Oil planting the Evergreen Oak near the Coast. 5^S 



Art. VII. The Fitness of the Evergreen Oak {Quercus V'lex)Jhr 

 planting near the Sea Coast, in Groups, for Ornament ; and a 

 Comparison of its Fitness with that of the Cluster Pine [^inus 

 Vinaster),for a Nurse to Plantations on the Sea Coast : follotved 

 hy a Description of St. Michael's Mount, near the Land's End, 

 Cornwall. By Mr. T. Rutger. 



Sir, 

 Permit me to recommend the Quercus /''lex, or evergreen 

 oak, to the notice of your readers, as valuable for planting 

 near the sea coast, either in groups for ornament, or as a 

 nurse for the plantation. In the latter point of view, per- 

 haps, the pinaster (Plnus Pinaster) may be considered by 

 some as preferable, being more rapid in its growth ; and for 

 deep plantations I should be inclined to favour it, not only 

 on account of its being the fastest grower, but because a 

 large supply can be more easily obtained, at a much less 

 expense ; but as a breastwork, for either deep plantations or 

 belts, I should favour the ilex, as being by far more orna- 

 mental, as well as lasting, and for having the advantage, also, 

 of feathering down, and forming a thick mass of foliage, 

 nearly impenetrable to the eye, which is of considerable 

 advantage in belt planting, and in which the pinaster fails in 

 its advanced state of growth. With regard to the properties 

 of the ilex, it shares an equal, if not a greater, degree of 

 indifference to the sea air with the pinaster, which is fully 

 proved in the west of Cornwall in numerous instances. My 

 attention was first drawn to this, some years since, by observ- 

 ing a broken row of ilexes, of above eighty years' growth, at 

 Clowance, the seat of Sir John St. Aubyn, Bart., where they 

 now stand, and constitute a valuable protection to the plant- 

 ation in the rear. About the grounds there are also several 

 handsome groups of them, of about forty years' standing, 

 which are much admired by visiters, and form a pleasing 

 feature among other evergreens, and trees of more stately 

 growth. The pinaster is well known in Cornwall, and much 

 sought after by gentlemen who are forming new plantations, 

 to plant principally as nurses to the more valuable kinds of 

 trees. When they are planted to stand by themselves, either 

 in groups, belts, or large plantations, unless they are kept 

 properly thinned during their growth, premature old age 

 ensues, and they make but a sorry appearance at the end of 

 forty or fifty years. Cases of this kind have occurred where 

 a few ilexes were sprinkled among the pinasters, the latter of 

 which are gone to decay, leaving the former healthy and 

 vigorous, and promising fair to be of long standing. 



