TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 101 
The author mentioned the names of some of the most remarkable of these “ Mam- 
moth Trees,” with their dimensions, and stated that, instead of there being only ¢vo 
groves, as was at first supposed, there existed eight or nine in all; the whole of 
these localities are considered to possess from 1250 to 1300 trees. 
He then adyerted to the generic differences of the Wellingtonia—a name inap- 
propriately given by the late Dr. Lindley, instead of the more proper one “ Wash- 
ingtonia.” 
Dr. Lindley, thinking that this conifer did not grow “above two inches in diameter 
in twenty years,” being equivalent to 24 lines in twenty years, concluded that its 
age was 3000 years. In the year 1857 Mr. Hogg made another estimate of its age 
after having examined some of the breadths of the annual zones in a section of a 
part of the stem itself; and taking three lines, or a quarter of an inch in diameter, 
as its mean annual growth, especially as it isa tree of quick growth, this would 
make the tree to be 1544 years of age. So Dr. Torrey subsequently came to a very 
similar conclusion, from his own more accurate computation, that the tree had ex- 
isted for 1200 years only, instead of 3000 years. 
The author then remarked that that method of computation is not strictly to be 
depended upon; and that it is a question whether or not certain trees do undergo 
two growths in every year, or only in certain favourable seasons. Several botanists 
consider an annual double growth to be probable ; and especially, with regard to the 
increase of the Cedrus Libani, M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps concluded that such 
was the case; and that each year presented two layers; the one narrow and hard, 
and the second much broader and looser. 
Dr. Hooker visited in September 1860 the ancient Cedar Grove in Mount Leha- 
non, at the elevation of about 6000 feet above the Mediterranean; and he caleu- 
lated from the concentric rings of a branch of an-old tree, 8 inches in diameter 
(without its bark), which had “no less than 140 rings,” the youngest trees in that 
valley of the Lebanon (Kedisha) would average 100, the oldest 2500 years in age. 
Both of these estimates, however, Dr. Hooker considered to be “wide from the 
mark.” 
Mr. Hogg compared the annual increase in height of a healthy young Welling- 
tonia, eight years old, with a Cedar of Lebanon, ten years of age, which was, accord- 
ing to Loudon, planted in a very favourable situation near London. 
The Wellingtonia, growing in the south extremity of the county of Durham, was 
found to have increased in height in two years (when aged eight years) 3 feet 63 
inches, making it in July 1868 to be 7 feet 63 inches in total height; whilst the 
young Cedar had only reached 7 feet in ten years. 
The same able Dendrologist says that the Cedar of Lebanon “ does not begin to 
produce cones till it is twenty-five or thirty years old,” whereas this young MWel- 
lingtonia hore two cones and one male flower when six years of age, which was in 
June 1866; the last, or male flower, presented some scales with the anthers (small 
balls of an orange colour) placed within them. 
The mode of growth with the young Cedar is by spreading out into horizontal 
branches, whilst that of the young Wellingtonia is pyramidal and upright, with all 
its lower portion beautifully branched. As the latter advances in age, it loses its 
lower branches for about one-third or more of its total height. Thus, in that 
colossal individual, the ‘ Father of the Forest,’ it had lost its branches for about 
200 feet from the ground; its entire height being 435 feet. 
The author, in concluding, observed that the growth of large trees, and the for- 
mation of wood in the concentric zones or rings of the stems, required to be fur- 
ther and more attentively investigated, as it is a very important question in vege- 
table physiology. 
Mr. Hogg illustrated his paper by copies of photographs of several Wellingtonias; 
and also one, representing a glorious primeval Cedar, taken last year in the Lebanon, 
Notes on Two British Wasps, and their Nests, illustrated by Photographs. 
By Joun Hoge, V.A., .RS., FLLS. 
_ The author exhibited three photographs of wasps’ nests; all, except one, he had 
found at Norton, in the county of Durham, from the years 1831 to 1856, both 
