302 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Leaving Belfast by special train at eight o'clock on Friday 

 morning, the company arrived, after an hour's run, at Newcastle, 

 a favourite watering-place on Dundrum Bay, and set amid 

 beautiful surroundings. A drive of four miles brought the 

 visitors to Lord Annesley's beautiful home, which is situated at 

 a high elevation, looking down on the plain that stretches from 

 Dundrum to the Mourne Mountains, and commands striking 

 views of Slieve Donard and the other northern peaks of the 

 mountains, with purple-clad hills on all sides. In addition to 

 the pinetums, there are no fewer than fourteen different gardens 

 within the grounds, all possessing distinctive features of their own, 

 and managed with the utmost care and skill. The Castlewellan 

 catalogue testifies to a kindly soil and genial climate, for it 

 contains a remarkable list of some two thousand varieties of 

 choice plants growing in the greatest health and luxuriance, and 

 includes some which are not to be found even in Kew. At every 

 turn the eye is filled with unmixed pleasure, and the spectator is 

 fascinated with the scene of beauty which he beholds, and over 

 which he would fain linger long. The grounds have been planted 

 and cultivated for ornamental purposes, but there is all the same 

 a good quantity of valuable marketable timber. 



On entering the policies the party were met by Mr Thomas 

 Ryan, the land steward, who was brought up on the estate, and 

 who has for twenty-five years shared Lord Annesley's arbori- 

 cultural tastes, and exerted himself to make the estate one of the 

 most attractive, as it is one of the most famous, in the country. 

 The Earl and Countess joined them early in the forenoon, and 

 spent four hours in accompanying the visitors in their inspection 

 of the grounds. Beginning with the pinetums, of which there 

 are several, the company first examined a big Wellingtonia, which 

 Mr Hugh Dickson of Belfast (who was with the party) dispatched 

 to Castlewellan in 1854, when he was in the service of Dickson 

 and Sons, Edinburgh. It was measured, and girthed 15 feet 

 6 inches. Several of the Auracarias are the finest to be seen 

 anywhere, some of them being quite perfect specimens. Palms, 

 including the Chamcerops Fortunei, have been growing in the 

 open for the last twenty years, a sufficient evidence of the 

 mildness of the climate. A handsome cypress is Ciqyressus 

 macrocarpa lutea, a variety of recent introduction, and growing 

 to a height of 15 feet. What in most places is a green-house 

 plant, the Lomatia pinnat'ifolia, was seen, with the beautiful dark- 



