44 TREES 



and victors in antiquity, flank the pillars of the South Gate, 

 and a third specimen grows well against the warm West Wall. 

 Their poisonous property is caused by the prussic acid in 

 the leaves. The gilded leaves of this plant ought to be used at 

 Queen's College at Christmas-time for decorating the boar's 

 head, instead of those of Prunus laurocerasus. 



The boar's head in hand bear I, 

 Bedecked with bays and rosemary. 



West of the South Gate a Crataegus mexicana is dated 

 1824 ; intermingled with the other plants are Roses and 

 various species of Honeysuckle, Lonicera discolor, India ; 

 fragrantissima, China ; periclymenum ; etrusca, Mediterranean : 

 brachypoda, Japan. 



In the south-west corner of the Garden a young Weeping 

 Birch replaces the old tree which some will remember. Near 

 by are Picea pungens and Pinus sylvestris, and in the shrub- 

 beries, Daphne mesereon and Berber is stenophyllum and 

 Darwinii. 



The most noteworthy trees and shrubs along the Western 

 Walk, proceeding from south to north, are : Prunus cocomilia 

 from Calabria, which has been suggested as yielding a good 

 substitute for Peruvian bark, by Professor Tenore of Naples * ; 

 and Corylus colurna from the Himalayas, which yields the 

 Constantinople Hazel-nuts, or Turkey-nuts as they are fre- 

 quently called. 



In the corner of Plot H is the Locust-tree or False 

 Acacia, Robinia pseud-acacia of N. America, which deserves 

 to be more widely grown for the sake of its wood : it is 

 very durable when in the ground, and makes excellent posts. 



Lawson's Cypress is remarkable alike for its symmetry of 

 form and for the exceeding variability among its seedlings. 

 The variety here represented is viridistricta ; but lutea, Silver 



* The old tree, having reached the limit of its life, was taken clown 

 while this book was in the press, but others are coming on. 



