2446 



ARBORETUM AND FUUTICETUM. 



PART in. 



late, much pointed, rigid, flat, quite entire, 2306 



somewhat scabrous on the margin. Male 

 catkins terminal, fascicled, cylindrical, 

 scarcely 1 in. long. Cones about the size 

 of a walnut, sessile, drooping, globose, 

 smooth. Scales ovate-acuminate, cori- 

 aceous, sharply denticulated on the mar- 

 gin. (Lamb.) This remarkable tree is a 

 native of China, and was introduced in 

 ISOl, by Mr. Wm. Kerr, by direction of 

 the Honourable Court of Directors of 

 the East India Company. It was first 

 supposed to belong to the genus Pinus, 

 and was called Pinus lanceolata, from its 

 sharp lanceolate leaves ; but, on more 

 careful examination, it was made a sepa- 

 rate genus by Mr. Salisbury, in the Lin- 

 ncean Transactions, under the name of Belis, from belos, a javelin ; from the 

 leaves somewhat resembling in form the head of that weapon. The name of 

 ^ellis having been already applied to the daisy, that of Belis was considered to 

 bear too strong a resemblance to it, and accordingly it was afterwards changed 

 by Mr. Brown to Cunningham^ ; by which name it was first described by 

 M. Richard, in his Memoires sur les Conifcres. For many years after it was 

 first introduced, it was kept in the green-house; but, in 1816,a plant was turned 

 out into a sheltered part of the pleasure-ground at Claremont, where it has 

 continued to live without protection ; and, though injured more or less by severe 

 winters, it was, in 1837, 18 ft. 

 high, the diameter of the trunk 

 7 in., and of the head 16 ft. A 

 tree at White Knights, which had 

 stood without the slightest protec- 

 tion for upwards of 10 years, was, 

 in 1837, upwards of 25 ft. high, 

 and formed a most beautiful ob- 

 ject. A tree at Dropmore, planted 

 in the open ground in 1822, was, ^^ 

 in 1837, 17 ft. high. It was mat- 

 ted up every winter for several 

 years after it was planted out ; 

 but, since 1828, it has received 

 no protection whatever, and is 

 now a very fine tree. This spe- 

 cies is very readily propagated 

 by cuttings ; and there arc some trees at Dropmore, raised in this manner, 

 which have thrown up erect stems from the collar, which will doubtless 

 form as handsome trees as seedlings. The practice of pegging down the 

 branches of plants of Coniferae raised from cuttmgs, with a view to the pro- 

 duction of erect stems, appears to have been first exemplified in this species, 

 and by Mr. Stewart Murray, the curator of the Glasgow Botanic Garden, who 

 has given the following account of it in the Gardeners Magazine: — " In the 

 Glasgow Botanic (lardcn, in 1825, were two plants, 2 ft. or 3 ft. high, struck 

 from cuttings several years previously, the tops of which, though the trees 

 were in very luxuriant health, still retained the appearance of a branch, which, 

 even when tied up to a stake, always seemed as if endeavouring to regain its 

 horizontal position. During the winter of 1825," continues Mr. Murray, " I 

 loosened the top of one from its stake, and fastened it down quite in a hori- 

 zontal direction ; in about six weeks afterwards, a very vigorous shoot made its 

 appearance from below the surface of the earth in the pot. When this shoot 

 had attained the height of 8 in or 9 in., I cut away the old top entirely, and at 



