80 



THE JOURNAL <>F BOTANY 



it certainly contains all thai anyone is likely to wanl to know aboul 

 thern, and is a valuable contribution to London history, rendered 

 additionally so by the numerous excellent illustrations, all of London- 

 grown trees. 



An introductory chapter — in the course of which the "barbarous 

 and unscientific" way in which trees arc pruned or lopped is severely 

 criticized— contains interesting references to the influence of trees on 

 place-nomenclature: Gospel Oak, for example, and Seven Sisters 

 ftoad- named after a group of seven elm trees, 300 years old, thai 

 weir removed in L852 when they were replaced by others that stood 

 till quite recently: "the quantity of trees of that name that grow in 

 the marshy grounds of the East End was the origin of Poplar." The 

 present writer remembers when a part of the Fulham Road, at the top 

 of Church Street, not far from the Consumption Hospital, was known 

 as "Queen's Elm," from a tradition, which finds support in the 

 Chelsea parish books of the period, that Elizabeth took shelter there 

 under an elm tree growing at that spot; not very far from it was 

 Walnut-tree Walk, a name which, as Mr. Webster says, still exists 

 in Lambeth. 



The main portion of the volume follows, the trees being arranged 

 in alphabetical order under their English names. There is no attempt 

 at botanical description, the trees for the most part being familiar to 

 all, but the localities where specially tine examples may he seen are 

 indicated, and a great deal of interesting information is given. Thus 

 we learn of a Gatalpa in the gardens of Gray's Inn which bears a 

 tablet inscribed : " Said to have been planted by Francis Bacon when 

 Master of the Walks, 1597": it is curious that this tradition should 

 have obtained credence, seeing that, as Mr. Webster points out, the 

 tree is understood to have been introduced to English gai'dens by 

 Catesby about 172S. One would not expect to find a Cotoneaster in 

 a list of trees, hut "in some of the royal parks C.frigida has attained 

 to a height of do feet, and is therefore well ahead of the 20-fool 

 range which differentiates a shrub and a tree"; Tamarisk also, in 

 Battersea Park, becomes a tree over 20 feet high, with a girth of 

 of more than 2 feet. There is much historical information about 

 special mulberry trees: "tradition and a label attached point to one 

 of the old shattered trees at Charlton Park. Blackheath, as the first 

 mulberry brought to England"; this tradition, Mr. Webster thinks, 

 rests on what "appear to be substantial grounds," but lie disallows 

 the claim of one to have been planted by James I. in 1600, though 

 that monarch formed mulberry gardens both in St. James's and 

 Greenwich Parks. The mulberry under which Keats wrote the "Ode 

 to the Nightingale" still exists in the garden of his bouse at Hamp- 

 stead. The "London Plane" as it is called (Platanus acerifolia) 

 is regarded by Mr. Webster as a variety of 1'. orientalis; hut Prof. 

 Henry in his interesting memoir on the tree, noticed in this Journal 

 for 1919 (p 295) regards it, in opposition to his earlier view, as a 

 hybrid between P. orientals and P. occidentalis. It is said that 

 a tree which adds so greatly to the beauty of London should possess a 

 "pernicious character," hut V.r. Webster summarizes and endorses (he 

 evidence which regards "the minute spicules of the fruit" as 

 responsible in many cases for throat troubles. 



