274 General Notices. 



Mr. Fortune, seem quite as hardy as the other sorts ; Cerasus illicifolia is 

 considerably hurt in the open border, but a plant on an east wall is not. 

 Ceanothus papillosus and C. dentatus are slightly damaged in the open 

 ground and on a wall, but C. rigidus is not the least injured ; this seems the 

 best of the three. All the species and varieties of Arbutus have suffered 

 slightly, except A. tomentosa; it seems quite hardy, and highly deserving 

 of more extensive cultivation. All the species of Escallonia are killed in 

 the tops, both on the borders and walls ; and the new E. macrantha does 

 not seem any hardier than the older sorts ; Fabiana imbricata is fresh in 

 the open ground, and beginning to show flowers ; Garrya elliptica and G. 

 macrophylla are not injured this year, though last year they were both in- 

 jured by less cold, but it was in April. Fagus betuloides and F. Cunning- 

 hamii are both very fresh and green on a south wall ; the beautiful Hedera 

 Rcegneriana is also quite green. Quercus glabra, Q,. glaberima, Q,. annu- 

 lata, Q,. virens, are all killed ; but the new Q,. agrifolia is healthy and fresh> 

 so is Q,. Mirbelii, which promises to be a fine sub-evergreen tree; and Q. 

 Mexicana is fresh on an east wall. Eleagnus reflexa, on a west wall, also 

 looks fresh, and promises to be quite hardy. Considering the intensity of 

 the frost, and the dry bright sunshine which accompanied it during many 

 days, the injury done to plants, though considerable, is not great ; a much 

 less extent of frost in the end of April or the beginning of May, will do far 

 more damage, as the plants have begun to grow, and the young shoots are 

 succulent. — [Gard. Jour.) 



Cedrus Deodara as a Timber Tree. — It appears that we are to have 

 a new timber tree, and a new nurse for our timber trees. We learn from 

 several articles which have recently appeared in the columns of a contem- 

 porary, that doubts are entertained by some botanists Avhether the deodar is 

 anything more than a mere variety of the cedar of Lebanon. These doubts, 

 however, are not participated in by the editor. At any rate, he considers 

 that if the deodar and the cedar are only varieties of the same species, there 

 is sufficient distinctness between them for their timber to be of very differ- 

 ent qualities. This is an important economical question, if the deodar is to 

 be naturalized in England ; and it seems that a ton weight of the seed has 

 been placed by the East India Company at the disposal of the government, 

 and that it has been distributed among four eminent nurserymen, who are 

 to raise it, in order to its being planted out in the royal forests. Great ad- 

 vantages are anticipated from this tree as a nurse, instead of the Scotch 

 pine and the larch. Against the former it is justly alleged that its foliage 

 is so dense as to intercept the light and air from the deciduous trees planted 

 in company with it. The benefits of shelter from gales of wind, which it 

 confers during one stage of their growth, are thus neutralized by its ob- 

 structing proper ventilation at another. Its poles, moreover, are of little 

 value. The poles of the larch, on the contrary, are very saleable; while its 

 pyramidal form and light foliage do not interfere with the free circulation 

 of air ; but then these very circumstances incapacitate it, in a great meis- 

 ure, from affording that degree of shelter which is sought to be attained by 

 the system of nurse-planting. Its liability to the rot, which has made its 



