REPORT ON TREE-PRUNING. 3 I 



24. Reid, Clement. The Origin of the British Flora. London, 



1899. 



25. Reid, John. See p. 20, ante. 



26. Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society's Transactions. 



Vol. XXIII. , pp. 31-4, 1910. Vegetable Remains from 

 the Roma7i Military Station at Newstead. 



27. Walker, John. Economical History of the Hebrides and 



Highla?ids of Scotland {2 vols.). Vol. II, 18 12. 



28. Walker, John. Essays on Natural History and Rural 



Economy. London and Edinburgh, 181 2. 



29. Watt', Hugh Boyd. Scottish Forests afid Woodlands in 



Early Historic Times. Annals of Andersonian Naturalists' 

 Society. Vol. II., pp. 89-107. Glasgow, 1900. 



4. Report on Tree-Pruning in St James's Park and 

 Piccadilly, London.^ 



By Professor I. Bayley Balfour, F.R.S., Regius Keeper of the 

 Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. 



( With a Plate.) 



Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 2ith April k^w. 



I have examined the young trees in the Mall. 



I wish to say at once that I find nothing to warrant adverse 

 criticism of the pruning of them, or of the result that has been 

 obtained by it. On the contrary, I have been impressed by 

 the evidence of the application of sound practical knowledge, 

 combined with scientific principle, in the pruning of the trees 

 in relation to their environmental conditions. That four un- 

 broken lines of shapely, symmetric, healthy trees of the size 

 they have now attained have been established in the Mall, is 

 a tribute to the skill with which they have been handled. 



I cannot subscribe to the criticism that the trees have been 

 over-pruned. I see no immediate evidence of over-pruning in 

 the present condition of the trees nor suggestion of it in their 

 promise for the future. Every tree I examined was in robust 

 health, bearing a profusion of young twigs covered with plump, 

 bursting buds, and the leafage which will shortly clothe the 

 trees will, I do not doubt, tell its tale in confirmation of the 

 vigour of the trees. 



^ Reproduced by permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office. 



