298 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



[ October 19, 1871. 



"eclwood surpass even the groves of big trees. The Eedwood 

 forms frequently almost the entire forest, while the big tree 

 nowhere occurs except when scattered among the other trees, 

 and never in clusters or groups isolated from other species. 

 Let one imagine an entire forest, extending as far as the eye 

 can reach, of trees from 8 to 12 feet in diameter, and from 

 200 to 300 feet high, thickly grouped, their trunks marvellously 

 straight, not branching till they reach 100 to 150 feet from the 

 ground, and then forming a dense canopy which shuts out the 

 view of the sky ; the contrast of the bright cinnamon-coloured 

 trunk with the sombre, deep, but yet brilliant green of the 

 foliage ; the utter silence of the forest, where often no sound 

 can be heard except the low thunder of the breaking surf of the 

 distant ocean — let one picture to himself a scene like this, and 

 he may perhaps receive a faint impression of the majestic 

 splendour of the Eedwood forests of California." 



Since the discovery of the Calaveras grove of big trees by Mr. 

 Dowd, eight or nine more distinct groves have been found, all 

 in California, and between 36° and SSJ" of north latitude. 

 They are all also between 6000 and 7000 feet above the level of 

 the sea. But although some of the others are perhaps quite 

 as remarkable, that of the Calaveras is the most celebrated. It 

 was the first discovered, and has the advantage of being acces- 

 sible on wheels, and possessing a good hotel. This grove is 

 3200 feet long and 700 feet wide, lying between two slopes, 

 intersected by a brook running north-east and south-west. It 

 contains about one hundred trees of large size, and a con- 

 siderable number of smaller ones. Some have fallen since the 

 discovery ; one has been felled, and one has been killed by 

 having the bark stripped to the height of 150 feet for exhibition 

 in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. These last two mentioned 

 were perhaps the finest in the grove. Of thirty-one trees, 

 measured by the party under Professor Whitney, the tallest 

 measured 325 feet, and the shortest 231 feet. The greatest 

 circumference at 6 feet from the ground was 61 feet, the least 

 27 feet. Hutehings, from actual measurement, states that 

 there are ten trees of 30 feet and upwards in diameter, and 

 more than seventy ranging from 15 to 30 feet. Sperry and 

 Perry speak of several trees in the Calaveras grove nearly 

 100 feet in circumference. 



At the Mariposa grove (which contains 365 trees) of forty-sis 

 living trees measured, the taUest was 272 feet in height, and 

 the shortest 186, while the greatest circumference at the ground 

 was 92 feet 7 inches, and the least was 27 feet, while the 

 Grizzled Giant has a circumference at the ground of 93 feet 

 7 inches. 



One of the most remarkable trees in the Calaveras grove lies 

 prostrate and half buried in the soil, fitly named the " Father 

 of the Forest," for the description of which I am mainly in- 

 debted to the very clever and interesting work of Mr. J. M. 

 Hutehings, of To-Semite, called " Scenes of Wonder and 

 Cariosity in California," which, in a very chatty and interest- 

 ing way, takes the traveller without fatigue through the land of 

 marvels. This tree measures in circumference, at the roots, 

 112 feet, and 200 feet to the first branch. Entering by an 

 aperture on one side, and turning at a right angle, a horseman 

 can ride a distance of 80 fc-et and emerge from a similar open- 

 ing on the opposite side ; 300 feet from its base, where it was 

 broken off in its fall, it is 18 feet in diameter; and, judging 

 from the trees shattered where it fell, it must have measured, 

 at least, 435 feet in height. How many centuries it lived and 

 flourished in its grandeur, the children of what now extinct 

 races played beneath its shade, how many centuries it has lain 

 there in its last sleep, amid the undisturbed solitude of the 

 ■wilderness, are questions almost too vast for even imagination 

 to attempt to answer. 



A few weeks since, says the Mariposa Gazette, there was a 

 crash in the Mariposa Big Tree grove, which was plainly heard 

 at Clark & Moore's, five miles distant. On visiting the grove 

 it was found that another big tree named " Andy Johnson " 

 had fallen. It had been noticed for two years to be leaning 

 more and more to the south, or south-east, but it had preserved 

 a certain show of stability, and its present humiliating con- 

 dition of prostration and ruin was not anticipated. It fell in 

 the direction it had been leaning, and the whole upper portion 

 of the trunk from a diameter of 8 feet to the top is broken and 

 tossed about like the wreck of a mighty ship broken upon a 

 surf. The wood, at the fractures, does not appear to be actually 

 decayed, but very brittle in appearance. 



