CHAP. LXIX. ERICA CEA. A’RBUTUS 1119 
Properties and Uses. A sugar and avery good spirit have been extracted 
from the fruit in Spain, and a wine in Corsica: but, in Britain, the sole 
use of the plant is as an ornamental evergreen shrub or low tree. In the 
neighbourhood of Algiers it forms hedges; and there, in Greece, and also 
in Spain, the bark is used by tanners ; and the charcoal made from the wood 
is highly valued. The wood is white, hard, and heavy, but brittle, and with 
little elasticity. The durability and abundance of its shining green foliage ; 
the brownish red colour of its young shoots; the waxy and delicate appear- 
ance of its flowers, which are produced in abundance, at a season when most 
plants are beginning to shed their leaves; and the splendour of its fruit, 
which, as before observed, is intermixed with the flowers, and often remains 
on all the winter ; render it a most desirable plant. In ornamental plantations, 
the pink-flowered variety deserves the preference, not only on account of the 
beauty of its flowers, but because the young shoots and the nerves of the 
leaves partake of a reddish hue. 
Soil, Situation, §c. The common arbutus will thrive in any tolerably free 
soil; though it seems to grow fastest, and attain the largest size, in deep 
sandy loam. It will grow either in open or sheltered situations, but does not 
thrive under the shade of trees. The species is readily propagated by seeds, 
which should be sown, as soon as they are separated from the pulp of the 
fruit, in pots of light, rich, sandy soil, or heath mould, and then placed in the 
shade, where they can be protected from the frost and the sun. Plants raised 
from seed do not generally flower till 5 or 6 years old. The double, and the 
scarlet-flowered, and all the other varieties, are propagated by layers; or by 
cuttings of the wood in a growing state, taken off in July, and treated like 
cuttings of heath. 
Statistics. In the environs of London, in the arboretum at Kew, the common arbutus is 12 ft. 
high ; and it is equally high, or higher, at a great number of places within the same distance of the 
metropolis. Inthe Mile End Nursery it is 15 ft. high, and the diameter of the head is 45 ft. In 
the Garden of the Horticultural Society, and in the arboretum of Messrs Loddiges, plants, 10 years 
planted, have attained the height of 10 ft. In Scotland, in Argyllshire, at Castle Mainard, it is 13 ft. 
high. In Ireland, on the lower lake of Killarney, a tree, or large bush, was 36 ft.in diameter in 
1805 ; one at Power’s Court is equally large ; and a similar one existed at Newtown Mount Kennedy, 
but was blown down in 1804; at Morn Park, Cork, it is 32ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 
2ft. 3in., and of the head 23: ft. The price of plants, in the London nurseries, is from 6d. to 1s. 
each, according to the size, or from l/. 7s. Gd. to 3/. 15s. per hundred; and the scarlet-flowered 
variety is 2s. 6d. a plant. At Bollwyller, and at New York, both the species and varieties are 
green-house plants. 
% m 2. A. ny’BRIDA Ker. The hybrid Arbutus, or Strawberry Tree. 
Identification. Ker Bot. Reg,, t.619.; Don’s Mill., 3. p. 834. 
Synonyme. A. andrachnoides Link Enum., 1. p. 395. 
Engravings. Bot. Reg., t. 619.; and our jig. 920. 
Spec. Char., §c. Branchlets pilose. Leaves oblong, acute, serrated, glabrous. 
Panicle terminal, pendulous, downy. Flowers white. Calyx glabrous. 
(Don’s Mill., iii. p. 834.) Apparently a x 
hybrid@yetween A. U‘nedo, and 4. An- 
drachne. It has been cultivated in British 
gardens ever since the commencement of 
the present century, and is believed to 
have been originated in the Fulham Nur- 
sery, where there were, till lately, some of 
the largest specimens in the neighbourhood 
of London, and where there is still one, 
about 20 years planted, which is nearly 
20ft. high. This species grows as rapidly 
as the d. U‘nedo, forms fully as large a 
tree, is more beautiful in its flowers which 
are in larger panicles, and is nearly as . 
hardy. It flowers freely, and sometimes bears fruit, but is generally pro- 
pagated by grafting. Plants in rs garden of the London Horticultural 
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