214 CUPKESSUS MACXABIAXA. 



Cupressm Macnoibiana was discovered by William Murray in 1854 

 while collecting seeds for Messrs. Lawson of Edinburgh in California, 

 at the southern base of Mount Shasta, it is said, but this locality 

 is doubted as it has not since been found there ; it has recently 

 been reported from the Shasta region, if the identification is 

 correct, growing in groups near the highest limit of arborescent 

 vegetation, at 15,000 feet elevation.* Its known habitat is, however, 

 very restricted, being confined to a few dry slopes on the mountains 

 south and west of Lake Clear. 



On the eastern slopes of Red Mountain is a stretch of Cupressus 



Macnabiana about half ft mile square, scarcely mixed with any other 



tree. The trees are only from 12 to 20 feet high, but all have the 



appearance of great age. They are gnarled, twisted, covered with moss 



and with limbs broken, looking like an old forest of Cedar of Lebanon 



on a small scale ; a fire has swept through one side, and the old 



stumps standing black and naked, aid the deception. On the western 



slope the aspect is not less curious ; here the Cypress forms a dense 



thicket 6 to 8 feet high on the exposed hills, and 15 feet high in 



the gullies. Where the fires have occurred, seedlings are coming up, 



but not in great profusion ; the little seedlings having the soil to 



themselves are of a fresh green, are quite shapely, and many of them 



grow into handsome trees. A few seeds carried down the stream to 



the gravelly flats in the valley have formed a grove of specimens of 



perfect pyramidal shape, as handsome as any in a park.t 



In Great Britain this Cypress has been much neglected, doubtless 



from the same cause that has affected the cultivation of Ciq^^ssus 



G-oveniana ; it grows but slowly, and is not often so shapely as it 



is said to be in its native home ; it is, however, quite hardy and 



readily distinguishable from every other species. It commemorates. 



the horticultural and botanical labours of the late Mr. James 



McNab, for many years Curator of the Eoyal Botanic Gardens at 



Edinburgh. 



JAMES McKAU (1810 1878), one of the best practical gardeners of his time, was born 

 at Richmond in Surrey, but his parents removed to Edinburgh within a few weeks 

 after his birth. During the twelve years prior to 1834 he served as an apprentice 

 and foreman in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Edinburgh, devoting much of his spare 

 time to the study of Botany and to drawing plants ; many of his drawings were 

 reproduced in Sweet's "British Flower Garden," and other publications. In the year 

 mentioned he travelled in Canada and the United States, and in 1835 he was appointed 

 Curator of the Caledonian Horticultural Society's experimental garden at Inverleith, a 

 situation which he held till 1849, in which year he succeeded his father as Curator of 

 the Royal Botanic Gardens at Edinburgh. During his long tenure of the Curatorship 

 many important additions were made to the gardens, including a space for Coniferse, 

 a Rock Garden, an Arboretum, etc., all of which were laid out by him. Besides his 

 extensive practice in gardening, he was a frequent contributor to horticultural literature. 

 He was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, of which he was 

 President in 1872 ; he also took an active part in the affairs of the Scottish Oregon 

 Association, through whose agency thousands of fine coniferous trees now flourishing in 

 various parts of Scotland were introduced. 



* C. H. Shinn in Garden and Forest, II. (1889), p. 598. 

 t Carl Purdy in Garden and Forest, IX. (1896), p. 233. 