Still more wonderful is the South grove, eight miles from 

 Calaveras, by far the largest and finest grove of Sequoias yet 

 dJBCOTered is California. In the scenes of " Wonder and 



Curiosity in California," already referred to, it is stated that 

 " it contains 1380 trees, many of them of magnificent propor- 

 tions. I have measured ten trees that were 21 feet larger in cir- 

 cumference than any others in either of the groves. Through 

 the prostrate trunk of one tree, resembling an immense tube, we 

 could have driven one of the heaviest Concord stages, crowded 

 with passengers, a distance of 200 feet. In this grove is another 

 tree, still standing but burnt out, in which twenty horses have 

 been coralled at a time." 



Professor Whitney concludes his report by saying : — " Frona 

 what has been stated, the reader will readily gather that the ' big 

 tree ' is not that wonderfully exceptional thing which popular 

 writers have almost always described it as being. It is not so- 

 restricted in its range as some other Coniferfe of California ; it 

 occurs in great abundance, of all ages and sizes, and there is 

 no reason to suppose that it is now dying out any more than 

 the Eedwood. 



" The age of the big tree is not so great as that assigned by 

 the highest authorities to some of the English Yews, neither is 

 its height as great by far as that of the Australian species, the 

 Eucalyptus amygdalina, many of which, on the authority of 

 Dr. Miiller, the eminent government botanist, have been found 

 to measure over 400 feet." " On the whole, it may be stated 

 that there is no known tree which approaches the Sequoia in 

 grandeur, thickness and height being both taken into con- 

 sideration, unless it be the Eucalyptus. The largest Australiari 

 tree yet reported is said to be 81 feet in circumference at 4 feet 

 from the ground ; this is nearly, but not quite, as large as some 

 of the largest big trees of California."^ (Boston Cultivator.) 



MR. ROBERT T. PINCE. 



Me. Eoeeet Tayloe Pince, the well-known and highly 

 esteemed proprietor of the Exeter Nurseries, died at an early 

 hour on the morning of the 9th inst., aged 67. The deceased 

 gentleman had been an invalid for more than two years, anci 

 succumbed at last to an attack of hereditary gout. He was the 

 son of Captain Pince, E.N., a gallant officer, who distinguished 

 himself greatly by his indomitable pluck and bravery in the 

 French War. Mr. Pince was originally intended for the law, 

 and was articled to an attorney at Liverpool. But in his case 

 love, which "rules the camp," ruled, or rather overruled the 

 law. Daring a visit to Devonshire he met the fair niece of the 

 late Mr. Lucombe, the proprietor of the Exeter Nursery, andl 

 in due time married her. The young lady is said to have had 

 an invincible dislike to the legal profession, and Mr. Pince in 

 consequence resigned his prospects of distinction in that 

 quarter, and joined his uncle in the pursuit of horticulture and 

 floriculture. He followed his new vocation with all the energy 

 and enthusiasm peculiar to his nature, and soon became an 

 accomplished botanist. He positively loved his flowers and 

 plants, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to accom- 

 pany an appreciative visitor in a tour of his gardens, and green- 

 houses, and hothouses, and expatiate to him upon the beauties 

 and characteristics of his choice collections. He imported fin© 

 exotics from South America, and added materially to the variety 

 of the Exeter Nursery's collections by jndiciously hybridising 

 well-known species. 



When in the prime of life he took pride and pleasure in corn- 

 peting with provincial and metropolitan nurserymen for horti- 

 cultural and floricultural prizes, and was remarkably successful. 

 The Camellias, Ehododendrons, and Orchids of his firm obtained! 

 celebrity under his supervision. The Camellia house in his 

 grounds at Alphington is, perhaps, unrivalled in the kingdom. 

 It is 200 feet long, and the plants in it have been cultivated to 

 the dimensions of trees, producing myriads of blooms, thousands 

 of which find their way annually into London drawing-rooms. 



During the latter half of his career Mr. Pince devoted his 

 attention to landscape gardening, and in this branch of hia 

 pursuit attained high excellence, and was also eminently success- 

 ful. He has left the mark of his superior taste and skill upon 

 many a park and garden in fair Devon. His last work, we 

 believe, of this description was the laying-out of the grounds at 

 Marley. His labours were not confined to his own special pur- 

 suits. In the course of his life he endeavoured to do all the 

 good he could for the community. He was for many years 

 chairman of the St. Thomas Local Board, and to the energy 

 which he brought to bear upon the management of the sanitary 

 affairs of that district may be attributed much of the success 

 that has attended the Board's operations. Difficulties were to 

 him only objects to be surmounted ; and his perseverance and 

 resolution were but intensified by obstacles and resistance. 



