301 



^Itliougli an interesting representative of the geniis in Kortli 

 America, lias rarely in tliis country proved worth its room in 

 gardens. Even at Tort^vorth it makes, like Quercus alha, an 

 exception to the general aspect of vigour and health that charac- 

 terise the tree growth there, although it is one of the hest in the 

 Kingdom. It is a low% flat-topped tree with a head of branches 

 30 feet across and a trunk girthing 3 feet. The North American 

 beech is well distinguished from the European one by its habit 

 of producing suckers from the roots (like an elm) and by the 

 :more numerous ribs in each leaf. 



Garpinus cordata, a native of China and Japan, has very large 

 leaves for a hornbeam; they are occasionally as much as 5^ 

 inches long by 3j inches wide, deeply cordate at the base. The 

 species is extremely rare, and except possibly for a tree wliich 

 ^^rew in the Coombe Wood Nursery, the finest tree in the country 

 is at Tortworth, now about 20 feet high and 10 inches in the 

 tcircumference of i'ts trunk. 



. Of alders I noted two fine trees. One of them, Alnus vordi folia, 

 perhaps the handsomest of all alders, is over 60 feet high and has 

 a bole 6 feet 9 inches in circumference. An example of the cut- 

 leaved alder, A. glutb^osa var. laciniat/ij has a trunk 6 feet 



G inches in girth. 



A healthy specimen of Betnla papyrifera has a beautiful wliite 

 trunk 5. feet 1 inch in girth and is about 45 feet high. Another 



•of B. 



B. Maorimowiczii is probably as good as can be iound m 

 Britain. This Japanese species has the largest leaves of all 

 birches, and is a promising tree in this country. Lord Ducie's 

 tree is 2 feet 4 inches in ,irirth and 45 to 50 feet high. 



The Golden chestnut.— There is no exotic tree in the Tort- 

 worth collection so famous as the Golden chestnut, Castanopsis 

 cJirysophylla, almost unique among hardy trees for the tawny 

 <*nvcring beneath the leaves. This tree, a native of California, 

 is growing on the opposite side of the ravine from the house, 

 on tlie old red sandstone formatipn, where it was planted by 

 Lord Ducie almost exactly sixty years ago. It is a shapely, 

 round-topped tree wdth a smooth trunk. According to Mr. Elwes 

 ■this tree in 18T9 was 20 feet high and 1 foot 5 inches in girth; 



in 1897 it w\as 27 feet high and 3 feet in girth of trunk. Since 



years 



later (1911) it had only reached 29 feet in height by 3 feet 5 

 inches, and on May 28 last I made it 3 feet 7 inches m girth, 

 but it seemed to me well over 30 feet high. During the last 

 thirty years it has borne fertile seeds, and many of its progeny 

 are scattered over the country. Several are at Kew, the finest 

 of them standing about forty yards due west of the pagoda at the 

 edge of a bed of heaths; this tree, planted about 1904, is now 

 18 feet high, its trunk 1 foot 11 inches in girth. It seems to 

 be certain that this Castanopsis will not thrive where there is 

 much lime in the soil. 



Conifers.— Probably tbe most sivik'mcr success amon^ conifers 

 at Tortwortli is a tree of Ahics noUlis planted by Lord Dune m 



