258 MOl^THLY SUMMAEY. 



garden of the Society. A flag-staff, or mast, of the Douglas fir, 

 320 feet in length, is on its waj^ and may be shortly expected, 

 fi*om Vancouver's Island; and on its arrival is intended to be 

 erected in the garden. It has been sent for exhibition in the 

 International Exhibition ; but, ^vhether because it was too large 

 or too late, the Commissioners ^vere tinder the necessity of 

 declining it, and transferred the offer which they had received 

 to the Council of this Society, who gladly accepted it. 



We are now accustomed to hear and think of trees of such 

 stupendous dimensions that we contemplate a gift like this 

 without any very great surprise or enthusiasm. We know that 

 the Douglas fir reaches nearly oOO feet in beight; that the 

 Lambert fir even exceeds this; and that the Wellingtonia gigantca 

 has been found upwards of 400 feet in height, and 90 feet in 

 circumference at its base. But the time is not far distant when 

 we should have turned with incredulity from a tale of a tree being 

 200 feet in height. Previous to 1826, when Douglas first 

 discovered some of these gigantic trees in North- West America, 

 the loftiest trees known scarcely exceeded 100 feet in height. 

 An oak 80 feet high is a note- worthy tree. The plane scarcely' 

 grows so high. The tallest recorded beech which occurs to our 

 recollection is under 120 feet, and a spruce fir of 132 feet in height 

 is spoken of in works on arboriculture as something extraor- 

 dinary. Even the tropical forests fail to produce anything 

 approaching these lofty firs. The stem of the Adansonia, in 

 Senegal, is as thick as that of the Wellingtonia, but the tree 

 itself is only 60 feet high; and the Brazilian locust-trees, 

 although they perhaps approach more nearly to its dimensions, 

 still lag a world behind. 



It is not easy to realise these enormous heights ; 220 feet is 

 easily said ; but to appreciate what it really means requires an 

 effort of attention, and almost a process of mental calculation. 

 The top of St. Pauls is 340 feet above the ground ; but the height 

 of the nearer domes of the International Exhibition building is 

 only 200 feet, and at that elevation the difference in height between 

 this fir-spar and the domes \\ill be scarcely appreciable. 



How to raise a fishing-rod of such length into an erect position 

 will test the skill of the best of our riggers and nautical engi- 

 neers. It is the most lofty spar w^iich has ever been sent to 

 Europe, or has ever been set up. The nearest approach to it is 

 the flag-staff at Kew, which, however, is only 159 feet in length. 

 The experience acquired in its erection, in Kew Gardens, prepares 



