42 



' upwards of three million pine trees remain in the different 

 districts of Bournemouth and its immediate surroundings."* 



The gravels and sands, which cover so large a portion of the 

 Bournemouth district, seem naturally favourable for the growth 

 of the Scotch fir, and seedling plants abound everywhere, which 

 if left to themselves would soon grow up into a thick plantation. 



There are a few groups of firs lying some way east or north east 

 of the pier — one group especially, at the termination of the cliff 

 road, and just within the one-mile radius, of a somewhat 

 rectangular form, and reaching quite to the cliff's edge — which 

 distinctly give the idea of having been self-originated and 

 undisturbed by man. In this last group, away from all buildings, 

 the trees present a very uniform appearance. They are near 

 together, and of a fair height ; but from never having been 

 thinned out, are drawn up into mere poles, with a considerable 

 brush of foliage at top, the ground underneath being quite bare 

 of grass or any other herbage. 



There are, again, a few trees very much larger than any of the 

 above ; one especially, known to the inhabitants of the 

 neighbourhood by the name of "The Four Evangelists," from 

 its spreading out, a few feet from the ground, into four large 

 branches. This tree, thought by a friend resident in Bournemouth 

 to be the largest in the district, stands in the angle formed by 

 Grove Lane and the road leading from Christchurch to Heme 

 Court. I measured it with the help of another party, and found 

 it to be 13 feet and a half in girth, at about three and a half feet 

 from the ground. t It is between three and four miles from 

 Bournemouth, and had probably grown up^ in times far back, 

 near the border of an old forest, or in some open space, where 

 with more light and air, it had room for expansion. 



* Fortnightly Eeview, Sept., 1885, p. 386. 

 t Loudon mentions firs in the Scotch forests 18 and 20 feet in girth, 

 but does not say at what height from the ground. Arboretum Britanni- 

 cum. vol. iv. p. 2169. 



