330 



JOTJENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 30, 1866. 



couple of yards high. The gardener tells me that this is an 

 American importation. Round below is a dwarfish red plant, 

 ■which is cultivated as a border. Each will live out the winter. 

 In another bed you find such plants as we used formerly to see 

 only in a conservatory — some of the Fern class. Then I am 

 told that this long, drooping, graceful leaf is the Beaucarnea 

 tuberculata, and this the Sempervirens something. But I 

 think I had better not attempt the names, or I shall be sure to 

 get into trouble, being profoundly ignorant of botany. It 

 comes to this : the gardener has planted a number of showy 

 broad-leafed plants of varied colour, which are very effective, 

 and are to last all the winter. Particular care has been taken 

 with the beds in the Champs Elys6es, and the short, thick, 

 bright grass which surrounds them is perfect. The public 

 are so well educated that no protection in the way of railing is 

 at all necessary. It is not only round the lake of the Bois and 

 the Champs Elysees that these horticultural triumphs appear ; 

 but iu the many public gardens all over the city of new and 

 imperial Paris, you meet a novel and agreeable display of 

 varied green decorative plants refreshing to the eye, which the 

 .gardener has arranged " with nice art, in beds and curious 

 knots." — [Morning Fust.) 



CONIFEPJE AT LINTON PARK. 

 (Concluded from page 310.) 

 "Picea cephalonica, 33 feet high and 27 feet in diameter, 

 having grown 9 feet in five years. In two specimens here, 

 both nearly alike in size, the tops arc gone, but whether by an 

 accident or insect I am unable to say. Had it not been for 

 this the trees would have been much higher ; as it is, they are 

 bushy, and close-growing. One of these has borne cones for 

 some years. This species seems to exhibit a diversity of form 

 as well as foliage, some of the trees approaching the type of 

 P. pinsapo, which when true forms a much superior specimen 

 to P. cephalonica, although the latter is not without its merits. 



Picea Webbiana. — Several trees upwards of 24 feet high by 

 17 feet wide, but one or two which died were considerably more 

 than 30 feet high. This species, however, is not by any means 

 hardy ; in fact, it shows unmistakeably that it either is not so, 

 or the situation does not suit it, as portions of the tree die off 

 every year, and the growth is very limited ; its principal merit 

 is the beauty of its cones which are. furnished in great abun- 

 dance. They are of large size, and in colour of a beautiful 

 purplish black. It is to be regretted that the tree is so tender ; 

 its appearance here denotes something amiss, several trees 

 being all affected alike, portions dying while others are clothed 

 with as handsome a foliage as can be met with in the genus. 

 I believe that in a moister situation it has done better, but my 

 experience of it here in a soil of a contrary description, is such 

 that I cannot recommend its general adoption for an ornamental 

 tree. 



Picea piNSAro, 30 J feet high and 20 feet in diameter, a perfect 

 cone, closely grown and as symmetrical as if trained by hand ; 

 and the short stubby foliage thickly set all round the twigs is 

 so dense, that no part of the bole of the tree is visible without 

 pulling the branches aside. It would be difficult to imagine 

 any Pinus more handsome. The deep green foliage and the 

 sturdy compact habit of the branches, with the upright growth 

 of the bole, render it a great favourite. I believe that there 

 are not many fine trees of this species in the country, for like 

 many of the genus to which it belongs, its growth while in a 

 young state is not very rapid, but when fairly established it 

 grows as fast as commoner species. The specimen referred to 

 has grown 9J feet in the last five years, and as the dimensions 

 of this as well as of all others were taken last December, at 

 least 18 inches more may be added to its height at the end of 

 1866. The situation in which this tree is grown is sheltered, 

 and the soil moderately good, resting on a subsoil more or less 

 intermingled with loose stones, but I believe it is well suited 

 to the growth of most trees. I have not observed any appear- 

 ance of cones on it yet, neither is their production desirable. 

 This fine species has certainly not received the attention which 

 it deserves, for I have never seen any specimen of Picea nobilis 

 or Picea Nordmanniana, the two most esteemed members of 

 the family, approach this in beauty and healthy vigour. Most 

 likely its tardy growth in a young state militates against it, 

 and I am compelled to say its progress here in that condition 

 is not more satisfactory than at other places. 



