70 



ARBoRICULTURAL FEATURES OF BUTESHIRE. 



air, without protection of any kind, and flowered well in the green- 

 house the following summer. The gorgeous Rhododendron noble- 

 anum is in hloom the whole winter; so also is Genista Atleana, 

 (5 feet in height). A myrtle, planted out in 1862, now 8| feet in 

 height, and more in circumference, flowers magnificently every season. 

 This year (1871) there were planted Cyathea dealbaia, perhaps the 

 most beautiful of tree ferns. An Australian gum tree, and also the 

 beef-wood or she-oak (Oasuarina quadrivaZvis), the most singularly 

 picturesque tree of the Australian flora, being a tree paddock pipe." 



I visited Crouila garden in October 1872, that I might see for 

 myself, and beg to testify that the plants, with the exception of the 

 gum trees {Eucalyptus), which have been injured in some way, are 

 equal to all that has been stated regarding them, though the garden 

 is now much neglected. 



For the sake of comparison, I append the following dimensions of 

 the most noteworthv trees in Buteshire : — 



* " Adam." ami "Eve " are two remarkable old ash treeson the roadside, a little 

 to the south of the town of Rothesay. The largest, " Adam," having become 

 much decayed, the trunk completely hollowed out, and only a thin shell 

 of wood and bark on the one side keeping it in life, the largest limbs, some of 

 them 3 feet in diameter, had to be cut off three years ago, to prevent it from 

 being blown down. The first and second year after the limbs were cut off, it 

 gave signs of vigorous life by sending out several shoots from 2 to 3 feet in 

 length ; but last year (1871) its race seems to have been run, and it now stands 

 a hollow dead trunk, a monument of former greatness. The age of this tree 

 was ascertained by counting the annual rings of one of the limbs. Most of the 

 wood being perfectly sound, part of it was made into seats, which were placed 

 along the shore to the east of the town. "Eve " is still vigorous and healthy, 

 and likely to be so for many years. We have no means of knowing the age of 

 this tree; but it must be considerably yuunger than " Adam." 



