrib, and the veins, repeatedly forking, are not connected by any cross veinlets. The stomata are scattered on the lower surface. In the bud the leaves are folded together and not rolled up, as in the crozier-like vernation of ferns. Flowers and fruit : see description of the genus. The drupe-like seeds have a fleshy outer covering of a bright orange colour when ripe, and when they fall upon the ground, this bursts and emits an odour of butyric acid which is very disagreeable.' They are imperfectly developed as they fall, though apparently ripe ; and the fertilisation of the ovule and the subsequent development of the embryo occur while they are lying on the ground during winter. The kernels^are edible, being known to the Chinese as pai-kuo (white fruits), and are sold in most market towns of China. They are supposed to promote digestion and diminish the effects of wine-drinking ; and are eaten roasted at feasts and weddings, the shells being dyed red. Fruit-bearing trees are now common in Southern Europe ; but no fruit, so far as we know, has ever been produced in England. The well-known tree at Kew is a male, and produces flowers freely in exceptional years, e.g. in 1 894, supposed to be due to the fact that the preceding summer was remarkably warm, with continual sunshine. Extraordinary cases of abnormal formation of fruit have been observed in Japan. Shirai ^ described and figured in 1891 fruit which was produced on the surface of ordinary leaves of the tree. Fujii has studied since then the various stages of the development of ovules and of pollen sacs upon leaves. The so-called aril of the fruit is considered by him to represent a carpel, as he has observed transitional stages between the ordinarily shaped aril and a leafy blade bearing ovules. ' " The pulp surrounding the seed has a most abominable odour. Although warned not to touch it, I gathered the seeds with my own hands ; but it took me two days' washing to get the odour ofT." — (W. Falconer in Garden, 1890, xxxviii. 602.) ^ Shirai, in Tokyo Bot. Mag. 1891, p. 342. Ginkgo 57 Jacquin ^ grafted on the male tree at Vienna, when it was quite small, a bud of the female tree, from which a branch developed. This tree is now of large size ; and numerous branches regularly bear male flowers, whilst one branch, now very stout, bears female flowers. This female branch puts forth its foliage about fourteen days later than the male branches, and retains them much later in autumn. In this case the shoot retains its individual characters, and the stock does not affect it even in regard to its annual development. Seedling. — The germination in Ginkgo is not unlike that of the oak. We are indebted to Mr. Lyon^ of Minneapolis for figures of the seedling, which are repro- duced on Plate 1 5 c, d. When the seeds are sown the hard shell is cracked at its micropylar end by the swelling of the embryo within. Through this opening the body of the embryo is thrust out by the elongation of the cotyledons; which remain attached to the caulicle by two arching petioles ; between these the plumule or young stem ascends, while the root turns down into the soil. The cotyledons remain attached throughout the first season's growth. The first two or three leaves directly above the cotyledons remain small and scale-like. After reaching 4 or 5 inches in height the stem stops growing, having expanded into a rather close crown of ordinary leaves at its apex, which ends in a large terminal bud. The root attains in the first season about the same length as the stem, and develops numerous lateral fibres. This primary root, as is usually the case in Gymnosperms, persists as the tap-root of the plant. Sexes. — Certain differences, besides those of the flowers, are observable in male and female trees.^ The male trees are pyramidal and upright in habit, the ascending branches being of free and vigorous growth. The female trees are closer and more compact in habit, more richly branched below, and the branches sometime become even pendent.* Monsieur L. Henry * states that in Paris the leaves of the female Ginkgo fell three or four weeks later than those of the male. Generally male trees are completely denuded of foliage by the beginning of November, while the female trees retain their leaves till the end of November or the beginning of December. Burrs. — In Japan there often develops on old Ginkgo trees peculiar burrs, which are called chi-chi or nipples. These may be observed in an incipient stage on the large tree at Kew. They occur on the lower side of the larger branches of the tree, and vary in size from a few inches in length to 6 feet long by i foot in diameter. They occur singly or in clusters, and are generally elongated, conical in shape, with a rounded tip. If they reach the ground, as is sometimes the case, they take root, and then bear leaves. They are due to the abnormal development of dormant or adven- titious buds. A description of this curious phenomenon and a photograph of a tree bearing a large number of these growths is given by Fujii in Tokyo Bat. Mag. ' Kerner, Nat. Hist, of Plants (Eng. trans.) ii. 572. ^ See Lyon's paper in Minnesota Botanical Studies, 1904, p. 275. ' Sargent denies this, and says it is impossible to distinguish the sexes till the trees flower ; but observations on the Continent go to show that the sexual differences pointed out above really exist. See Sargent, Garden and Forest, 1890, p. 549. * See Schneider, Dendrologische Winterstudien, 127 (1903), and Max Leichtlin in Woods and Forests, Jan. i6, 1884. ' Bull, de r Assoc, des anc. ilhi. de Ficole d'Hort. de Versailles, 1898, p. 597, quoted in Card. Chron. 1899, xxv. 201. I I 58 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 1895, p. 444. We are indebted to Mrs. Archibald Little for a photograph taken by her in Western China, of a tree 19^ feet round the base, and larger above, which very well shows these excrescences (Plate 23). Identification In summer the leaves are unmistakable. In winter the long and short shoots should be examined. The long shoot of one year's growth is round, smooth, brownish, and shining, the terminal buds being larger than the scattered lateral buds, which come off at a wide angle. The buds are conical, and composed of several imbricated brown dotted scales. The leaf-scars show 2 small cicatrices, and are fringed above with white pubescence. The short shoots are spurs of varying length, up to an inch or more, stout, ringed, and bearing at their apex a bud surrounded by several double-dotted leaf-scars. In Pseudolarix and the larches, which have somewhat similar spurs, the leaf-scars are much smaller, and show on their surface only one tiny cicatrice. In Taxodium there are no spurs, and the scars which are left where the twigs have fallen off show only one central cicatrice. Varieties The following forms are known in cultivation : — Var. variegata. Leaves blotched and streaked with pale yellow. Var. pendula. Branches more or less pendulous. Var. macrophylla laciniata. Leaves much larger than in the ordinary form, 8 inches or more in width, and divided into 3 to 5 lobes, which are themselves subdivided. Var. triloba. Scarce worthy of recognition, as the leaves in all Ginkgo trees are exceedingly variable in lobing. Var. fastigiata. Columnar in shape, the branches being directed almost vertically upwards.^ Distribution and History The wild habitat of Ginkgo biloba, the only species now living, is not known for certain. The late Mrs. Bishop, in a letter to the Standard, Aug. 17, 1899, ; reported that she had observed it growing wild in Japan, in the great forest north- ward from Lebungd on Volcano Bay in Yezo, and also in the country at the sources of the great Gold and Min rivers in Western China. However, all scientific travellers in Japan and the leading Japanese botanists and foresters deny its being indigenous in any part of Japan ; and botanical collectors have not observed it truly wild in China. Consul -General Hosie^ says it is common in Szechuan, especially in the hills bounding the upper waters of the river Min ; but he does not explicitly assert that it is wild there. Its native habitat has yet to be ' See Garden, 1890, xxxviii. 602. An interesting article by W. Falconer, who gives some curious details concerning the Ginkgo tree in the United States. 2 Parliamentary Papers, China, No. 5, 1904 ; Consul-General Hosie's Report, 18. Mr. E. H. Wilson in all his explora- tions of Western China never saw any but cultivated trees. Ginkgo 59 discovered ; and I would suggest the provinces of Hunan, Chekiang, and Anhwei in China as likely to contain it in their as yet unexplored mountain forests. The earliest mention of the tree in Chinese literature occurs in the Chung Shu Shu, a work on agriculture, which dates from the 8th century, a.d. The author of the great Chinese herbal [Pen-Tsao-Kang-Mu, 1578 a.d.) does not cite any previous writers, but mentions that it occurs in Kiangnan (the territory south of the Yangtse), and is called Ya-chio-tze, " duck's foot," on account of the shape of the leaves. At the beginning of the Sung dynasty (1000 a.d.), the fruit was taken as tribute, and was then called Yin-hsing,'' ^A\&r apricot," from its resemblance to a small apricot with a white kernel. In the Chih-Wti-Ming, xxxi. 27, there is a good figure of the foliage and fruit ; and the statement is made that in order to obtain fruit the tree should be planted on the sides of ponds. At present it occurs planted in the vicinity of temples in China, Japan, and Corea. It has always been the custom of the Chinese to preserve portions of the natural forest around their temples ; and in this way many indigenous species have been preserved that otherwise would have perished with the spread of agriculture and the destruction of the forests for firewood and timber, in all districts traversed by waterways. Most of the curious conifers in China and Japan have a very limited distribution, and Ginkgo is probably no exception ; though it is possible that it may still exist in the region indicated above. I have never seen any remarkable specimens in China ; but Bunge ' says that he saw one at Peking, of prodigious height and 40 feet in circumference. In Japan Elwes says that it is planted occasionally in temple courts, gardens, and parks. He did not see any very large specimen of the tree, the best being one in the court of the Nishi Hongagi temple at Kioto, which was of no great height, but had a bole about 15 feet in girth at 3 feet, where it divided into many wide- spreading branches which covered an area of 90 paces in circumference. This tree had green leaves and buds on the old wood of the trunk close to the ground, which he did not notice in other places. Rein ^ says that the largest he knew of is at the temple of Kozenji near Tokyo, and this in 1884 was 7.55 metres in girth, and according to Lehman about 32 metres high. There is also one in the Shiba park, which in 1874 was 6.30 metres in girth. The tree is sometimes grown in a dwarf state in pots, but does not seem to be a favourite in Japan. The wood is somewhat like that of maple in grain, of a yellowish colour, fine grained, but not especially valued, though it is used for making chess boards and chessmen, chopping blocks, and as a groundwork for lacquer ware. The nuts are sometimes eaten boiled or roasted, but are not much thought of. Ginkgo was first made known to Europeans by Kaempfer,' who discovered it in Japan in 1690, and published in 171 2 a description with a good figure of the foliage and fruit. Pallas ■* visited the market town of Mai-mai-cheng, opposite Kiachta, in 1772, and saw there Ginkgo fruit for sale which had been brought from Peking, ' Bunge, in Bull. Soc. d'Agric. du Depart, de rUerauU, 1833. ' Rein, Industries of Japan. •* Kaempfer, Amamtates Exotica, 811. < Pallas, Jieisen durch versch. Prwinien des Russischen Reiches, 1768-1773, vol. iii. 6o The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Fortune ^ mentions that the tree grows to a very large size in the Shanghai district, and in the northern part of the Chekiang province. The Japanese name Ginkgo is their pronunciation of the Chinese yin-kuo, " silver fruit " ; but the common name in Japan is i-cho. Introduction The tree was introduced into Europe about 1730, being first planted in the Botanic Garden at Utrecht. Jacquin brought it into the Botanic Garden at Vienna sometime after 1768. It was introduced into England about 1754; and into the Unites States in 1784, by W. Hamilton, who planted it in his garden at Woodlawn, near Philadelphia. It first flowered in Europe at Kew in 1795. Female flowers were first noticed by De Candolle in 1 814 on a tree at Bourdigny near Geneva. Scions of this tree were grafted on a male tree in the Botanic Garden of Montpellier ; and perfect fruit was produced by it for the first time in Europe in 1835. Cultivation Ginkgo is easily raised from seeds, which retain their vitality for some months. Female plants may be obtained by grafting. It is easily transplanted, even when of a large size. Trees of over 40 feet high have been successfully moved. It thrives in deep, well-drained, rich soil. It is useful for planting in towns, as it is free from the attacks of insects and fungi ; and the hard leathery leaves resist the smoke of cities. It may also be freely pruned. It is of course best propagated by seed ; but layers and cuttings may be employed in certain cases. Falconer (loc. cit.) says that it is not readily propagated by cuttings, and that it took two years to root a cutting in the gardens at Glen Core (U.S.A.). Pyramidal forms can be obtained by careful selec- tion, and the broad-leaved variety by careful grafting. The Ginkgo is well adapted for cultivation in tubs or vases, and may then be trained either as a pyramid or a bush. The tree has a formal appearance when young, and is not really beautiful till it attains a fair age. The peculiar form of the leaves renders it a striking object. The foliage, just before it falls in autumn, turns a bright yellow * colour, which makes it very effective in that season, but only for a few days, as the defoliation is very rapid. Remarkable Trees Ginkgo is perfectly hardy in England, and, as a lawn tree, is seen to great advantage. Many trees of considerable size occur in different parts of the country. The best known one is that at Kew, of which a photograph is given (Plate 21). In 1888 it was (measured by Mr. Nicholson) 56 feet in height, with a girth of 9 feet at ' See Fortune, Wanderings in China, Ii8, 251 ; Residence among the Chinese, 140, 348, 363 ; Yedo and Peking, 59. ' There is no trace of red in the autumnal tint, as is usual in other trees in their leaves before they fall. The tint in Ginkgo depends entirely on the yellow coloration of the disorganised chlorophyll corpuscles, and forms a beautiful object for the microscope. Ginkgo 6 1 a yard from the ground. It has a double stem, and in 1904 had increased to 62 feet high by 10 feet 4 inches in girth. Other remarkable trees near London^ are : — One at Chiswick House, which measured in 1889, 57 feet by 6|- feet, and in 1903, 62 feet by 6 feet 11 inches; and another at Cutbush's Nursery, Highgate, which was in 1903 56 feet high by 4^ feet in girth. Ginkgo trees may be seen in the following places in London : — Victoria Park, Telegraph Hill, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Waterlow Park, South wark Park. At Grove Park, Herts, a tree measured in 1904 68 feet high by 8 feet 5 inches in girth. At Bank House, Wisbech, the residence of Alexander Peckover, Esq., there is a tree which was 65 feet high and 7 feet in girth in 1904. There is a very fine tree ^ at Frogmore, Windsor, which in 1904 measured 74 feet by 9 feet 3 inches, but divides into four stems (Plate 22). At Barton, Suffolk, a tree planted in 1825 measured in 1904 50. feet by 2 feet 5 inches. At Sherborne, Dorset, a tree 70 feet by 7 feet 7 inches in 1884. At Melbury, Dorchester, the tallest tree in England is said to occur, being stated to be over 80 feet in height.' The tree at Panshanger' is reported to be 70 feet high by 10 feet at i foot above the ground. At Longleat' there is a tree 71 feet by 9^ feet girth at i foot above the soil. At Cobham Park, Kent, a tree 68 feet by 9 feet 4 inches. At Badminton, Gloucestershire, a pair of symmetrical trees each about 50 feet by 5 feet. At Blaize Castle, near Bristol, there is a good tree, of which Lord Ducie has kindly sent a photograph and a letter from Miss Harford, dated December 1903, which states : — "The Salisburia is, I am glad to say, in perfect condition, and a very fine graceful tree. Its height, measured last summer, was 72 feet. I have always heard that the one at Kew (which is not nearly so well grown) and the one in the Bishop's garden at Wells came over from Japan in the same ship as our tree. In Wales the finest tree that we know of is at Margam Park, Glamorganshire, the residence of Miss Talbot, which in 1904 was about 70 feet high and 6 feet in girth. We have not heard of any fine specimens in Scotland or Ireland. A curious form of the Ginkgo tree is reported ^ to occur at Cookham Grove, Berkshire. This tree grows within 10 feet of the river wall, which surrounds the lawn, and when there is high water the roots are under water for several days at a time. The bole is only 2 feet in height, but measures 4^ feet in girth ; at that point it breaks into many branches, some going upright to a distance of over 30 feet, while others grow almost horizontally, the spread of the branches being 45 feet. ' The well-known trees in the Chelsea Botanic Garden and in High Street, Brentford, are now mere wrecks. ' Figured in Garden, 1 904, Ixvi. 344. ' Flora and Sylva, ii. (1904), p. 357. * Elweshas since seen and measured this tree, which he made to be 68 feet by 9 feet 3 inches, with a bole about 12 feet high. '' Card. Chron. 1886, xxv. 53. 62 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Much finer trees occur on the Continent than those in England ; and it is evident that while the tree is healthy and hardy in this country, it requires hotter summers and colder winters to attain its best development and ripen fruit. A fine pair, male and female, stand in the old Botanic Garden of Geneva, where they were planted in 1815. They were measured by Elwes in 1905, when the male tree was 86 feet by 4 feet 10 inches, with a straight upright habit, the female, which bears good seed, was considerably smaller. A famous specimen in the garden adjoining the palace of the Grand Duke of Baden at Carlsruhe measured, in 1884, 84 feet, with a diameter of 25 inches at 3 feet from the ground. Beissner^ says trees occur in this garden of 25^ and 30 metres high, with stem diameters of 1.90 and 1.80 metres. The finest tree in Europe is probably one mentioned by Beissner,* which stands in the Botanic Garden at Milan, and measures 40 metres high and 1.20 metre in diameter. There is also a noble specimen in the gardens of the Villa Carlotta on Lake Como. (A. H.) Beissner, Nadelhohkunde, 1891, pp. 191, 192. One of the trees at Cailsruhe is figured in Cartenwelt, iv. 44, p. 520. LIRIODENDRON Liriodendron} Linnaeus, Sp. PL 535 (1753); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL i. 19 (1862). Trees, several extinct and two living species, belonging to the Natural order Magnoliaceae, with deciduous, alternate, stalked, saddle-shaped, or lyrate leaves. Flowers : solitary, terminal, stalked, regular, enclosed in bud in a 2-valved spathe, which falls off when the flower opens. Floral receptacle : cylindro-conic, bearing from below upwards 3 imbricated petaloid sepals, 6 petals imbricated in two rows, numerous stamens, with anthers dehiscing outwardly by longitudinal slits, and a spindle-shaped column of numerous densely imbricated independent carpels. Each carpel is a i -celled ovary, containing 2 ovules, and terminating in a style with stigmatic papillae at its apex. Fruit : a cone of samarse, falling off the receptacle when ripe, each containing i or 2 seeds. Liriodendron appeared in the Cretaceous epoch, and numerous fossil species have been found in North America and Europe in the Tertiary period. Of the two now living, one occurs in the eastern half of the United States and Canada, the other is a native of Central China. ' Liriodendrum is the spelling used by Linnaeus in his earlier descriptions of the genus in Corollarium Gen. PI. 9 (1737), and Hort. Cliff. 223 (1737) ; but the form given above is the one now always adopted. 63 64 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland LIRIODENDRON CHINENSE, Chinese Tulip Tree Uriodendron chirunse, Sargent, Trees and Shrubs, iii. 103, PI. Hi. (1903) ; Hemsley in Hook. Ic. PI. t. 2785 (1905)- Uriodendron chinense, Hemsley, Gard. Chron. 1903, p. 370. Liriodetidron tulipifera, L., var. ? c/iinensis, Hemsley, _/ that at the Nashville Exhibition a log of this tree was shown by the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railroad Company, which- measured 42 feet long, 10 feet 4 inches in diameter at the butt, and 7 feet at the smaller end, containing 1260 cubic feet of timber, and about 600 years old. Introduction The tulip tree was probably introduced, according to Evelyn,' by John Trades- cant about the middle of the seventeenth century, but this is somewhat uncertain, though it was grown by Bishop Compton at Fulham in 1688. According to Hunter the tree which first flowered in England was in the gardens of the Earl of Peterborough at Parsons Green, Fulham, and this he describes in 1776 as "an old tree quite destroyed by others which overhang it." At that time there were also some trees of great bulk at Wilton, the seat of the Earl of Pembroke in Wilts. Cultivation Though the tree can be propagated by means of layers, and in the case of varieties by grafting, yet as seeds are easily procured from the United States it is much better to raise it from seed. Cobbett, who was a great admirer of the tulip tree, gives a long account of it, and of the best means of raising it,^ and says that if sown in May, which he thinks the best time, it will germinate in the following May, ' Yearbook U.S. Dept. of Agric. (1900). * Notes m Trees of Louver Wabash, Proc. U.S. Nat. Hist. Mus. 1882, p. 49; 1894, p. 411. ' Evelyn's Silva, 214. Ed. Hunter (1776). ■• Woodlands, par. 523 (1823). Liriodendron 69 but that if sown in autumn, part will come up in the next spring and part in the following year. Dawson in an excellent paper on the Propagation of Trees from Seed/ says, " The tulip tree invariably takes two years, and as the proportion of good seed is as I to 10, it should be sown very thickly to ensure even an ordinary crop." Probably this opinion was based on his experience with seeds grown in New England, \vhere they do not ripen so well as they do in the south, for my own experience, gained by sowing seeds received from Meehan of Philadelphia, is different. In the spring of 1 903 I sowed part of the seeds in a greenhouse, where they began to germinate six weeks later. Of those sown in the open ground, perhaps 10 per cent germinated in June. The following summer was cold and wet, and the seedlings in the open ground made slow progress, being only 2-3 inches high in the autumn, whilst those kept under glass were from 6- 1 5 inches high at the same time. The young wood seems to ripen better than that of most North American trees and, as the spring of 1904 was favourable, they were not checked by frost. But the seedlings are diffi- cult to transplant, owing to the fleshy and brittle nature of their roots, and are there- fore best kept in a box or large pot till they are two years old, when the roots should be trimmed and planted out in deep sandy soil, and watered the first year ; after this they should be transplanted frequently until large enough to put in their permanent situation, and if tall and straight grown trees are desired the young trees must be very carefully pruned, as like the Magnolia they do not thrive so well if large branches are cut off. The tulip tree rarely ripens its seed in England, and that which I got from a tree at VVestonbirt in Gloucestershire in 1901 did not germinate. But I am informed by Mr. A. C. Forbes, that a self-sown tulip tree is growing in the sand walk at Longleat, and Colonel Thynne confirms this in December 1904, when he tells me the young tree is 8 feet high. This, however, is the only instance I know of in England where natural reproduction has occurred. Soil and Situation The tree requires a deep, moist, rich soil to bring it to perfection, preferring heavy land to light, and apparently disliking lime in the soil. It probably prefers a moderate amount of shade when young, and would be more likely to grow tall and straight if surrounded by other trees. But isolated trees sometimes grow with a clean straight stem, as at Leonardslee in Sussex (see below) even on dry soil. In the Gardeners Chronicle for 1879 there was much correspondence on the merits of this tree for general cultivation in England, from which I extract the following particulars, which will be valuable to intending planters. Most of the correspondents agree that it grows best on heavy soil, inclining to clay, or with a clay subsoil. Sir W. Thiselton Dyer says it does not do well on the light, dry soil of Kew Gardens. • Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc. 1885, p. 152. yo The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Mr. Bullen says that it grows well in heavy clay in the damp and smoky climate of Glasgow, and a tree is mentioned at the Grove, Stanmore, on damp, gravelly clay, which in 1879 was 'j'j feet high by 9^ in girth. The tulip tree has been much recommended for planting in towns, and specimens may be seen in London at Victoria Park, Manor House Gardens, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Waterloo Park, Clissold Park, etc. Mr. Hovey says that in America it is not so much planted for ornament as it deserves to be, presumably because American planters desire a quick effect, and that it does not transplant well after it is 4-6 feet high ; but that it grows on gravel, sand, peat, or clay, and is not very particular in that climate as to soil. He has known it grow 30 feet high and more in 20 years. It is very liable to be attacked by rabbits, which eat the bark even of large trees, and I have seen several which have been killed or much injured in this way. Remarkable Trees Though this tree is one of the handsomest when in flower, stateliest in habit, and most beautiful in the autumn tints of its leaves, it is not now planted in England nearly as much as it was a hundred years and more ago, having, like so many other fine hard-wooded trees, been supplanted by conifers and flowering shrubs, which are easier to raise and more profitable to the nurserymen, who now appear to cater rather for the requirements of owners of villas and small gardens than for those of larger places. But though the tulip tree loves a hot summer, it endures the most severe winter frosts of our climate without injury, and in a suitable soil grows in some parts of the southern counties, after it is once established, to a great size. The largest living specimen I know of in England is at Woolbeding, in Sussex, the seat of Colonel Lascelles, and measures 105 feet by 17. Though not so perfect in shape as some others, it is a very beautiful tree, andv seemed, when I saw it in 1903, to be in good health. It grows on a deep, alluvial, sandy soil, which suits plane trees and rhododendrons very well (Plate 25). There was even a larger one at Stowe near Buckingham, which when I saw it in 1905 was dead, apparently barked at the base by rabbits. It was at least 107 feet high, with a bole of about 30 feet, and a girth of 1 3 feet at 5 feet, and 2 1 feet 4 inches at the ground. Another very fine tree is at Leonardslee, near Horsham, the seat of Sir Edmund Loder, Bart., also in Sussex, and is growing at an elevation of 400-500 feet on soil which, though very favovrable to rhododendrons, is too poor to grow either oak, birch, or larch to the same size in the same time. Sir E. Loder tells me that the tree cannot be more than 90 years old, and it is now 97 feet high, with a perfectly clean, straight trunk 25-30 feet high, which towers above all the native trees of the district (Plate 27). At Horsham Park, the residence of R. H, Hurst, Esq., is a very fine and sym- metrical tree which I measured rather hastily, as over 100 feet in height by 15 in girth. Liriodendron 71 Another very remarkable tree (Plate 26) is the one at Killerton, in Devon- shire, which I am sorry to hear has suffered severely in the gale of September 1903. This tree must be one of the oldest now living, as Sir C. T. D. Acland tells me that in a picture of his house, taken early in the last century, it seems nearly as tall as at present, and it is mentioned by Loudon as being 63 feet high in 1843. When I measured it in 1902 it was 80 by 15 feet, with a bole about 18 feet long, and must have contained nearly 300 feet of timber. A very fine tulip tree, on heavier, damper soil at Strathfieldsaye, Berk- shire, the seat of the Duke of Wellington, measures 105 feet by 12 ; and though not such a well-shaped tree as the one at Leonardslee is of the same type. The tree which Loudon refers to as being the tallest known to him at Syon, was, in 1844, 76 feet high, at about 76 years of age, but this is now dead, as is the old tree at Fulham Palace mentioned by Loudon, which he estimated at 150 years of age. At Bury House, Lower Edmonton, there is a magnificent tree which John W. Ford, Esq., informs us is thoroughly sound and in perfect health. He estimates it to be 70 to 75 feet in height, the girth 5 feet from the ground being 17 feet 4 inches. The bole at 13 feet divides into five limbs, of which the biggest are 5 feet round. The soil is splendid, being brick earth. At Deepdene, Dorking, there is a fine tree on the lawn, which in February 1904 was 83 feet high by 14 feet in girth. At Petworth, the seat of Lord Leconfield, there is a curious old tree which has an immense burry trunk 17 feet in girth. A tree was recorded at Longleat in 1877 as being 106 feet high and 10 feet in girth, but this, as I learn from the Marquess of Bath, is now dead, though one or two other large specimens remain. There is a very fine tree at Margam, in Pembrokeshire, which, as measured in 1904, is 92 feet high by 13 feet 6 inches at 6 feet from the ground, with a spread of branches 57 feet in diameter. An immense tree at Esher Place, Surrey, is mentioned by Mr. Goldring as having a girth of 22 feet. At Barton, Suffolk, two trees ^ were planted in 1832. They first flowered in 1843. In the year following the severe winter of i860 no flowers were produced, but the foliage was as good as usual. In 1904 these two trees had both attained the same height — 79 feet ; one having a girth of 7 feet 2 inches at 5 feet above the ground ; the other divided into two stems at a point 2 feet from the ground where the girth was 10 feet 4 inches. The soil at Barton is good, consisting of 2 or 3 feet of loam resting on boulder clay. At Ashby St. Ledgers, Rugby, the seat of the Hon. Ivor Guest, there is a good tree^ which measured 80 feet in height by 16^ feet in girth in 1900. This tree breaks into three stems at a little above 4 feet from the ground, and the girth is taken below this point. At Hampton Court, Herefordshire, a tree* on the lawn in 1879 was 80 feet ' Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 60. '^ Letter to Curator at Kew. ' Garden, 1890, xxxviii. 