1 1 1 2 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



species can obtain a footing. This explains the occurrence of dense woods of this 

 species, uniform in age, over large areas. After a time the growth slackens, and at 

 60 to 80 years ceases, so that other species, attaining a greater age and height, 

 eventually succeed in replacing this species. (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



The date of introduction of this tree into Great Britain is unknown, though Aiton 

 says that it was in cultivation before 1 783. 



Lambert described it in 1803 from a tree growing at Pains Hill which had 

 probably been planted by the Hon. Charles Hamilton, who founded that place before 

 1735, 1 and which he describes as a remarkably fine tree, though he gives no measure- 

 ments. He also mentioned trees then growing at Kew and at Croome in Worcester- 

 shire. All these 2 had disappeared when Loudon wrote, and he says that a tree 

 at Dropmore, which in 1837 was 2 7 ft- h'gh and i in. in diameter, was then the 

 finest known to him. There was also one at White Knights 30 ft. high. Neither 

 of these is still alive, and we have found only a few trees now living in England 

 besides those at Kew. One growing at Arley Castle, which is the only survivor 

 of five or six planted there probably about 70 years ago, measured in 1909, according 

 to Mr. Woodward, 45 ft. by 3 ft. 3 in. Another at Nuneham Park, Oxford, covered 

 with cones, and apparently having attained its maximum height, was 44 ft. by 4 ft. 

 7 in. in 1907. Another at Pencarrow measured by Mr. A. Bartlett in 1906 was 

 35 ft. by 3^ ft. ; and there is a poor stunted tree bearing cones at Menabilly. A 

 specimen at G. Paul's Cheshunt Nursery, is about 30 ft. high by 3 ft. 4 in. in girth. 

 Mr. Paul says it was probably planted in 1 845-1 850, and remembers it in i860 

 nearly as tall as it is now. 



All these facts show that this species is likely, from an economic point of view, 

 to be worthless in this country, as might be expected, considering that the tree 

 inhabits a climate unlike that of any part of Britain. Nevertheless, several writers 

 have strongly recommended this tree for planting in England on the strength of a 

 very short experience on the barren sands of northern Germany, 3 where the tree, 

 growing very rapidly from seed, has been widely puffed by enterprising nurserymen, 

 and where it may possibly be useful for shelter in places where nothing better will 

 grow. I was seriously advised by an expert in forestry to plant it on a large 

 scale, and might have done so if I had not previously known the tree in its own 

 country. 



Dr. Mayr of Munich, whom I consulted before utterly condemning the tree, and 

 who is second to none in his knowledge of the trees of the northern hemisphere, 

 agrees with me that, if planted at all, it is only fit for the worst class of sandy soil ; 

 but as young plants can now be procured at a cheap rate in Germany, there will 



1 Loudon, op, cit. i. 70. 



* Loudon, in Gard. Mag. xviii. 585 (1842), mentions a P. Banksiana, 14 ft. high, at Dalhousie Castle, where many 

 American trees had been introduced by the Earl of Dalhousie when he was Governor of Canada. 



5 In Bavaria, according to Mayr, over 500,000 have been planted in the State forests, and one firm in Germany sold 

 6,000,000 plants in 1905. The tree has also been planted extensively at Romershof, near Riga, and experiments are now 

 being made with it on the sand dunes of Jutland. 



