570 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



but the seedlings which I raised from this source were always weakly, and notwith- 

 standing every care died after two or three years. Seed sent from Japan in 1906 

 also germinated weakly, and many of the seedlings damped off in the winter without 

 making roots, though very carefully watered. They seem to require a very light, sandy 

 peat when young, and refuse to grow in soil which contains lime, or where moisture 

 is deficient during the summer. By far the finest tree that I have seen in England 

 is at Hemsted, in Kent, where a tree was in 1905 no less than 38 feet high by 2 feet 

 in girth, and showed its true habit very well. Owing to its being rather crowded by 

 other trees, a photograph of this was difficult to take, but after several attempts 

 had been made, Mr. Edwards was able to get the one reproduced in Plate 159B. 

 The next largest I have seen is at Coombe Royal, in South Devon, where a tree 

 about 25 feet high is growing, with a forked stem. 



As usually seen in gardens in England, it forms a shrubby pyramid, and I have 

 seen no others over 15 to 18 feet high. At Castlewellan, however, it seems to thrive 

 very well, and should do well in the south and west of Ireland and Wales. 



At the Villa Trubetskoi, near Intra, on Lake Maggiore, I saw a vigorous tree 

 about 45 feet high, which had divided into three stems, and in 1906 bore no cones. 



Sciadopitys is perfectly hardy, and bears without injury the severe winter climate 

 of Boston in New England, and of Grafrath in Bavaria, the thermometer descending 

 in the latter locality to -18 Fahr. ; but in severe winters the foliage turns brown. 



(H. J. E.) 



