432^ The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



degree of summer heat than it gets in England, for in the south of France it 

 becomes a splendid tree. I saw in the Museum Gardens at Chambery, in the 

 grounds of the Castle formerly belonging to the Dukes of Savoy, a tree which, 

 though forked near the ground, had two tall clean trunks each about loo feet 

 by 5 to 6 feet. The leaves were only just appearing on i8th May, and many of 

 the large bean-like pods full of greenish pulp, which had fallen in the winter, 

 lay on the ground. Seeds from these pods germinated, but the seedlings, with 

 one exception, withered soon afterwards. It is not uncommon in Savoy, and 

 I saw a fine specimen, 8i feet by 9 feet 6 inches, in the Public Gardens at 

 Aix-les- Bains, which in October 1906 had ripe pods on it. It is known in 

 France by the name of " Bonduc." 



In the old Botanic Garden at Padua a splendid tree was in 1895, according to 

 Prof. Saccardo,^ 135 years old, 21 metres high, and 2.60 metres in girth. When I 

 saw it in 1905 the trunk was broken off at about 12 feet, but long shoots, which 

 were in flower, had been produced from the stump. (H. J. E.) 



VOrto Botcmico di Padova (1895). . 



