228 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
brushwood, and much, unfortunately, swept away to be deposited 
miles out at sea. I hope to be able to secure ripe seeds of some 
of the indigenous trees, and when some of the hollows now 
planted are partly covered with wood, to try young indigenous 
plants in gaps therein. I could not count upon getting young 
plants from the natural woods in any number, nor at the time 
when required, and they would undoubtedly prove costly. 
The tala (Celtis Tala), indigenous on the Campos, grows well 
from cuttings, though I have not been very successful myself ;_ 
but we plant cuttings of this and mulberry in nursery beds, and 
then plant out after a year. The tala grows fairly fast, and is a 
useful wood. 
Acer pseudo-platanus grows tolerably well, and is not much 
troubled by ants ; the same may be said of the paraiso. But all 
these are slow-growing in comparison with blackwood, and do not 
give the same shelter as that evergreen. Though I have not tried 
Acer pseudo-platanus as a post, I am sure neither it nor any of 
the others can compare with robinia for duration below ground. 
Nine years ago I had a consignment of British trees from 
Messrs Dickson of Chester, for curiosity and ornament. Several 
sorts of sycamore have done fairly, beeches also, and a lime sur- 
vives ; some elms and ashes are growing, andalsoa holly. Horse- 
chestnuts live, and that is all they do. Birches died; lilacs and 
others were quite killed by ants. Ashes also suffer much from ants. 
But all these trees are very small. They all look lively towards 
end of autumn, get along well through winter, and burst out 
bravely in spring; but when the hot north winds blow and 
drought is felt, their leaves get dry, fall off, and the tree gives in 
until the cooler autumn returns. The beech and holly I think 
do the best, and then the elm. 
These British trees are planted on a rising-ground, and have 
never had any “nurses”; if they had had, possibly they might 
have grown very much better. 
When I made my first nine-acre plantation on ploughed land, I 
utilised the ground by sowing three rows of maize between the 
rows of trees. In summer the maize overtopped the trees and 
kept the ground cool; in winter the dry stalks (for I pulled the 
maize-cobs instead of cutting down the stalks) sheltered the 
young trees to some extent from winds. And this I did a second 
year also, but feared to do it a third year, the trees being well 
grown-up and liable to injury by our clumsy oxen working the 
