262 RUNNEYMEAD PLANTS. [September, 



height of the Pyramids. Another way of bringing home to our 

 sensations an idea of the enormous size of these trees is that used 

 by Messrs. Sang, nurserymen, Kirkcaldy, in a neat and compre- 

 hensive little account they have given of the tree. They calcu- 

 late the quantity of wood in a tree, and its value at \d. a foot. 

 The result is, =€6,250 for a big one. What a nice little provision 

 an acre of Wellingtonia would make for a younger son or daugh- 

 ter of the proprietor of an entailed estate ! The trees seem all to 

 rise like solid pillars, without a branch for nearly two-thirds of 

 their height, often with furrowed bark, so as to look like fluted 

 columns. Mr. Murray exhibited several photographs of the trees 

 from Mariposa Grove, one of which was ninety-four feet in cir- 

 cumference. The tree is perfectly hardy in Britain, grows very 

 rapidly, and, although only introduced in 1853, has already reached 

 the height of 9^ feet, and 19 inches in circumference at base, at 

 Castle Martyr, near Cork, and not much short of this both in 

 England and Scotland, and has borne ripe fruit at Thetford in 

 England. We may therefore reasonably hope that we shall ere 

 long be independent of the sacred giants of the West for a suffi- 

 cient supply of good seed. In the meantime, we have the satis- 

 faction of knowing that we can make plants by cuttings with the 

 greatest facility ; and what is most important in the great ma- 

 jority of cases, they grow erect and readily from leaders.^' 



EUNNEYMEAD PLANTS. 



Notice of a few interesting Plants collected during a day's Bota- 

 nizing on the confines of Middlesex, Berkshire, Bucks, and 

 Surrey. By J. W. T. and A. J. {in a letter to the Editor, 

 July IMh). 



We left, at the Wraybury station, the London and South- 

 western railway, Windsor line, about eleven o'clock. The sky 

 was bright and the weather warm, a most unusual state of atmo- 

 spheric affairs this season. The heat was felt rather more than 

 was pleasant to people who were fain to wear their winter tog- 

 gery — overcoats and warm worsted socks — long after May, the 

 old and orthodox period for changing winter into summer attire. 

 The wisdom of the old adage, " Before May is out, cast not a 



