44. HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART I. 
(1809) 7 ft. 13 in.; the Juglans nigra, 11] ft. 53 in.; the 
Pinus Pindster, “Lo i. 1 in. 2 the Quércus, Ilex, 9 ft. 1 in.; the 
Quércus Alba, 8 ft. 13 in.; the Quércus Suber, of which I had 
not a satisfactory measure in 1793, is now (1899) 8 ft. 4 in. in 
girt; the largest cedar now measures 8 ft. 8} in. in girt; 
another, in a court of the palace, about 7 ft.: it is probable that 
the latter has been lessened in girt, from having been drawn 
up by its situation to a remarkable height. The lime tree above 
mentioned now measures 14 ft. 1 in. in girt. The C¥tisus 
Labirnum is an old decayed tree in the close (without the 
lodge) near the moat, about 3 ft. in girt. There are two of the 
Robinia Pseud-Acacia, one near the porter’s lodge, and one on 
the lawn near the moat; they are both in a state of great 
decay, and their trunks in such a state as not to admit of mea- 
surement.” 
All the trees mentioned in the above extract, except those 
contained in the table, the large limes, the remains of the 
robinia, and one or two others, are decayed or taken down; the 
grounds having undergone several alterations during the occu- 
pancy of Bishop Porteus, between 1800 and 1816. Both Bishop 
Porteus and the present bishop have added considerably to the 
collection. 
It would be interesting to know the means by which Bishop 
Compton procured his trees and shrubs from America, and who 
were the botanical collectors of that day. Several may have 
existed whose names are now lost. It appears highly probable 
that most of the American trees and plants at Fulham were intro- 
duced by the Rev. John Banister, who was sent by the bishop as 
a missionary to Virginia. John Banister, according to Dr. Pul- 
teney (Sketches, &c., vol. i.), was one of the first British collectors 
in North America. He published a Catalogue of the plants he ob- 
served there, dated 1680. He is mentioned repeatedly by Ray, 
as having introduced many plants. Banister was one of the early 
martyrs to natural history, having, in one of his excursions, fallen 
from a rock and perished. His Catalogue will be found in the 
second volume of Ray’s Historia Plantarum, and several of his 
papers are published in the Philosophical Transactions. Pluke- 
net, describing the Azalea viscosa, says that a drawing of it, by 
his own hand, was sent by him to Bishop Compton, his patron. 
The name of Evelyn is well known, as belonging to this cen- 
tury. His Sylva was published in 1664, from which, and from 
his Calendarium Hortense, it appears that the number of species - 
and varieties of trees and shrubs in the London gardens was 
then extremely limited. In one of the later editions of the Sylva, 
Evelyn mentions the tulip tree as having been introduced by 
Tradescant. His description of the tree is curious. He says, 
‘* they have a poplar in Virginia of a very peculiar-shaped leaf, 
