376 General Notices. 



as related in the Arabian Nights, from whose top the magical bird of song 

 fell to be recovered. Perfectly hardy in the moor of the Cairnies. 



Araucaria Braziliensis. — This beautiful species must, 1 fear, be struck 

 from the list of plants suitable to our climate. For although it is recorded 

 as having withstood, at some places in Britain, the frosts of two succeeding 

 winters, this is by no means the case with it generally. Here it is at best a 

 frame plant ; and those who M'ish -to keep, must so preserve it, at least as 

 long as it can be so managed. 



I have now brought my observations on the Cairnies' Conifers to a close, 

 and to you, Mr. Editor, and to your numerous readers, J must apologise for 

 allowing my remarks to be so widely scattered over your pages. My great 

 aim has been to point out, so far as known, the claims of the respective 

 members of this most interesting family, wliether as respects their utility as 

 timber trees, their ornamental cJiai-acter, or their capacity of withstanding 

 our climate ; and however meagre the particulars communicated may ap- 

 pear, these have not been gatliered witliout considerable research, which 

 has been, in some instances, not only troublesome, but perplexing, in as far 

 as the same thing figures under so many names, with so many different au- 

 thorities. In such circumstances it is in vain to indulge the belief that I 

 have at all times escaped error. Allowances must be made, and those who 

 grow, must benefit the lovers of this tribe, by their observations. There are 

 many now in the field ; and the aptitude of all the species, at least of those 

 enumerated in these communications, to our climate, is now being tested 

 under many varied circumstances as regards soil, situation, and exposure, 

 on each of which particulars, future communications by others having supe- 

 rior opportunities may, with great profit to other growers, be contributed 

 through your columns. And since these remarks began to appear, it is 

 gratifying to obseiTO that gentlemen better qualified to the task, have been 

 giving valuable contributions to the world upon other collections. I would 

 instance, in particular, the notices by R. G. in the columns of tlie Garden- 

 ers' Chronicle, on the Conifers of Elvaston, whose only fault (the notices I 

 mean) is, that they are much too brief to satisfy public curiosity on that 

 most magnificent of all British collections. But it is not from the " gay 

 landscapes" of Elvaston Castle that the Scottish grower must gather infor- 

 mation as to what is suitable or unsuitable for his mountains or his moor- 

 land. Tlie experience of the Cairnies will be to him of higher value. 

 Without shelter, except from its own plantations, the Cairnies, as I have 

 obsei-ved before, is 600 feet above the sea, about 40 miles inland, and situ- 

 ated at 56° 30'' north lat., circmiistances carefully pointed out as of much 

 practical value to planters, in his own country, by the Editor of Hovey's 

 Magazine of Botany, an old established horticultural work, published at 

 Boston, U, S,, in whose pages these communications have, from time to 

 time, re-appeared. But it nmst be admitted that the last has been a most 

 trying winter, or ratlier spring, the recent sharp frosts having severely 

 checked the young shoots even of species of undoubted hardihood, not ex- 

 cepting Ahies Douglasi, and Cedrus Deodara. Loss and injury have in con. 



