1916 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART Ill. 
tractors, who had no demand for it. Thus the government, for a temporary 
gain, occasioned a national loss of a prodigious number of valuable trees. 
(Sketches, &c., vol. ii. p. 248.) The oldest cork tree in the neighbourhood 
of London is in the grounds of the Fulham Palace; one of the handsomest, 
though a much smaller tree, is that in the Fulham Nursery, of which the 
engraving in our last Volume is a portrait. In the garden of the London 
Horticultural Society, the rate of growth may be stated as 6 ft. or 8 ft. in 10 
years ; but, with extraordinary preparation, it would grow with double that 
rapidity. The largest cork tree in Britain (perhaps in the world) is one in 
Devonshire, at Mamhead, about 8 miles from Exeter. In 1834, the circum- 
ference of the trunk of this tree, at 1 ft. from the ground, was 12 ft. 6in. The 
height of the trunk, before it branched off, was 10 ft., and the total height of 
the tree about 60 ft. It stands in the middle of the park, quite detached and 
exposed, at an elevation of about 4:50 ft. above the level of the sea, in a soil 
of fine rich red loam, on a substratum of red stone conglomerate. It is only 
3 miles distant from the sea, and is exposed to the sea breeze from the east. 
The head is oval and compact, and its grand massive branches, each of which 
would form a tree of noble dimensions, are covered with rugged corky bark, 
resembling richly chased frosted silver, which is finely contrasted with the 
dark green luxuriant foliage. Near this tree stands another, 50 ft. high, with 
a trunk 11 ft. 3in. in circumference. (Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 127.) 
In Ireland, in the neighbourhood of Cork, on the estate of Sammerstown 
there is a cork tree of unknown age, and which is thought by some to have 
stood there for several centuries. Several generations ago, it must have been 
a remarkable tree, for the then proprietor, when letting the land on which the 
tree stands, introduced a clause into the lease, by which the tenant incurred 
a penalty of 20/., if he cut down or injured the tree. ig. 1800. is a portrait 
of this tree, to the scale of 1 in. to 10 ft., which was sent to the Magazine of 
Natural History in 1828 ; and the following are the dimensions of the trunk and 
principal branches : — Girt of the trunk at 3 ft. from the ground, 8 ft. 10 in. ; 
height of the trunk before it divides, 9 feet ; girt of each of the two principal 
branches, 6 ft. 10in.; girt of the second-rate branches, 5 ft. 4in.; diameter of 
the head, 36 ft.; the thickness of the cork, or outer bark, on the trunk, is 
about 3in. The height of this tree was not sent to us; but, judging from 
the drawing, it appears to be between 25 ft. and 30 ft. 
