212 CUPRESSUS LUSITANICA. 



There is probably no existing coniferous tree whose origin is 

 involved in so much uncertainty and whose claim to specific rank 

 rests on such debatable ground as that described above.* 



The earliest mention of Cupressus lusitanica occurs in a Portuguese 

 poem entitled " Solidades de Busaco " by Ferreiro de Lacada, and 

 published in 1634, at which date the tree must have been well 

 established in Portugal, and since that epoch it has been cultivated 

 not only in Portugal but also in the south of Europe generally, and 

 where cultivated frequently spreading spontaneously, but nowhere is it 

 believed to be indigenous. In the earliest systematic account of the 

 flora of Portugal by Brotero published in 1804, it is stated that 

 this Conifer using Lamarck's name (Cupressus glauca) was in cultivation 

 at Busaco near Coimbraf and other places, and that it had been 

 formerly introduced from Goa in India whence it obtained the vernacular 

 name of " Cedar of Goa," a name still in use but which is altogether 

 misleading, for the tree is not a Cedar at all, nor has it any direct 

 connection with Goa, it having been ascertained by the Indian botanists 

 that no Cypress grows wild anywhere near that place. The belief in 

 its Indian origin, therefore, rests on no secure foundation, although it 

 has been planted in many Indian gardens, both native and European, 

 just as it is planted in gardens in Australia and other sub-tropical 

 countries. Inferences drawn from a comparison of structural and 

 morphological characters of C. lusitanica with those of its nearest 

 affinities, G. torulosa, C. sempervirens and C. Bentliami, are equally 

 inconclusive, and the origin of the species, if species it is, still remains 

 undetermined. 



Ample evidence is afforded by herbarium specimens and by literary 

 records that Cupressus lusitanica was cultivated in Great Britain in the 

 seventeenth century, by Bishop Compton at Fulham, by the Duchess, 

 of Beaufort at Badminton, and by others, but it is not known from what 

 source they obtained their plants. In the following century it was 

 definitely named C. lusitanica, in reference to its supposed Portuguese 

 origin, by Miller in the eighth edition of his Dictionary published 

 in 1768, and although rare in England at the time, mention is made 

 by him of large trees that had been killed in severe winters, notably 

 those in the Bishop's garden at Fulham Palace, and one in the garden 

 of the Duke of Richmond at Goodwood in Sussex, which had been 

 growing there many years uninjured. From its first introduction this 

 Cypress has been proved time after time to be too tender for the British 

 climate generally, but there are still living some good specimens in the 

 south and west of England and in Ireland, which attest its great 

 beauty as an ornamental tree ; especial mention may be made of one 

 over 35 feet in height in perfect health and vigour, growing in the- 

 grounds of Mr. Thomas Acton at Kilmacurragh in the county of Wicklow, 

 where it is associated with some of the rarest and most beautiful 

 Conifers to be seen in Great Britain. 



* The circumstances of its history here related are almost wholly derived from an 

 interesting paper on " The Cedar of Goa," by Dr. Maxwell Masters in the "Journal of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society," Vol. XVII. 



t The finest specimens of Cupressus lusitanica are still to be seen at Busaco where there, 

 are upwards of 5,700 trees, among which more than 500 range from 50 to 250 years old, 

 including one of colossal growth which is nearly 100 feet high, and its trunk has a girth of 

 12 feet at three feet from the ground. 



