58 LONDON TREES 



causing the trees to be gently shaken. But, however 

 collected, the seeds should be sown immediately, as 

 they will not keep long. The seed bed may be com- 

 posed of light sandy soil, and the covering to the seeds 

 should never exceed a quarter of an inch in depth. 

 Seedlings come away freely, and are ready for trans- 

 planting in lines the following season. In the case 

 of the English Elm a stock of young plants is usually 

 got up by detaching and transplanting the root-suckers 

 which are formed in abundance, while the Weeping 

 varieties are grafted. 



|| Fig Hi 



(Ficus Caricd) 



A NUMBER of old and large Fig trees are to be 

 seen in London, including the historic specimens 

 at Lambeth Palace, the far-reaching tree at High 

 Street, Poplar, those in St. Paul's Churchyard, and 

 the soot-begrimed standard tree at St. Giles-in-the- 

 Fields. Even in the densely populated East End, as 

 at Stepney and the Commercial Road, the Fig tree 

 looks healthy and has attained to goodly proportions, 

 which points out how well suited this tree is for town 

 planting. The first Fig trees planted in this country 

 are said to have been brought from Italy in 1548 by 

 Cardinal Pole, and planted by him at Lambeth. 

 When measured, two hundred years afterwards, these 

 trees were 50 feet high, the circumference of the stems 

 being 31 J inches and 25 inches respectively. In 1813, 

 being much injured by frost, they were cut down, 

 but sent out shoots freely. Loudon mentions that 

 when he visited the grounds in 1836, owing to the 