178. The measurements refer to 1879, according to a note in iVoods and Forests, April 23, 1884. 72 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland high by 12 feet 7 inches in girth, with an estimated cubic contents of timber of 223 feet. When I measured it in 1905 it was 95 by 13 feet, but the top and trunk were decaying. At Erlestoke Park, Wiltshire, a tree,^ growing near the bank of a lake, was 80 feet high by 14 feet in girth at 4 feet from the ground in 1902. The following records from Hampshire were reported in Woods and Forests -.^ — North Stoneham Churchyard, near Southampton, a tree 12 feet 10 inches in girth ; Cranbury House, near Winchester, a tree 1 1 feet 9 inches in girth ; at Gramwell's Meadow, east of East Tytherley Manorhouse, near Romsey, a tree 85 feet high by 10 feet 5 inches in girth, with a stem free from burrs, planted in 1780. These measurements were taken in 1884. At Hale Park, in 1879, there was a tree 75 feet high with a short bole of 4 feet, girthing 18 feet 3 inches. The finest tree at Kew, 70 feet high in 1844, is gone, but there still exists a well-proportioned specimen* which stands at the end of the rhododendron dell. It is now (1905) 79 feet high by 9 feet 9 inches in girth. It produces fruit freely every year, but the seeds are always poorly developed and infertile. In Scotland a tree was mentioned by Loudon as growing at The Hirsel, Coldstream, the seat of the Earl of Home, which was at that time 100 years old and 20 feet in girth 3 feet from the ground. I was informed by Mr. Cairns, head gardener at the Hirsel, that in 1903 it was slowly decaying, some of the larger branches being gone, but that what remained carry a large amount of healthy foliage, and flowers more or less every year. At Drummonie Castle, Perthshire, formerly a seat of the Lords Oliphant, Hunter* mentions a tree 8 feet in girth at 5 feet, and another at Gorthy Castle,^ girthing 9 feet 7 inches at 3 feet, which had been a good deal injured by cattle grazing in the park. He also (p. 400) speaks of a large tree at Castle Menzies, 10 feet in girth, but I did not see it on either of my visits to this interesting old place. The tulip tree is not mentioned in the Old and Jieniarkable Trees of Scotland, but it grows at Gordon Castle, and even as far north as Dunrobin Castle in Sutherlandshire. In the south-west of Scotland there do not appear to be any large trees, the biggest mentioned by Messrs. Renwick and M'Kay" being one at Auchendrane House, Ayrshire, which was, in September 1902, 53 feet by 5 feet 8 inches, and one at Doonside, Ayrshire, which was 46 feet 9 inches by 8 feet i inch. At Jardine Hall, Lockerbie, a tree^ measured in 1900 60 feet in height by 9 feet in girth. At St. Mary's Isle, Kirkcudbright, a tulip tree* was, in 1892, 10 feet 9 inches in girth. ' Gard. Chrott. 1902, xxxii. 61. ' Issues of April 16 and 23, 1884. ^ Figured in Gard. Chron. 1890, viii. 219, where it is stated in the text that the tulip tree bears pruning well, and that there is an avenue of clipped trees in one of the courts at Chatsworth. * Hunter, Woods, Forests, and Estates of Perthshire, 145 (1883). This is apparently the tree mentioned in Gard. Chron. 1890, viii. 388, as being 60 feet in height then, and having recently flowered. ' L.c. p. 371. 8 Renwick and M'Kay, Brit. Assoc. Hattdbk. 131 (1901). ' Garden, 1890, xxxviii. 178. • M'Kay and Renwick, Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasg. Sept. 4, 1894, p. 17. Liriodendron 73 In Ireland large tulip trees are rare. There are two good specimens at Fota, which measured in 1903, one S7 feet high by 11 feet 7 inches in girth, the other 57 feet by 14 feet 7 inches. In France the tulip tree, favoured by warmer summers, seems to thrive better, and attains a larger size than in England. Mouillefert ^ speaks of a tree at the Chateau de Frene, near Chaulnes, in the department of Somme, which in 1899 was 38 metres in height by 5 in circumference. He also mentions having seen in 1902 at the Chateau de Cheverny, near Blois, tulip trees planted along the banks of a canal, which at 50-60 years of age measured 31 metres in height and 2 metres in girth at 5 feet from the ground, whilst plane trees of the same age close to them were only 24 metres high and 1.65 in girth. He considers that in a suitable soil and situation such as the valleys in a granitic mountain range, or on damp, rich soils, in fact in such places as the ash, the poplar, and the plane thrive, this tree might be grown as a forest tree to produce valuable timber, or as copse wood, cut at 18 or 20 years of growth for turnery purposes. Considering, however, the cost of raising this tree in the nursery, and its liability to suffer from autumn frost in a young state, I do not think the tree can be considered likely to become a forest tree in England, except possibly in a few choice situations in the south and south-west. Timber The timber of the tulip tree is now very much used in North America for many purposes, and is also largely imported to England under the name of white-wood, canary-wood, and yellow poplar. Stevenson says of it,^ " Though classed among the light woods it is much heavier than that of the common poplar, its grain is equally fine but more compact, and the wood is easily wrought and polished. It is found strong and stiff enough for uses that require great solidity. The heart-wood, when separated from the sap and perfectly seasoned, long resists the influence of the air, and is said to be rarely attacked by insects. It is imported in the form of waney logs and in sawn planks of very fine dimensions, in which state it commands a price fully equal to that of the first quality of Quebec yellow pine. Hough' speaks of it as "light, rather strong, with close straight grain, compact, easily worked, and yielding a satiny finish. Sap-wood nearly white, heart-wood of a light lemon-yellow colour, or sometimes of a- light brownish tint — whence its two seemingly contradictory names, white and yellow poplar, the former referring to the sap-wood, the latter to the heart." Sargent says it is light and soft, brittle and not strong, is readily worked, and does not easily split or shrink. The heart-wood is light yellow or brown, weighing when absolutely dry 26-36 lbs. to the cubic foot. Large canoes were formerly made from it by the Indians, and it is now extensively used in construction, for the » TrazV^ffe 5y/TOV»//««, 467-468 (1903). ^ TAe Trees 0/ Commerce, g6-l03 (igoz). ' Tie American Woods, pt. i. p. 40, t. 2 (1S93). I L 74 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland interior finish of houses, and in boat-building, as well as for shingles, pumps, and wooden ware. The only timber I know which it resembles closely in colour, texture, and grain, is that of Magnolia acuminata} Neither Stevenson, Hough, nor Stone, however, speak of a form of this timber known as "blistered poplar," which is occasionally found, as I believe, only in old trees, and which is sometimes imported in small quantities to Europe. This seems akin to the figured maple wood known as bird's eye maple, but has the figure in oblong patches from 2 inches long downwards, of a dark olive colour on a paler olive-green ground, and is one of the most ornamental woods I know, fit to be used in the finest cabinet work. I saw large planks of this variety in the Exhibition at St. Louis, and have had some of it worked into the panels of a screen. The wood of the tulip tree grown in England seems to be nearly as good in quality as the imported timber, though not quite so pure in colour. From a tree which was cut at Highclere a plank was sent me by the kindness of the Earl of Carnarvon, which has been used in the same screen, and I have a large book-case of which the back is made of the imported wood, selected by an experienced cabinet- maker as best for the purpose. Mouillefert says that in Paris its use is increasing for all purposes for which the wood of the lime and poplar is suitable, and that it has when fresh cut a pleasant smell of orange, which, however, is soon lost as it dries, (H. J. E.) ' Mr. Weale tells me that the timber of this Magnolia, as well as that of M. grandijlora and M. glauca, come into the Liverpool market mixed with that of the tulip tree, and that though the two former may easily be distinguished by a person who knows them well, yet that M. glauca can only be identified with a lens, and that in consequence of this mixture, opinions differ as to the suitability of the wood for laying veneers upon. He thinks that if bone dry, the wood of the tulip tree is fit for this purpose, but not equal to that of American chestnut, American cherry, or Honduras mahogany, of which the latter is best. He also says that for pattern making Quebec yellow pine is distinctly superior, and worth from is. to 2s. a foot more. PICEA SPRUCE-FIRS Picea, Link, Abhandl. Akad. IViss. Berlin, 1827, 179 (1830); Benthatn et Hooker, Gen. PL iii. 439 (1880); Masters, y(9«n Linn. Soc. {Boi.) xxx. 28 (1893). Abies, Linnaeus, Gen. PI. 294 (in part) (1737); D. Don in Lambert, Pinus, vol. iii. (1837), ex Loudon, Arb. et Frut. iv. 2293 (1838). This genus includes the spruce-firs, which in England, following the practice of Don and Loudon, are still often called Abies. However, all botanists in England, on the Continent, and in America apply the term Picea to the spruces, and Abies to the silver firs. Tall evergreen trees belonging to the tribe Abietinese of the order Coniferse, with shoots of only one kind, bearing in spiral order peg-like projections (" pulvini "), from which the leaves arise singly. The needle-like leaves are either tetragonal or flattened in section, and persist for many years, rendering the foliage very dense. At the ends of the leading shoots there is a terminal bud, with 2-5 side buds directly under it ; the buds are dry and not resinous. Flowers monoecious. Male flowers solitary in the axils of the uppermost leaves, ovoid or cylindric, short-stalked, surrounded at the base with scale-like bracts, com- posed of numerous stamens spirally arranged, each with 2 pollen-sacs opening longi- tudinally, and a connective prolonged into a toothed crest. Pollen grains with 2 air-sacs. Female flowers solitary, terminal, erect, stalked, with a few empty scales at the base ; composed of 2 series of scales, the bracts small and membranous, and the ovular scales bearing at their base 2 inverted ovules. Cones : generally becoming pendulous, but in certain species remaining erect or spreading ; cylindrical or ovoid, with the bracts minute and concealed, and the scales enlarged and firm in texture, with entire or denticulate margins, and bearing on their inner surface 2 winged seeds. The cones are ripe in the first season, and after dispersal of the seed (the scales persisting on the axis) fall off in the following winter, or remain in some species much longer on the tree. The cotyledons are 5-15 in number, 3-sided, and serrate in margin. Species of spruce occur in Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Siberia, Mongolia, China, Japan, the Himalayas, and in North America. The genus is marked out into two natural sections by the character of the leaves. These are defined by Willkomm as follows ; — 75 76 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 1. Eu-picea. — True spruces. Needles 4-sided and 4-angIed, with stomata on all their surfaces. The ripe cones are always pendulous. 2. Omorica. — Flat-leaved spruces. Leaves 2-sided, flattened from above down- wards, stomata being only borne on their dorsal surface. Ripe cones pendent, horizontal, or erect. Other divisions have been made, such as that of Link into two sections, Genuitue and Dehiscentes ; and that of Mayr into three sections, Omorica (not identical with Willkomm's section of the same name), Morinda, and Casicta ; but it is most con- venient to adopt Willkomm's divisions. The arrangement of the leaves on lateral branchlets is different in the two sections. All spruces agree in the disposition of the leaves arising from the upper side of such branchlets, as these always point forwards and cover the shoot. But, in ordinary species, the leaves underneath, while they part into two lateral groups, alter little their direction, which is more or less forwards ; and the under part of the stem is laid only partially bare. In almost all the flat -leaved spruces, the leaves below part into two sets, which are directed outwards at right angles to the shoot, which is laid quite bare. This arrangement differs from that of the yew and most silver firs, where the leaves are divided into two sets both above and below ; and this distinction depends on the fact that in these spruces the stomata are on the dorsal surface of the leaf, whereas in the yew, etc., they are on the ventral surface ; and in the effort to direct the stomata away from the light, a different arrangement results in the two cases. The arrangement of the leaves on leader or upright branchlets is the same in all species of spruce, being radial, the leaves pointing outwards and slightly forwards. In certain species, as P. Breweriana, P. Morinda, the lateral branchlets are pendulous and not horizontal ; and the leaves then are similarly arranged in both the lateral and the leader shoots. The section Eu-picea will be dealt with in a later part. Key to Section Omorica. — The flat-leaved spruces are distinguished from the silver firs by the peg- like projections on the shoots, and from ordinary spruces by the flattened leaves with stomata only on their dorsal surface. I. Young shoots glabrous, yellow. 1. Picea hondoensis. Central Japan, Buds broadly conical, with scales rounded in the margin, opening red. Shoots of second year red. Leaves thin, slightly keeled on both surfaces, blunt or ending in a short point. 2. Picea ajanensis. Manchuria, Amurland, Saghalien, Yezo, As in I , but the buds open green, and shoots of the second year are yellow, 3. Picea sitchensis. Western North America. Buds ovoid with ovate obtuse scales. Leaves deeply keeled on ventral green surface, almost convex on dorsal white surface, ending in very sharp, cartilaginous points. Picea "]"] 4. Picea morindoides.^ Native country unknown. Buds and scales ovate - obtuse. Leaves linear, straight, slender, acuminate, terminating in a callous sharp tip, somewhat flattened and distinctly keeled on both sides, marked with two white lines on the upper surface, and dark bluish green on the under surface. Leaves radially spreading on the branchlets. IL Youitg shoots pubescent with short hairs. 5. Picea Omorika. Servia and Bosnia. Pubescence brown. Buds ovate, conical, with outer scales ending in long subulate points. Leaves flattened but thick, obtuse or ending in a short point, 6. Picea Breweriana. Oregon, California. Pubescence grey. Buds ovoid, with outer scales ending in long points. Leaves scarcely flattened, but convex above and below, keeled on dorsal surface, with midrib prominent on ventral green surface, and ending in- a short point. The leaves spread out in all directions on the shoot. ' A new species described by Rehder in Sargent, Trees and Shrubs, 95, t. 48 (1903). It is only known as a tree grow- ing in the arboretum of G. Allard at Angers. I have seen no specimens and take the characters given above from Rehder. In habit it resembles Picea Morinda, the branches being pendulous. The cones resemble those of Picea A/cockiana. yS The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland PICEA OMORIKA, Servian Spruce PUea Omorika, Bolle, Monatschrift des Vereines zur Beforderung des Gartenbaues, 124 (1877); Masters, Gard. Chron. 1884, xxi. 308, 309, Figs. 56, 57, 58, and 1897, xxi. 153, Fig. 44; Jour. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xxii. 203 (1886); Willkomni, Forstliche Flora, 99 (1897); Kent, in VeitcKs Man. Coniferce, 442 (1900); Richardson, Edin. Bot. Garden, Notes, No. i (1900); G. von Beck, Die Vegetationsverhdltnisse der Illyrischen Ldnder, 286, 360, 440, 474 (1901). Pinus Omorika, Pancic, Eine Neue Conifere in den Ocstlichen Alpen, 4 (Belgrade, 1876); Masters, Gard. Chron. 1877, vii. 470, 620. A tree with a tall, slender stem, said to attain 1 30 feet in height, with a girth of stem of only 4 feet, with short branches, forming a narrow pyramidal crown. The topmost branches are directed upwards, the middle ones are horizontally spreading, and the lower ones are pendulous, with their tips arching upwards. Bark brownish red, and scaling off in plates, the fragments often being heaped in quantity round the base of the tree. The leaves on vertical shoots stand out on all sides, but on horizontal shoots they point forwards on the upper side, being pseudo-distichous in three or four ranks on the lower side. They are flattened, 4-angled, straight, or curved to one side, f-i inch long, linear, acute or obtuse with an apiculus, convex, and shining green on the ventral surface, marked with stomatic lines on each side of the prominent midrib of the dorsal surface.^ They persist for 4 or 5 years. The buds, ovoid-conic with brown, membranous scales, the outermost of which end in long subulate points, are produced chiefly near the end of the shoot ; and in unfolding, the uppermost scales are pushed off as a cap. The dark brown hairs, which are conspicuous on the young shoots, persist on the older branchlets of even 3 or 4 years' growth in wild specimens. The male flowers, which are partly solitary and partly whorled, are stalked, ovoid- cylindric, bright red, \-\ inch long, and are surrounded at the base by numerous membranous bracts. Cones, shortly - stalked 2-2^ inches long, bluish black when young, dark- brown when ripe, clustered, the upper ones being directed upwards, while the middle ones are horizontal, and the lower ones pendulous. Scales almost orbicular in outline, broad and convex, streaked on the outer surface, with the margin slightly bent inwards, undulate and denticulate. Bract obovate-cuneate, minute. Seeds small, -}j^-\ inch long, obovate, blackish brown, with a wing \ inch long, obovate in outline. • On horizontal shoots, the leaves, by twisting movements on their bases, are inverted, so that the green surface is turned upwards and the stomatic surface downwards. Picea 79 Distribution The Servian spruce was first made known to science by Panciic, who discovered it in south-western Servia, near the village of Zaovina, on ist August 1875. Its area is a small one, occupying about 20 kilometres long by 1 5 kilometres wide on both sides of the r>rina valley, the boundary between Servia and Bosnia. Here it occurs on limestone rocks at altitudes varying from 2700 to 5300 feet. It grows in small groves in the wetter places in the ravines, but it does not there reach such a height as it attains in the rockier parts of the mountains, where it forms part of the mixed forest of Austrian and common pines, common spruce, beech, and sycamore. Pure woods of Omorika occur at higher elevations, between 4700 and 5300 feet, where sub-alpine plants accompany it. Wettstein gives the following as the composition of the characteristic Omorika woods : — Dominant Trees. — Picea Omorika, Pinus sylvestris, Carpinus duinensis, Picea excelsa, Fagus sylvatica, Populus tremula, Abies pectinata, Ostrya carpinifolia, Salix sp., Pinus austriaca. Underwood. — Corylus avellana, Coiinus coggygria, Spircea cana, with Rhamnus fallax and Lonicera alpigena at high altitudes. Ground-herbage. — Aspidium Filix-mas, lobatum, and angulare. Wettstein ' says than an Omorika forest has a peculiar and gloomy aspect, the slender stems with their short branches and columnar or spindle-shaped crowns looking quite different from any other type of European forest. In mixed forests, the straight single stems, arising out of the general mass of the other trees, are equally peculiar. Omorika seedlings and young trees are only found in exposed rocky situations, and in the bottoms of wet shaded ravines. The tree in the wild state is strictly confined to limestone soil, and never grows on the slate formation which is found in parts of the Drina valley, yet when cultivated, it does very well, at least in youth, on soils which are not calcareous. The largest tree^ recorded is one felled by Pancic, which measured 42.2 metres in height, and 0.385 metres in diameter. It showed 137 rings, and the width of the rings gradually diminished from 0.28 cm. in the 3rd decade to 0.04 cm. in the 14th decade. Pancic says that the tree has an inclination to grow with a spiral stem, and that it loses its branches up to about half its height, the largest of the branches being only about 2 metres in length. The cones are borne, according to him, upright on the topmost branches only, but elsewhere they hang down with their tips directed slightly upwards. PanCic, in his first account of the tree, reports that he had heard on good authority of its occurrence in the mountains of Montenegro ; it has since been ' Sitzungsber. kais. Akad. d. IViss., xcix. 503 ; Oesterr. Bot, Zeitschr. 1890, p. 357. ^ Letter of Pan4ic, quoted in Stein's article on " Omorika " in Gartenflora, 1887, p. 14. 