532 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[Novbmbbb 10, 1888. 



moisture well. The quality of the locality may 

 safely be given as first or best quality for the 

 growth of trees. The rainfall has been put down 

 at 28 inches annually. The area of the plantation 

 amounts to 8 acres, and this was planted by Mr. 

 William M'Corquodale, the senior wood manager 

 in Scotland, in the spring of 1860, in the follow- 

 ing manner : — Douglas Fir, four years old, 

 9 by 9 feet ; Larch, four years old, one between 

 every two Douglas Firs, and an additional 

 line between every two lines of Fir, so that 

 the plants stood 4J by 4| feet, each acre 

 containing 2151 plants, of which 538 were 

 Douglas Fir, and 1613 Larch. The plants of 

 Douglas Fir were two years' seedlings, and two 

 years' transplanted. The plantation took a good 

 start, and the Firs are said to have taken the 

 lead at once. The Larch were gradually 

 thinned out, until the last disappeared before 

 the year 1880, since which time the planta- 

 tion was one of pure Douglas Fir. The first 

 regular thinning of the Douglas Fir occurred 

 in 1887. Before that thinning, ' about 277 

 trees remained per acre, the remaining 261 

 having gradually disappeared during the pre- 

 vious twenty-seven years. Of the 277 trees 

 seventy-five per acre were thinned out in 

 1887, so that now, in 1888, the countings showed 

 202 trees per acre. 



No accurate statistics are in my possession 

 regarding the material removed by thinning up 

 to date. At the present moment the area is 

 well stocked, and any small interruption of the 

 leaf canopy by the thinning of 1887 will disap- 

 pear by the end of 1889, when the cover over- 

 head will, barring accidents, be again perfect. 

 Thus, the thinning of 1887, though fairly heavy, 

 was by no means too heavy. 



On a sample plot, measuring four-tenths of an 

 acre of average appearance, all trees were 

 carefully measured by myself personally on July 

 20, 1888, at height of chest, or 4 feet 6 inches 

 from the ground ; a selected sample tree 

 was felled by the kind permission of Mr. 

 M'Corquodale, carefully measured, and thus the 

 cubic contents or volume of the tree ascer- 

 tained, separated according to solid wood and 

 branches. The former includes all wood over 

 S inches diameter at the small end. In the 

 present case none of the branches measured as 

 much as 3 inches in diameter, so that the solid 

 wood represents the stem of the tree from the 

 ground up to a diameter of 8 inches. The 

 following table shows the growing stook per 

 acre: — 



Diameter of Tree 



at 4 feet 6 inches 



above the ground, 



in inches. 



Number of Trees 



in each Diameter — 



Class. 



Total Sectional Area 



at 4 feet 6 inches, 



in square feet. 



4 



3 



•26 



5 



12 



1-64 



6 



3 



■59 



7 



7 



1-87 



8 



10 



3-49 



9 



17 



7-51 



10 



15 



8-18 



11 



33 



21-78 



13 



20 



23-56 



13 



35 



83-26 



14 



17 



18-17 



15 



20 



24-54 



16 



8 



11-17 



17 



2 



3-15 



Total 



202 



158-17 



From the above data it follows that the average 

 158-17 



The sample tree, of average development, which 

 was felled, Bhowed the following dimensions : — 



Diameter at 4 feet 6 inches above the gronnd 

 Sectional area ,, ,, ,, ,, 

 Height 



11'78 inches- 



■757 eq. ft. 



6o feet. 



At 48 feet from the ground the stem showed a 

 diameter of 3 inches, and here the top was cut off. 

 These 48 feet were divided iuto eight sections of 

 6 feet length each, each section measured in the 

 middle, and thus the following data obtained : — 



Number of 

 Section. 



Length of Sec- 

 tion in Feet. 



Mean Diameter 

 of Section 

 in Inches. 



Volume of Solid 



Wood m each 



Seotion in 



Cubic Feet. 



1 



6 



12-5 



511 



2 



6 



100 



3-37 



3 



6 



9-5 



2-95 



4 



6 



8-5 



2-36 



5 



6 



7-0 



1-60 



6 



6 



65 



1-38 



7 



6 



60 



•83 



8 



6 



3-5 



•40 



Total ... 



48 | 



17-89 



The top, 12 feet in length, and the branches, were 

 stacked, and found to fill a space of 50 cubic feet, 

 which may perhaps be put as equal to 50 xlo 

 = 7 '5 cubic feet of woody matter. In the present 

 paper this wood will not be taken into account. 



From the contents of the sample tree, the volume 

 of solid wood per acre was calculated according to 

 the following equation : — Volume of sample tree : 

 volume per acre = Bectional area of sample 

 tree : Sectional area of all trees per acre ; or 

 1789 : x = -757 : 158 17, and x = volume per acre 

 = 17 89x15817 „_„„ , 



-757 — = ' i ' J ° 0UDIC feet of solid wood 



over 3 inches in diameter, exclusive of top and 

 branches. 



By dividing the volume by the age of the trees (32) 

 the average annual production of wood is obtained : — 

 3733 _ 

 777- — 117 cubic feet, exclusive of previous 



thinnings; or, if only the time since plant- 

 ing 28 years) is taken into account : — Aver- 



3738 



age annual production of solid wood = 



28 



= 133 cubic feet, exclusive of previous thinnings. 



