On the Acclimatisation of Foreign Timber 

 Trees, and the Introduction of Foreign Woods. 



By JOHN R. JACKSON, A.L.S., 

 Curator of the Museums, Royal Gardens, Kew. 



While the introduction and acclimatisation of useful plants into 

 India and the colonies has occupied, and is still occupying, consider- 

 able attention, not only amongst practical but also amongst scientific 

 men, it is a fact that but little is really done towards introducing, or 

 rather prosecuting, the cultivation of new products in this country. 

 Occasionally we hear of a new fibrous plant, a new vegetable, or a 

 new fruit, but after the first outburst of glorification awarded to it, 

 not only the product but the plant itself often disappears, to be heard 

 of again, perhaps, in another decade. It is true that many of the 

 introductions of past years have been natives of tropical, or at least of 

 warmer countries than our own, and as such stand but a poor chance 

 for general cultivation here. The south and west of England and 

 the sister country, Ireland, have mostly been advocated as suitable for 

 extensive experiment in this way, but British crops, whether of field 

 or forest, remain pretty much the same as they were at the beginning of 

 the century. With regard to forest produce, which is the point upon 

 which we are more particularly interested, we cannot refer to any 

 recent startling introduction of great economic value. 



Without professing to know anything of practical forestry, it seems 

 to us that the introduction and cultivation of useful and ornamental 

 trees are points that do not receive sufficient attention. We may 

 glory in our " brave old oaks," our noble elms, Scotch firs, larches, and 

 other well known British trees, and we should by all means persist- 

 ently plant them, that England's forests may continue to be in future 

 generations what they have been in the past ; but for the sake of 

 variety, for picturesque effect, as well as with a view of providing 

 a home supply of some of the fine foreign timber we occasionally see 

 in special collections, it is desirable that trees of other climes should 

 be more extensively planted in this country than they are. A great deal 

 of attention is at the present time paid to purely ornamental plants, 

 shrubs, and trees, for the embellishment of the lawn or shrubbery, and 

 if we think for a moment of the arboreous riches of the great continents 