8o The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland reported to. occur also at Bellova in the Rhodope mountains in Bulgaria; but, so far as we can discover, these statements have not been confirmed, A fossil species which has been identified with the existing tree by Webber has been found in the interglacial deposits at Hottingen near Innsbruck in the Tyrol. An allied species, Picea omorikoides, Webber,' has been found at Aue in Saxony in a preglacial deposit which is of the same age as the Cromer forest bed on the coast of Norfolk. Lokowitz has also found near Mulhouse in Alsace some remains of a spruce in the middle Oligocene beds which resembles Picea Omorika. In the herbarium at Kew there are specimens collected by V. Crucic on the Drina, and others with good cones gathered by Elwes at 2000 to 3000 feet altitude. (A. H.) I visited the valley of the Drina in Bosnia in 1900 on purpose to see this tree, and after driving a long day east from Sarajevo, reached Rogatica, from where Herr Gschwind, the obliging forest officer of the district, was good enough to accompany me to Han Semec, a Gendarmerie station on the road to Visegrad, about 15 miles from Rogatica. Han Semec is at an elevation of 3800 feet, and is surrounded by beautiful forests of Austrian and Scots pines, spruce, silver fir, and beech. The climate of the district is very cold in winter and warm in summer. The minimum temperature being —33° Reaumur on 23rd December, + 30°, the maximum on 7th July 1897, the snow lying as long as 4-5 months." The rainfall in summer is heavy, amounting to 116.2 centimetres, which fell on 124 days, and the weather was wet most of the time I was there. After passing through some beautiful mountain meadows and primaeval forest of large spruce and silver fir mixed in places with beech and aspen, as well as small oaks and large birch, we came to the edge of a deep rocky ravine running down to the Drina valley. On the steep limestone cliffs overhanging this ravine, which are a favourite haunt of chamois, Picea Omorika was growing in clumps, and isolated trees occurred among common spruce, Scots and Austrian pine. The branches are short and drooping as compared with those of common spruce, and the cones being found only near the top of the tree, we had to cut one down in order to procure fruiting specimens ; on this I found young cones of the year, cones of last year which had not yet opened, and which, according to the forester, contained good seed only when there was turpentine exuding from them, and old cones which hang two or three years on the tree after shedding their seed. In habit and .appearance the tree resembles the American Picea alba more than any tree I know, though its nearest botanical affinities are with P. sitchensis and P. ajanensis. Plate 28, which is from two of several photographs kindly sent me by Herr Othmar Reiser of the Landes- museum, Serajevo, Bosnia, gives an excellent idea of the forest and of individual trees. The average size of the full - grown trees on these steep cliffs was not above 50-60 feet, with about i foot of diameter, but I found some measuring 80-90 feet high and 18 inches diameter. Young seedlings were scarce and difficult to find on the mossy rocks ; but we collected 20 or 30 plants, of ' Engkr's Bot. Jahrb. xxiv. 1898, Heft 4, 510, 504. ' C£ Met. Beob. Land Stationm in Bosnien (1899). Picea 8 1 which I brought the smallest home in a tin box alive, and planted the larger ones in the forester's garden at Han Semec. Those which I brought home have established themselves slowly, but a quantity of seed received in the autumn germinated well in boxes, and in November 1905 was much larger than common spruce of the same age. They were quite uninjured by the severe frost of May 21, 1905, which injured the common spruce very severely, and on my limy soil are growing faster and more vigorous^;' than any other species of Picea. The tree appears to have been first distributed by Messrs. Frobel of Zurich about 1884, and has been found quite hardy in England, as might be expected from the climate of its native country. The finest specimen I know of in England is in the garden of W. H. Griffiths, Esq., at Campden, Gloucestershire, where it was bearing a good crop of cones near the summit in August 1905, and measured about 25 feet in height; this seems to show that the tree prefers limestone. At Kew there are three fine trees which were raised from seed obtained from Belgrade in 1889. These trees aire now (1905) 13 inches in girth at 5 feet from the ground, and the tallest one is 23 feet high, making a strong, vigorous leading shoot, and assuming the very narrow pyramidal form which is so remarkable in the wild trees. The other two are 18 and 20 feet in height. At Tortworth Court it has attained about 15 feet in height, and produced cones containing in the year 1902 apparently good seed ; but Lord Ducie tells me that no plants raised from them can now be found. Though the tree is a very ornamental one I do not expect it can have any value as a forest tree in Great Britain, its timber having, so far as known, no special use. Judging from the soil and climate of its native country it should succeed in the Highlands of Scotland, especially on limestone soil, as well as, or better than in England, and as seedlings can now be procured in small numbers it will no doubt be planted by all lovers of coniferae. (H. J. E.) M 82 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland PICEA BREWERIANA, Brewer's Spruce Picea Breweriana, Watson, Proc. Atner. Acad. xx. 378 (1885) ; Sargent, in Gardeners' Chronicle, xxv. 498, f. 93 (1886), and Silva A\ America, xii. 51, t. 601 (1898); Kent, in Veitch's Man. Conifera, 430 (1900). A tree, attaining 100-120 feet in height, with a stem 2 to 3 feet in diameter above Its enlarged base. Branches crowded to the ground, with slender, pendulous branchlets, which are often 7 to 8 feet in length and sparsely covered in their first and second seasons with greyish pubescence. Pulvini long and slender, directed forwards. Leaves often nearly an inch long, rounded on both surfaces, the dorsal surface keeled and bearing 10 to 12 rows of stomata, the ventral surface dark green, shining with a prominent midrib, apex obtuse or short pointed. The leaves, on account of the shoots being pendulous, are radially arranged (never pseudo-distichous), their apices pointing outwards and downwards. Cones on short stalks {^ inch), oblong-cylindrical, gradually narrowed from the middle to each end, 2^ to 5 inches long by f to i inch wide ; scales broadly obovate with entire rounded margins ; bracts minute, concealed, oblong, with denticulate upper margin. Seed with long wing (three times the length of the seed itself). The cones are pendent, greenish, or purplish green when fully grown, becoming dull brown when ripe, and open to let out the seed in autumn, but generally remain on the branches till the winter of the following year. (A. H.) This tree has a more limited range than any other spruce, being confined, so far as we know at present, to a few stations in northern California and south- western Oregon, on the Siskiyou Mountains, where it was discovered at an elevation of about 7000 feet, in June 1884, by Mr. Tnomas Howell, who directed me to the best place from which the locality can be approached, a settlement called Waldo, about 40 miles west of Grant's Pass station, on the Southern Pacific Railway. I went to this station in August 1904 with the intention of visiting Waldo ; but finding that Messrs. Jack and Rehder, of the Arnold Arboretum, had just returned, and hearing from them that there were no cones on the trees in that year, I did not feel inclined to spend three days on the trip. I am, however, much indebted to these able botanists for the following information, and especially to Mr. Rehder for a beautiful negative of the tree, which is here reproduced. (Plate 29.) There seems to be only a small grove of the trees about 20 miles south of Waldo, over the Californian boundary, which is best reached by following the trail to Happy Camp, and turning west near the summit of the pass to a place called Big Meadows, which is four miles from the pass. There is another place where it grows near Selma, which is more accessible Picea 83 than Big Meadows, and other localities are mentioned by Sargent, who says that Professor Brewer, after whom the tree was named, had previously, in 1863, found a tree which was probably the same species, on Black Butte to the north of Strawberry Valley, at the western base of Mount Shasta, where, however, it cannot now be rediscovered. Another locality for Brewer's spruce was found in 1898, by Mr. F. Anderson, on an un-^amed but conspicuous peak at the headwaters of Elk Creek, about two or three miles west of Marble Mountain and eighty miles west of Mount Shasta. The elevation of the peak is about 8000 feet, and several hundred specimens were found growing near the summit ; the trunks were 1 6 to 20 inches in diameter at 3 feet from the ground, and there were plenty of cones on the tops of the trees which were about 80 feet high,^ It grows on the Siskiyous in company with Pinus ponderosa, P. Lambertiana, and P. monticola, but usually gregariously in groves by itself The soil and climate are dry, but there seems to be no special reason why this tree has proved in the eastern States of North America so difficult to cultivate ; and as some of the conifers of the Pacific Coast which will not grow, or are not hardy in the eastern States, as, for instance, Abies bracteata and Picea sitchensis, thrive in England, and the trees with which it is associated in America are hardy and produce good seed here, we need not despair of seeing this beautiful tree established in the south of England. The late Mr. R. Douglas, of Waukegan, 111., visited Oregon in 1891 on purpose to obtain the seeds, and collected a large quantity of cones, from which several hundred thousand seedlings were grown. But those sown in America perished in their first and second years from causes which are not known, and attempts to raise the tree in the Arnold Arboretum have also failed. Some of the seed, however, was raised by the late Baron von St. Paul Illaire at Fischbach in Silesia, which were alive in 1895 ;^ and small plants were reported in 1903 to be growing in the Royal Pomological Institute at Proskau in Silesia.* The late Mr. Johnson, of Astoria, Oregon, transplanted a few small trees to his nursery, some of which are, I believe, growing near Portland. Brandagee found a few two-year-old seedlings among the old trees, and half a dozen of them reached the Arnold Arboretum alive. One of these was sent from there to Kew in November 1897, and is growing near the Pagoda, being about 2^ feet in height at the present time (March 1905). It is the only living specimen known to us in Britain. The tree is said by Professor Sheldon to grow from 100 to 150 feet high, but Sargent gives 120 feet as the extreme height, and Messrs. Jack and Rehder did not see any higher than about iio feet by about 9 feet in circumference. Douglas informed Baron von St. Paul that the largest tree measured by him was 121 feet high, and 2 feet 1 1 inches in diameter at 7^ feet from the ground. As the region in which it grows is so limited, and forest fires are very prevalent and ' Erythea, vi. 12 (1898), and vii. 176 (1899). ' Mitt. Deutsch. Dendr. Ges. 1895, P- 42- s Ibid. 1903, p. 77. 84 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland destructive,- it is to be feared that unless special measures are taken for its protection by the State of Oregon this very beautiful tree may become extinct The timber, which I only know from a specimen in the Jesup Collection of North American Woods, preserved in the American Museum of Natural History at New York, is said by Sargent to be considerably heavier than that of other American spruces, soft, close-grained, with a satiny surface, the sapwood hardly distinguishable. The specimen alluded to is 13^ inches in diameter under the bark at 166 years old. (H. J. E.) Picea 85 PICEA AJANENSIS, Ajan Spruce Picea ajanensis, Fischer, ex Lindley and Gordon, Trans. Hort. Soc. v. 212 (1850), and in Middendorff, Retse, Florida Ochotensis, 87, tt. 22-24 (1856); Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. {Bat.), xviii. 508 (1880), and Gard. Chron. 1880, xiii. 115, and xiv. 427, with figures; Mayr, Monograph der Abietineen des Jap. Reiches, 53, 102, t. iv. (1890); Kent, in Veitch's J/a«. Conifem, \2e, (1900). Picea ajanensis, var. microsperma, Masters, _/?«//-. Linn. Soc. {Bat.), xviii. 509 (1880). Picea jezoensis, Carrifere, Traite Gin. Conif. 255 (1855). Abies ajanensis, Lindley and Gordon, loc. cit. (1850). Abies jezoensis, Siebold et Zuccarini, Flora Japonica} ii. 19, t. no (ex parte') (1844); Veitch, Man. Coniferce, ed. i, p. 72 (1881). A tree, attaining in Yezo 100-150 feet in height. Bark like that of the common European spruce, grey, and composed of irregularly quadrangular scales which do not fall off. Branchlets shining, glabrous, yellow, never becoming reddish. Free part of the pulvini long, directed backwards on branchlets of old trees, not widened or channelled at their bases on the upper surface of the branchlets, persistent on old branchlets. Buds broadly conic, with ovate scales rounded in margin, showing on opening the young leaves tinged with red. Leaves flattened, thin, blunt, or ending in a short point, slightly keeled on both surfaces ; ventral surface green without stomata ; dorsal surface silvery white with two broad bands of stomata. Cones purple when young, brownish when ripe, straight, oblong, tapering at each end, 2 to 3 inches long by nearly i inch wide ; scales narrowly oblong-oval, coriaceous, erose, and denticulate in margin ; bracts minute, concealed, broad-oblong, slightly narrowed below, their upper rounded denticulate edge giving off abruptly an apiculus. Seed with a wing, which is twice or thrice as long as the seed itself. Identification. (See Picea hondoensis.) Distribution Picea ajanensis appears to be confined to Manchuria, Amurland, that part of Eastern Siberia which faces the southern half of the Sea of Ochotsk, Saghalien, the three southern isles of the Kurile group, and Yezo. The spruce of Central China, which has been identified with it in Index Florcs Sinensis, ii. 553, has pubescent shoots, and is probably identical with Picea brachytila, Masters. The accounts of the Ajan spruce on the continent of Asia are of ancient date, the only recent one being that in Russian by Komarov,* who states that it grows abundantly with species of Abies and Pinus koraiensis in mountain woods in all the provinces of Manchuria. It has not, however, been collected there by any British travellers. ' The figures given by Siebold represent (i) a flowering twig which came from a garden in Tokyo, and was probably, according to Mayr, Picea hondoensis ; and (2) a branch with cones, copied from a Japanese drawing of Picea ajanensis from Yezo. The description applies to two species, and the name jezoensis cannot stand. The synonymy is very involved, but, accepting Mayr's view, the facts are clear enough. The Hondo spruce was first distinguished clearly by Mayr, and therefore receives his name Picea hondoensis. The Yezo and Amurland spruces are the same species, and receive the name Picea ajanensis, first given by Fischer. ' Komarov, Flora Manshuria, i. 200 {1901). 86 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Farther north, according to Maximowicz,' it extends throughout the territory of the lower Amur and the coast province facing the Sea of Ochotsk, reaching its northern Hmit in the interior in the Stanovoi mountains about latitude 55° 50', and on the coast at Ajan, lat. 56° 27'. Schmidt^ says that thick forests of Picea ajanensis occur in the lower Amur and in the coast territory. A mountain at 1000 feet in the Amgun valley was clothed with a thick mossy wood of this spruce, in the shadow of which snow still lay on the 30th May. On the crest of the Bureja range it occurs as a low prostrate shrub. It descends very seldom to the river banks. Middendorfif also notes that it is confined to the hills on the coast of the Sea of Ochotsk. Occasionally it grows on swampy flats in Amurland. Schmidt describes the bark as being moderately rough and divided into generally 6-angled plates, about an inch in diameter and ^ to 1 line in thickness ; and that the form and colour of the leaves are very variable, their points being either acute or obtuse. In the island of Saghalien, in its south-western part, there is a coniferous forest composed of Picea ajanensis and Abies sachalinensis, which clothes the slopes of the mountains up to 800 feet on the coast, and higher in the interior, where even the lofty crests are covered with dark forests of these two species. In the Kurile Isles ^ this species is confined to the three islands north of Yezo, namely Kunashiri, Shikotan, and Etorofu, reaching its northern limit in the last named. In Shikotan it forms with Abies sachalinensis a dense mixed forest, which in habit and height and cover of the ground strikingly resembles the coniferous forests at moderate elevations in Germany. The cones borne by the tree in this island are, however, small in size, and the tree itself does not attain its maximum dimensions. In Yezo, Mayr reports that he has seen trees 130 feet in height, and considers reliable the reports of the Japanese foresters that it occasionally attains even 160-200 feet. It occurs in all the mountains of Yezo, only reaching the coast in the west of the island, where it is found in cold, marshy localities immediately behind the dunes, being only separated from the sea by a growth of Rosa rugosa and shrubby Quercus dentata. The important forests of it lie in the western and central mountains of Yezo, and also in the high ranges of Kitami, Kushiro, and Nemoro, where it forms mixed woods with the Saghalien silver fir and Picea Glehnii. Introduction We do not know that any plants of the continental Ajan spruce have been grown in Europe. John Gould Veitch visited Hakodate in i860, and sent home specimens and seeds of a weakly form of the Yezo Picea ajanensis, which was described by Lindley * as a ' Maximowicz, Primiticc Flora Amurensis, 261, 392 (1859). See also Kegel, Tenlamen Flora Ussuriensis, 136 (1861). ' Schmidt, " Reisen in Amurland und Saghalien," in Mim. Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Petersburg, VII. series, xii. No. 2, pp. 15, 20, 63, 98 (1868). ' Mayr, loc. cit. p. 102. * Card. Chron. 1861, p. 22. This is Picea ajanensis, var. microsperma, Masters, Gard. Chron. 1880, i. 115. Picea 87 distinct species, Abies microsperma. Plants raised from the seed " turned out to be unsuitable for the climate of this country." \ This form, according to Mayr, and so far as I can judge myself, can hardly rank even as a variety, and is not in cultivation at the present time. Maries^ visited Yezo in 1879 and sent home specimens, now preserved in the Kew Herbarium, and seeds of the true Picea ajanensis from that island ; and ytjung trees should accordingly be in cultivation in this country. This plant was kept separate by Messrs. Veitch at first, under the name Abies yezoensis. Maries considered the Yezo spruce to be quite distinct in habit and aspect from the two spruces which he had seen on Fujiyama [Alcockiana and hondoensis). Mayr informed me last year that the Yezo spruce was not introduced into Europe until 1891 ; and that most of the trees on the Continent passing under the name of Picea ajanensis belong to Picea hondoensis. The specimens which have been sent me from old trees of reputed P. ajanensis in England also belong to that species. (A. H.) On account of the heavy floods which occurred in July 1904, I did not get far enough north in Hokkaido to see this tree at its best, but in the State forests of Shari, Kutami, and Kushiro, it occurs in great masses, and is one of the principal economic products of the island. I saw it thinly scattered in forests of deciduous trees between Sapporo and Asahigawa, where it was of no great size, and in the forest round the volcanic crater-lake of Shikotsu in the south-east of Hokkaido it formed, here and there, nearly pure forests of small extent, mixed more or less with Picea Glehnii and Abies sachalinensis, at an elevation of 1000 to 2000 feet. The vegetation in these forests was quite unlike anything that I saw in Central Japan, the ground being covered with a dense layer of humus, and in the more shady places two or three species of Pyrola were abundant. Daphne, Gaultheria, Ledum, and other plants not seen elsewhere occurred, with curious terrestrial orchids and many ferns. The trees rarely exceeded 80 feet in height by 4 to 6 feet in girth, but higher up near the lake I measured one as much as 100 by 9 feet. The general appearance of the tree is very like that of P. sitchensis, though I did not notice that the roots became buttressed, which is probably only the case in wet soil. The natural reproduction is good, but the seedlings grow slowly at first and seemed to thrive best in shade. The Japanese name is Eso-Matsu. Timber The wood of this tree is soft, but probably as good as that of other spruces. I passed the night at a factory in the forest where it was being cut up into thin slices for export to Osaka, where large quantities are used for making matchboxes. It is also employed for boat masts and other purposes, and is worth in Tokyo about lod. per cubic foot. On account of its softness, lightness, and fineness of grain, ' Kent, in Veitch's Man. Conifera, loc. cit. '' See Veitch's A/an. Coniferu, ed. i. p. 72 (1881). 88 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland it is largely used in Japan for chip-braid, a peculiar Japanese industry, which has lately attained considerable importance, the export for 1903 amounting to no less than 1,363,000 yen — equal to about ;^i40,ooo. This braid is mainly used for making hats and bonnets, but it is also woven into floor-matting, and as shown at the St. Louis Exhibition is both ornamental and cheap. There are many different varieties of chip-braid, some of which are dyed of different colours, and others are plaited with a mixture of silk. It is exported in bundles of 50 to 60 yards long and 1 to i^ inches wide, and is valued according to quality at is. to 6s. per bundle. The best are made by mixing chips oi Populus tretnula and Picea ajanensis. (H. J. E.) Picea 89 PICEA HONDOENSIS, Hondo Spruce Picea hondoensis, Mayr, ATonograph der Abietineen der Japanisches Reiches, 51, t. iv. fig. 9 (1890) ; Shirasawa, Iconographie des Essences Forestilres du Japon, text 20, tab. v. figs. 1-22 (1900). Pifea ajatiensts, Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 6743 (1884), and of most writers. Abies ajanensis, Fisch., yax. japonica, Maximowicz, Iter secundum (1862). A tree, attaining 80 feet in height in Hondo, the main island of Japan. Bark dark grey, peeling off in small roundish scales and leaving light-coloured spots on the trunk. Branchlets shining, glabrous, yellow in the first year ; but becoming reddish brown in the second year, and retaining the red colour in succeeding years till the scaly bark begins to form. The free portions of the pulvini are directed forwards, and on the upper side of the branchlets are enlarged transversely at their bases and show two channels where they become decurrent on the stem ; they are shorter than in Picea ajanensis, and on older branchlets tend to disappear. Buds like those of Picea ajanensis, but opening with greenish leaves. Leaves as in that species, but slightly shorter. Cones, red when young, yellowish when ripe, slightly curved, oblong, tapering to each end, about 2 inches long by f inch thick, erect on terminal younger branchlets ; scales membranous, oval, broader proportionately to their length than in P. ajanensis, with denticulate erose margins ; bracts minute, concealed, oval lanceolate, denticulate, gradually tapering to an acute apex. Seed with a short wing (less than twice the length of the seed). The description just given enumerates the characters, chiefly those of the bark, shoot, and cones, on which Mayr relies to distinguish the Hondo spruce from the true Picea ajanensis. Picea hondoensis, as grown in this country, where it is usually called Picea ajanensis, assumes a broadly pyramidal outline, the main branches being rigid and directed either upwards or horizontally. In sunshine the branchlets turn their tips upwards, exposing to view the pale surface of the leaves. The arrangement of the leaves on lateral branchlets is the one normal in flat-leaved spruces, i.e. the upper side of the branchlet is densely covered with leaves, which have their apices directed forwards, while on the lower side of the branchlet the leaves part into two sets, directed outwards at right angles and leaving the twig bare beneath. All the leaves direct their stomatic pale surfaces away from the light, so that these look towards the ground. The young cones are bright crimson, and make the tree highly ornamental in spring. Identification Picea Alcockiana, in which the leaves are conspicuously white on the dorsal surface, is often confounded in gardens with Picea hondoensis ; but these two species are readily distinguished as follows : — I N 90 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Picea hondoensis. — Leaves flat, with bands of stomata confined to the dorsal surface. On the lower surface of lateral branchlets the twig is bare, with the leaves directed outwards at right angles. Picea Alcockiana. — Leaves quadrangular in section, with lines of stomata on the ventral surface, in addition to the bands of stomata on the dorsal surface. On the lower surface of lateral branchlets the twig is not quite bare, and the leaves are directed forwards at an acute angle. Picea hondoensis, Picea ajanensis, and Picea sitchensis have been distinguished, so far as leaves and branchlets are concerned, in the key to Section Omorica. The cones of these three species are much alike. Those of Picea sitchensis, however, have scales oblong in outline, with their upper edge scarcely emarginate or erose ; the bracts are large and visible between the scales towards the base of the cone. In the other two species the scales of the cones are oval with erose margins, while the bracts are minute, concealed, and differently shaped. The cones of Picea Alcockiana differ considerably from those of the three preceding species. Their scales are rounded, being nearly semicircular in outline, with the upper edge almost entire or only minutely denticulate ; and their outer surface is markedly striated. Distribution Picea hondoensis is confined to the central chain of mountains in the main island of Japan, occurring at altitudes above 4000 feet. Shirasawa (loc. cit.) mentions as localities, Fuji, Mitake, Novikura, Sirane to Nikko, Chokarsan to Ugo, etc. ; and says that in the lower levels it is accompanied by Tsuga diversifolia, and ascends to 8000 feet in company with Abies Veitchii. Mayr states that on Fuji it is accompanied by Picea bicolor {Alcockiana), both occurring in mixed woods with Larix leptolepis and Abies Veitchii. Farther north, Picea polita joins the two spruces just named ; and all three reach their northern limit in the high mountains of Iwashiro at 38^ lat. Its southern limit is 35° lat. Elwes saw very little of this tree in Japan, but near the top of the Wada-toge pass there were some small spruces growing at about 4500 feet elevation, which he believes to have been this species. Tohi is the Japanese name. Introduction Picea hondoensis was introduced in 1861 by John Gould Veitch. It was dis- tributed as Abies Alcopiiana, an unfortunate circumstance, due to the fact that the seeds of the two spruces growing on Fujiyama {Picea hondoensis and Alcockiana) were both collected for Mr. Veitch by natives and were mixed together. Dr. Masters cleared up the question as to the distinctness of these two species in an article in the Gardeners' Chronicle,^ in which, however, he retained the name Picea aj'atunsis for the spruce, which Mayr afterwards separated as Picea hondoensis. If " Card, Chron. 1 880, i. 115, and ii. 427. Picea 91 Mayr's view of the specific distinctness of Picea hondoensis and Picea ajanensis be upheld, most of the specimens cultivated in this country under the latter name (and many also incorrectly labelled Alcockiana) must be renamed as Picea hondoensis. The best specimen we have seen in England is a tree at Hemsted in Kent, which was planted by the Earl of Cranbrook in 1887, and, when measured by Elwes in 1905, was 44 feet high. There is one at Benmore, near Dunoon, the property of H, S. Younger, Esq., which Henry measured in 1905 as 52 feet by 4 feet 4 inches, about twenty-five years planted. At Fota, Co. Cork, there is a fine tree which, in 1904, Henry found to be 44 feet by 4 feet 3 inches. (A. H.) 92 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland PICEA SITCHENSIS, Menzies' or Sitka Spruce' Picea sitchensis, Carribre, Traiti Conifer. 260 (1855); Trautvetter et Meyer, in Middendorff, Reise Florula ochotensis, 87 (1856);* Sargent, Silva N. Atrurica, xii. 55, t. 602 (1898); Kent, in Veitch's Man. Coniferee, 452 (1900). Picea Menziesii, Carrifere, Traite Conifer. 237 (1855); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxv. 728, figs. 161, 162 (1886). Picea sitkaensis, Mayr, Wald. N. Amerika, 338 (1890). Pinus sitchensis, Bongard, Vig. Sitcha, 46(1832). Abies Menziesii, Lindley, Penny Cycl. i. 32 (1833); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2321 (1838). Abies sitchensis, Lindley and Gordon, _/ Le Plante Legnose Italiane, 31 (1890). ^ Halicsy, Consp. Fl. Graat, iii. 459 (1904). ' Trelease, Missouri Bot. Garden Ann. Report, viii. 1897, p. 169. * Battandier et Trabut, Flore de PAlgirie, 398 (1904). * Radde, PJlanzenverbreitung in den Kaukasusldndem, 183 (1899). • G. Henslow in Garden, 1904, ii. 73. "< Gamble, Indian Timbers, 413. 