1202 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



1870, when the original plant was 9 ft. high, it obtained a first-class certificate at a 

 meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, and was renamed erecta viridis. It is 

 quite unique as regards beauty, and never needs pruning or cutting ; but snow or 

 even heavy rain will bend and break the branches, which never recover, leaving 

 unsightly hollows in its outline. It is most useful as a small decorative plant ; but 

 in some places has succeeded as a walk or avenue tree, and at Terling Place, 

 Essex, has attained 30 ft. in height. It is perfectly hardy, even in the south of 

 Norway. This has been largely planted in many places, the tallest that we have seen 

 being at Bowood, where it is 43 ft. high. At Westonbirt and at The Hendre there 

 are fine specimens 35 to 40 ft. high. At Baron's Court, Co. Tyrone, the seat of 

 the Duke of Abercorn, there are several good specimens about 25 ft. high, planted 

 about forty years ago, which, like most of the older trees of this variety, have become 

 bare at the base on the north side. 



2. Var. Allumi (var. Fraseri). Similar to var. erecta viridis in habit, but 

 bluish in colour, due to the presence of a glaucous bloom on the leaves. Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell tells us that this variety has come true from seed. 



3. Var. erecta filiformis} Similar to var. erecta viridis in habit, but with very 

 slender branches and branchlets. 



4. Var. ericoides. Branchlets very slender ; leaves bright green, free and 

 spreading at the apex. 



5. Var. Smithii is columnar in habit, being nearly the same in diameter at the 

 top as it is at the base. The foliage is glaucous. 



6. Var. Wisseli 1 is also columnar in habit, with erect crowded branches and 

 branchlets. The leaves are said to be juvenile in character, subulate, and spreading, 

 with a glaucous tint ; but in an example at Kew they are only slightly more 

 spreading than in the type. 



II. Pendulous in habit. 



7. Var. gracilis. This name may be given to varieties with slender pendulous 

 branches, the original form 2 of which originated in Waterer's nursery at Knap Hill, 

 and received a first-class certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1870. 

 A more pendulous form, var. gracilis pendula, originated in Barron's nursery, 

 Borrowash, Derby. In var. gracilis aurea* all the branches are similarly 

 pendulous, but the growths of the current season are golden yellow in spring, 

 changing to bright green in autumn, and to dark green in the succeeding year. 

 A pendulous variety with white foliage, var. pendula alba, raised by Paul and 

 Son, obtained 4 a first-class certificate at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society in 1869. At Little and Ballantyne's nursery, Carlisle, there is a peculiar 

 pendulous variety, about 8 ft. high, resembling in form the weeping variety of 

 Sequoia gigantea. 



1 Cf. Card. Chron. xxv. 116 (1899). Gard. Chron., 1870, p. 249. 



* The original plant was raised in the Hillsborough Nursery, Co. Down, and was purchased by the late Earl Annesley, 

 Gard. Chron. xvi. 192 (1894). It was very beautiful in colour when I saw it in July 1907. 

 4 Gard. Chron., 1869, p. 1067. 