Picea nobilis, 24J feet high and 14 feet in diameter, having 

 grown 14£ feet in the last five years. I expect the growth of 



the present season, 1866, will be 2 J feet; but the rapid progress 

 in the last few years is due to the fact of the tree having lost 

 its leader about sixteen years ago, and remained six or seven 

 years without one, when it sent up of its own accord two 

 leaders, each as upright and symmetrical as could be desired in 

 any seedling tree. One of these having been removed, the 

 other has made rapid progress in a perpendicular direction, 

 and is as straight as an arrow, and tolerably well furnished with 

 branches, two sets of these being produced each year, so that 

 there is not more than 15 inches of naked stem in the widest 

 place ; and the lowest branches are growing freely, so as to 

 promise to meet the wide bottom that was formed while the 

 plant was without a leader. The foliage is most handsome, 

 the tops of the shoots being clothed with closely inserted leaves 

 of a rich glaucous hue, while the older portions are of a deep 

 green above and white underneath. Perhaps, however, the 

 most remarkable feature in the plant is the size and beauty of 

 its cones. The tree in question produced cones last year for 

 the first time, and this year it has had upwards of twenty 

 upon it. Their size, I think, alone entitles the species to the 

 name given it, for one which I have before me is 10 inches 

 long, with a circumference of 11 inches at the base, and of 

 10 inches at the smaller end. They also differ widely from 

 most other cones of the Pinus family, for instead of the scales 

 pointing upwards towards the tip, they are inserted at right 

 angles to the core, and closely fitting into each other; their 

 extreme points bend downwards and overlap, so as to show a 

 sort of spiral moulding in one direction all round, and mathe- 

 matically correct. Altogether the cone is an object of great 

 beauty, to which description fails to do justice. It is to be 

 regretted that none of the cones possess good seeds ; this if, 

 probably, owing to there being only this one tree of any size in 

 the grounds. 



Picea lasiocaepa. — This promises to be a free-growing species, 

 but the plants are only small as yet. There seems, however, 

 to be some doubt as to whether this is sufficiently distinct 

 from P. amabilis to entitle it to a separate name. P. grandis 

 seems to be more of a glaucous hue, but we have not any 

 specimen sufficiently advanced to be worth noticing here. 



Picea Nokdmanniana. — We have also only small plants of this, 

 but they promise to make good progress. This fine species is 

 certainly deserving of a position everywhere, provided good seed- 

 ling plants can be obtained, but there are so many evidently 

 not seedlings, and which form a sort of distorted branch for 

 some years, that I fear some persons have become disgusted 

 with the plant and discarded it altogether. Where, however, 

 a well-grown healthy seedling is to be met with, nothing can 

 look finer; its long curved foliage of the broadest type, of the 

 deepest green above, and most silvery hue beneath, has a lovely 

 appearance, while the plant possesses all the lofty character of 

 the Silver Fir. The latter, indeed, is a tree not half so gene- 

 rally planted as it deserves to be. One which I saw not many 

 days ago was 107 feet high, with a circumference of 11 feet 

 3 inches at 5 feet from the ground, and it was to all appear- 

 ance perfectly sound. P. Nordmanniana, whose introduction 

 amongst us dates farther back than that of the Wellingtonia, 

 has been tolerably widely scattered over the country, but I 

 believe that no specimen of it can equal the latter for size at 

 the present time. One of the best which I have ever seen is at 

 Fairlawn, near Tunbridge (the residence of J. Ridgeway, Esq.), 

 where, in the spring of 1861, a fine healthy specimen of P. Nord- 

 manniana was upwards of 9 feet high, and judging from its 

 appearance at that time, I suppose it to be now 15 or 16 feet 

 high. The trees which we have here are much less, and that 

 first planted was not satisfactory. 



Retinospokas.— Obtusa, pisifera, and the variegated forms c£ 

 each, have their representatives here. The first two seem to 

 grow very fast, quite as much so as Cupressus Lawsoniana, to 

 the form and habit of which they have a strong resemblance ; 

 but as we have no large tree of any of these, they are only 

 mentioned to show that they are promising species. R. squarrosa 

 and R. leptoclada are less vigorous, and the rich-coloured R. en- 

 coides does not here put on its mulberry suit until rather late 

 in winter, whereas on some soils of a peaty character I have 

 seen it encased in bronze early in October. I expect, however, 

 that under the most favourable circumstances this singular 

 plant will never attain a higher position than that of an up- 

 right-growing shrub ; the first-named member of the family 

 mav, however, rank with our best Cypresses and Thujas. 



Taxodium sempeevieens, 28J feet high and 23 feet in 

 diameter, a healthy fine-growing tree. The foliage, which in 

 plants in a young state often becomes brown and damaged at 



