HARDY CONIFEROUS TREES 13 



always the case, and I have noticed the cones in 

 clusters of from five to seven in number. An 

 excellent drawing of a cluster of five cones, from 

 specimens sent by me from Penrhyn Castle to the 

 Editor of The Gardeners Chronicle, will be found 

 in the Linnean Society's Journal, vol. xxiii. The 

 cone bracts are entirely hidden by the overlapping 

 scales. The bark is smooth, and of a dull green 

 when young, but becomes dark grey and rough 

 when the tree has advanced in age, and filled with 

 receptacles of clear, highly fragrant resin. The 

 timber produced in this country is of excellent 

 quality, being weighty, resinous, and the concentric 

 rings firmly packed. The largest specimen which 

 I have had cut down was, exclusive of the broken 

 top, 72 feet in height, measured 26 inches in dia- 

 meter at the butt end, and contained 73 cubic 

 feet of timber. 



On measuring some of the annual rings near 

 the bark I found them to average fully i inch in 

 thickness, which speaks highly of the tree as a 

 rapid timber producer. When felled and stripped 

 of its branches, the balsamic fragrance, from the 

 quantity of resin the tree contained, was per- 

 ceptible for a considerable distance — farther than 

 I have ever noticed even with the Douglas Fir 

 — and the circumstance was commented upon 

 amongst the woodmen employed in removing it. 



The average annual rate of growth of A . grandis 

 in this country is 17 inches, while the quantity of 

 timber produced in fifty years by the large speci- 

 men just referred to gave an annual average of 

 nearly i^ cubic feet. When cut into boarding, 

 the wood resembled in appearance that of the 



