1800 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



According to Sargent, 1 it was brought to America in 1 784 by W. Hamilton, who 

 planted it in his garden at Woodlands near Philadelphia. 



The Lombardy poplar appears to be a short-lived tree, and is said to be dying 

 out in Germany. As it does not now apparently attain the immense size recorded in 

 former years, there may be some truth in the opinion advanced by Focke * that as all 

 the trees have been raised by cuttings since the origin of the first sport, they may 

 now be dying of old age. (A. H.) 



The most reliable account we have of the introduction of this tree is that given 

 by Aiton, Hortus Kewensis, iii. 406 (1789), who states that it was brought by Lord 

 Rochford from Turin, where he was ambassador about 1758. He planted cuttings 

 at St. Osyth's Priory in Essex, where two trees now much decayed still survive. 

 I am indebted to Mr. J. Edge, the gardener there, for photographs and measure- 

 ments of the larger of these trees, which show a large hollow stump divided into 

 two trunks about 20 feet high and measuring 18 ft. in girth at 3 feet from the 

 ground. Living branches have sprung from different places in the trunk, two of 

 which attain a height of about 50 feet. 



Loudon records a large tree of the same age as the last, which was blown down 

 at Canterbury in 1836; but the tallest tree mentioned by him was at Great Tew 

 in Oxfordshire, said to have been 125 feet high when only fifty years old. A tree 

 was recorded by Thomas Hogg, forester at Hampton Court, Herefordshire, 8 as 

 growing at Wharton Court farm near that place, which in 1879 was said to measure 

 no less than 160 feet. I visited this place in 1905 and found no trace of its remains ; 

 but if the height was correct, which from the other measurements given of trees 

 on the estate seems probable, it was much taller than any that I have measured 

 in England or France. 



Sir Hugh Beevor tells me of a tree at Pitchford, Shropshire, which in 1907 was 

 120 ft. by 14 ft. 8 in. ; and I have measured many of 100 to 1 15 feet, but none which 

 can be said to stand out from the average of mature trees. Henry measured a tree 

 at Shiplake House, near Henley, which was 105 ft. by 10 ft. 10 in. in 1905; and 

 another at Alderbourn Manor, Gerard's Cross, which was 100 ft. by 12 ft. in 191 2, 

 and visible for many miles around. An old tree in Lensfield Road, Cambridge, 

 90 ft. high in 1904, of which a photograph was sent me by Mr. Lynch, was removed 

 in 1912. 



J. Smith 4 recorded a tree growing at Fox Mills near Romsey as 125 ft. 

 by 13 ft. 2 in., but when I was there in 1900 I could not find it; and another at 

 Greatbridge House, near Romsey, which was 130 ft. by 13 ft. 9 in. These died in 

 1881, no doubt from the effects of the inclemency of the weather in 1879-80. 



The seasons of 1879-81 appear to have killed a very large number of Lombardy 

 poplars in the eastern and midland counties, not perhaps so much by their excessive 



1 Sargent, op. cit. 154, note (1896). 



2 In Gart. Zeit. September 1883, quoted in Gard. Chron. xx. 571 (1883). Cf. also Rev. des Eaux et ForHs, xxiv. 

 277 (1885). Manetti's letter quoted by Loudon, Gard. Mag. xii. 450 (1836), is rather obscure, and his statement that 

 plants were raised in Italy from seed, which preserved the characters of their parents, is extremely doubtful. In the Cambridge 

 Herbarium, however, there is a specimen, with female flowers and fruit, of a poplar sent by Manetti, which he considered to 

 be the female Lombardy poplar. 



3 Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. ix. 151 (1879). * Ibid. xi. 534 (1887). 



