64 RHODODENDRONS AT CASTLE KENNEDY 



than the wind backed into the south-west, bringing 

 warmth and abundant rain. 



Luckily, a few days before this devastation I had a 

 stroll through the Earl of Stair's grounds at Castle 

 Kennedy. Mr. J. G. Millais has recorded in his great 

 work on rhododendrons how the late Sir Joseph Hooker 

 paid a visit to the present earl's grandfather more than 

 seventy years ago, and persuaded him to take advantage 

 of the mild western climate to plant some Himalayan 

 rhododendrons in a pinetum of 70 acres which was in 

 process of being laid out. Sir Joseph, lately returned 

 from his memorable travels in North- West India, pro- 

 vided seed, chiefly of R. arboreum, campanulatum and 

 niveum \ the very rare species Batemanni and nobile 

 seem from their size to date from the same period, 

 and there are a few specimens of barbatum and fulgens. 

 An immense number of plants were raised from the 

 seed supplied, and were set out along the broad avenues 

 intersecting the blocks of young conifers, which as they 

 grew up afforded shelter from searching winds, which 

 is the chief enemy to rhododendrons on that seaboard. 

 The pinetum at Castle Kennedy, occupying an elevated 

 isthmus between two large fresh-water lakes, lies much 

 exposed to gales from almost every quarter. 



The collection of rhododendrons is remarkable, not 

 for much variety of species, but for the age and 

 quantity of such species as are represented. I know 

 not elsewhere of such abundance of R. arboreum. They 

 stand there in hundreds, many of them measuring 

 from 18 to 21 feet in height. There is a preponderance 

 of white-flowered varieties among these old plants; 



