1206 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



four plants were raised, of which one growing at this nursery was 1 1 ft. 2 in. high in 

 1865, and is figured in Pinetum Britannicum, p. 194. In 1855 x a larger supply of 

 seed was sent by the same collector, and it soon became one of the most popular and 

 generally cultivated trees all over Great Britain, where it is seen in almost every 

 villa garden ; but its value as a forest tree has been almost lost sight of. It yields 

 seed - profusely at a very early age, and develops so many varieties of size, habit, and 

 colour that it is hardly possible to believe that they have all had a common origin. 

 The usual manner of propagation adopted by nurserymen is by cuttings, which are 

 easily struck, and reproduce the different named varieties which are most admired ; 

 but if it is desired to plant the tree in a situation where it will have room to develop 

 its natural size and habit, it is far better to gather seed from the tallest and most 

 clean-stemmed trees, and select from the seedlings those which follow their parent 

 most closely. 



Self-sown seedlings Of this tree are found in many places where the soil and 

 shelter are suitable, but of the millions of good seeds which must be shed annually, 

 only a very small proportion succeed in passing through their delicate first stage. It 

 is best to sow the seeds in a box, and keep them shaded and watered in a frame for 

 a year or two. I have seen a self-sown seedling at Penllergare, near Swansea, 

 30 ft. high, which Sir John Llewellyn thought to be about as many years old. 



The seedlings can be raised as cheaply as spruce, and much more so than silver 

 fir. They grow fast and vigorously after the first two years on almost any soil, and 

 are very easy to transplant in autumn or spring, though for cold localities I prefer 

 September. Large plants should not be used in exposed situations, as on account of 

 their dense foliage they are apt to be swayed by the wind. 



It is perhaps premature to say that this is a valuable forest tree, for it has not 

 been long enough in Europe to show whether it will grow to a really large size ; and 

 has seldom been planted closely enough together, or in situations where it has had a 

 fair chance to show its capacity for forming a fairly clean trunk. 



Its hardiness is astonishing, as in the greater part of the native habitat the climate 

 is mild and damp, and severe frosts are unknown ; and yet in Murray's 8 own words : 

 " So far as is yet known there is not a hardier plant in Britain. Exposed in the 

 winter of 1860-61 to the extremest cold which has visited this country in the memory 

 of the present generation, it remained as green and fresh in the greatest frost and 

 most exposed and unfavourable districts as in the midst of summer. Mr. Palmer's 

 tables give only two slightly injured out of seventy-nine reported on." This was 

 written about 1865, and has been amply confirmed by later experience. 4 



' As regards soil it is equally accommodating, for though like all other trees 

 it enjoys a good fertile loam, it will grow on dry sandy and on poor limestone 



1 Beardsley found this tree near Empire City on Coos Bay in 1855, and Kellogg described his specimens as C. fragrans 

 in 1857. Plants cultivated under the latter name are identical with C. Lawsoniana. Cf. Gard. Chron., 1869, p. 252. 



* Unwin, Future Forest Trees, 94 (1905), states that a pint of seed weighs \ lb., and contains nearly 300,000 seeds. Of 

 seed raised in the forest district of Freising near Munich, 70 per cent germinated. 



3 In Lawson, Pitiet. Brit. ii. 193 (1866). 



4 Masters, in Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. xix. 433 (1896), says that the young growths of Lawson's cypress suffered in the 

 vicinity of London from the abnormal frost of February 1895 as they had never before been observed to do. Var. erecta 

 viridis was much more injured than the ordinary spreading forms. 



