THE TREES, SHRUBS, AND WALL PLANTS 



Par ses fruits, par ses fleurs, par son beau vetement, 



L'arbre est de nos jardins le plus bel ornement : 



Pour mieux plaire a nos yeux combien il prend de formes. 



DELILLE, Les Jardins. 

 For detailed lists of the Wall Plants, see p. 144. 



On the strip of land intervening between the Botanic 

 Garden proper and High Street is a specimen of Wellingtonia, 

 Sequoia gigantea, the tallest growing tree in the world, which, 

 should it ever attain to its full height, would extend without 

 a branch to the height of Magdalen Tower, and would 

 then support a pyramid of branches, the topmost of which 

 would reach to the dizzy height of three Towers one on top 

 of the other ! The girth of such a tree would be 90 ft. ; 

 our specimen measuring but 7 ft. i in. An American 

 botanist has renamed this genus Washingtonia : there is no 

 end to the confusion introduced into scientific nomenclature 

 by the ignorance or jealousy of " scientists " over the water. 



The Cedar of Lebanon, with a trunk girth of 8| ft., was a 

 fine-grown tree before the weight of the snowfall of April 25, 

 1908, when 1 8 in. of snow fell and brought down one limb : 

 the building of Professor Vines' new Laboratory in 1911 

 bringing down another. In 1836 it was already 30 ft. high, 

 with a trunk diameter of i ft. 3 in., and a head diameter of 

 27 ft. One day, let us hope, its place will be adequately 

 taken by the two young cedars near by ; but the soil does 



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