p. PUMILA AND FLEXILIS 21 



is a rarity that comes from northern lands and from 

 such ice-bound regions as Lake Baikal (E. Siberia). 

 It is of dwarf rather than of full- tree dimension, 

 since it only attains a height of 10 ft. It has been 

 tried at a few places : at Leonardslee, for one, by Sir 

 Edmund Loder ; so far they have only made (he tells 

 me) a growth of 6 in. in the few years that he 

 has attempted their cultivation, but even this effort 

 seems to spell rapidity itself, when taken in com- 

 parison with the history of its growth at Dropmore. 

 There it only contrived a height of 10 in. after a 

 fifty years' attempt. At this rate it seems that many 

 generations of owners would pass away to dust and 

 ashes before any descendant heir-at-law would find 

 himself able to enjoy a sight of it at full growth, 

 much less to exhibit a plank from it, at a Royal 

 Agricultural S.E. Forestry Show. But it is only fair 

 to add that it never set up to be even in its Arctic 

 homes anything greater than a dwarf or prostrate 

 shrub, more fitted for a rock garden than a pinetum. 

 We have made further allusion to this weird specimen 

 of plant life under heading P. Montana var. Pumilio. 



P. Flexilis. — ^The Flexilis we may liken, and 

 remember it accordingly, on account of a peculiar 

 characteristic that signalizes it, to the acrobatic 

 performer of the fair. 



In the same way that the indiarubber man of the 

 booth can contort his frame without any apparent 

 inconvenience to his feelings or disarrangement to 

 his system, so a branch of the Flexilis can be twisted 

 to any degree or angle without fear of breakage. 



There is a hard-wood tree that we all know well, 

 which is called by an ultra-opposite name, and for 

 the ver}^ excellent reason that it possesses exactly 

 opposite properties, and that is the Salix Fragilis, 

 variously called the Brittle-twig and Crack Willow. 