9 Hooker, Himalayan Journals, i. 168, 191, iL 25 (1854). Taxus 107 immense tall tree with long sparse branches and slender drooping twigs, while at Choongtam (5000-6000 feet altitude) it is small and rigid, much resembling in appearance our churchyard yew. The red bark is used as a dye and for staining the foreheads of Brahmins in Nepaul. There is a specimen at Kew, collected by Sir George Watt in Manipur, which bore yellow berries. In the United States' there are a number of large European yew trees in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, showing that the tree must have been brought to the eastern United States more than a century ago. Sargent says that every- where south of Cape Cod it appears to be perfectly hardy. Farther east it suffers from the cold in severe winters, and cannot be considered a desirable tree for general planting in eastern New England. T. D. Hatfield,^ writing from Wellesley in Massachusetts, states that the variegated form of the common yew is hardy in places where the green type perishes. II. Japanese Yew, var. cuspidata. — Ichii in Japan, Onko of the Ainos in Hokkaido. Though Sargent says ' that, judging from his observations, it is confined to the island of Yezo, it is stated in the Forestry of Japan, p. 88, that it is found also in Kiso and Nikko, and it was included in the list of trees growing wild in the royal forest of Kiso, though I did not see it myself. In Nikko it is planted in the temple gardens ; a fine specimen, of which I give an illustration taken at this place (Plate 53), shows how much it resembles our yew in habit and appearance. This tree was about 40 feet high by 12 in girth. In the Hokkaido it grows scattered through the lowland and hill forests, among deciduous trees and conifers, but nowhere, so far as I saw, gregariously, and attains a large size, trees of 50-60 feet high with clear trunks 2-3 feet in diameter being not very rare. It sometimes produces beautifully veined burrs, and when old is often rotten inside. It is a favourite in gardens in Hokkaido, as trees of considerable size can be moved without killing them. The wood, which seems milder, sounder, and more free from holes and flaws than in England, is much used by the Japanese for water-tanks, pails, and baths, and is cut into handsome trays, sometimes carved, which I bought quite cheaply in Sapporo. I also procured large planks and slabs of it, measuring as much as 26 inches wide, and quite sound, such as I have never been able to get from English yews. Chopsticks, clogs, and the Aino bows are also made of yew wood, and when cut into thin shavings very pretty braid is made from it. I was informed by Mr. N. Masaki of the Imperial Art School in Tokyo, that the semifossil wood known at Sendai as Gindai-boku is dug from the bed of the Natonigawa river, near which deposits of lignite are found. This wood was believed by the carvers at Nikko to be fossil Cryptomeria wood, but is so like the bog yew found in Great Britain in grain and colour that I have little doubt that it is yew. This wood is only procured in small pieces of irregular shape, the largest that I saw being made into a tray about 20 inches square. It is very hard, of ' Garden and Forest, 1897, P- 40o. Large trees also occur at Washington, loc. cit. 1896, p. 261. * Ibid. p. 405. ^ Forest Flora of Japan, p. 76. io8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland a rich reddish brown colour, and when polished or carved is extremely hand- some. The Japanese yew also occurs in Saghalien, the Kurile Isles,' Amurland, and Manchuria, Apparently it is very variable in habit, as Maximowicz'' regarded the Amurland plant as a mere shrub, though in one place in the mountains he saw a tree a foot in diameter. Trautvetter^ saw no difference between the yew in Amurland and in Europe, except that the seed of the former was smaller and more pointed. The Japanese yew was introduced into England between the years 1854 and 1856 by Fortune," who states that he received it from Mr. Beale in Shanghai, to whom it had been sent from Japan. It was first cultivated and propagated by Mr. Glendinning of the Chiswick Nursery. It has not grown to be a tree in England so far as we know, as it assumes rather the form of a large branching shrub with two or three stems. It is usually distinguished from the other yews, as seen in cultivation, by the peculiar yellow colour of the under-surface of the leaves, which are broad, somewhat leathery in texture, and abruptly pointed. This yellow colour is not, however, confined to the Japanese yew, as it occurs in the Chinese yew, and also apparently in some Pyrenean specimens, and is perhaps due to climatic influences. According to Sargent* the Japanese yew was introduced into the eastern United States in 1862, and has proved to be perfectly hardy as far north as Boston. It grows rapidly in cultivation, and promises to become a large long-lived tree. Sargent speaks of a dwarf compact form of this plant with short dark green leaves in cultivation in the United States, which probably originated in Japanese gardens. It often appears under the name of Taxus brevifolia, but must not be confounded with the true Taxus brevifolia of the Pacific coast. This is doubtless the Taxus cuspidata, var. compacta, of the Kew Hand List, of which we have seen no specimen. Sargent has also seen in California a yew with fastigiate, somewhat spreading branches, which had been imported from Japan, evidently another garden variety of Taxus cuspidata. III. Chinese Yew, var. sinensis. — The yew has only been found in China, in the provinces of Hupeh and Szechuan, where it is a very rare tree in the mountains at 6000 to 8000 feet, occurring on wooded cliffs. The largest tree seen by Henry was about 20 feet in height, but with a girth of 7 or 8 feet. The bark is almost a bright red in colour. Franchet'' considered the Chinese yew to resemble Taxus cuspidata, S. et Z., which in his opinion does not seem to differ from the European yew in any positive character. The Chinese mountaineers reported the timber to be red, strong, and of fine quality, and called the tree Kuan-yin-sha, " the fir of the Goddess of Mercy." •IV. Pacific Coast Yew, var. brevifolia. — Though this tree was introduced by William Lobb in 1854," it is still very rare, and we know no specimens of any size in > Miyabe, "Flora of Kurile Isles," in Mem. Boston Soc. Nal. Hist. iv. 261 (1890). * Primitia Flora Amurensis, 259 (1859). * Card. Chron. i860, p. 170. Article by Fortune on Chinese Plants introduced during his travels in China in 1854-1856. • Garden and Forest, 1897, p. 402. * Jour, de Bot. 1899, p. 264. • Veitch's Man. Coni/era, ed. I, 305 (1881). Taxus 109 England, though it might be so easily mistaken for the common yew, that we have possibly overlooked it. It would no doubt grow well in England, as it is a native of the colder and damper parts of the north-west coast of America, from Queen Charlotte Islands along the coast ranges of British Columbia, western Washington, and Oregon ; in California on the Sierra Nevada at 5000 to 8000 feet, and as far south as Monterey ; and extends eastward to the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, where it becomes shrubby in habit, I have seen it in Washington on the slopes of Mount Tacoma, where it grew isolated in the dense forest, and attained no great size, though it occasionally reaches a height of 70 to 80 feet. In Vancouver's Island it is not uncommon in the rich, low meadows of the east coast, but the largest I saw were not over 30 to 40 feet high. The wood seemed indistinguishable from that of the European species, and was, like it, rotten at heart in old trees and full of holes. Sargent says that the Indians use it for bows, paddles, spear handles, and fish-hooks, but except for fencing posts it does not seem to be used by settlers. V. Canadian Yew, van canadensis. — This is only a creeping shrub with a stem occasionally a foot or two in height, and though it is said by Loudon to have been introduced in 1800, it has never obtained a place in English gardens. I have seen it common in Canada in thick forest, where it produced red berries very like those of our yew. Sargent gives its distribution as from Newfoundland to the northern shores of Lakes Superior and Winnipeg, southwards through the Northern States to New Jersey and Minnesota. VI. Florida Yew, var. floridana. — This is one of the rarest of North American trees, confined to a few localities in Western Florida, and, except by its habit, not easily distinguished from T. canadensis. It is usually shrubby, rarely attaining 25 feet high. It has never been introduced to cultivation in England, and is probably not hardy. VII. Mexican Yew, var. globosa. — A tree about 20 feet in height, discovered in 1837 by Ehrenberg in Southern Mexico. There are also specimens at Kew of yews collected in Mexico by Hartweg, F. Miiller, and W. Saunders, which vary con- siderably in foliage. This variety is scarcely known, as recent collectors have failed to rediscover the tree. It is very like the common yew. (H. J. E.) Varieties of the Common Yew in Cultivation These have in some cases originated as individual sports in the wild state ; in other cases they are due to the art of the gardener, who has greatly increased the number of varieties by selection. They differ from the type in various ways : — (1) in habit (fastigiate, prostrate, pendulous, and dwarf forms) ; (2) in the colour, shape, size, and disposition on the branchlets of the leaves ; (3) in the colour of the fruit. Andr^^ in an interesting article, illustrated by figures, has drawn attention to the remarkable differences which occur in the shape of the seed and of the aril in the different culti- vated varieties ; but it is probable that these are not so constant as he believed. ' Reoue HoriicoU, 1886, p. 105, translated in Garden, 1889, xxxv. 36. no The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland A. Fastigiate Forms. — In these the branches take an upward direction (vertical or ascending), and the leaves tend to spread out radially from the branchlets. I. Wax. fastigiata, Irish Yew, Florencecourt Yew. Taxus baccata fastigiata, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2066 (1838). Taxus fastigiata, Lindley, Syn. Brit. Flora, 241 (1829). Taxus hibemica. Hook, ex Loudon, loc. cit. Columnar and compact in habit, all the branches and branchlets being directed vertically upwards. Branches stout, branchlets few and short. Leaves, always spreading radially in all directions around the branchlets, dark green and shining, with the apex usually more obtuse than in the common yew. Dr. Masters considers the Irish yew to be a juvenile form,' in which the characters of the seedling (the radial disposition of the leaves and the upright habit) are preserved throughout the life of the plant. As the original tree was a female, and the variety is propagated by cuttings, all Irish yews are of the same sex. When they bear flowers they are generally fertilised by the pollen of common yews growing in their neighbourhood, and the seed resulting, when planted, generally produces plants indistinguishable from the common yew.^ Dr. Masters' received from Mr. Tillett of Sprowston, near Norwich, sprays of an Irish yew which bore male flowers. This was apparently an instance of a monoecious tree, a phenomenon which occurs though rarely in the common yew. No true male Irish yew has ever been met with. The aril of the Irish yew differs usually from that of the common form in being more oblong in shape. The Irish yew was discovered^ in the mountains of Fermanagh above Florence- court by a farmer named Willis about the year 1780. He found two plants, one of which he planted in his own garden, and is now no longer living. The other was planted at Florencecourt, the seat of the Earl of Enniskillen ; and from it cuttings were distributed, which are the source of all the Irish yews in cultivation. The original tree is still living, and a figure of it is given in Veitch's Manual, p. 141, as it appeared about thirty years ago. Kent says that in 1900 it had an open straggling appearance. One of the finest Irish yews known to us is that at Seaforde, near Clough, Co. Down, the seat of Major W. G. Forde. This tree was reported to be i^y feet high in 1888,* and 35^ feet in 1903.' A plate of it is given (Plate 58), reproduced from a photograph kindly sent us by the owner, who reports the present measurements (1905) to be: — Height, j,'] feet; girth at the ground, 9 feet; circumference of branches at 20 feet from the ground, 91 feet. Two large trees exist at Comber, Co. Down, of which Mr. Justice Andrews gives the following particulars in a letter : — " The Irish upright yew trees at Comber, mentioned in Mackay's Flora Hibemica (1836), p. 260, are the two large yews® in the garden beside ' Araghmore,' the residence of Mrs. John Andrews. My earliest recollection of them goes back • Card. Chrtm. 1 89 1, x. 68. * Sir C. Strickland writes in Gard. Chron. 1877, vii. 151 : "All the plants I have raised from Irish yew berries are exactly like the common yew." But Elwes saw at Ortun Hnll three seedlings from the Irish yew of which one was fastigiate in habit. « Gard. Chron. 1873, p. 1336. < Ilnd. 1888, iv. 484. ' Ibid. 1903, xxxiiL 60. " Loudon figures one of these on p. 2067. Taxus III 60 or 70 years, and they were then apparently as tall as they are now, but not so much spread out. I cannot accurately estimate their height and girth, but they are the two largest upright yews I have seen." At Brockhill,^ Worcester, there are two large Irish yews, estimated by Mr. Lees to have been at least 100 years old. Very handsome specimens are also growing at Montacute House, Somerset. The Irish yew is very effective as a garden tree, but requires pruning and wiring every two or three years in order to keep it in good shape. There is at Colesborne a terrace planted on both sides with Irish yews about 50 years ago, which are kept in shape by wire, and when so treated are of very uniform growth and habit. Taxus fastigiata aurea is a form of the Irish yew, in which the young shoots are golden yellow. In Taxus fastigiata argentea the tips of the branchlets are white. 2. Var. Chesthuntensis. Taxus baccata Chesthuntensis^ Gordon, Pinet. Suppl. 98 (1862). This was raised by William Paul of the Cheshunt Nursery from a seed of the Irish yew, which it resembles. The branches, however, are ascending, but not so erect as in the parent form. The leaves have an acute apex, and resemble in colour those of the Irish yew, being dark green and shining on the upper surface ; they are broader and shorter than those of the common yew. It is less formal than the Irish yew, and is said to grow twice as fast. 3. Var. elegantissima. — This was raised, according to Barron,^ by Fox of the Wetley Rock Nurseries, who had an Irish and a golden yew growing together, from which this came as a seedling. It is generally a dense compact shrub, but forms occur which are more open in habit. The leaves are usually radially spread- ing, but are often two -ranked on some of the branchlets; they are long, and terminate gradually in a long, fine cartilaginous point. Young leaves are golden yellow ; adult leaves have white margins. 4. Var. erecta. Taxus baccata erecta, Loudon, loc. cit. 2068 (1838). Taxus baccata Crowderi, Gordon, Pin. Suppl. 98 (1862). Taxus baccata stricta, Hort. A dense broad shrub with erect and ascending branches. The leaves are dark green, shining, short, and acute ; and are usually radially arranged, but often on the lower branchlets are disposed in two ranks. The Nidpath Yew* resembles this variety, but is more columnar in habit, with a tendency to spread at the top. The leaves, as seen on a shrub at Kew, are bluish green, and usually are all radially arranged. A variety named imperialis is described as being a slender, tall form with ascending branches and dark green leaves. ' Trans. Worcester Nat. Hist. Club, 1 847 -1 896, p. 211. ' Gard. Chron. 1868, p. 921. Veitch's Manual, ist ed. 302, states that it was introduced by Messrs. Fisher, Son, and Sibray of the Handsworth Nurseries, near Sheffield. ^ Nicholson, Did. of Gardening, iv. 12. 112 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland B. Dwarf forms with Uaves radially arranged on the branchlets. 5. Var. ericoides. Taxus baccata ericoides, Carrifere, Conif. 519 (1855). Taxus baccata empetri/olia, Hort. A low shrub with ascending branches. Leaves generally radially arranged, but occasionally two- ranked, uniform in size, falcate, short, acute, tapering to a fine cartilaginous point. 6. Var. nana. Taxus baccata nana. Knight, Syn. Conif. 52. Taxus Foxii, Hort. A dwarf shrub. Leaves generally radially arranged, some being two-ranked ; very variable in length, but always short, straight or falcate, often twisted or curved. C. Varieties with leaves distichously arranged, assuming pendulous, prostrate, and other non-fastigiate habits. 7. Var, Dovastoni, Dovaston Yew. Taxus baccata Dovastoni, Loudon, loc. cit., 2082 (1838). A tree or large shrub, with spreading branches, arising in verticils, and becom- ing very pendulous at their extremities. Leaves dark green with an abruptly mucronate apex. An account of the original tree, from which this variety has been propagated, is given in Loudon and in Leighton's Flora of Shropshire.^ This tree was planted as a seedling about the year 1777 at Westfelton, near Shrewsbury. It was in vigorous health in 1900, and measured then 8 feet 10 inches in girth at 4"^ feet from the ground. Nineteen years previously its girth was 7 feet 11 inches. It is described as having a single leader, with branches pendulous to the ground. The original tree is monoecious ; one branch only producing fertile berries, from which seedlings were raised, which reproduced the habit of the parent.' Barron * states that all his Dovaston yews are female trees. Carri^re' sowed seeds of this form on many occasions, and the offspring was always like the common yew, doubtless due to his Dovaston yews being fertilised by the pollen of ordinary yew trees in the vicinity. Carriere further states that MM. Thibaut and Keteleer obtained in 1865, from seeds of this variety, plants which were in the proportion of three- fourths variegated in foliage and one-fourth green ; but in no case was the pendulous habit observed. The variegated plants passed into commerce as Dovastoni variegata ; but these were simply ordinary variegated yews. A sub-variety, however, occurs in which the leaves of the Dovaston yew are variegated with yellow ; and this is known as var. Dovastoni aureo-variegata. 8. Var. pendula. — Growing at Kew, this is an irregularly branching wide, low, • Card. Ckron. 1900, xxvii. p. I46, where a figure and full details of the Dovaston yew are given. ^ Ibid. 1868, p. 992. He gives the dimensions of the Westfelton tree in 1876 as 34 feet high by 7^ feet in girth. Garden, ix. 341. ' Traitigin. des Coniftres, iL 763 (1867). Taxus 113 dense shrub, making no definite leader, with the tips of the branchlets pendulous. Var. gracilis pendtda is said to have the branches and branchlets more elongated, and to attain a larger size than var. pendula. 9. Var. horizontalis. Taxus baccata horizontalis. Knight, Syn. Conif. 52 (1850). Tllis resembles the Dovaston yew in the verticillate arrangement of the spread- ing branches. The branchlets, however, instead of being pendulous, are turned slightly upwards at the ends of the branches. 10. Var. recurvata. Taxus baccata recurvata, Carrifere, Conif. 520 (1855). A large shrub, with branches somewhat ascending and elongated, and pendulous branchlets, which bear the leaves so arranged as to be all directed upwards, each leaf being recurved. The leaves resemble those of the Dovaston yew. 1 1 . Var. procunibens. Taxus baccata procutnbens, Loudon, loc. cit. 2067 (1838). A low prostrate shrub, keeping close to the ground, with branches long and ramified. This is distinct from Taxus canadensis in characters of leaves and buds. D. Varieties with leaves distichously arranged, in which the leaves are variously coloured. 12. Var. aurea, Golden Yew. Taxus baccata aurea, Carrifere, Conif. 518 (1855). A golden yew is mentioned in Plot's History of Staffordshire as occurring in that county in 1686. There are many kinds of golden yew, which are of different origin. The form generally known as aurea is a dense shrub or low tree, with narrow falcate leaves which are variegated with yellow. Golden yews of this kind are said to be all male trees. The original was reared by Lee of Hammersmith, and was afterwards planted at Elvaston Castle. It was monoecious,' and from it Barron reared several varieties. The variety known as var. Barroni has the leaves more decidedly yellow than those of the common golden yew ; and one form of it is female and bears berries. A great number of variegated yews of different kinds have been raised at Knap Hill, at the Chester Nurseries, and elsewhere. These have been obtained as seed- lings in various ways ; some were obtained by planting Irish yew amongst common golden yew ; in other cases the seed-plants used were varieties like elegantissima, erecta, adpressa, etc. 13. Var. Washingtoni. — A low dense shrub, in which the leaves on the young shoots are golden yellow in colour. ' According to Barron the tree was a male ; but he discovered on it a single branch bearing female flowers. See Card. Chnm. 1868, p. 921 ; also 18S2, ii. 238. I Q 114 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 1 4. Van glauca. Taxus baccata glauca, Carrifere, Conif. 519 (1855). A vigorous shrub, with leaves, which are shining and dark green on the upper surface, and glaucous blue beneath. E. Variety with differently coloured fruit. 1 5. Var. fructu luteo. Taxus baccata fructu luteo; Loudon, loc. cit iv. 2068 (1838). This variety only differs from the common yew in the aril of the fruit being yellow. A tree of this kind was discovered about the year 181 7 at Glasnevin, near Dublin, growing on the property of the Bishop of Kildare. Cuttings, however, were first distributed from a tree noticed in the grounds of Clontarf Castle in 1838. This tree^ was about 50 feet high in 1888. At Ardsallagh, Co. Meath, the residence of Mrs. M'Cann, there is a tree 30 feet high and 7 feet in girth, with yellow fruit, occurring in an avenue of old yews. There are several trees of this kind at Powerscourt,^ the best one of which was about 40 feet high in 1888. Bushes raised from the seeds of these trees are reported to be bearing yellow berries, from which it would appear that this variety comes true from seed. It is remarkable that all the yellow-berried yews known, except the one mentioned above as collected at Manipur, should occur in the neighbourhood of Dublin. F. Variety with small leaves. 16. Var. adpressa. Taxus baccata adpressa, Carrifere, Rev. Horticole, 1855, p. 93; Taxus adpressa, Gordon, Pinetum, 310. Taxus tardiva, Lawson, ex Henkel and Hochstetter, Syn. Nadelh. 361. Taxus sinensis tardiva. Knight, Syn. Conif. 52 (1850). A large spreading shrub with densely crowded branchlets, bearing remarkably small broad leaves, arranged on the shoots, as in the common yew. The leaves are dark green above, \-\ inch long, elliptic linear in outline, with a rounded apex, from which is given off a short mucro. The aril is broad and shallow, not covering the seed, which is 3-angled and often depressed at the summit. This is by far the most distinct of all the forms, geographical and horticultural, not only in foliage, but also in fruit. It has been considered by many botanists to be a distinct species, conjecturally of Japanese or Chinese origin. It is not known in Japan,' except as a plant introduced from Europe ; and there is no reason for doubting the positive information * as to its origin given by Messrs. James Dickson and Sons and by the late Mr. F. T. Dickson of Chester, though there is a slight discrepancy in their two accounts. The latter states that it was found as a seedling by his father amidst some yew seedlings about 1 838, while the former give > Card. Chron. 1888, iv. 576. " Ibid. ^o^. • Matsumura, Shokuhutsu Mei-I. 290 (1895). * Card. Chron. 1886, xxix. 221, 268. Taxus 115 the date as 1828, and the locality as a bed of thorn seedlings in the Bache Nurseries, Chester. Only female plants of this variety are known, and it is reproduced by grafting. Its flowers are doubtless fertilised by the pollen of common yew trees near at hand, and as a rule it produces a great crop of berries. Messrs. Dickson and Sons have frequently sown seeds which invariably produced the common yew. V^jr. adpressa strida is a form of this variety in which the branches are erect or ascending. It is not known whether it originated as a seedling or as a sport fixed by grafting. It was raised by Mr. Standish. Van adpressa aurea is a form with golden leaves. Var. adpressa variegata is a form with the young shoots suffused with a silvery yellow colour. This was exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society on August 27, 1889. There are fine examples of var. adpressa in Kew Gardens. Seedling ^ The two cotyledons, together with the seed-case which envelops them as a cap, are carried above ground by the lengthening caulicle ; and speedily casting off the remains of the seed-case, act as if they were true leaves. They differ from the latter in bearing stomata on the upper and not on the lower surface, and in having their apices rounded and not acute. The young stem, angled by the decurrent bases of the leaves, gives off at first three or four opposite pairs of true leaves, which are succeeded in vigorous plants by a few alternate leaves, crowded at the summit around a terminal bud, which in all cases closes the first season's growth, when the young plant is i to 3 inches high. The caulicle, i to 2 inches in length, ends in a strong tap-root, which descends several inches into the soil, and gives off a few lateral fibres. The growth of the seedling during the next four or five years is very slow, often scarcely an inch annually. Afterwards the growth becomes more rapid. Sexes, Flowers, Fruit, Buds The yew is normally dioecious ; but exceptions occur, and in our account of the cultivated varieties two or three instances of monoecious trees have been mentioned. The celebrated yew at Buckland,^ Kent, is monoecious. As a rule it is only a single twig or branch which bears flowers of a different sex from those on the rest of the tree. A yew * at Hohenheimer, near Stuttgart, is reported, however, to bear male and female flowers irregularly over the whole tree, each kind, however, on separate twigs. There is a specimen at Kew of a branch, sent in 1885 by the Rev. T. J. C. Valpy of Elsing, Norfolk, which bears both male flowers and fruit. • Figured in Lubbock, Seedlings, ii. 553, fig. 677 (1892). 2 Card. Chron. 1880, xiii. 556. There are specimens of this yew in the Kew herbarium. ' Kirchner, loc. at. 74. ii6 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Gilbert White thought that male trees are more robust in growth than female trees ; but we are unaware of any accurate observations on this subject. Kirchner,' however, states that there is a slight distinction in the habit of the two sexes, male trees being taller with longer internodes and shorter leaves. In early spring drops of mucilage may be observed glistening on the ovules of female trees in flower. The mucilage is secreted by the micropyle, and seems to entangle the grains of pollen which have been wafted on the ovules by the wind. The clouds of pollen which fly forth from the male flowers are well known. The pollen is liberated from the stamens by a very elaborate mechanism, which serves to protect the pollen grains in rainy weather. A good account of this is given by Kerner." A large quantity of fruit of the yew falls to the ground in autumn ; but the seeds in this case do not as a rule germinate. Natural reproduction seems to be effected by birds like the thrush and blackbird, which, attracted by the fleshy aril, devour the whole fruit. The seeds, protected by their hard testa, escape digestion and are voided at a distance. They rarely germinate in the first year after ripening ; seedlings come up as a rule in the year following, a few even appearing in the third year. The buds of the dififerent geographical forms appear to differ more than the leaves themselves. The terminal bud is invested closely by the uppermost and youngest leaves and continues the growth of the shoot. The bud scales on unfold- ing remain at the base of the growing shoot, and on older branchlets persist as dry brownish scales, forming an involucre at the bases of the branchlets. Lateral buds are developed on the twigs at irregular intervals. Many of these remain dormant, retaining the power to take on growth at any moment. This explains the readiness with which the yew submits to pruning, and the facility with which it produces coppice shoots when the stem is cut. Spray or epicormic branches are frequently produced on the upper side of the branches or on the stem ; and these also originate in dormant buds. True root-suckers are never formed ; but layering occurs, though very rarely, in branches which have come in contact with the ground. (A. H.) Age, Hardiness With regard to the supposed great age of yew trees, which has been much exaggerated by authors — especially by the great Swiss botanist, De Candolle — we must refer our readers to Lowe, who has discussed the subject very thoroughly in chapter iii. of his work. He proves that the average rate of growth is about I foot of diameter in 60-70 years in both young and old trees. There is, however, abundant evidence to show that though old trees grow at intervals much more rapidly than young ones, they do not grow uniformly, but have periods of com- parative rest, and that the increase of girth is fastest when old trees have lost their heads and the stem is covered with young shoots. ' Kirchner, loc. cit. 74. ' NcU. Hist. Plants, Eng. translation, ii. 145, 146 (1898). Taxus 117 No tree has such a remarkable faculty of covering up wounds or injuries by the growth of fresh wood from the outside ; and even after the main stem is completely dead, fresh and entirely new stems may grow up around it and form a new tree around the dead one. For this reason most of the yews of very large size are mere shells, and even when no hollow can be seen from the outside, decay — which is often indicated by moisture running from holes in the trunk — has set in. T.'