302 THE SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURISTS [Sept. 



cause appear only to have increased with the waning session. The 

 Mayor of Carlisle spoke for the city. The town-clerk and several 

 local civic and clerical dignitaries were also present. The soil and 

 situation of the nursery, which extends to 150 acres, appears 

 specially suited for the rearing of healthy plants ; in two instances 

 inspected nine months' plants raised from seed looked better than 

 transplants from elsewhere of two years old. Amongst other 

 vigorous plants in the borders were noted those of Abies Alcoquiana, 

 A. Hookcviana, Larix Koempferi, Picea Veitchii, P. concolor, 

 Pinus Jcffrcyi, P. montana, P. monophylla, P. Balfouriana , P. Pyren- 

 aica, P. larix, P. sylvestris, pyramidalis, new var. The thousands of 

 rose blooms in this establishment founded by two Scotchmen more 

 than seventy years ago, alone reminded Edinburgh visitors that 

 they, though looking northwards, were treading English soil. 



The London and North-Western Eailway crosses by a high viaduct 

 near the Penrith entrance to Lowther Castle, the ancient seat of the 

 Lonsdale family ; so the passing traveller can gain no idea of this 

 graceful Gothic pile. The valley we drove through for several 

 miles, has a thick covering of alluvium resting on the flat Poiholitic 

 sandstones w^hich overlie here the upright silurian strata visible in 

 the neighbouring peaks and fells ; and thus it has come to pass that 

 the savagely picturesque mountains of the Lake country encircle a 

 district of surpassingly equable tree growth, whether as regards 

 diameter of stem or height of trunk. Over the park, thick beds of 

 loamy clay or sand took the place of the stony gravels and boulders 

 found in the upper reaches of the Liddell ; though the bed of the 

 Lowther itself showed palpable signs of the gravels it brings down 

 in its rapid descent from the lofty Shap Eell ; so in this park, instead 

 of fantastically bifurcating trunks and branches, magnificent oak 

 trunks were prominent in the landscape. A pollarded oak, which 

 girthed 15 feet 9 inches, was valued by a Midlothian forester at 

 about £40. He had lately sold a somewhat better trunk to an 

 Edinburgh firm for £80. A neighbouring oak measured 18 feet 

 1 inch in circumference at 4 feet ; its height was estimated at 100 

 feet. Two old trunks with decayed shells testified to wood growth 

 for beauty, and not money value ; one was 3 5 feet in circumference 

 at its base, and 2 2 feet 7 inches at 4 feet from the ground ; while 

 the other gave corresponding measurements of 37 feet 6 inches, 

 and 23 feet 2 inches. So, too, were parallel measurements made of 

 "reat beeches, Scots firs, and other conifers studdino- the holms and 

 heights along the windings of the river. The Lowther Park 

 representatives of " Adam " and " Eve " are two Ashes covered with 

 green leaves, though one has been damaged by fire, and the interior 

 of the other is but touchwood. On the shoulders of " Adam's " 



