THE GIRTH-INCREASE OF TREES. 179 
to acquire the disproportionate thickness of stem below and 
sinuous top characteristic of all the species in the Garden past 
infancy. These faults progressed with a diminution in the rate 
of girth increase respectively, from °81, 1'41, 1°37 and 1°28 in the 
first decade to 76, 98, 110 and ‘90 in the first six years of the 
second. Three were then cut down, and No. 1, the survivor, now 
standing clear by the thinning of the grove, has not benefited 
by the change, as its rate has still further diminished—from 110 
to ‘74 in the last four years. 
ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA. 
The best of several of the species observed in the first decade 
had a rate of 0°70 and attained a girth of twenty inches, but like’ 
all the others of its time in the Garden it had suffered seriously 
from the frost of 1860. Gradually deteriorating, it was cut down 
in 1887. 
No.| Girth.] 1887. — 1890. | 1891. | 1892, 1893. | 1894. | 1895. | 1896, | 1897, [Total. = Girth, 
=e | 
64] 725] -65 «0 | ‘3 | 65 | 55/ 60| 50 | 75) 40) 50) ‘3095-75 | ‘52 | 12-70 
65] 14-45] 60 | 60 | 55 | €5| 65) €0| 70 | “75 60 | 85 | 70 }695 | 65 | 22-00 
: { } 
Nos. 64, 65, selected in 1887, grew in a small grove of the species, 
unlike the earlier tree, which stood free on the former terrace. 
They look healthy though not close-branched, and No. 64 is 
overshadowed by 65, which may account for its inferior rate. 
No. 65, standing at a corner, is comparatively free. The range 
of No. 64 was °30 to 75; that of 65 only ‘50 to 75. 
CEDRUS AFRICANA. 
} 
Annual : Ann. | Girth 
« F t 
No| Te 1188p, | 1889, | 1890. | 1891. | 1892. | 1893. | 1894. | 1895. | 1896. | 1897. JTotal.) “Ay | Last 
Decade. 
39 | 1:51 1-30 | 1:20 | 1-30 | 1-20 | 120 | 1°60 | 125 | 1.10 | 50 | 60 J11°05/ 1°10 | 53°55 
No. 39 was very handsome and densely crowded with branches, 
-and girthed two feet in 1878, but by the end of the first decade 