.'ree very curious sections showing the way in which these trunks grow are given by Lowe, pp. 78 and 79. The yew, though occurring wild far north, as in Norway, is not perfectly hardy, and many instances are on record in which it has been injured or killed during severe winters. It was affected in Cambridgeshire* and severely injured at Glasgow by the severe frost of 183 7- 1838. In the winter of 1859- 1860 the young shoots of many trees were killed at Burton-on-Trent.^ Many cultivated yews^ were killed by the frost of 1879- 1880 in Switzerland, Rhineland, Hessia, Thuringia, etc. though in the same localities other native conifers were not injured by the severe cold. Duhamel* states that in France the yew suffered much damage from the great frosts of 1 709 ; and Malesherbes found several killed by the frost of 1789. Poisonous Properties of the Yew The poisonous properties of the yew have been well known from the earliest times, and the subject has been so carefully investigated in the Jourfial of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 1892, p. 698, by Messrs. E. P. Squarey, Charles Whitehead, W. Carruthers, F.R.S., and Dr. Munro, and summarised by Low in chapter x. of his work, that we need not do more than give a brief r^sumd of the present state of our knowledge. Through the kindness of Sir W. Thiselton Dyer, we have been able to peruse a file of the Board of Agriculture entitled " Yew Poisoning," in which the subject has been further discussed by that gentleman with whose opinions we are in complete accordance. The conclusions drawn by Dr. Munro, after careful study from a medical point of view, are as follows : — " Both male and female yew leaves contain an alkaloid. "This alkaloid in both cases appears to agree with the taxine of Hilger and Brande. Taxine is probably the poison of the yew, but it is doubtful whether it has ever been obtained in a pure state, and its physiological effects have not been sufficiently studied. Other alkaloids are probably present in yew. " Taxine is present in fresh yew leaves as well as in those withered or air-dried. It is also present in the seeds, but not in the fleshy part of the fruit. " The yew poison may be one of moderate virulence only, and may occur in greater percentage in male than in female trees, or the percentage may vary from tree to tree without distinction of sex, and this may explain the capricious ' Lindley, Trans. Hort. Soc. 1842, ii. 225. ' Card. Chron. i860, p. 578. 3 Kirchner, loc. eit. 62. < Traiti de Arbres, i. 302 (1755). 1 1 8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland occurrence of poisoning. Also the half- dried leaves would be, cceteris paribus, more potent than the fresh. " Further and extended chemical researches, in conjunction with physiological experiments, are necessary to clear up the matter. " The principle having a specific uterine action is possibly not the same as that which causes death." This poison, if taken in sufficient quantity, is deadly to man, horses, asses, sheep, cattle, pigs, pheasants, and possibly other animals, but under ordinary circumstances small quantities of the leaves may be and are habitually eaten by live-stock without apparent injury, whilst it seems proved that the wood of the yew may be used for water vessels and for baths, as in Japan, without any deleterious effects. Sargent, Silva of North America, vol. x., 63, says " no cases of poisoning by Taxus in North America appear to be recorded " ; and Brandis, Forest Flora of British India, p. 541, says that "in India domestic animals are said to browse upon T. baccata without experiencing any bad effects." With regard to the danger of allowing this tree to grow in hedges and fields where stock are pastured, there seems to be abundant evidence, which is well summarised by Mr. E. P. Squarey, and which my own experience entirely confirms, that though animals which have been bred and fed in places where they have access to yew are more or less immune, probably because they never eat it in sufficient quantity to do harm, yet that animals freshly turned into such places when hungry, or in winter and spring when there is little grass, are liable to die from eating it, and that fatal effects most commonly ensue when loppings or partially withered branches and leaves are eaten. It has been held in more than one case that landowners, and others responsible for keeping up fences, who allow yew trees to remain insufficiently fenced, are liable to an action for damages if another person's cattle from adjoining land eat the branches and die. With regard to the danger of yew trees in game coverts we have little exact knowledge, but in certain cases there seems to be evidence of its being poisonous to pheasants, and the following passage, which was communicated by Sir William ffolkes, Bart., of Hillington Hall, Norfolk, to the editor of xh& Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 1892, p. 698, is worth quoting in full. " Some years ago, when shooting through the coverts here the second time, we found about fifteen carcasses of pheasants under some yew trees. These could not have been overlooked the first time in picking up, as there was no stand anywhere near this place where so many pheasants could have been shot. My keeper informs me that it is after the pheasants have been disturbed by shooting that they take to perching in the yew trees. This may or may not be so, but at any rate it appears that, when they take to perching in these trees, they are apt to eat a few of the leaves. We now always drive them off the yew trees when they go to perch at night. I enclose some of the yew which poisoned the pheasants, and would like to add that never before this year have Taxus 119 we picked up a dead pheasant anywhere near these yew trees till the coverts had been shot." We have no record of any case of deer being poisoned by yew, though no doubt in a heavy snow they might be tempted to eat it, and Mr. Squarey states that in the " Great and Little Yews " of which I write later, hares and rabbits, which are very numerous, have never been found dead from poisoning. I .nay add that I have frequently seen yews of a few inches in girth barked and killed by rabbits where they are very numerous and hungry, but it is one of the last trees to be attacked. Cultivation The yew is best raised from seed, except in the case of varieties which are propagated by cuttings, which are taken off in April or August and put into sandy soil in a shady border, or, better, under a handlight, as they will then root more quickly. Seed, if sown when ripe, will sometimes come up in the following spring, but usually lies over the first year, and is therefore treated like haws. The seedlings grow very slowly at first, and require several years of nursery cultivation before they are large enough to plant out. They are easy to transplant in early autumn or in spring, and may be safely moved at almost any time of the year even when of large size, if care is taken to prepare the roots and keep them watered until new ones are formed. The yew in Buckland Churchyard, about a mile from Dover, may be mentioned as an instance of the great age at which this tree may be transplanted with safety, if proper care and appliances are used. This tree was a very old and large one, divided into two stems, one of which, almost horizontal, was 10 feet 10 inches, and the entire trunk no less than 22 feet in girth. It was removed by the late Mr. W. Barron on March i, 1880, to a position 60 yards off, where Mr. John Barron of Elvaston Nurseries tells me it is now in a vigorous state of health. An account of this tree is given by Lowe ; and the manner in which it was transplanted, with pictures of its appearance before and after removal, is described fully in Gard. Chron. 1880, p. 556-7. By sowing seeds there is some chance of obtaining variegated forms, which are among the most ornamental shrubs we have. The Hon. Vicary Gibbs has found that at Aldenham the use of nitrate of soda increases in a marked degree the growth of young yew trees. Some yews planted by him in 1897 and treated with liberal quantities of this manure had attained in 1905 an average height of 12 feet, with a girth of stem of 16 inches at a foot above the base. Soil and Situation Though the yew grows naturally most commonly on limestone formations in England, it will grow on almost any soil except perhaps pure peat and wet clay, 120 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland and attains its largest dimensions on deep sandy loam. It grows better under dense shade than any tree we have, and may therefore be used for under- planting beech -woods where bare ground is objected to, and where the soil is too poor and dry or too limy for silver fir. In such situations, however, it grows very slowly and produces little or no fruit. Remarkable Trees No tree, except perhaps the oak, has a larger literature in English than the yew ; and though a monograph on the Vew Trees of Great Britain and Ireland by the late John Lowe, M.D., was published by Macmillan so lately as 1897, ^ am able to add many records of trees not known to him, and shall not allude to most of the trees which he has described and figured. It is strange that neither Loudon, Lowe, nor any other writer has, so far as I know, described the yews in the close walks at Midhurst, which, on account of their extraordinary height, form what I believe to be the most remarkable yew- grove in Great Britain or elsewhere. The age and history of these wonderful trees is lost in obscurity, but it is said in Wm. Roundell's very interesting book onCowdray' that Queen Elizabeth was entertained at a banquet in these walks, so they must have been of considerable age and size 300 years ago. The close walks are situated close to the town on the other side of the river, and consist of four avenues of yew trees forming a square of about 150 yards, together with a grove of yews at the upper end which average, as nearly as I could measure them, about 75 feet in height, but some probably exceed 80. These trees are for the most part sound and healthy, though little care has been taken of them, and some have fallen. They are remarkable not only for their great height, which exceeds that of any other yews on record in Europe, but on account of their freedom from large branches, many having clean boles of 20 - 30 feet with a girth of 8-9 feet. They stand so thick together that on an area of about half an acre or less — I made 213 paces in going round it — I counted about 100 trees and saw the stumps of 10 or 12 more, which would probably average over 30 cubic feet to each tree without reckoning the branches. The ground below is absolutely bare of vegetation, and though I found some small seedlings among the grass and briars on the outside of this area, I do not think the yew grows from seed under its own shade. The photographs (Plates 54, 55) will give a fair idea of the appearance of this wonderful grove, and of the walks which lead to it. Some of the trees have a remarkable spiral twist in them like fluted columns, which I have not seen so well developed elsewhere. The soil on which they stand seems to be of a light sandy nature, but deep enough to grow large fine timber of other species, and is, I believe, on the Lower Greensand formation. • Cf. Guide to Midhurst, p. 41 (Midhurst: G. Roy non (1903)). Taxus 121 Another and perhaps the largest pure yew-wood in England is on the downs three miles west of Downton, Wilts, on the property of the Earl of Radnor. It is known as "The Great Yews," and contains about 80 acres. The trees are not remarkable for their size, and appear to have been partly planted, as the largest are at regular intervals and of about the same age. Probably at a time when yew - wood was wanted for bow - making an existing wood was filled up with planted trees, and no doubt these yews could tell some striking tales. Mr. E. P. Squarey, who took me to see them, and who has seen little change in them during the last 60 years, pointed out one under which some tramps had been caught in the act of roasting a sheep they had stolen, and related various tragedies which had occurred in this wild district in bygone times. " The Little Yews " is the name of another wood about half a mile from the " Great Yews," which, though not of such large extent, contains much finer trees, many being from 8 feet to 10 feet in girth and 50 feet high. As in other yew woods (at any rate where rabbits exist) I found few or no young trees coming up, and the mixture of beech, ash, oak, thorn, whitebeam, and holly trees which are found in the more open spaces all appear to be self-sown. Several of the largest trees have been recently blown down. After the Midhurst and the Great and Little Yews, I think the Cherkley Court Yew Wood is the best in England ; and, thanks to the kindness of A. Dixon, Esq., the owner, I am able to give some particulars of this interesting place, which Lowe thought to be the finest collection of yews in existence. The wood covers an area of 50 to 60 acres in a shallow valley forming part of the old Ashurst estate, about three miles from Leatherhead in Surrey, on the east side of the old pilgrims' road to Canterbury. It was formerly a rabbit warren, but is now carefully preserved by Mr. Dixon. It is said that 500 yew trees were once sold out of this wood by Mr. Boxall for 10 guineas each, and these two facts will probably account for the fact that there are now scarcely any young trees coming up, and but few trees with straight, tall trunks. Their average height does not exceed about 40 feet, and the majority of them are not well-grown trees, but there are some of great girth, of which the best is called the Queen Yew, and measures 14 feet 6 inches at i foot from the ground ; then swelling out in a peculiar way and measuring 20 feet 4 inches at about 4 feet. At this height it begins to branch, and though the main stem goes up some way, the whole tree is certainly under 50 feet in height. One of the most curious trees in this grove, called the Cauliflower Yew, was figured in the Gardeners Chronicle, and copied in Veitch's Conifercs, ed. ii. p. 128. This tree has now lost much of its beauty, owing to a heavy snowstorm which occurred in 1884 and which did serious damage to the Cherkley Yew Wood. Another place of great interest to naturalists, where the yew is in great abundance, is Castle Eden Dene, in Durham, the property of Rowland Burdon, Esq. This locality is renowned among botanists as the last in England where the ladies' slipper orchid {Cypripediuni Calceolus) still exists. It is a deep valley about 3 to 4 miles long, running down to the sea, and, in some places, has steep cliffs of a 122 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland peculiar magnesian limestone formation, which decomposes into a red loamy soil, on which yews grow very freely, though they do not attain anything like the size that they do in the south of England. The largest which I measured was only 8 feet in girth. What makes them so picturesque is the way in which their roots spread over the bare rocks, and the mixture of curiously gnarled wych elms which accompany them. All the foot-bridges are here made of yew wood, but it is not cut except for home use, and is not increasing by seed — again, I think, on account of the rabbits. There is a remarkably fine yew walk at Hatherop Castle, Gloucestershire, the seat of G. Bazley, Esq., which is supposed to be about 300 years old, in which the trees average about 60 feet in height with a girth of 9 to 12 feet. The yew in Harlington Churchyard, near Hounslow, Middlesex, was considered by Kirchner (loc. cit. 60) to be the tallest yew tree in Europe, viz., 17.4 metres (57 feet). Lowe, page 85, gives the height in 1895 as 80 feet, on the authority of the Rev. E. J. Haddon. Henry saw this yew in October 1895, and measured the height as 50 feet only, and this is correct, within a margin of error of less than 2 feet. This tree is 17 feet 3 inches in girth at the base, where the bole is narrowest ; above this it swells and is very gnarled, and at 10 feet up it divides into two great limbs, A celebrated yew stands in the churchyard at Crowhurst, in Surrey, and has been described by Lowe (p. 201) and figured by Clayton.^ Crowhurst, in Sussex, has another great old tree of which much has been written, and which Low figures (p. 38). One of the finest yews in England is the Darley yew, growing in the church- yard at Darley Dale, Derbyshire. From a work on Derbyshire Churches, by the Rev. J. C. Cox, M.A., which has been sent me by Messrs. Smith, the well-known nurserymen of Darley Dale, I abridge the following particulars of it : — The churchyard is celebrated for what is claimed to be the finest existing yew tree in England, or even in the United Kingdom. Rhodes, writing of it in 181 7, says that the trunk for about 4 yards from the ground measures upwards of 34 feet in girth ; but Lowe gives (p. 207) measurements taken by four different persons between 1836 and 1888, of which the largest is 34 feet 6 inches by Mr. Smith in 1879, and the most recent and exact by Mr. Paget Bowman in 1888, which gives 32 feet 3 inches at 4 feet from the ground. This gentleman cut from it with a trephine nine cylinders of wood on one horizontal line which show 33 to 66 rings per inch of radius, showing an average growth of an inch in 46 years. There is a cavity in the tree about half-way up one of the trunks which will hold seven or eight men standing upright. At the ground the girth is 27 feet, and at this point no increase has taken place for 52 years. The height is not given, but a photograph by Mr. Statham shows it as about 50 feet. I have chosen the tree at Tisbury for illustration as a specimen of the church- yard yew, for though figured by Lowe, his plate gives a poor idea of its symmetry, and it is one of the largest healthy yews in England. Though difficult to measure on account of the young spray which its trunk throws out, I made it in 1903 to be ' Trans, Bot. Soc. Edinburgh, 1903, p. 408. Taxus 123 about 45 feet high by 35 in girth. The trunk is hollow, and has inside it a good- sized younger stem, probably formed by a root descending inside the hollow trunk from one of the limbs. It is a female tree, and of its age it is impossible to form a correct estimate. (Plate 35.) At Kyre Park, Worcestershire, the residence of Mrs. Baldwyn Childe, is a very fine yew tree growing near the wonderful grove of oaks which I have described elsewhere ; it measures 55 feet high by 20 in girth. Under it the Court Leet of the Manor was formerly held. The most widespreading yew I have seen is a tree at Whittinghame, the seat of Mr. Arthur Balfour, which I measured in February 1905. It grows near the old tower, formerly the property of Sir Archibald Douglas, one of the conspirators of Darnley's murder, and, according to a local tradition, this was plotted under its shade. The tree is not remarkable for height or girth, the bole being only about 12 feet high and lo^^ feet in girth, but spreads out into an immense drooping head, the branches descending to the ground and forming a complete circular cage or bower about 10 yards in diameter, inside which, Mr. Garrett, the gardener, told me that 300 school children had stood at once. The branches lie on the ground without rooting, so far as I could see, and spread so widely that I made the total circumference about no paces. Mr. Garrett, with a tape, made it 125 yards. The appearance of the tree from outside is fairly well shown in Plate 36. Another tree of this character, but not so large, grows at Crom Castle, on upper Lough Erne, and is described in the Ulster Journal of Arch(sology by Lord Erne.' It is said to resemble an enormous green mushroom in contour, and has evidently been a trained tree, its horizontal branches being supported on timber supports upheld by about 60 stout props. Its total height is given as 25 feet, with a bole of 6 feet and a girth of 12 feet, the branches being 250 feet in circumference. Yew trees in a wild state do not, as a rule, grow so large as those which are planted, probably because they are usually in poor rocky soil and crowded by other trees ; but Lord Moreton tells me of a remarkably fine one which was shown him by Mr. Roderick Mackenzie, son of the owner of Fawley Court, in a wood on the Greenlands property on the Chiltern Hills. He described the tree as of the most symmetrical growth, and he guessed it to be nearer 70 feet than 60 feet high, with a girth of about 1 2 feet. Yew Hedges and Topiary Work The yew, owing to the readiness with which it submits to pruning, forms an admirable hedge, and an excellent account of the conditions necessary to success in the making and keeping up of yew hedges is given by Mr. J. Clark in recent issues of the Garden^ to which we refer our readers. One of the oldest and finest yew hedges in Great Britain is that at Wrest Park," ' Cf. Loudon, toe. cit. 2081. ' Garden, 1905, Ixvii. 54 and 136. ^ Gard. Chron. 1900, xxvii. 375. 124 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland which is said to be 350 years old. There is a very high one of semicircular form enclosing the approach to the front door of Earl Bathurst's house at Cirencester. Others' occur at Pewsey in Wiltshire, Melbourne in Derbyshire, Holme Lacy near Hereford, Hadham in Hertford, Albury Park near Guildford, etc. An interesting account of the use of yew in topiary work is given by Kent,' who gives two illustrations of the remarkable effects produced by this art at Elvaston Castle. Leven's Hall,'' Westmoreland, is also noted for the extraordinary forms into which the yew has been forced to grow. In a recent work' by Elgood and Jekyll pictures are given of several remarkable effects produced by the yew, notably the Yew Alley at Rockingham, the Yew Walk at Crathes, and the Yew Arbour at Lyde. There are some remarkable clipped yews in the garden at Gwydyr Castle, in the valley of the Conway, a beautiful old place now belonging to Lord Carrington, which have been the subject of careful attention from Mr. Evans, the gardener, for forty years. The largest is in the form of an immense round -topped mushroom, 36 yards round and about 36 feet high, with a perfectly smooth, close, regular surface. In the west garden at the same place there is a double row of yews, eleven on each side, of the same form, but very much smaller. , • Timber Since foreign timber has almost entirely superseded home-grown wood, the remarkable qualities of this most durable and beautiful timber have been almost forgotten, though, if we may believe what Evelyn, Loudon, Walker, and other old authors tell us, it was formerly highly valued, not only for bow-making, but for all purposes where strength and durability, when exposed to wet, were required. At the present time, though I have made many inquiries, I cannot find a cabinetmaker in London who knows or uses the wood ; it is rarely to be found in timber yards, and I was told by one of the principal timber merchants in York that I was, in his forty years' experience, the first person who had ever asked for it. It has little or no selling value, and may be bought occasionally for about half the price of oak. In various old houses, however, examples may be found of its use for furniture, panelling, and inlaying, which show what the wood is worth, when well selected and thoroughly seasoned, to people who do not mind a little trouble. Evelyn says that for posts to be set in the ground and for everlasting axle-trees there is none to be compared to it, and that cabinetmakers and inlayers most gladly employ it. Loudon quotes Varennes de Feuilles, who states that the wood, before it has been seasoned and when cut into veneers and immersed some months in pond water, will take a purple-violet colour. • Veitch's iWa«. Conifera, 137 (1900). ^ Gard. Chion. 1874, p. 264. ^ Some English Gardens, pp. 34, 42, 107 (1904). Taxus 1 25 Dr. Walker ' speaks of the yew as a tree which grows well in the shade of rocks and precipices, especially near the sea-shore. "No timber is planted in Scotland that gives so high a price as that of yew and laburnum." He mentions a yew that grew on a sea-cliff, in the small stormy island of Bernera near the Sound of Mull, which, when cut into logs, loaded a large six-oared boat, and afforded timber to form a fine staircase in the house of Lochnell. Sir Charles Strickland tells me that yew wood which is occasionally dug up in the bogs and fens of East Yorkshire is of a pinkish grey colour, and the most beautiful English wood he knows, but the samples of it which Henry has procured in Ireland are much darker in colour. Miss Edwards states that in the Pyrenees water vessels are made of yew wood, which have the property of keeping the water cool in hot weather, and that there is a flourishing manufacture of such vessels bound with brass hoops at Osse. Marshall is quoted by Loudon to the effect that about 1 796 yew trees at Boxhill were cut down and sold to cabinetmakers at high prices for inlaying, one tree being valued at ;^ioo, and half of it actually sold for ;^50. Boutcher says that, from his own experience, bedsteads made of yew wood will not be approached by bugs. Mathieu ^ states that in France the wood is sought for by turners, sculptors, and makers of instruments and toys. The thin straight shoots of the yew which are cut by gipsies in the south of England make most excellent whip sticks, lighter than, and quite as tough as holly. I believe that yew would also make first-rate handles for polo sticks and golf clubs, though makers of these articles do not as yet seem to have used it. Boulger* says that in the library of the India Office there is a Persian illuminated manuscript on thin sheets of yew, and it also makes very ornamental boards for bookbinding. As an example of what can be done with yew wood, I may refer to Macquoid's History of English Furniture, where a coloured illustration (plate iv.) is given of an extremely handsome armchair in Hornby Castle, the property of the Duke of Leeds. Macquoid says: — "The date is about 1550. It is made of yew, which adds to its rarity, for up to this time it was practically penal to employ yew wood for any other purpose than the manufacture of the national weapon ; in this instance the wood has become close, as hard as steel, and of a beautiful dark amber colour." At Hatfield House, the historic mansion of the Marquess of Salisbury, the small drawing-room is panelled entirely with yew wood, the doors being also made of fine burry pieces, but the workmanship in this case is not perfect, and the colour of the wood has been spoilt by varnish. At Dallam Tower, Westmoreland, the seat of Sir Maurice Bromley -Wilson, the staircase is made of yew wood grown on the property. Trees are occasionally found in which the whole body of the log consists of small burry growths something like that of maple, and when this is mixed with contorted grain of various shades of pink the effect is very good. But such trees ' Economical History of the Hebrides, vol. ii. pp. 205, 240(1812). ' Flore Forestiire, 511 (1897). ' Wood, 346 (1902). 