March 24, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



359 



Coniferous Trees and Shrubs in England and Scotland 



While in England and Scotland last summer I visited 

 many fine gardens noted for coniferous treed and 

 shrubs. We have a grand collection of these at Welles- 

 ley, and my object was to compare specimens. I had 

 with me a list of what we have, their height, spread 

 and girth, so that I was in a good position to judge. 

 Conifers, as a rule, do poorly near cities, still I was not 

 prepared for the disappointment I met at Kew. It 

 was only among yews, and their allies, the torreyas, and 

 allied South American coniferse, and pines that I 

 found presentable specimens. Nowhere near London 

 did I see anything striking. One has to get about 

 twenty miles out. On the Lincolnshire wolds, at Sir 

 Barclay Sheffield's place, I saw the finest specimen of 

 Thuya gigantia anywhere. It was very regular in 

 outline, pyramidal, and nearly sixty feet high. There 

 was also a very ordinary specimen of our common 

 white pine. Whether it is scarce in Britain I do not 

 know, only I did not happen to see any good ones. Our 

 white pine is, in my opinion, the handsomest of all 

 northern pines. 



Through the kindness of Messrs. Veitch I had intro- 

 ductions to the superintendents of some of the finest 

 estates in Scotland. I took in the old city of York 

 on my way, and the famous Backhouse nurseries. I 

 had visited the nurseries some twenty-five years before, 

 but since then the city of York has, like the rest of 

 England, become a manufacturing centre, and so spread 

 out as to almost take in the old nursery. The bad 

 effects of soot were everywhere visible. Messrs. Back- 

 house are moving farther into the country. I took 

 some notes, and may refer to it later. 



I visited Hassledon Hall, in the vicinity of York, 

 famous for its Italian garden, which is made up, almost 

 wholly of clipped English yews. It had a massive and 

 imposing effect, and this is all I can say about it. I 

 arrived in Edinboro in time to see the great summer 

 exhibition. It was the finest show I have ever seen 

 anywhere. The indoor and outdoor fruit entries were 

 especially well filled. I took copious notes and may at 

 another time refer to them. 



I went to Dalkeith Palace next, but did not see any- 

 thing in my line very striking. There was a fine lot of 

 fruit houses, and an excellent vegetable garden, clean 

 and well kept. I was introduced to a poor specimen of 

 Torreya nucifera, which was expected to stick me, as 

 it was not labelled. It is said to be tender. We have 

 fine healthy specimens of it at Wellesley. 



Oxenford Castle was next visited. I shall always 

 remember it with pleasure, as here I received the kind- 

 est treatment from both Mr. and Mrs. Smith, gardener 

 and his wife — an unusual experience in my travels; 

 with this exception, I cannot say much for the hospi- 

 tality of the craft. The collection of evergreens was 

 small, and evidently not specially cared for, with the 

 exception of a few specimens of Cupressus Lawsoniana, 

 Libocedrus decurrens, and Thuyopsis borealis, which 



Abies Nordmanniana. 



were given a chance to show their beauty. For the 

 rest, they might grow together, and spoil each other or 

 be backed by deciduous trees, and so become one-sided. 

 I would not mind this — this grouping for effect — if 

 in some part of the grounds, specimens had been given a 

 chance to develop their full beauty. 



I went to Perth and to Scone Palace, noted as being 

 the place where David Douglas served his apprentice- 

 ship, and there are two magnificent specimens of the 

 Douglas spruce which he planted. Scone was the only 

 place I visited that gave special attention to specimen 

 coniferae. I did not think, however, the plan adopted 

 here a satisfactory one; it was anything but effective. 

 A flat square two to three acres in extent was given up 

 to specimens, massed in on three sides by forest trees, 

 and on the other the greenhouses and vegetable garden. 

 They were planted in lines, just as if they wished to 

 have them convenient, and handy to look at as indi- 

 viduals. There were fine specimens of Picea Sitchen- 

 sis, Abies Nordmanniana P. excelsa, Abies Cephalonica, 

 Pseudotsuga Douglasii, Abies pectinata, A. grahdis, 

 A. nobilis, Thuyopsis borealis, Cupressus macrocarpa, 

 Tsuga Albertiana, Thuja gigantea, Pinus monticola 

 and Abies Pinsapo. Our American concolor firs, Col- 

 orado Blue spruce and nearly all the Japan firs and 

 spruces did very poorly. After seeing such fine speci- 



