Angnst 31, 1876. ] 



JODBNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND C0TTA9E GARDENER. 



193 



hither on that account, it is valued for its fruit, which makes 

 & species of flour, and serves the purpose of our Potato ; but 

 with us who cannot grow les marram of our neighbours, it 

 is simply a dessert fruit, and even then rarely home-grown. 

 It is propagated from the nuts when well ripened ; but the tree 

 has but a moderate amount of flavour in this country, and not 

 such as one might expect from the size of ancient samples of 

 it at Croft Castle — where some of the Chestnuts are from 76 to 

 80 feet in height, with a girth of 25 or 26 feet — at Nettlecombe 

 in Somersetshire, and in Dean Forest and its border. The 

 Tortworth Chestnut on the other side of the Severn was a 

 boundary tree in Stephen's reign, and is computed to have 

 seen eleven centuries. It bore fruit small but abundant in 

 1788, and in 1721 was 19 yards in circumference; but it is now 

 very dilapidated, and its girth of 60 feet at 4 feet from the 

 ground is a trifle to the famous Chestnut of Mount Etna, the 

 Castagna di cento cavalli, which was 204 feet in girth, and of 

 the capacity of which the name gives an idea. But the Sweet 

 Chestnut's claim to consideration is its picturesque effect at 

 other seasons, as well as in its autumnal leaf, which abides 

 longer and is of a richer gold than its namesake the Horse 

 Chestnut (JEsculus hippocastauum), a much later introduc- 

 tion to Great Britain from Thibet, of much less value as timber, 

 and of a wholly different botanical family. The sole likeness 

 is in the form, not the savour of the nut. The merit of the 

 Horse Chestnut, which commends it for environing walks, 

 drives, and lake banks, is its massive and luxuriant foliage, 

 especially when " the richness of its velvet drapery is em- 

 broidered over with millions of silver flowers." Compared 

 with these clusters of delicate white, tinted and relieved by as 

 delicate pink and gold, the blossom of the Sweet Chestnut is 

 dull and flat. For a charming variety of the Horse Chestnut 

 the roseate-tinted C. rubicunda may be easily grown, as also 

 the less known Pavia lutea, a smooth Horse Chestnut of 

 elegant foliage and habit. We may mention, too, a variety of 

 the Sweet Chestnut likely to prove quite hardy, the C. chryso- 

 phylla introduced from California, which is remarkable for 

 its bright golden-yellow underleaf. 



But lest the reider should tire of a prolonged march past, 

 in whioh each deciduous tree follows another, we shall resort 

 to the device of grouping, which has been used with such effect 

 by Mr. Mongredien in his " Trees and Shrubs for English 

 Plantations." The reds and yellows which predominate in an 

 autumnal landscape suggest one suoh group, which has been 

 partially anticipated ; the towering and spiral tree-forms whioh 

 stand out from such a landsoape, and a group to which some 

 of these belong, the.tr jes that love the waterside, a seoond ; and 

 a third having been devoted to such as will endure town smoke, 

 whatever space remains will of right belong to the Coniferse. 

 From the outlook we occupy, say on the laBt day of October, 

 the eye comprehends within the lawn precincts the reddish- 

 yellow of the Sumach, the less ruddy yellow tints of the com- 

 mon Medlar, the green-yellow of the Mulberry, and the burnished 

 gold of the Norway Maple. Just beyond, a week ago, might 

 have been seen the red foliage of the Bird Cherry, and at no 

 great distanoe the rich crimson of the Pear leaf. Were fruit 

 trees within our scope we might dilate on the lovely white 

 blossom of the Medlar and Cherry in springtide, and the 

 colour and grain of the Cherry wood when felled and con- 

 verted. To these may be added the leafage of the Liquidamber 

 just changing at the same season to a bright red from a golden 

 amber, and the Salisburia adiantifolia, the leaves of which 

 turn to a golden tint before they suocumb to sharp frost. But 

 as we are upon timber trees way must be made for the Maples ; 

 and first among them the presumably British Sycamore (Acer 

 Pseudo-platanus), which puts on its autumnal brown-red, as 

 Cowper notes, " ere autumn yet hath changed the woods," 

 leBt perhaps the change should go by default, so quick is it to 

 part with its leaves, it may be owing to the density of its 

 foliage, which adapts it for sheltering the sunny side of a 

 dairy. A variegated Sycamore with white blotches on its leaf 

 is a favourite and healthy-looking variety, and there are one 

 or two others of more recent introduction. Against the fault 

 of the Sycamore, that it does not carry height in proportion 

 to its girth, may be urged the fact that it is a quick-growing 

 tree of great durability, and in request with cabinet-makers, 

 moulders, and turners. For a lighter carriage perhaps the 

 Norway Maple (A. platanoides) may be preferred, a tree of 

 first-rate growth, and as desirable for its uses as its ornament. 

