286 TRANSACTIONS OF KOYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



branches that arc somewhat drooping and vertical towards the 

 points. The leaves are hatchet-shaped (hence the name), loosely 

 imbricated, and of a beautiful shining green above and silvery 

 beneath. The main branches are few, but the branchlets are 

 numerous and compressed, and certainly constitute the most 

 striking feature of the tree. Planted in a rather moist coal loam, 

 and a semi-shady position, this tree seems to thrive best; and 

 though the upward rate of growth is slow for the first dozen 

 years, yet, when fairly established, a change for the better takes 

 place, and occasionally an average yearly increase of half-a-foot is 

 attained. There are two varieties of this tree — T. d. variegata, 

 with irregularly variegated leaves of an indistinct yellow ; and 

 1\ d. nana, in which the original is dwarfed into a neat, erect, 

 dense bush of 4 feet to 5 feet in height. Tlmiopsis dolahrata is 

 well worthy of greatly extended culture, for it is undoubtedly one 

 of the handsomest and hardiest of conifers. A native of Japan, 

 and introduced in 1853. 



113. Wellingtonia gigantea (Mammoth Tree). — Although of a 

 somewhat stiff and formal appearance, yet the Wellingtonia, from 

 its massive proportions and bright green foliage, must ever hold 

 its own as an ornamental tree. It associates well with such free- 

 habited and lighter-leaved conifers as the Deodar, the weeping 

 spruce, and many others ; while it has, in the formation of 

 avenues and drives, been made, by judicious planting, to contrast 

 well with Araucaria imhricata and Abies Nordmanniana. 



As a rapid timber producer, the Wellingtonia is surpassed by 

 no other ti"ee, the growth of which in this country we have kept 

 a record of, save the Douglas fir, although the Californian redwood 

 (^Sequoia sernjyervirens) produces under similar circumstances an 

 almost equal quantity of timber, and likewise attains to a much 

 greater height in the same space of time. Two specimens of 

 which I kept records produced 120 feet and 115 feet of wood 

 respectively in thirty years, or at the rate of about 4 feet per 

 year. One of these specimens was planted in 1857, and wheir 

 measured in 1887 contained exactly 115 feet of wood. The 

 upward growth of the Wellingtonia per year for a period of 

 thirty years is, in numerous sjjccimens of which measurements 

 have been taken, about 26 inches, but even this is far exceeded 

 in special instances which I have not considered it fair to record. 

 Not long ago I had a very large tree cut into boarding, used in 

 the construction of a hut for charcoal bui'ners, and I was surprised 



