FOR TIMBER PURPOSES. 21 



Q 



Avliicli the Wellingtonia rarely experiences in our climate; and the 

 effects of the weather in severe seasons are in this country 

 apparent upon the Taxodium, long after they have been thrown 

 off' and have disappeared from the Wellington ia, planted in the 

 same situations. iSTotwithstanding, however, this inaptitude for 

 throwing off quickly the effects of the frosty winds of March 

 and April in our latitude, the Taxodium, if left to itself, ulti- 

 mately recovers, and time may, by and bye, further inure the 

 constitution of the tree to these vicissitudes of spring. jMean- 

 time there can be no doubt that this susceptibility of injury has 

 greatly deterred the extensive introduction of the Taxodium into 

 Britain, and has materially prevented planters from using it in 

 quantity, either as a nurse, or as a forest tree for future profit. 

 This is, however, to be considered as matter of regret ; for not- 

 withstanding the liability to suft^er from spring winds in this 

 country, the Taxodium semj^rvirems is so tenacious of life, that 

 in several instances, where it has been recorded, during the 

 severity of such winters as 1860-61, or 1867, as having been 

 killed back to the very stem, it has always recovered ; and its 

 peculiar facility of sending out young branchlets from the main 

 stem, and from the back of the larger branches, enables the tree 

 to recover its lost ground in a short time. The thick, spongy 

 nature of its bark is of much use to the plant in such a case, by 

 protecting the alburnum and young wood from the intensity of 

 the cold, and so fostering the habit of forming and pushing forth 

 young branch-sprouts, when the exigencies of nature require 

 them, from the trunk or necks of the branches, for which this 

 conifer is so remarkable. Instances of the hardihood of the 

 Taxodium scmjycrvirens in this country, and of its capability to 

 withstand extreme temperatures and severe seasons, are numer- 

 ous. Thus, for example, in the memorable winter's frost of 

 1860-61, at Belstane, 900 feet above sea-level, and with the 

 thermometer indicating 28° of frost, some of the specimens were 

 slightly injured, while others growing there, but in a more 

 northerly exposure, were unscathed ; and in this locality all the 

 Wellingtonias were more or less severely affected. On the other 

 hand, at Twizell, where exposed to the sun and wind during tlie 

 same season, with the thermometer registering 8°, the plants were 

 a good deal injured, while the AVellingtonia escaped ; and in the 

 Bangholm Nurseries, near Edinburgh, wliere the most intense 

 frost of thnt winter v/as 0°, the Taxodium f^cmpcrvircns were 

 very slightly injured, and the plants of Wellingtonia entirely 

 escaped. The soil is well drained, and the ])lants in both in- 

 stances were fully exposed, and planted within half a mile of 

 the sea. The probable cause of the greater innuunity enjoyed 

 by the AVi'llingtonia, may have been the greater quantity of 

 snow retained as a covering on their young shoots, arising from 

 their denser foliage presenting a better surface to catch and hold 



