ON THE PINETUM AT HIGHNAM COURT, GLOUCESTER. 299 
LIV.—ON THE PINETUM AT HIGHNAM COURT, 
GLOUCESTER, 
Ву С. Е. WELrs, Gardener to T. GAMBIER Parry, Esq., of Highnam Court. 
Tue following table contains a list of all the Conifers planted in 
Highnam Pinetum, since its commencement in 1845. Highnam Court 
is situated a little to the south-west of the city of Gloucester. The ground 
forming the Pinetum is 212 feet above the level of the sea, and 176 feet 
above the city of Gloucester. The soil varies in the different departments 
from a gravelly loam, or a red argillaceous marl, to a white clay intermixed 
with limestone. Stations were purposely made for each plant before 
planting ; a few barrow-loads of loam, sandy soil, rotten leaves, and 
decayed vegetable matter, &c., were freely intermixed ; no dung was used 
to produce an over-luxuriant growth, In the white-clay soil it was 
made a practice to burn a good portion for each station, and all are well 
drained. 
The table shows the year in which each was planted, their height at 
that time, the progress made in growth in each succéeding three years 
since they were planted, and the destruction made by the severe winters. 
The destruction caused by the winter of 1860-61 has not deterred 
Mr. Gambier Parry from giving many of those which then failed another 
trial, and numbers of these have been already planted. 
On December 25th, 1860, the thermometer registered 44 degrees below 
zero. No cold so severe has occurred since January 19th, 1838, twenty- 
two years before; and it is possible that its equal for destructiveness may 
not again occur for a greater interval in the future. It would be a 
great pity, through the dread of such a misfortune happening again, to 
deprive ourselves of the pleasure of growing many of the most beautiful 
kinds of these trees, for it unfortunately happens that many of those 
destroyed were the most beautiful. 
In the view of the possibility of such a calamity, it would, however, be 
well in very severe winters, $.е., 16 or 18 degrees of frost, to give them а 
slight protection, as a cap of gorse or fir-boughs, until they had reached. 
at least 33 or 4 feet in height. It has, indeed, been the invariable prac- 
tice at Highnam Court, to treat all the tender, or suspected tender, kinds 
in that way. One satisfaction to be drawn from the misfortunes of 1860- 
61 is, that there can be no doubt about the hardihood of those which were 
not killed in that year. * 