126 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland are even now so valuable that they are cut into veneer, and I have a magnificent specimen of such in a sheet 8 feet long by i8 to 20 inches wide which has been mounted for me as a table by Messrs. Marsh, Cribb, and Co. of Leeds. The reason why it is neglected for all these purposes is apparently as follows : — The tree is usually grown in the form of a bush, and does not often become tall and straight enough to form clean timber. It is not usually planted close enough to become drawn up into clean poles, and is rarely felled except when in the way, or when it has become decayed and unsightly. No tree is so deceptive in appearance as an old yew tree. Not only is it usually full of holes and shakes, but the heartwood is generally more or less unsound when over a foot in diameter. Some defects are usually present in an old yew tree, and even when .clean and sound, the heartwood is not so good in colour as the younger wood or the slabs ; and as the bark grows over and covers all these defects it is generally impossible to say how much, if any, of the timber of a large yew will be useful until it is sawn through the middle. It seems to be soundest and best in colour when of moderate age and not over 12 to 18 inches in diameter, though the slabs from old trees of which the heartwood is pale, shaky, or faulty often show the finest and most twisted grain. (H. J. E.) ^ CRYPTOMERIA Cryptomeria, D. Don, Trans. Linn. Soc. xviii. i66 (1.839); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL iii. 428 (1880); Masters, _/(?«/•. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xxx. 23 (1893). A GENUS with one very variable living species, in Eastern Asia, belonging to the tribe Taxodineai of the order Coniferae. A tree with evergreen leaves spirally arranged and decurrent on the shoots, which are only of one kind. Flowers moncecious. Male flowers : spike-like, sessile in the axils of the uppermost leaves of the branchlets, composed of numerous imbricated stamens, which have a pointed connective, and 3 to 5 pollen sacs. Female flowers : globular cones solitary and sessile on the tips of branchlets near to those on which the staminate flowers occur, composed of numerous bracts with free recurved pointed ends spirally imbricated in a continuous series with the leaves. Ovular scales, each bearing 3 to 5 ovules, united with the bracts for three-fourths of their length and dilated into roundish crenately-lobed extremities. Fruit : a globular brownish cone, ripening in the first year, but persisting on the tree after the escape of the seeds by the gaping apart of the scales till the next year or longer ; scales about 20 to 30 in number, peltate, stalked with a disc dilated externally, which shows on its outer surface the recurved point of the bract (incorporated with the scale in its greater part), and on its upper margin 3 to 5 sharp-pointed rigid processes. The stalk-like portion of the scale bears on its inner side 2 to 5 seeds, which are ovate-oblong, somewhat triquetrous in section, and narrowly winged, with a mucro near the apex. 127 1 28 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland CRYPTOMERIA JAPONICA Cryptomtria japonica, Don, Trans. Linn. Soc. {Bot.), win. 167, tab. xiii. i (1839); Hooker, Icon. Plant, vii. 668 (1844); Siebold, Flora Japonica, ii. 43, tab. 124, 124^ (1870); Kent in Veitch's Man. Conifera, 263 (1900) ; Shirasawa, Iconographie des Essences Forestilres du Japan, text 24, tab. ix. 25-42 (1900); Mayr, Fremdldndische Wald- und Parkbaiime, 278 (1906). A tall tree, attaining in Japan a height of 150 feet or more, and a girth of 20 to 25 feet, the trunk tapering from a broad base. Bark reddish brown, and peeling off in long, ribbon-like shreds. Leaves persistent for 4 or 5 years, arranged spirally on the shoots in five ranks, curving inwards and directed forwards, awl-shaped, tapering to a point, compressed laterally, keeled on front and back, bearing stomata on both sides, with the base decurrent on the branchlet to the insertion of the next leaf The buds are minute, and composed of three minute leaves, which are free at the base, and not decurrent. The male flowers are clustered at the ends of the branchlets in false racemes, the leaves in the axils of which they arise being reduced in size, and fulfilling the function of bracts. They appear on the tree in autumn and shed their pollen in early spring, remaining for some time afterwards in a withered state. The buds of the female flowers are also to be seen in autumn terminating some of the branchlets, and covered externally with small, awl-shaped leaves. The shoot ^ is frequently continued in the leafy state throughout the cone (" proliferation "), and the extended portion often grows to several inches in length beyond the cone, and even in some cases bears male catkins. Woody excrescences ^ of a conical shape often develop on the stem, to which they are loosely connected. They correspond to the "wood-balls" which are found on beeches and cedars, and like these are due to abnormal development of dormant buds. Seedling : the cotyledons, which are generally 3 in number, the occurrence of 2 only being rare, are carried above ground by an erect caulicle, about | inch long, ending below in a primary root, which is reddish, flexuous, and about 3 inches long, giving off a few lateral fibres. The cotyledons are linear, flattened, obtuse, and about ^ inch long ; two, narrowed at the base, are prolonged on the caulicle as ribs ; the other, sessile on a broad base, is not decurrent ; all bear stomata on their upper surface. The first leaves on the stem are in a whorl of 3, similar in shape to the cotyledons, but longer and with slightly decurrent bases. The leaves following are inserted spirally on the stem, and are longer, sharper-pointed, and more decurrent. All are spreading, with stomata and a prominent median nerve on their lower surface. The stem, roughened by the leaf-bases, terminates above in a cluster of 5 to 6 leaves, crowded at their insertion and directed upwards. • Remarkable instances of proliferous cones and other abnormalities are described and figured in /Cev. Horticok, 1887, 392. ^ Figured in Card. Chron., May 30, 1903, p. 352. Cryptomeria 1 29 Varieties There are at least two well-marked geographical forms, var. japonica and var. Fortunei, which will perhaps be ranked as distinct species, when the trees are studied in the wild state. Other varieties, which have probably arisen in cultivation, are distinguished by peculiarities of the foliage. 1. '^■^zx. japonica, the type described by Don from Japanese specimens collected by Thunberg. — This is the form which occurs wild in Japan. The tree is pyramidal in habit, with straight, spreading branches and short, stout, dark green leaves. The cones are composed of numerous scales, bearing long acuminate processes, and showing long points to the bracts, making the outer surface of the cone very spiny, especially towards the summit. There are generally 5 seeds to each scale. 2. Var. Lobbii} — Tree narrow, pyramidal in habit, with short branches densely ramified. The leaves are long and light green in colour. The cones are like those of the preceding variety, but with the processes and tips of the bracts even longer and more slender. This is perhaps a geographical form, occurring in Japan, where it was collected by Wright. It has certainly proved hardier than the Chinese variety both in this country and on the Continent. 3. Var. Fortunei"- or sinensis} — A tree diffuse in habit, with deflexed branches and long, slender branchlets. Leaves long and slender. Cones with fewer scales (about 20), which end in short processes, the tips of the bracts being of no great length, so that the whole cone looks much less spiny than that of the Japanese forms. Seeds fewer, often only 2 on a scale, but apparently indistinguishable from those of the Japanese trees. This is the form which occurs wild in China, and which was first introduced into this country. It was described by Sir W. J. Hooker^ from specimens gathered by Sir Everard Home in Chusan. The Chinese form ripens its seeds three weeks sooner at Dropmore than the var. Lobbii. 4. Var. araucarioides} — Branches deflexed, with the branchlets long, pendulous, and very distantly placed. Leaves small, stout, stiff, and curving inwards at the top, dark green in colour. Cones as in var. japonica, of which this is only a slight variety. It is described as a shrub or low tree ; but this may arise from its being propagated from cuttings. Large trees occur, of a similar habit, which seem, however, to be sports from var. Fortunei. 5. Var. pungens.^ — Leaves straight, stiff, spreading, darker green, and more sharply pointed than in common forms. I have not seen cones ; and the origin of this variety is not clearly known. ' Gordon, Pinetum (1858), p. 54. * Cryptomeria Fortunei, Hooibrenk, Wien. Jour, fiir Pfienzenkuniie, 1853, p. 22. ' Cryptomeria japonica, var. sinensis, Siebold, I.e. 49. * Hooker, loc. cit. He points out the difference in the cones of the Chinese and Japanese trees, but says that they are undoubtedly one species. Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 172, remarks that the cones of the Barton tree, from Chinese seed, are very different from Don's figure of Japanese cones. s Carri^re, Traiti Gin. Conif. (1867), p. 193. ' Hort. A sub-variety of this, /a«^« Fruct. ii. 43, t. 87 (1791), Lxjudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 921 (1838). Pyrus domestica, Ehrhart,^ " Plantag," 20, ex Beitrage zur Naturkunde, vi. 95 (1791); Smith, Eng. Bot. t. 550 (1796). Sorbus domestica, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 477 (1753). Cte Jour. Bot. 1884, p. 216. It is certainly quite distinct, in my opinion, from scandica or latifolia. ^ Jour. Bot. 1903, p. 215. 3 Specimen at Kew, ^ Jour. Bot. 1897, p. 99. Pyrus i6i in some places attaining lo metres in height. In the Finnish islands of Aland it is found truly wild, in a few places only, sometimes in company with an allied species, P. fennica. Conwentz identified it at Bergo, SkarpnStS, Labnas, and else- where. The finest specimen he saw at Ostergeta, being 1 2 metres high and 2 metres in girth. In south-eastern Sweden it is more abundant, but does not occur in any of the provinces north of Wermland, about lat. 60° N. In the neighbourhood of Stockholm it grows at Stockby to 12 metres in height. In Sodermanland and the island of Gothland it is more common. In Denmark the tree has been found in many places, and is undoubtedly wild near Aarhus in Jutland, in the forests of Adslev, Kolden, and Jexen. I believe that I also saw it in the forest of Roldskov near Aalborg, though I did not at that time distinguish it from Pyrus Aria. In the island of Bornholm it is known under the name of " Axelbar." In Germany it is confined to a limited area on the coasts of West Prussia and Pomerania, where Conwentz has found it living in six places only — Koliebken, Hoch Redlau, Oxhoft, Karthaus, Gr. Podel, and Markuhle near Kolberg. He gives maps showing the position of the trees in these places, and says that whilst P. torminalis grows in the interior, where the hornbeam is predominant, P. intermedia grows in the country along the coast, where the beech is the prevailing tree. It occurs most commonly in a shrubby condition, the tallest wild one being only 13 metres high by I metre in girth, but one tree at Gross Podel in Pomerania is 1.90 metre in girth, and at Wernigerode, in the Harz, a cultivated tree has attained 17 by 3.17 metres, which is the largest known to Conwentz. He thinks that the scarcity of the tree in Germany arises from its not being indigenous, as no geological evidence exists of its having been formerly commoner, and suggests that it has been introduced from Sweden by birds of passage, such as the waxwing or thrushes, which are fond of the fruit, and may have voided the seeds after migration from the north. The Swedish name is Oxel, and this name being found in many place and family names in Sweden, shows that the tree was probably more common formerly than at present. In Norway, Schlibeler^ says that it is wild only in the most southern parts, as at Porsgrund, Grimstad, and Dalen in Eidsborg, in lat. 59° 42' N. There are large trees at Lunde in Stavanger district growing near the church. In the Botanic Gardens at Christiania I have seen a tree which is about 1 2 metres high and over 2 in girth. It has been planted and grows well at Stenkjser, at the north end of the Trondhjem Fjord. The Norsk name is Maave. Dr. Brunchorst, Director of the Bergen Museum, informed the Earl of Ducie that Pyrus intermedia, as well as P. pinnatifida (P. fennica), were found on the south-west coast of Norway, and that a hybrid which he calls Pyrus Meinickii, P. fennica X Aucuparia, has also been recently discovered in the " MosterO Bommel Fjord," Dr. Brunchorst, who has paid much attention to this genus, says that three species which he cultivates at Bergen vary much, and perhaps pass into one another. ' Schtibeler, Viridarium norvegiaim, vol. ii. 477 ('^ 1 62 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Lord Ducie has brought plants of these to Tortworth, where he grows them under the name of Pyrus hybrida. Remarkable Trees This species appears to be now rarely planted, except in botanical gardens. The best specimen which we have seen occurs at Syon (var. scandica). In 1904 it measured 48 feet in height by 7 feet 10 inches in girth, with a bole of 7 feet, dividing into 8 large branches, and forming a wide-spreading crown of foliage, about 50 yards in circumference (Plate 50). Another fine tree is growing at Livermere Park, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, specimens and particulars of which have been kindly sent to us by Mr. Stiling. It is now (1905) 45 feet high by 8 feet 5 inches in girth, with a bole of 8 feet dividing into 1 2 main branches, the diameter of the spread of foliage being 45 feet. This tree was reported' in 1889 to have been 42 feet high by 8 feet 3 inches in girth. In August 1905 it was covered with fruit. (H. J. E.) There is a fine specimen at Stowe, near Buckingham, growing near the bridge over the lake in sandy soil, which measures about 45 feet high by 7 feet 9 in. in girth, with a 7 feet bole. It was loaded with fruit in August 1905. At Wykeham Abbey, the Yorkshire seat of Viscount Downe, there is a fine tree on the lawn, about 40 feet high, spreading from the ground, where it measures 10 feet 8 inches in girth, into a large and well-shaped head. ' This tree is planted in some of the parks and gardens in London, and grows well at the Botanic Gardens in Regent's Park. I am informed by Mr. A. Stratford, Superintendent of the Corporation Park of Blackburn, that it makes a good shade tree in that smoky town. ' Garden, 1889, xxxvi. 342. Note by J. C. Tallack, who named the tree Pyrus pinnatifida. Pyrus 163 PYRUS PINNATIFIDA, Bastard Mountain Ash Pyrus pinnatifida, Ehrhart, "Plantag." 22, ex Beitrdge zur Naturkunde, vi. 93 (1791); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 915 (1838) ; N. E. Brown, in Eng. Bot. iii. ed. Suppl. 168 (1892) ; Gard. jChron. xx. 493, fig. 78 (1883). Pyrus semipinnata. Roth, En, PI. Phcen. in Germ. i. sect. post. 438 (1827). Pyrus fennica, Babington, Man. Eng. Bot. ed. 3, p. in (185 i). Sorbus hybrida, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 684 (1762); Schiibeler, Viridarium norvegicum, ii. p. 476. Sorbus fennica. Fries, Sumtna Veg. Scand. 42 (1846). A species of hybrid origin, occurring as a small tree, which may attain 50 feet in height, with smooth, grey bark. Leaves variable in shape, mostly pinnate or deeply cut at the base, with 1-4 pairs of segments more or less separate; the upper part cut into deep sharp-toothed lobes; green and glabrous above, grey tomentose below. Flowers white in loose corymbs ; styles 3, woolly at the base ; fruit small, globular, coral red, and resembling that of Pyrus Atuuparia. Varieties This form, the parents of which are P. Aucuparia and P. intermedia, must be carefully distinguished (see p. 143) from Pyrus hybrida, Moench, a shrub of different origin. Pyrus Thuringiaca, Ilse,^ a cross between P. Aucuparia and P. Aria, is generally included under P. pinnatifida, from which it differs only in the leaf, whiter beneath, having its upper part lobulate or dentate and not deeply lobed. Sorbus arranensis, Hedlund,^ is the name given to a form occurring in the Isle of Arran, which is intermediate between P. pinnatifida and P. intermedia, and closely resembles the latter, differing only in the deeper and more irregular lobing of the leaf The hybrid forms, which are intermediate between P. pinnatifida and P. Auctiparia, are generally regarded as varieties (van satureifolia ^ and var. decurrens *) of the latter species, and will be mentioned in our account of the mountain ash. ' Identification Pyrus pinnatifida and the intermediate hybrids are variable and inconstant in the shape of the leaf There is no difficulty, however, in their identification, if it be noted that hybridity may be suspected in all cases where the leaves vary on the one hand from the regularly pinnate separate leaflets of Pyrus Aucuparia, and on the other from the regular uniform lobing or serration of Pyrus intermedia or Pyrus ' In/ahresb. Bot. Gart. u. Mus. Berlin, i. 232 (1881). * In Kon. Sv. Veten. Akad. Handl. 1 90 1-2, p. 60. ■■ Koch, Dendrologie, i. 189 (1869). ♦ Koehne, Deutsche Dendrolegie, 248 (1893). This variety is commonly known as Pyrus lanuginosa, Hort. 164 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Aria. In winter, specimens of cultivated Sorbus fennica show the following characters represented in Plate 45 : — Twigs : long shoots glabrous, shining, dark brown, with a few scattered lenticels. Leaf-scar crescentic, very narrow, set obliquely on a reddish brown, slightly projecting cushion ; it shows a varying number of bundle traces,^ 3, 4, or 5, and may thus be distinguished from other species of Sorbus, as Pyrus Aucuparia has 5 dots on the scar, while Pyrus Aria, intermedia, and latifolia have only 3. Terminal bud large, conic, tomentose, especially at the apex. Lateral buds small, either appressed to the stem or diverging from it at an acute angle. Bud-scales few, densely pubescent on the outer surface, and ciliate in margin. Short shoots ringed, pubescent, bearing a terminal bud.^ Distribution The ioxm fennica occurs plentifully in Scandinavia, where it grows wild, repro- ducing itself naturally by seed, and behaving as a true species. It extends in Norway, according to Schiibeler, up to lat. 66° 14' on the west coast as a wild plant, and in Sweden up to 60° wild and 62" planted ; it also occurs in Finland, but is not recorded from other parts of Russian territory. In Central Europe it only occurs sporadically, and apparently always in company with the parent species ; it is recorded from various mountain stations in France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. The hybrids which occur in the Isle of Arran have attracted much attention and discussion. Formerly it was believed that Pyrus Aucuparia, Pyrus intermedia (var. scandica), and Pyrus fennica, all occurred in a wild state. Koehne,^ however, con- siders that (excepting Aucuparia) all the plants in question on the island are hybrids, there being two sets, one typical fennica, while the other set comprises forms between that and scandica. This view, which excludes one of the parents (viz. scandica), implies that these hybrids, once established, may under favourable conditions reproduce themselves naturally and behave generally as true species. N. E. Brown says of this species that it is " rare and perhaps not indigenous except in Scotland " ; but he has seen specimens from Kent, Sussex, Hants, Somerset, Gloucester, Leicester, Stafford, Cumberland, Roxburgh, Arran, and Dumbarton. He thinks that Arran seems to be the only truly native locality for this tree in the British Isles, and believes that the Arran plant placed under intermedia is a form of it. Watson, however, states in his Compendium, p. 510, that Borrer held it to be wild in North Hants between Farnham and Farnborough, where it was observed sparingly along with Aria and Aucuparia, both more plentifully. A specimen picked by James M'Nab in Darenth Wood, Kent, is, according to Watson, identical with Arran specimens. There is a fine tree on the edge of a shrubbery close to Wilton House, Wilts, the seat of the Earl of Pembroke, about 50 feet by 5. ' If the dots are not plainly visible externally, they can be seen clearly on paring off the epidermis of the scar. ' The twigs in winter described above clearly show the hybrid origin of this species ; the varying number of dots on the scar, the pubescence and shape of the scales, etc. show the influence of Pyrus Aucuparia. ' Koehne, y Qonlrib, U.S. Nat. Herbarium, vi, 117 and 325 (1901), 174 ^^^ Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Harper considers this variety to be a distinct species, and in support of this opinion alleges that certain differences which he has observed in the two forms are constant. The bark in var. imbricaria, both in cultivated and wild specimens, is considerably thicker and more coarsely ridged than in the typical form. The enlargement of the base of the trunk is abrupt in the former, conical in the latter. Knees are formed more abundantly in trees of the type, and are usually slender and acute, sometimes reaching a height of 6 feet. In var. imbricaria the knees are short and rounded, often almost hemispherical in shape. The type is a lover of limestone, the variety just the opposite. The distribution of the two forms is different, dependent upon the geological nature of the soil, var. imbricaria always growing on the Lafayette formation, which is a deposit of sandy clay, while the type always occurs on other formations. Harper admits the occurrence of intermediate forms, but states that they are rare. He has records of 300 to 400 stations in Georgia for var. imbricaria, at each of which there may be from ten to several thousand trees, while he has only seen intermediate forms about twenty times, and never more than 100 trees at one station. In the intermediate forms branchlets with distichous leaves occur on young shoots. Harper has seen in Georgia specimens of var. imbricaria as large as the ordinary form ; but it is generally admitted to be a smaller tree. The two forms often grow close together, but in different situations. On the Savilla river in Camden County, Georgia, he noticed the type growing along the water's edge below the Lafayette formation, while a hundred yards or so away var. itnbricaria was flourishing in moist pine-barrens. Var. imbricana is possibly a juvenile form, analogous to Cryptomeria elegans. The generally smaller size of the trees and the various differences noted by Harper are probably the result of poor soil, and do not, in my opinion, entitle this form to rank as a distinct species. This variety was early introduced into England, as it was in cultivation, according to Alton,' at Kew in 1789. The original tree at Kew, now dead, was living in 1886, when it was described by Sir Joseph Hooker^ as 40 feet in height and of remarkable habit, on account of its slender twisted stem with decurved branches and pectinately-disposed branchlets. A small tree, 20 feet in height, is now growing in Kew Gardens. A tree of the Mexican kind was reported ^ to be growing at Penrhyn Castle, North Wales; but Elwes saw it in 1906, and confirms the opinion I had formed from specimens sent by Mr. Richards, that it is var. imbricaria. It is 44 feet high and 4 in girth, and comes into leaf later than the ordinary form growing near it. At Pencarrow,* Cornwall, there is a fine specimen, which was planted about 1841 by Sir W. Molesworth. It had attained in 1899 a height of over 30 feet, with a girth of stem of 2 feet 9^^ inches at 5 feet from the ground. ' Hortus Kewensis, iii. 372. Described as " Cupressus disticha, var. nutans ; foliis remotioribus subsparsis ; long-leaved deciduous cypress." This varietal name was liept up by Lou This is probably the tree, reported in iVood! ami forests, February 4, 1885, to be 83 feet in height by 10 feet in girth at 3 feet above the ground. 2 Miller, Card. Did., ed. 8, sub Cupressus disticha (1768). i8o The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland At Barton, Suffolk, there are three trees, which measured in 1903, (a) in the Arboretum, 50 feet by 5 feet 5 inches, dying ; (d) a smaller tree beside it, in a worse condition ; (c) on the lawn, 56 feet by 4 feet 3 inches. The latter tree' was planted in 1826, the other two in 1831. It is evident that the dry though deep soil at Barton is not favourable to the growth of this species. At Frogmore, Windsor, there are two specimens very different in habit. One, a clean -stemmed tree, growing near water, but without knees, is 80 feet by 8 feet 6 inches. The other, not so large, has a weeping habit, and is branched to the ground. At Strathfieldsaye there is a tree, mentioned by Loudon as being 46 feet in height by 3 feet 4 inches in diameter, which I found in 1903 to be 63 feet high by 9 feet in girth. It is growing in stiff clay soil and has no knees ; the stem is deeply furrowed. At Dropmore there is a tree beside a pond, planted in 1843, *"*^ "ow measuring 60 feet by 5 feet 9 inches. At South Lodge, Enfield, a tree is growing near water, with small knees, which, measured by Henry in 1904, was yy feet by 11 feet 10 inches. At Combe Abbey, Warwickshire, Mr. W. Miller ^ reports that a tree, mentioned by Loudon as 47 feet by 2 feet 3 inches in 1843, had attained, in 1887, 75 feet by 1 1 feet 6 inches at 3 feet from the ground. At Longford Castle,' Salisbury, there are two trees, growing within a few yards of the river Avon. One, very tall, has a straight trunk free from branches for about 30 feet, and a girth of 8 feet 10 inches at 4 feet from the ground. The other is 6 feet in girth, and branches at 7 feet up. At Brockett's Park, near Hatfield, the residence of Lord Mountstephen, there are many trees planted along a walk on the banks of the Lee, and forming an irregular line in which the trees vary very much in size. In the sheltered part of the valley, where the soil and situation are very favourable, they average 70 to 80 feet high, the best I measured being 80 feet by 10 feet and 86 feet by 9 feet. But lower down the stream, where the valley is more exposed to the wind, they are stunted, and not more than half the height of those above. There are knees on some of the trees overgrown with moss and meadowsweet, but not so large as those at Syon. At Upper Nutwell, near Exeter, there is a tree which Mr. G. H. Hodgkinson informed me in June 1904 was 84 feet high by 1 1 feet 9 inches in girth. Large trees have been reported at many other places, especially in the south of England, viz. : — Connington Castle,* Huntingdonshire, a tree 70 feet by 7 feet in 1877; Watford,* Herts, 85 feet by 14 feet in 1884; Stanwell,® Surrey, a tree 13 feet in girth in 1904; Embley," near Romsey, Hampshire, a tree 8^ feet in girth in 1872, standing on the top of a hill. ' liunbury, Arboretum Notes, i6l. * Card. Chron. 1905, xxxvii. 12. ' Ganlen, 1890, xxxvii. 538. * Ibid. 1877, xii. 405. 