By way of comparing these results with the produc- 

 tion of one of our indigenous trees, I measured the 

 trees on a sample plot of one-tenth of an acre— in a 

 very uniform plantation of Scotch Pine, situated at 

 a short distance from the Douglas Fir plantation. 

 This Scotch Pine plantation had been established in 

 a somewhat elevated spot, which was formerly of a 

 swampy description. The locality must be classed 

 as of second quality only, compared with the locality 

 in which the Taymount Douglas Firs grow. It was 

 drained and planted in 1847 — that is, forty-one years 

 ago— with four years old plants of Scotch Pine ; it 

 has been thinned three times, and it will again be 

 thinned in 1889. On July 20, 1888, the area was 

 fully stocked. Omitting all suppressed trees, the 

 survey yielded the following results : — 



sectional area per tree is = 



202 



= - 783 square 



Diameter of Tree 



at 4 feet 6 inches 



above the ground 



in inches. 



Number of Trees in 



each Diameter — 



class. 



Sectional Area at 



4 feet 6 i ches in 



square feet. 



5 



40 



5-45 



6 



70 



13-74 



7 



70 



18-71 



8 



90 



31-42 



9 



100 



44-18 



10 



70 



38-18 



11 



40 



26'40 



12 



10 



7 85 



Total 



490 



185-93 



greater sectional area per acre than the Douglas Fir 

 plantation. 



The mean height of the wood was found to be 45 

 feet, and from the available data it was ascertained 

 that the volume of solid wood (3 inches diameter and 

 upwards) amounted to 5015 cubic feet per acre. By 

 dividing this number by 45— the total age of the 

 trees, I obtained : — Average annual production of 



5015 

 solid wood = —=- = 111 cubic feet, exclusive of 

 40 



previous thinnings; or, if only the time since plant- 

 ing is taken into account : — Average annual produc- 

 tion of solid wood = -jj— = 122 cubic feet. 



If now we compare the average annual pro- 

 duction of Douglas Fir and Scotch Pine, we 

 find— Douglas Fir =117 resp: 133, against Scotch 

 Pine = ill resp: 122 cubic feet ; here, then, is 

 an almost inappreciable difference, especially if 

 it i3 considered that the quality of the soil in 

 the Scotch Pine wood is decidedly inferior to 

 that of the soil in the Douglas Fir wood. Unfor- 

 tunately I had no opportunity of measuring a 

 Larch wood in the vicinity of Taymount, but it is 

 well known to all foresters that, up to an age of 

 forty-five years, at any rate, Larch produces a greater 

 volume than Scotch Pine, so that I may safely say : — 

 "If grown in a well stocked or crowded wood and in 

 localities of equal quality, Douglas Fir is not likely 

 to produce more solid wood during the first thirty or 

 forty years than the Larch, and probably also not 

 more than Scotch Pine." 



The explanation is, that, although the individual 

 Douglas Fir developes more rapidly in diameter and 

 in height than a Scotch Pine or Larch, it requires, 

 at any rate in Scotland, much more space ; and con- 

 sequently an acre of land will hold only a much 

 smaller number of trees. Moreover, I shall further 

 on show that it is more tapering than the important 

 European Conifers. 



On the other hand, the growing stock of a Douglas 

 Fir wood consists of much larger trees (though 

 Bmaller in number) than an equally old Larch or 

 Scotch Pine wood, and this is a great advantage 

 where big timber fetches higher prices than moderate- 

 sized timber. This advantage will, however, to a 

 considerable extent, disappear with advancing age, 

 when our indigenous timber trees reach the size usually 

 demanded in the market. W. Sahlick, Cooper's Hill. 

 (To be continved,) 



feet, which corresponds to a diameter of 12 inches. 



It will be noticed that this plantation shows a 



New or Noteworthy Plants. 



CYPRIPEDIUM ELLIOTTIANUM, n. sp. 



This species [to which reference was made by Mr. 

 O'Brien last week], is the nearest ally of Cypripedium 

 Rothschildianum. Its leaves are broader, apparently 

 stiffer. The spikes at hand are two-flowered. Mr. 

 G. GodsefT, however, has 6een them with five flowers. 

 The primary peduncle appears to be much stronger 

 than in the species named ; it is reddish, covered with 

 very short hairs. The fine bracts are those of Cypri- 

 pedium Rothschildianum, but white with dark red- 

 purple longitudinal stripes. Ovaries white with red 

 ribs. Both sepals white with dark red longitudinal 

 stripes. Petals longer by one-third, with dense, 

 short, blackish cilia, undulate at the base, white, with 

 numerous Indian-purple stripes and freckles, except 

 at the apex. The shape of the lip is like that of 

 Cypripedium Stonei, colour reddish-brown. Stami- 

 node angulate, both shanks ultimately contiguous, 

 markedly bifid at the apex, hairy. 



The best mark of distinction is the sharp bifid 

 apicular part of the staminode. I have the im- 

 pression that the colours are much richer, the 

 flowers larger, and the peduncle stronger, the leaves 

 broader and stiffer. 



This exceedingly elegant and surprising species is 

 dedicated to Mr. Elliott, of the firm of Messrs. Young 

 & Elliott of New York, at the suggestion of Mr. G. 

 Godseff, who knows Mr. Sander's wishes. What 

 a success for the firm to have imported in so short 



