FOR PLANTING IN SCOTLAND. 61 



and considerable hardness. As to its durability there has as yet 

 been no experience of its use for a sufficiently long period to ex- 

 press any opinion. In some places in the southern districts of 

 England, as Kent, vSussex, Hants, Devon, &c., there appears to 

 be some confusion in regard to the Pinus insif/nis. It seems to 

 have been given out to the planters in several localities in these 

 counties as F. radiata, which it verv closelv resembles. Pinus 

 radiata is decidedly more hardy than Pinus insignis, and 

 perhaps some instances in which the P. insignis has been unex- 

 pectedly — owing to site, exposure, soil, &c. — reported to be per- 

 fectly hardy may be accounted for by the fact that the specimens 

 quoted are not Pinus insignis at all, but Pinus radiata, its close 

 congener ! At Eedleaf, Penshurst, near Tunbridge, where there 

 were a number of fine specimens of Pinus insignis some years 

 ago, only one good example now remains. The others either 

 perished in the severe winter of 1860-61 or were very much 

 injured. Two fine plants, successfully removed from a distance 

 of ten miles some years ago, and which were developing into 

 grand specimens, were killed in the severe winter of 1879 down 

 to the ground. jS'o more will be introduced there. The sur- 

 viving tree is 66 feet in height, and at 3 feet from the ground 

 the bole is 10 feet in circumference. The soil is a stiff yellow 

 clay to a considerable depth, with ri])s of sand and iron inter- 

 secting it, and the subsoil at 15 feet deep is a hard rock. This 

 tree is very healthy, and cones profusely; it throws out very 

 long side branches, which are apt to get broken in heavy snow- 

 storms. The bark is wonderfully roughened, presenting the 

 appearance of large plate-like scales, with wide fissures inter- 

 vening. So rugged and open are these fissures that a full-sized 

 hand may be inserted sideways into the clefts. 



At Bicton, in Devonshire, where there are many fine specimens 

 of Conifer?e of recent introduction, we find one of the larsrest, 

 Pinu^ insignis, now 70 feet in height, girtliing lo feet 6 inches 

 at 3 feet above the ground, with a spread of branches measuring 

 78 feet in diameter. The soil is a sandy loam, and subsoil red 

 sandy rock. In this lr»cality the P. insignis has not suffered in 

 the least during the last two severe winters. The specimen of 

 which we have been able to give the dimensions is about forty- 

 five years of age; and in 1861 it mea.sured fully 50 feet in 

 height ; so that, even after attaining to so considerable an altitude, 

 it has grown, and is continuing to grow, at the rate of a foot ])er 

 annum. Once fairly acclimatised in any locality under ordinarily 

 favourable circumstances, the Pinus insignis appears to acquire 

 greater hardiness with age. 



Other fine specimens, growing as ornamental trees, in various 

 parts of the more southern and central districts of England 

 might be referred to, such as at Longleat (Wilts), at altitudes 