5 Woods and Forests, 1884, p. 546. ' Reported by Sir Hugh Beevor. '• Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 161. Taxodium 1 8 1 I have seen no trees in Scotland of any size, and Henry has heard of none in Ireland, but there is one in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens 31 feet by 3 feet in 1905. Timber According to Sargent the timber is light and soft, close, straight grained, not strong, easily worked, and very durable in contact with the soil. It is largely used for building, most of the houses in Louisiana and the Gulf States being built from it, and large quantities are also now exported to the North, where it is found a most valuable wood for doors, sashes, balustrades, and greenhouses. The Stearns Lumber Company of Boston, U.S.A., are making a speciality of it, and from a pamphlet published by this firm I take the following particulars : — The timber varies considerably in different localities, and they consider, after long experience, that the so-called Gulf Cypress, grown in Florida, is better than the Louisiana Red Cypress, or that from the Atlantic coast of Georgia. Farther north it is apt to be more shaky and of coarser grain ; and it is claimed that the seasoning is better done in the South than in the Northern States, from one to five years being required to do this properly, according to the dimensions of the timber, and that the longer in reason that it is kept in the pile before using the better. It is said to be more durable, and to shrink and swell less than spruce or pine, to take paint well, and, as it contains no pitch, to resist fire longer than other coniferous woods. It is quoted from the Richmond Despatch that a house, built by Michael Braun in 1776, and still owned and occupied by his descendants, was covered with cypress shingles, which were only removed in 1880. Such shingles are now made by machinery at a very low price, and would be well worth trying for roofing houses in England, as they are very light in weight and inexpensive, and though I have no evidence that they are better than shingles made from English oak, their much greater size makes them easier to lay, and they can be cut to fancy patterns, which makes them very ornamental for roofing. This wood is also highly recommended for doors, sashes, tanks, and other purposes where a great power of enduring damp is required. It occasionally produces very ornamental wood, which is mottled and grained with red and brown, and some doors made of this wood, two of which I now possess, are extremely handsome. Whether the wood grown in England will prove equally good I cannot say, as large trees are so seldom cut down in England that I have been unable to try it, but would certainly advise anyone who may have the opportunity to do so. (H. J. E.) THUYA Thuya} Linnaeus, Gen. PL 378 (1737); R. Brown, Trans. Edin. Bot. Soc. ix. 358 (1868); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL iii. 426 {ex parte) (1880); Masters, ywr. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xxx. 19 (1893). Biota, Endlicher, Syn. Conif.,^"] (1847). Evergreen trees of pyramidal habit and aromatic odour, belonging to the tribe Cupressineae of the order Coniferae. Branches spreading and much ramified, terminating in so-called " branch-systems," which are flattened in one plane and are 2-, 3-, or 4- pinnately divided, their primary and other axes being densely clothed with scale-like leaves. These branch-systems ^ when they fall are cast off as a whole, the leaves not falling separately. The leaves, which are minute, are more or less coalesced with the axes, on which they stand in 4 ranks in 2 decussate pairs, those of the lateral ranks being conduplicate or boat-shaped, those placed dorsally and ventrally being flattened. In the seedling stage and certain horticultural varieties,* the foliage is different, the leaves being acicular, spreading, and uniform ; all 4 ranks in this case are alike. Flowers monoecious, all solitary and terminal on the ultimate short branchlets of the preceding year, the male and female flowers on different branchlets, the former on the branchlets near the base of the shoot, the latter on those near its summit. Male flowers cylindrical or globular, consisting of 3 to 6 pairs of stamens placed decussately on an axis, each with an orbicular connective bearing 2 to 4 pollen sacs. Female flowers minute cones, composed of opposite scales in which no distinction of ovular scale and bract is visible, continuous in series with the leaves at the end of the branchlet, 2 to 4 pairs in Biota, 4 to 6 pairs in Euthuya, mucronate at the apex, some sterile, the others fertile and bearing 2 to 3 ovules. Cones solitary, ultimately deflected, except in Biota, in which they retain the erect position, oblong, ovoid, or almost globose, composed of 3 to 6 pairs of decussate scales, which are not peltate, some fertile, the others sterile, the uppermost often united together. Seeds 2 to 3 on each fertile scale. Cotyledons 2. The genus Thuya, as understood here, does not include Chamsecyparis and ' Thuya has been written Thtija in Linnaeus, Hort. Cliff. 449 (1737), and Sp. PI. 1002 (1753) ; ami T/iuia in Scopoli, Introd. 353 (1777). " The branchlets become brown in colour before they fall. See Masters, Gard. Chron. 1883, xx. 596. ' In addition to the varieties, in which the foliage retains permanently the seedling character, other forms occur in cultivation, in which the leaves are intermediate in shape between those of the seedling and of the adult plant. These varieties resemble the so-called Retinospora forms of the genus Cupressus, and were formerly considered, like them, to belong to a distinct genus. 182 Thuya 183 Thujopsis, which were united with it by Bentham and Hooker. So limited, it comprises 5 species, and is divided into the two following sections : — I. Etithuya. Cones with thin, coriaceous mucronulate scales, those of the 2 or 3 middle ranks being fertile. Seed thin, with lateral wings and a minute hilum. This section comprises 4 species. Thuya occidentalis and Thuya plicata of North America, Thuya sutchuenensis of central China, and Thuya japonica of Japan. II. Biota. Cones with thickened, conspicuously umbonate scales, which are fleshy when young, almost ligneous when ripe ; those of the lowest two ranks fertile. Seed thick, without wings, the hilum being large and oblong. This section includes one species, Thtiya orientalis of north China. The Thuyas resemble considerably in foliage and habit the flat-leaved cypresses. The latter are best distinguished by their fruit, which consists of peltate scales fitting closely by their edges. In a subsequent part, the peculiarities, as regards the branch systems and leaves, of these cypresses {Cupressus Lawsoniana, nootkatensis, thyoides, obtusa, and pisifera) will be described, and may then be compared with those now given below for the four species of Thuya in cultivation. In the discrimination of the Thuyas, in addition to the characters shown by the bark, mode of branching, and fruit, the primary and secondary axes of the branch- systems give good marks of distinction. These axes are markedly flattened in Thuya occidentalis, terete in the other species. In Thuya orientalis the branch-systems stand in vertical planes, the inner edges of which are directed towards the stem of the tree. In ordinary forms of the other three species they are arranged in horizontal planes. The leaves on the main axes in each species differ as follows : — 1. Thuya plicata:^ widely spaced, long, ending in long, fine, free points, which are parallel to the axis ; glands inconspicuous or absent. Under surface of the foliage usually marked with white streaks. 2. Thuya japonica : placed closely together, shoots ending in short, rigid, thick, triangular points, directed outwards at an acute angle ; glands absent. Under surface of the foliage conspicuously marked with broad white streaks. 3. Thuya occidentalis : widely spaced, ending in long, fine points, which are parallel to the axis ; glands raised, large and conspicuous on the flat leaves. Under surface of the foliage pale green ; white streaks inconspicuous or absent. 4. Thuya orientalis : widely spaced, ending in short triangular free points, which are not rigid, and are directed slightly outwards at an acute angle : flat leaves marked by longitudinal glandular depressions. Under surface of the foliage pale green, without white streaks. Thuya sutchuenensis, Franchet,^ is a small tree occurring in north-east Szechuan in central China, where it was discovered by Pere Farges growing at an altitude of 1400 feet. The branchlets are much flattened, thin in texture, and practically gland- less. Cones composed of 8 obovate scales, the apices of which are slightly thickened. This species has not been introduced into cultivation. ■ This species exhales a peculiar aromatic odour, which is different from that of the other Thuyas. 2 /our. de Bot. 1899, p. 262. See also Masters in Jour. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxvi. 540. 184 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland THUYA PLICATA, Giant Thuya Thuya pHcata, D. Don in Lambert, Pinus, ed. 1, ii. 19 (1824); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxi. 214; figs. 69, 70, 71 (1897); Sudworth, Check List Forest Trees U.S. 31 (1898); Sargent, Manual Trees N. America, 75 (1905). Thuya gigantea, Nuttall, Jour. Philad. Acad. vii. 52 (1834); Sargent, Silva N. America, x. 129, t. 533 (1896); Kent, in Veitch's Man. Coniferce, 239 (1900). Thuya Menziesii, Douglas, ex Carriere, Traite Gen. Conif. 107 (1867). Thuya Lobbi, Hort. Thuya Craigiana, Hort. \rion A. Murray, Bot. Exped. Oregon, 2 (1853)]. A lofty tree, attaining a height of 200 feet, with a trunk remarlcably conical, the base being broad and buttressed, sometimes girthing as much as 40 to 50 feet near the ground. Bark of the trunk Assuring longitudinally in narrow thick plates, which scale off, leaving exposed the reddish brown cortex beneath. On the branches, the bark only begins to scale when they become old and thick. Branches horizontal, ascending towards their ends, forming in England a dense, narrow, pyramidal tree, usually clothed to the base. The 3-4 pinnate branch-systems, disposed in horizontal planes, have their main axes terete and covered with long leaves ending in acute points which keep parallel to the axes. The glands on these leaves are inconspicuous or absent. On the ultimate axes the leaves are smaller, the flat ones scarcely glandular, and ending in mucronate points ; the lateral ones keeled on the back, slightly curved, and ending in sharp cartilaginous points. On the lower surface of most branchlets the foliage is streaked with white, some branchlets usually remaining uniformly green. The male flowers are dark red in colour, cylindrical, and composed of about 6 decussate pairs of stamens. The cones when ripe do not remain erect, but are deflected out of the plane of the branchlets. They are oblong, light brown in colour, and composed of 5 to 6 pairs of scales, of which the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pairs are larger than the others, and fertile. The scales are oval or spathulate, with a rounded apex, from immediately below which externally a small deltoid process is given off. The seeds, 2 or 3 on each fertile scale, are brown in colour, two-thirds the length of the scale, and surrounded laterally by a scarious wing, which is deeply notched at its summit. Seedling} — The 2 cotyledons are linear, flat, acute at the apex, and slightly tapering towards the base, supported on a terete caulicle, about f inch long, which ends in a long brown fiexuose primary root giving off a few fibres. The stem, terete and smooth near the base, becomes ridged above by the decunent leaf-bases. The first 4 true leaves are in opposite pairs, decussate with the cotyledons. Above these the stem gives off a number of whorls or pseudo-whorls of longer (|^ inch) sharply pointed leaves, dark green above and pale beneath, with markedly decurrent • Figured in Lubbock, Seedlings, ii. 551, tig. 676 (1892), and Sargent, he til. l 533, fig. 12. Thuya 185 bases. After a few of these whorls lateral branches are given off, which sometimes bear a few acicular leaves at their bases. The lateral branches ramify and approach in character those of the adult plant, as the leaves are arranged decussately in 4 ranks. These leaves are variable, being acicular and loosely imbricated, or scale-like and closely imbricate. The branches are ascending, horizontal, or drooping, and are more or less flattened from above downwards. History^ This tree was discovered by Nee, who accompanied Malaspina in his voyage round the world during the years 1 789 to 1 794 ; and his specimen, gathered at Nootka Sound, is preserved in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. It was referred to by James Donn, in Hortus Cantab, ed. 4 (1807), as Thuya plicata, without any description ; and subsequently D. Don drew up from it the oldest description of the species under the same name. The Thuya plicata of gardens, which was early in cultivation, is a variety of Thuya occidentalis, and has no connection with the plant of Nee. Archibald Menzies, who accompanied Vancouver's expedition as botanist, gathered specimens also at Nootka Sound in 1795. Nuttall received specimens later from the Flathead river, on which he founded his description of the species as Thuya gigantea. It was introduced into cultivation^ in 1853 by W. Lobb, and distributed from Veitch's nursery at Exeter as Thuya Lobbi, as at that time Nuttall's name Thuya gigantea was wrongly applied to Libocedrus decurrens, and Don's name. Thuya plicata, in a similar erroneous way, had gone into common use for a variety of Thuya occidentalis. Afterwards the tree became generally known in England as Thuya gigantea ; and it is unfortunate that Don's name, Thuya plicata, must, following the law of priority, be substituted for a name so well known and so established as gigantea. This change of name has, however, been adopted in the Kew Hand List of Conifers, and by Sudworth and Sargent in North America, and on the whole it is now most convenient to adopt the name Thuya plicata. (A. H.) Distribution This tree is, next to the Douglas fir, the most important from an economic point of view in northern Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. It extends in the north as far as southern Alaska, in the east to the Coeur d'Al^ne Mountains in Idaho and to north-western Montana, and in the south to Mendocino County in northern California. It is known as Cedar, or Red Cedar, and is found most abundantly on wet soils and in wet climates, ascending from sea level to an elevation, according to Sargent, of 6000 feet, where it becomes a low shrub. ' See Masters, in Gard. Chr(m. loc. cit. 2 At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, there were in 1884 five trees of supposed Thuya gigantea, which were raised, it was said, from seed sent to Edinburgh by Jeffrey in 1851, while collecting for the Oregon Association. Three of these trees, according to Nicholson, were true gigatilea, the other two being what is now known as Thuya occidentalis, var. plicata. See IVoods and Forests, Feb. 27, and Mar. 19, 1884. These trees cannot now be identified. 1 2 3 1 86 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland It is scarce in the dry belt of country east of the Cascade Mountains, but common in the Selkirk and Gold ranges, though, so far as I know, it never extends to the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. On the coast and in Vancouver Island it attains an immense size. I have never measured trees more than 200 to 220 feet high, but Prof Sheldon says that it attains 250 feet in Oregon, though no actual measurements are given.^ As regards their girth, I have measured two trees which may have grown from the same root, so close do they stand together, one of which was 39, the other 25 feet at 5 feet from the ground. These stand on Mr. Barkley's farm in Vancouver Island, in swampy land near sea level, and are figured in Plate 56.^ At over 2000 feet eleva- tion in Oregon I measured another, also a twin tree, which was 30 feet in girth. Mr. Anderson states that he has seen Indian canoes 6 feet and more from the level of the gunwale to the bottom, hewn out of a log of this tree, such canoes being often 50 feet and more long, A hewn plank 5 feet wide by 15 feet long is in the museum at Victoria, B.C., and split boards, quite straight, 12 feet long and 15 inches wide, are made from it without difficulty. The natural reproduction by seed was, wherever I saw it, very good, though in the densest shade the western hemlock seemed to have the advantage. Cultivation Wherever I have seen this tree growing in England and Scotland it is a vigorous, healthy tree of great beauty and promise, and one that I think is likely in fifty years or so to become a more valuable timber tree than the silver fir or spruce. It has been stated in a report by Herr Bohm, in the March number of the Zeitschrifi fiir Forst. u, Jagdweser for 1896,^ that the parasitic fungus Pestalozzia funerea has done serious damage to the tree in North Germany, and statements to the same effect have been made elsewhere ; but I can say that out of the thousands of this tree that I have raised from English seed and planted out in a bad soil and climate, I have never had any die from any disease whatever, and have found it an easier tree both to raise and to transplant than any other conifer. It will grow on almost any soil at the rate of at least one foot per annum, as in damp, cold bottoms where the spruce will hardly thrive, on the poor dry oolite soil of the Cotswold hills, and seems equally indifferent to wind, damp, and spring frosts.* It seldom loses its leader, is rarely blown down, endures heavy shade, and transplants both in ' In the Canadian Court of the Colonial Exhibition of 1886, there was shown a portion of a bole of this species, which was taken from a tree girthing 21 feet, and having a length of 250 feet. It came from British Columbia. — Gard. Chron. 1886, xxvi. 207. ^ An illustration of a tree growing near Snoqualmie Falls on the Seattle and International Railway, Washington, was given in The Pacific Rural Press in 1897. This is said to have been 107 feet 7 inches round at the base, and was supposed to have been over 1000 years old, but we know of no good evidence that it ever attains so great an age as this. ' Cf. A. C. Forbes, Gard. Chron. 1896, xix. 554. * The very severe frost on May 20-21, 1905, when I o°- 15° of frost were registered in many places, which killed many young beech trees in low situations at Colesborne, and checked the young growth considerably, killed none except a few of the weakest Thuyas which were freshly transplanted ; but the autumn frost of the following October, when the trees were still in growth, seems to have done more harm, though the young trees did not die till the following spring. Thuya 187 early autumn and late spring with great readiness. It has, therefore, every good quality a forest tree can have, except the as yet unproved one of cleaning its trunk from branches without pruning. And as this has not yet been properly tested by thick planting, I venture to say that there is no conifer better worthy of an extensive trial as a timber tree for such purposes as the larch is now used, and especially for fencing posts, for which its remarkable durability in the ground seems to make it most valuable.' I should therefore recommend that this tree should be planted at distances of 6 to 8 feet apart in situations where larch will not thrive, and not thinned as long as the trees keep healthy. In the New England states it is not hardy enough to live in many places, but Professor Sargent tells me that a variety raised from seed from the Coeur d'Alene mountains in northern Idaho is hardy at Boston, where the form from the Pacific coast is tender, just as in the case of the Douglas fir. No reliable tests, so far as I know, have yet been made in England or America as to the breaking strain and strength of this wood, but Sheldon states that it is used for telegraph posts in Oregon, and though its branches die off so slowly that the home-grown timber may probably be knotty, it is certainly not worse in this respect than spruce, to which I should consider it in every respect a superior forest tree. The seed usually ripens about the end of October, and is very freely produced in most seasons. It soon sheds when ripe, and should be sown in boxes or in the open ground in early spring. I have tried both plans with great success, and find it best to plant the seedlings at two years old in nursery lines, and plant out the trees finally either in the early autumn or spring, when the deaths will be very small if the roots are not allowed to dry before planting. There is very little variation among the seedlings, which grow rapidly in moist soil, and are less liable to suffer from spring frost than most trees, though if planted in mid-winter the tops are liable to die back. There is no reason why this tree should not be sold in nurseries at the price of spruce except the absence of a regular demand, as it can be got up to a proper size for planting in two years less time. The tree seeds itself very rapidly on sandy soil in many parts of the west and south of England, though liable to be thrown out of the ground by frost during the first year, and often destroyed by rabbits. On the lower greensand at Blackmoor, Hants, self-sown seedlings were quite numerous, both of this tree and of many other conifers, but rabbits are not allowed here, and both Lord and Lady Selborne take great interest in self-sown seedlings. Remarkable Trees The giant Thuya has not been long enough in cultivation to show whether it ' I have recently been shown by Mr. Molyneux a plantation of Thuya gigantea and larch called Mays hill, made by him in 1888 on poor, heavy wheat land overlying chalk at Swanmore Park, Hants, the seat of W. H. Myers, Esq., M.P. Here the Thuyas have completely outgrown the larch, and in many cases suppressed them, and are 15 to 20 feet high, and quite healthy ; whereas where the larch were planted alone in the same place they are diseased and sickly. 1 88 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland will attain the same dimensions that it does in America, but there are many trees which are already 60 to 70 feet in height at less than fifty years from seed. By far the finest that I have seen or heard of are at Fonthill Abbey, Wilts, the residence of Lady Octavia Shaw-Stewart, which were raised in the late Duke of Westminster's gardens at Eaton Hall from seeds collected for Lord Stalbridge in i860. Here, on a bed of greensand at an elevation of 400 to 500 feet, well sheltered from wind, are growing some of the finest and best grown conifers in Great Britain. In a group of three Thuyas, the middle one measured in 1906, as nearly as I could ascertain, not less than 90 and probably 95 feet in height by 10 feet in girth, and already began to show the buttressed trunk which is so characteristic in its native country. The other two trees were not much less in size, and all were a picture of health and symmetry (Plate 57). The next tallest that we know of is a tree at Albury Park, the Surrey seat of the Duke of Northumberland. This was measured by Henry in 1904, and by myself in 1905, but owing to the way in which it is shut in by other trees it is difficult to measure accurately, and though the late Mr. Leach, the head gardener at Albury, and Dr. Henry both considered it about 90 feet high, I should not like to say that it is over 80, with a girth of 7 feet 6 inches. It is, however, a very healthy and vigorous tree, and growing fast, and the Duke's agent and gardener both hold a very high opinion of the probable value of the tree for timber, and are planting it largely on the estate. See Gard. Chron. Jan. 30, 1892, where an account is given of the trees at Albury in which Mr. Leach is quoted as saying : " If I had 1000 acres to plant with trees that would give the most remunerative return in a given time, the above would be my mainstay." Sir Charles Strickland, one of the oldest and most experienced planters in England, also has a high opinion of this tree, and is quoted as follows by Mr. A. D. Webster in an article on this tree in Trans. Scottish Arb. Soc. vol. xii. p. 343 : — " There is a hillside here (Hildenley, Yorkshire), with a thin soil upon limestone rock, which I planted two or three times over with very small success — chiefly, I believe, on account of the extreme dryness of the site. The Thuya grows there with great vigour, and I have scarcely lost one of those planted. Among the other merits of this Thuya is the ease with which it may be transplanted, owing to its having bushy, fibrous roots, instead of the long tangles which larch and many other conifers have." I saw this plantation in 1905, and though the situation is too dry for Thuya to grow to any size, it bears out Sir Charles's good opinion. He has continued to raise the tree largely from his own seed, and is planting them largely at 5 feet apart, without mixture. At Castlehill, North Devon, the seat of Earl Fortescue, there are also very fine specimens of Thuya plicata. The best is growing in a quarry in a well-sheltered place, but on dry, rocky ground. It measured in April 1905 about 74 feet high by 5 feet 1 1 inches in girth, and bids fair to become a noble tree. At Fulmodestone, Norfolk, there are two trees, planted in 1863, which measured in 1905, 67 feet by 7 feet, and 61 feet by 6 feet 8 inches, and have natural seedlings around them. Thuya 189 At Coolhurst, near Horsham, Mr. C. Scrace Dickens showed me a very fine and symmetrical tree 75I feet high by 5^ in girth, and only 8 yards in the spread of its branches. At many places in the south-west of England trees of from 65 to 70 feet are growing of which the following are the best we have measured ourselves : — Linton Park, Kent, 70 feet by 7 feet i inch in 1902 ; Dropmore, Bucks, 68 feet by 6 feet 10 inches in 1905 ; Killerton, Devonshire, 68 feet by 7 feet 10 inches in 1905 ; Bicton, Devonshire, 70 feet by 8 feet 2 inches in 1902 ; Blackmoor, Hants, 60 feet by 6 feet. In Wales a tree at Hafodunos measured 65 feet 6 inches by 9 feet 7 inches in 1904, with natural seedlings a few feet from its base on the stump of an old tree; at Welfield, near Builth, the seat of E. D. Thomas, Esq., a tree 68 feet high and 6J feet in girth was flourishing on the Llandilo slate formation ; and at Penrhyn Castle Mr. Richards showed me a well-shaped and healthy young tree about 50 feet high, one of fifty which had been transplanted when about 18 feet high, only one of which died after being moved. In Scotland Thuya plicata flourishes in the south and west, as well as in England. At Inverary Castle a tree only 25 feet high in 1892 is now over 60. At Poltalloch there are many, of which one in 1905 was 65 feet by 7 feet 2 inches. As far north as Gordon Castle it grows well, and at most of the places from which reports were sent to the Conifer conference in 1892 it is spoken of as healthy and vigorous. At Murthly, Scone, and Castle Menzies, I have seen fine trees, but have not measured any of remarkable size. At Monreith, Dumfriesshire, the seat of Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., who has a high opinion of this tree, a large number have been raised from seed and planted out, but are as yet too young to measure. At Benmore, near Dunoon in Argyllshire, the property of H. J. Younger, Esq., where there are very interesting plantations of several kinds of exotic conifers made in the winter of 1878-79, Thuya, when mixed with the common larch and Douglas fir on a steep hillside at 250 to 500 feet above sea-level, is now being suppressed by these species, which grow more vigorously. However, in one part of the plantation, near Ardbeg, at only 50 feet above sea-level and in fairly good soil, the Thuya was holding its own fairly well with the Douglas, and had attained, at twenty-four years old, 50 feet in height with clean stems varying from 25 to 38 inches in girth at 5 feet from the ground. Near Kilmun, on the same property, there is now, according to the forester, about i^ acres of Thuya, which has been planted mixed with larch. The larch has been cut out, and the whole area is now pure Thuya, with clean stems larger in size than in the other parts of the plantations where it occurs mixed with Douglas fir.^ In Ireland the best trees we know of are at Castlewellan, co. Down, 65 feet in 1903; Hamwood, co. Meath, 71 feet by 6 feet 3 inches in 1904; Churchill, co. Armagh, 68 feet by 5 feet 10 inches in 1904; Adare, co. Limerick, 71 feet by 7 feet 7 inches in 1903. ' We are indebted to Mr. Angiis Cameron, factor for the property, and to Mr. J. M. Stewart, forester, for further particulars of these plantations, for which we cannot now find space. 