1883.] NOTES ON TREES. 135 



circumference at 5 ft. from the ground, and 22 ft. in height to the 

 first fork. Other reporters, following in Arthur Young's footsteps, have 

 admired the timber of Petworth ; and one of them, a writer in the 

 (rardeners Chronicle, October 10, 1878, told the story of the 

 Cecil Oak, standing in the park there, near the kennel. 



The difference between maxima and average results is always 

 very great. In the above examples, a single tree attained 120 cubic 

 feet of timber at 68 years old, and the Itchingfield Oaks attained an 

 average of 30 cubic feet at 76 years old. 



The Oaks in ]Mr. Selby's plantations, vide British Forest Trees, 

 reached at 28 years growth, 2 ft. 4 in. girth, in many cases, at 18 in. 

 Irom the ground, and 3 ft. girth in some instances. The Oak, once, 

 fairly established in favourable soils and situations, increases, accord- 

 ing to Selby, from 1 in. to If in. in circumference, annually, for 

 nearly the first century of its growth, and frequently contains a ton 

 of timber at 70 years old. The Scone Oak has not reached quite 

 1^- in. of annual growth, so that Mr. Selby's maximum exceeds 

 mine so far as mere girth is concerned, but the Scone tree "will still 

 be hard to beat in point of size on account of its great height. As 

 the diameter of a tree increases, the annual increase of circumference 

 gives a larger square of timl)er, and an inch a year, after about 90 or 

 100 years, is au unusual growth for an Oak to accomplish. But an 

 inch a year np to 80 or 100 years may probably be attained on any 

 Oak-growing soil. "What beautiful clumps and plantations of this 

 noble tree might quickly be obtained by any planter who chose to 

 combine ornament with utility ! I do not now propose to consider the 

 subject of Oak timber from an economic point of view, though the 

 data I have given may be applied either to its financial or ornamental 

 aspect. 



The Elm. — One of the sites most easily improved, so far as orna- 

 ment is concerned, by arboriculture is a flat coast bare of timber- 

 In travelling through several villages on the South coast lately, the 

 sea lay on the right, at a mile, or less, according to the winding of 

 the road, and, throughout the day, the bright and sparkling wacerwas 

 always in full view, looking its very best and bluest. Still I could 

 not help observing, notwithstanding the fine weather and the pleasing 

 character of the road, that Nature just there needed foliage to relieve 

 her bareness. Beauty should be clothed. The picture of Phryne at 

 the Academy a few years since was very beautiful, but this same 

 figure artfully adorned would have proved as much more attractive to 

 the eye of taste as a planted coast is superior to a naked one. 



At the close of my journey I reached a village full of shrubs and 

 timber, with an old-fashioned inn by the roadside, just half a mile 

 from the sea. There are lod^e ^ates in the centre of the village, and 