 Its early light green turns to brilliant yellow. It is lightsome 

 in form and outline, and its timber exhibits the same beauty 

 of fibre as the Bird's-eye Maple of America. The form of its 



leaf is like that of the Western Plane, and it merits well the 

 consideration of the planter. Mongredien reoommends the 

 variety called Acer Pi. colchicum rubrum for its dark red 

 leaves ; and it is worth while to try also for contrast the Sugar 

 Maple (A. sacoharinum), the smooth green leaf of which, with 

 glaucous underleaf, changes in autumn to orange and crimson. 

 This variety is the American Bird's-eye. Other species from 

 North America are A. eriocarpum and A. rubrum, both of 

 which are very susceptible of frost, and an Himalayan Maple of 

 very recent introduction does not as yet encourage the hope of its 

 becoming hardy in this country. It is curious that two of the 

 Poplars from North America, P. balsamifera and P. candicans, 

 invert the order of colouring, exhibiting a soft yellow when 

 their leaves expand in early spring, but changing with full 

 maturity to a deep green with whitieh-green underleaf. 



But the Poplars are chief amongst our spiral and columnar 

 tree forms. Who has not realised the character which a triplet 

 of Poplars adds to a rural landscape, as they tower above the 

 hedgerows and the leBser timber trees ; or the semblance to 

 a pinnacled cathedral put on by a group of these in the far 

 distance, as it overtops the Oaks, and Elms, and Beeches that 

 intervene? For ornament to the landscape, and upright, 

 tapering, Cypress-like growth, there is nothing to beat the 

 Lombardy Poplar (P. fastigiata). It is the tree " which wept 

 amber on the banks of Po " in classic fable ; and even where 

 it does not, as at Great Tew, attain the height of 120 feet, its 

 rapid growth enables it to contrast signally with trees of lower 

 and spreading habit, and to " diversify," as Grigor expresses 

 it, " the regularity of the sky-mark." In leaf it much re- 

 sembles the later- foliaged Black Poplar, and its habit when 

 swept bodily by the breeze, and when it 



"lile a feather waves from head to foot," 

 is a sight to remember. Intermediate in habit between it and 

 the Black is the monilifera or Black Italian, the fastest grower 

 of the Poplars, which on stiffiah soil or near running water 

 attains to 100 feet, and makes planks for the largest buildings, 

 that are neither apt to split nor to ignite. Distinct from these 

 is the Abele, with a dark green upper and downy white under 

 leaf, the hardiest variety of which is the common White 

 Poplar (called acerifolia, from its deep-lobed leaf). The fault 

 of the Grey Poplar is its tendenoy to realise the proverb, 

 " Soon ripe, soon rotten." Full grown at forty years, and 

 having a stem of 40 feet clear of branches, it is apt to take 

 heart-rot at sixty. For its many associations the tall " light 

 quivering Aspen " should be planted (which may best be done 

 as a seedling) ; and, unlike most of its tribe, it is a native. 

 Of elegant form and motion, it has a rich green foliage, which 

 turns eventually to bright yellow. Its chief drawback is a 

 tendency to innumerable suckers. Its slimmer allied species, 

 called the Athenian Poplar, though it hails from the North 

 American, not the Greek, Athens, is in Borne respects a more 

 ornamental tree. 



Next after the Poplars for upright and columnar growth 

 oomes the Irish Yew, a somewhat sombre fastigiate evergreen 

 of moderate height from Fermanagh ; and among the Cypresses, 

 Thujas, Biotas, and Junipers we shall meet with other trees 

 of this habit and of more aspiring stature. A Pyrenean Oak, 

 unnoticed earlier in our remarks, but hardy about London, 

 whatever it be further north, the Quercus fastigiata, has a 

 growth and shape by no means unlike the Lombardy Poplars. 

 In its finest development the Occidental Plane might rank 

 with this class, having an upright and quasi-fastigiate growth 

 (of from 70 to 100 feet), which distinguishes it from the 

 Oriental Plane, a tree from its rounded form and bright 

 flickering foliage is eminently suited for the lawn or pleasure 

 ground. The Western Plane has this in common with the 

 Lombardy and other Poplars, that it attains its greatest growth 

 by the waterside. It is the same with the Willows and the 

 tall American Biroh (Betula excelsa), introduced about a 

 century ago, and reaohing in North America a stately well- 

 branched growth of 80 feet. — (Quarterly Review.) 



DIOSPYBOS KAKI. 

 I have thought of trying this in a pot in an orohard house, 

 but fear there are few who can speak from experience as to the 

 probability of success. The three questions I want answered 

 are — 1st, Does the plant break readily from the old wood, so 

 that the tree may be kept compact ? 2nd, Does it fruit when 

 small, say as readily as a Peach tree? 3rd, Is the fruit worth 

 the trouble ? This is, of course, a matter of taste. A person 

 writing from Japan said that the fruits there were generally 