190 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland At Dartrey, in co. Monaghan, the Earl of Dartrey planted in 1882 a considerable area of slightly hilly ground with a mixture of larch, spruce, Douglas fir, and Thuya. In 1904, twenty-two years after planting, of the four species, all grown densely under the same conditions, the Thuya had made the most timber, the trees averaging 40 to 50 feet in height by 4^ feet in girth. The Douglas fir was slightly taller, but not so stout in the stem, averaging about 3^ feet in girth. The Earl of Dartrey speaks very highly of the timber of Thuya, which he considers to be superior to that of the best larch. At Brockley Park, Queen's Co., the residence of Mr. Wm. Young, there are trees growing on light soil on limestone, which have made 40 cubic feet of timber in 30 years, and 50 feet in 35 years. The tallest tree, 30 years old, was in 1906 64 feet high by 7 feet 9 inches at a foot from the ground, and 3^ feet girth at 24 feet up ; and its branches were 105 feet in circumference. Timber Sargent says. Garden and Forest, iv. p. 109 : " The wood is very valuable ; it is light, soft, and easily worked, and so durable in contact with the ground, or when exposed to the elements, that no one has ever known it long enough to see it decay." The great value of the cedar for shingle-making has long been known, and several instances were mentioned by reliable people in Vancouver Island of hand- made shingles, or " shakes " as they are called, remaining good 40 to 50 years on roofs without decaying in the wet climate of this island. They are now manufactured on a very large scale by machinery in all the Puget Sound mills, and exported largely to the middle and eastern states in neat bundles, and I have no doubt that, if carefully selected and laid, such shingles would be very suitable for roofing in England. Sargent says. Garden atid Forest, iv. p. 242, "that nearly 100 mills were in 1891 exclusively devoted to making Red Cedar shingles, and that the combined output of half of these operated by one company was 3,50x5,000 per diem. They are now supplanting the Pine shingle of Michigan, the Cypress shingle of the south, and the Redwood shingle of California." As a rule in the American forests, they begin to decay at the heart long before they attain their full growth, and the trunk seems to continue growing round the hollow centre for an almost indefinite time, as in the case of the yew. On drier land it keeps sound longer, and if cut when 2 to 3 feet in diameter the wood is probably at its best. It resists decay for an immense time when fallen. For inside finish the wood is excellent, though not hard enough for flooring and wainscot, or strong enough for joists. For ceiling and panelling it is most orna- mental when well cut, as I saw in the Hotel at Duncan's, Vancouver Island. Mr. Stewart has found at Benmore that it is very suitable for all estate purposes, and prefers it to larch for planking and fencing, as he finds it less liable to warp and crack. (H. J. E.) Thuy a 191 THUYA OCCIDENTALIS, Western Arbor Vit^ Thuya ocddentalis, Linnseus, Sp. PI. 1002 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2454 (1838); Sargent, Silva N. America, x. 126, t. 532 (1896), and Manual Trees N. America, ia, (1905); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxi. 213, figs. 67, 68, and 258, fig. 86 (1897); Kent, in Veitch's Man. Conif. 244 (1900). TTiuya plicata, Hort. {non Don). A tree, attaining a height of 50 to 60 feet, with a stout and buttressed trunk, some- times 6 feet in diameter. It often divides near the base into two or three stems. In England the branches, short and spreading, form a tree pyramidal in outline, which is not so dense in foliage as Thuya plicata. Bark of the trunk scaling off in thin papery rolls, but not so freely or so finely as in Thuya japonica. The branches when of no great size begin to show scaly bark. The branch systems are disposed in horizontal planes, resembling those of Thuya plicata ; but their main axes are flattened, being compressed from below upwards, while the leaves are shorter than in that species, ending in similar long points. The flat leaves on the main axes are studded with conspicuous large circular elevated glands. The smaller leaves on the ultimate branchlets vary as regards the presence or absence of glands ; the lateral pairs are shorter than and not so acutely pointed as in Thuya plicata. The foliage is dark green above, pale green and not marked with white streaks below. The male flowers, minute and globose, are composed of three decussate pairs of stamens. The female flowers are yellow. The cones become deflected when ripe, as in Thuya plicata. They are oblong, light brown, and composed of 4 to 5 pairs of scales, of which the 2nd and 3rd pairs are larger than the others, and fertile. The scales are ovate or spathulate, ending in a rounded or acute apex, with a minute external process, which is generally much less developed than is the case in Thuya plicata. The seeds, usually two on each fertile scale, are scarcely distinguishable from those of the last-named species. Seedling} — Cotyledons as in Thuya plicata. The caulicle and stem are quad- rangular. The first two true leaves are opposite, spreading, and similar to the cotyledons, though smaller. These are followed by 5 or more whorls or pseudo- whorls, each of three similar leaves, linear, acute, and sessile. The ultimate leaves are opposite, decussate, and adnate for the greater part of their length to branchlets, which are flattened from above downwards. Varieties Few trees, except Cupressus Lawsoniana, show a greater tendency to varia- tion in the seed-bed. Sargent says that if anyone will sow a quantity of seed he will be sure to find forms among the seedlings as novel and as interesting ' See Lubbock, Seedlings, ii. 548, 560 (1892). 192 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland as any now in cultivation. Many of the varieties only show their distinctive characteristics when young, and soon grow up into the normal form. Beissner gives as many as forty varieties ; but it is doubtful if all these are recognisable. Those commonly met with in cultivation in this country are enumerated below : — 1. Var. ericoides} Retinospora dubia, Carrifere, Conif. ed. 2, p. 141. A form in which the seedling foliage is fixed and preserved. It is a dwarf, compact, rounded, or somewhat pyramidal shrub, with slender branchlets, on which the leaves, heath-like in appearance, are borne in distant decussate pairs. They are spreading, linear, and soft in texture, becoming brown in winter. This shrub resembles Cupressus pisifera, var. squarrosa ; but in the latter the leaves are much whiter on both surfaces, and do not brown in winter. The latter also attains a much larger size, and often becomes a large shrub or small tree, 2. Var. Ellwangeriana. Retinospora Ellwangeriana, Carribre, Rei<. Hort. 1869, p. 349. This is a transition form, in which both kinds of foliage, seedling and adult, appear on the shrub, which may attain a considerable size. There is no regularity in the distribution of the two kinds of leaves ; but in shrubs at Kew of this variety the juvenile foliage persists on branchlets in the interior shaded parts, the external branchlets having adult foliage. It was probably this form which M'Nab^ mentions as having seen in 1866 in quantity in the nursery of Messrs. P. Lawson and Sons, who had received it from Messrs. Ellwanger and Barry of America under the name of Tom -Thumb Arbor Vitae. M'Nab states that the heath-like leaves have a slight smell of juniper, while the other foliage has the odour of ordinary Thuya occidentalis. 3. Vdx. plicata, Masters, Gard. Chron. xxi. 258, fig. 86 (1897). Thuya plicata, Parlatore, D.C. Prod. xvi. 457. A tree differing from the type in the branch-systems tending to assume the vertical plane, being curved so that the ultimate branchlets lie in different planes. The foliage is conspicuously glandular, the lateral leaves being flattened, so that they become almost like the median ones in appearance. According to Kent the foliage shows a brownish tint. This variety was long considered to be a distinct species ; but it is only a seedling of Thuya occidentalis, with which it agrees in cones and in general character of the leaves. 4. Var. Wareana. This only differs from the last in the colour of the foliage, which is a deep green without any brown tinge. It was raised by Mr. Ware of Coventry.' According to Masters* it has larger leaves than var. plicata, and corresponds very closely with native specimens of Thuya occidentalis gathered at Niagara. ' A plant of this variety growing into the mature form at Meehan's nursery, Germantown, U.S., showed that it was only a juvenile state of Thuya occidentalis. — Garden and Forest, 1893, P- 378- 2 Tram. Edin. Bot. Sac. ix. 61, fig. (1868). ' Gordon, Pinetum, ed. 2, p. 409. * Gard. Chron. xxi. 258 {1897). Thuya 193 5. Var. dumosa. A dwarf shrub, with the foliage and branchlets of var. plicata. 6. Var. pendula. A shrub with pendulous branches and branchlets. 7. Var. erecta. Branches slender and erect. In var. erecta viridis the foliage is dark green and shining on the upper surface. It originated in Messrs, Paul's nurseries at Cheshunt.^ 8. Var. Spdthi. A monstrous form, with seedling foliage on the younger branchlets, older branchlets being tetragonal, and clothed with sharp-pointed adult leaves. 9. Various forms occur with coloured foliage, as lutea, aurea, vervceneana, etc. Thuya occidentalis was probably the first American tree cultivated in Europe. Belon- describes it as occurring in a garden at Paris about the middle of the sixteenth century. It was introduced into England prior to 1597, as it is mentioned by Gerard in his 77(?r(5«// published in that year. (A. H.) Distribution, etc. According to Sargent, Thuya occidentalis frequently forms nearly impenetrable forests on swampy ground, or occupies the rocky banks of streams from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, north-westward to Cedar Lake at the mouth of the Saskatchewan, and southward through the northern * states to southern New Hampshire, central Massachusetts and New York, northern Pennsylvania, central Michigan, northern Illinois, and central Minnesota, and along the high Alleghany mountains to southern Virginia and north-eastern Tennessee ; very common in the north, less abundant and of smaller size southward ; on the southern Alleghany mountains only at high elevations. Mr. James M. Macoun says of this tree in his excellent pamphlet. The Forest Wealth of Canada (Ottawa, 1904), that the white cedar, as it is there usually called — though in New England this name is always given to Cupressus thyoides — is very rare in Nova Scotia, but abundant throughout New Brunswick and Ontario. It grows to a considerable height, but seldom exceeds 2 feet in diameter. The wood is soft and not strong, and has never been much used for timber, but is unexcelled for shingles. It is chiefly used for fence rails and posts, railway ties, and telegraph posts. No other wood is used in any quantity for telegraph poles in Ontario and Quebec. It is very durable in contact with the soil or when exposed to the weather. I saw the tree abundantly in wet swamps and also on dry ground near Ottawa, where, in Rockcliff Park, good though not large trees of it may be seen, the best having all been cut out for telegraph poles. On dry, rocky ground the tree grows freely from the stool, and in wet places in the woods reproduces abundantly from seed, which was ripe at the end of September, and, as usual in the forests of Canada, germinates and grows best when it falls on a rotten log. ' Card. Chron. xiv. 213 (1880). ^ Belon, De ArboHbus Coni/eris, p. 13 (1553). I 2C 194 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Remarkable Trees Thuya occidentalis never attains to a considerable size when planted in this country. There is a specimen at White Knights, near Reading, of great age, which is now dying at the top. According to the gardener there it has not made any growth for the last thirty-five years. It measured in 1904, 41 feet in height by 4 feet in girth. At Stratton Strawless, Norfolk, there is also a specimen of considerable age, remarkable for the pendulous habit of the branches, which is 35 feet in height. There are more large specimens at Belton Park than at any other place I know in England, the largest I have measured being 41 feet by 3 feet 9 inches. Henry, however, in 1904 measured one at Arley Castle as tall, which divides into three stems near the ground, where it measures 7 feet 6 inches in girth. At Auchendrane, Ayrshire, Renwick measured a tree in 1902 — which, according to a specimen procured by him in 1906, was Thuya occidentalis — as 42 feet high by 6 feet 8 inches in girth, with a bole of 12 feet. It seems to be one of the best conifers for making shelter hedges in gardens, as it stands clipping well, and for this purpose may be relied on to attain 1 5 to 20 feet in height in any fair soil. As it grows slowly at first when raised from seed, it is usually propagated by cuttings. (H. J. E.) Thuy a 195 THUYA JAPONICA, Japanese Thuya Thuya japonka, Maximowicz, MH. Biol. i. 26 (1866) ; Masters, /<7«r. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xviii. 486 (1881), and Gard. Chron. xxi. 258, fig. 87 (1897); Revue Horiicole, 1896, p. i6o; Kent, in Veitch's Man. Conifera, 244 (1900); Shirasawa, Icon, des Essences forestiires du Japan, 28, t. xi. 18-34 (1900). Thuya Siandishii, Carrifere, Traite Gen. Conif. 108 (1867). Thuya gigantea, vat. japonica, Franchet et Savatier, Enum. PI. Jap. i. 469 (1875). Thujopsis Standishii, Gordon, Pin. Suppl. 100 (1862). A tree attaining, according to Shirasawa, a height of 90 feet in Japan, with a tapering stem, open in habit as cultivated in England, and not forming such a dense pyramid as Thuya plicata. Bark of the trunk scaling off in very narrow longitudinal papery strips. The bark commences to scale on young branches of less than a half inch in diameter. The branches curve upwards towards their extremities. The branch-systems, 3-4 pinnate, are disposed in horizontal planes, which droop at their outer extremities. Primary axes terete, with leaves densely crowded, all the four sets ending in short, rigid, thick, free points, glands being absent. The leaves on the ultimate branchlets are obtuse, and not acutely pointed as in Thuya plicata ; and glands may be present or absent on the flat leaves. The foliage is light green above, while on the under surface there are whitish streaks, somewhat triangular in outline, which exceed in area the greener parts. Male flowers cylindrical, with 6 decussate pairs of stamens. The cones are deflected, ovoid, and composed of 5 to 6 pairs of scales, of which the second and third pairs are larger than the others and fertile. The scales are broadly oval, with a rounded apex, from below which externally is given off a short, broad, triangular process, projecting from the scale at right angles or nearly so. The seeds, three to each fertile scale, and nearly equal to it in length, differ considerably from those of Thuya plicata and Thuya occidentalis, the wing being narrow, not so scarious in texture, entire, and not notched at the summit. Fortune discovered Thuya japonica in cultivation around Tokyo in 1 860, and sent home seeds of it to the nursery of Mr. Standish at Ascot, who distributed plants under the name of Thujopsis Standishii. Maximowicz, who had also seen it cultivated at Tokyo, gave the species its first authoritative name in 1861. Maries found it growing wild on the mountains of Nikko, in central Japan, in 1877. Sargent,' who, in company with James H. Veitch, met with a few solitary specimens on the shores of Lake Yumoto in these mountains, at 4000 feet altitude, describes it as a small pyramidal tree of 20 to 30 feet high, of open and graceful habit, with pale green foliage and bright red bark. Shirasawa, however, states that it attains a height of 90 feet, with a diameter of stem of nearly 6 feet ; and that it grows in the central chain of Hondo, in the mountains of Kaga, Hida, and Shinano, at elevations of 2000 to 6600 feet. The stem, according to Shirasawa, is often twisted, and gives off great wide-spreading branches. (A. H.) ' Garden and Ftrest, 1893, p. 442, and 1897, p. 441. 196 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland According to Komaror, Flora ManshuricB, i. 206(1901), Thuya japonica gravis wild abundantly in northern Corea in the Samsu district, but was not observed by him in Manchuria or elsewhere on the mainland. This tree is not, so far as I saw, as common in Japan, where it is called Nezuko, as Cupressus obtusa or C. pisifera, though it is said by Goto' to be found in the provinces of Yamato, Bungo, Satsuma, Omi, Iwashiro, Shimotsuke, and Uzen, at an elevation of from about 3000 to 6000 feet. The only place where I saw it wild was at Yumoto, above Nikko, where it was scattered in mixed forest with Tsuga, Thujopsis, birches, and other deciduous trees, and it is said to be never found in unmixed woods. At Koyasan I found small trees of it, perhaps planted, and brought away a seedling, which is now living at Colesborne. At Atera, in the Kisogawa district, the forester told me that it grows best as a young tree in shade, and that where Cupressus obtusa has been felled it often comes up from seed. It does not attain very large dimensions, so far as I could learn, and is not considered a tree of much economic importance. The timber is light and used for carpentry. It sometimes has a very pretty figure, and in old trees is of a pale grey colour, though perhaps this is only assumed by trees which were dead before cutting. It is cut into thin boards, and used for ceilings and other inside work, and is said to cost about 2d. per square foot in the board at Tokyo, and to make very durable shingles. In Great Britain the tree seems to grow slowly, and is not common in gardens. The largest I have seen is a grafted and very spreading tree in Mr. W. H. Grififiths' garden at Campden, Gloucestershire, which is about 25 feet by 2\ feet, and probably one of the oldest in England. It has produced fertile seeds from which plants have been raised. The largest recorded at the Conifer Conference was at Dalkeith Palace, where it was 15 feet high in 189 1. A tree at Kilmacurragh, co. Wicklow, Ireland, was 24 feet by 2 feet 4 inches in 1906, and bears fruit. Another at Castlewellan measured 25 feet high in the same year. (H. J. E.) ' Forestry of Japan (\uAon, Arb. et T^rw/. 5n/. iv. 2459 (1838) ; Masters, /i3«r. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xviii. 488; Kent, in Veitch's Man. Cottifem, 248 (1900). "^Siota orientalis, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 47 (1847). A tree or dense shrub, with the trunk often branching into several stems from near the base. Bark of trunk thin, reddish brown, and separating in longitudinal papery scales. The bark begins to scale on branches which are about a half inch in thickness. The branches are ascending, becoming tortuose at their extremities, and giving off more or less equal -sided branch -systems, which are disposed in vertical planes, with their inner edge directed towards the stem of the tree. These are finer and more closely ramified than in the preceding species. Their main axes are terete ; bearing median leaves, marked by a glandular longitudinal depression, and ending in triangular free points (not appressed to the axis) ; and lateral leaves, ending in similar but longer free points, which are thickened at the part where they become free and reflected away from the axis. The leaves on the ultimate branchlets are closely imbricated, appressed to the stem, and marked with longitudinal de- pressions. The male flowers are globose and composed of 4 decussate pairs of stamens. The cones ^ are erect and ovoid, fleshy and bluish before ripening, but ultimately becoming dry and woody, the scales gaping widely. Scales, usually 3 pairs (occasionally a fourth pair, sterile and much reduced, appears at the base), the two lowest fertile, the uppermost pair aborted and sterile : ovate, obtuse, thick, and ligneous, bearing externally below the apex a hooked process. The seeds, 2 on each scale, are large, ovoid, without wings, brown in colour, with a white, large, oblong hilum. The seedling^ resembles that of the other species of Thuya, except that the cotyledons are much larger, about an inch in length. Varieties A great number of varieties of this species have been obtained. The most remarkable of these are : — I. V 2ir. pendula, Masters, yi3«r. R. Hort. Soc. xiv. 252. Thuya pendula, Lambert, Genus Pinus, ed. 2, ii. 115 t. 52; Siebold et Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. ii. 30 t. 117. Thuya filiformis, Lindley, Bot. Reg. xxviii. t. 20 (1842). Biota pendula, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 49. Cupressus pendula, Thunberg, Fl. Jap. 265. ' The cones ripen in one year, but frequently in England retain their seed till the spring of the following year. 2 Tubeuf, Samcn, Friichte, u. Keimlinge, 1 04, fig. 144 (1891). 198 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland A shrub, with a straight trunk, bare of branches below. The branchlets, numerous, long, flexile, cord - like, unbranched or only slightly branched, are produced in irregular fascicles of 5 to 20 or more at irregular intervals along the branches. They are slender and pendent, and bear leaves distantly placed in 4 rows in decussate pairs. The leaves, broadly decurrent at the base and long acuminate at the apex, spread out from the branchlets at an acute angle. Cones are occasionally borne, which are like those of the type.^ There is a specimen at Kew of a plant raised from seed of this variety, which is ordinary Thuya orientalis. It was sent from the Botanic Garden at Turin by Mr. Hanbury in i860. There are several forms of this variety, differing in habit and length of leaves ; in one the branchlets are tetragonal. This shrub was first observed by Thunberg in Japan, and specimens were collected near Yokohama by Maximowicz. It was also met with by Fortune in China, and has been raised in Europe. 2. Var. de cuss at a. Retinospora Juniperoides, Carrifere, Conif. ed. 2, p. 140. A low shrub, with erect stems and branches, bearing foliage like that of the seedling. The leaves are in 4 rows in decussate pairs, spreading, and resembling those of a juniper, except that the points are not prickly. They are greyish green in summer, changing to brown in winter. 3. Var. Meldensis. Biota Meldensis, Lawson, in Gordon, Pinetum, 37. A small tree with ascending flexible branches. It is a transition form, bearing acute acicular spreading leaves like that of the seedling, and occasionally leaves of the adult character. The leaves are bluish green, changing to brown in the winter. This plant was raised from seeds of Thuya orientalis gathered in the cemetery of Trilbardoux near Meaux in France ; and for a long time was supposed to be a cross between Thuya orientalis znd Juniperus virginiana. 4. Var. intermedia. Biota orientalis intermedia, Carrifere, Man. des PL iv. 322. This is also a transition form. It is a shrub with elongated pendent branchlets, the ramifications of which arise from all sides of the axis, not remaining in one plane. There are two kinds of leaves, those towards the ends of the branchlets resembling the adult foliage of Thuya orientalis, while those on older parts are spreading, arranged in decussate pairs, oval-lanceolate, decurrent at the base, and acute at the apex. In Var. funiculata, if it is in reality distinguishable, there appears to be a larger proportion of adult foliage. Many other varieties have been described : some of peculiar habit, as gracilis and pyramidalis, which are fastigiate ; others with coloured or variegated foliage, as aurea, argenteo - variegata, aureo - variegata. Var. ericoides of this species closely ' At Barton, a shrub of this variety produced cones, which had very long hooked processes on the scales (Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 153). Thuya 199 resembles the variety of the same name belonging to Thuya occidentalis ; the latter is slightly whiter on both surfaces of the leaves. Distribution, etc. Thuya orientalis occurs wild in the mountains of north China. It is common in tKt hills west of Pekin, where Fortune ' observed trees of a large size, 50 or 60 feet in height. Elsewhere in China it is only met with planted in cemeteries and temple grounds. It has been known to the Chinese from the earliest times as the Poh or Peh tree, and is mentioned in their classical books ; it was planted around the graves of feudal princes, and its wood was used for making the coffins of great officials. The tree was introduced into Japan from China at an early period, probably like so many other Chinese plants, by the Buddhist missionaries. Japanese botanists are all agreed that it is not indigenous in Japan. Various other regions have been mentioned as being the home of Thuya orientalis, as Siberia, Turkestan, Himalayas, etc. ; but specimens collected in these countries are undoubtedly from cultivated trees. The tree is mentioned by Gmelin in his Flora Siberica, i, 182 (1747); but only as occurring between Kiachta and Peking. Ledebour ^ denies its existence in any part of Siberia. Thuya orientalis was first grown in Europe at Leyden, some time before 1737, when Linnaeus^ described the plant as Thuya strobilis uncinatis squamis reflexa acuminatis. Royen, who sent a specimen to Linnaeus, mentions th'e species with considerable details in his account * of the plants that were cultivated at that time in the Botanic Garden at Leyden ; but his promised account of the history of its introduction apparently never was published. It is possible that it was raised from seed sent home by the Dutch from Japan, as Kaempfer, who travelled in that country from 1690 to 1692, collected specimens of Thuya orientalis which are still preserved in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington.'^ Seeds were also soon afterwards sent to Paris by the missionaries in north China.® The earliest account of it in England occurs in a letter dated February i, 1743, from the Duke of Richmond to Collinson, as follows : — " I am sorry to find by Miller that I am not likely to have the Chinese Thuya. I own, if it belonged to anybody that would sell it, I should be foolish enough to offer ten guineas for it, because it is the only one in England that can match that which I have already." It was cultivated early by Miller' in the Physic Garden at Chelsea. Thuya orientalis never attains in this country any considerable dimensions. It ripens good seed ; and at Kew, on a wall near the Director's office, may be seen a ' Yedo and Peking, 307, 382 (1863). Fortune supposed that the wild tree in north China was distinct from that cultivated near Shanghai ; but there is no doubt that the trees, which attain a great size in the hills west of Peking, are ordinary Thuya orientalis. 2 Comment, in Gmelini Fl. Sibericam, 60 (184 1). ' Hort. Cliff. 449 ( 1737)- * Flora Leydensis Prodromus, 87 (1740). * I have seen these specimens. See Salisbury, Coniferous Plants of Kaempfer, m/our. Science and Arts, ii. 313 (1817). Kaempfer does not mention the plant in his Amcenitates Exotica. " See Miller, Card. Did. ed. 6 (1752), and ed. 8 (1768), sub "Thuya." ' Cf. Alton, Hort. Kew. iii. 371 (1789). 200 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland young tree which originated from a seed probably carried there by a bird from a tree | in the gardens. In the garden at Hampton Court, Herefordshire, there are a pair of fine ^ specimens about 40 feet high, and about 7 feet round at the base, where they divide into several stems which have been formed into an arch over the path, and in most old gardens trees of 25 to 35 feet may be found, but, like T.japonica and T. occidentalis, it must be looked on as an ornamental shrub rather than a timber tree. (A. H.) Printed ly R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh. r } LIBRARY FACULTY OF F0RI5IW UWVERSITY OF TOROffPO £>V£ajS,L£.: JlcL^^ /li. QK E5 1906 v.l Elwes, Henry John The trees of Great an tain & Ireland CcuU.,:,^^ "W f«»«*3r PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY