92 
thus, like the West Indian Fan Palm already mentioned, reached 
its centenary when it died, about a year ago, and was removed. 
Its romantic history has been often told—Menzies, dining with the 
Spanish Viceroy of Chili in 1792, secured a few nuts that were served 
at table, and which were new to him. His sowing them on board 
ship ina box of soil, in which they germinated while on the voyage 
of discovery round the world with Vancouver, and safely landing 
the plantlets in England, was a feat worthy of being recorded by 
the living tree, now, alas! gone. 
Time would not permit of the measurement of many specimens ; 
but among the few that were girthed with the tape as we 
passed was a fine example of the common Holly about 40 feet 
high, with a girth of 4 feet 3 inches at 5 feet up. The old walnut 
tree, near the Rock Garden, is 11 feet 2 inches in girth. It isa mere 
shell, but in order to preserve it as long as possible from the effects 
of the weather, the gaps in the trunk have been filled in with bricks 
and cement and the exterior coated over with tar, coloured to 
resemble the bark. This novel method of tree preservation was 
viewed with much interest. A very good specimen of a Cali- 
fornian pine—Pinus macrocarpa—in fine foliage, was 7 feet 6 
inches in girth; and the first Corsican pine planted in the Garden 
had attained to a girth of 12 feet 6 inches—this measurement, how- 
ever, including the stems of a Clematis, which were closely twisted 
round the bole. Another splendid example of the same pine— 
Pinus Laricio—is 90 feet in height and 9 feet in girth, The great 
Turkey oak, Quercus Cerris, growing near the Temple of the Sun, 
which was brought by the Earl of Bute from the Duke of Argyll’s 
woods, near Hounslow, in 1762, girths 13 feet 5 inches. A fine 
example of the Maidenhair tree, Salisburia adiantvfolia, is 9 feet 
8 inches in girth, A gigantic beech tree is 11 feet 6 inches in 
circumference, and has a spread of branches over 100 feet across ; 
while the tallest tree in the Garden, a lime, is over 100 feet high. 
A run was made through the Museums, which contain upwards of 
40,000 specimens, many of them of the most interesting description. 
The party also inspected with great interest Marianne North’s 
Picture Gallery, which contains a unique collection of floral and 
arboreal studies from nature, painted by that gifted lady in many 
lands. 
In the Arboretum, which is only separated from the Botanic 
Garden by a wire fence, the several parties spent a considerable 
portion of the time in inspecting its rich stores of arboreal subjects 
