REPORT ON AN ARBORETUM. 23 



but have sprung again from the root. During the first winter most 

 of the doubtful varieties were protected from frost by spruce 

 branches, and each succeeding winter the small tender plants have 

 been protected by the same means. In the spring of 1871, Picea 

 Pichta was slightly frosted, and P. Pinsapo and cephalonica lost 

 their leaders from the same cause, but they have again got leading 

 tops. The late frosts this spring (1872) slightly affected some of 

 the larger varieties, including Picea nobilis, glauca, but the 

 damage has not been followed by serious results. Two of the best 

 P. nobilis had 14 inches broken off their main leaders in the month 

 of July last, when they were in full vigour, and the young shoots 

 in a brittle state. Heavy birds alighting on the tops were supposed 

 to be the cause, and to prevent this occurring to any of the others, 

 small wood stakes were attached to the main stems, reaching above 

 the tops, so that birds might alight on the stakes and not on the 

 tops. No similar accidents have occurred since. 



Some of the Geclrus Deodara and Libani were overgrown and 

 bushy before planting, and required severe pruning before leaders 

 could be procured, but with these exceptions, and the removal of 

 double leaders and foreshortening with the finger and thumb of 

 extraneous lateral shoots when in a young and soft state, these 

 plants have received no other treatment. 



II. The second division is about 500 yards to the west of that 

 already described. The form is triangular, containing about 3| 

 acres. Elevation, soil, and subsoil similar to No. 1. Exposure to 

 the west and north-west ; sheltered from the south-east. Previous 

 to planting, it was old pasture ; but it was deep-ploughed and 

 thoroughly harrowed before being planted in the spring of 1868 

 with a mixture of ordinary forest trees at about 3|- feet apart. The 

 plants and planting cost about L.6, 10s. per acre. The ornamental 

 trees, to which I shall refer, were planted in the spring of 1869, 

 their introduction being an afterthought, consequent on the planting 

 of division No. 1, the object being to test them along with the 

 ordinary forest trees. 



It woidd be useless to enumerate all the plants in this division, 

 as, with the exception of some of the newer and rarer sorts, most 

 of the varieties planted in ISTo. 1 occur also in No. 2, with the 

 addition of Pinus Jeffreyii, monticola, Murray ana, Pallasiana, and 

 pyrmoAca. The shrubs and dwarf varieties are arranged on the 

 south-west side (parallel to which a carriage-drive passes), and the 

 taller varieties to the background. The coniferous trees are planted 



