H 



Garden and Forest. 



fNUMBER 255. 



but the leaves are large and glossy, and are attacked by few 

 insects. In late summer the light green clusters ot burs 

 contrast in a pleasant way with the darker color of the leaves, 

 while in July, when tasseled over with clusters of cream- 

 colored flowers, it is one of the most beautiful of trees. 



The tree illustrated on page 19 is not one of the largest 

 size, as it girths only ten feet at five feet from the ground, 

 and its spread of branches is only little more than sixty 

 feet. It is, however, as can be seen, a tree of great sym- 

 metry, and as it is in vigorous health it will yet attain 

 much greater dimensions. It stands in Llewellyn Park, in 

 West Orange, New Jersey, in an open field which has been 

 cultivated a hundred years. Elderly men say that it was called 

 a big tree when they were boys, and its fruit was much cov- 

 eted on account of its size and quality. In the open soil of 

 this part of the country the Chestnut thrives luxuriantly, and 

 many trees much larger than this were once standing in 

 the park and its neighborhood. Little care has been taken 

 to produce strains of our native Chestnut, which yields su- 

 perior fruit. Several varieties bearing large nuts have 

 lately been disseminated, but they are mostly seedlings of the 

 European Chestnut. In Europe and Asia the Chestnut is an 

 important food-product, and if the time ever comes here 

 when it will be necessary to husband our resources, it will 

 not be strange if varieties are produced which bear more 

 abundantly of larger fruit than any with which we are now 

 acquainted. Besides its beauty as a tree for ornamental 

 planting and its delightful nuts, the Chestnut is one of our 

 most valuable timber trees, so that it will probably be 

 largely planted in the future. 



Our illustration is reproduced from one of a series of 

 photogravures of the famous trees in Llewellyn Park. 



Notes of a Summer Journey in Europe. — XXII. 



THE best and most famous Pinetum in England is said to 

 be that at Bicton, but this is too much out of the way for 

 inspection by the average visitor in London. A more avail- 

 able collection, and one well worth visiting by every admirer 

 of fine conifers or student in arboriculture, is the Pinetum at 

 Dropmore, an estate founded and embellished by the late 

 Lord Grenville, and now owned by Lady Fortescue. It is 

 within easy distance of London, beyond, but within sight of 

 Windsor Castle, and within an hour's walk through a pretty 

 rural road from the station at Taplow. There are carriages 

 to be had at this station, too, for those who prefer to ride. 



Dropmore is famous as a beautiful estate, for its Rhododen- 

 drons and Azaleas, and, more than all, for its well-developed 

 and old exotic conifers. As one goes through the grounds 

 they everywhere give the impression of being a natural 

 growtli, and the effect is extremely pleasing in many respects, 

 although there are doubtless some visitors who wish for more 

 signs of "cultivation" than the present owners have allowed. 

 The natural arrangement and growth of the fine old Rhodo- 

 dendrons and Azileas and many other shrubs gives the im- 

 pression that the seed had been scattered by nature, while the 

 introduced trees seem a natural and proper part of the glades 

 and woods, and as we tramp through the ferns and bracken 

 to get at them it is hard to realize that this soil had ever been 

 disturbed b) cultivation. 



A large part of the territory devoted to trees is a gravelly 

 subsoil, covered by only a very few inches of good soil, while 

 other portions are of just the quality which Heath-plants, such 

 as Rhododendrons, delight m. The climate in this beautiful, 

 wooded section of England compares favorably with any, except 

 the southern portion of the island. Here are large old Camel- 

 lias, growing and blooming well in the open air, and large old 

 Fuchsias thrive luxuriously, having endured the Dropmore 

 winters for scores of years. 



The planting of Dropmore was begun nearly a century ago by 

 Lord Grenville, who evidently had a mania for conifers. After 

 his death Lady Grenville had a care for the trees and increased 

 the collection. But since her death, twenty-five or thirty years 

 ago, and until within a very few years, practically no additions 

 were made to the species already growing on the grounds. 

 Lately many of the newer introductions have been added, and 

 the present head-gardener, Mr. C. Herrin, shows much in- 

 terest in the care and preservation of the fine specimens which 

 have come under his charge. No small part of the value of 

 this collection is the fact that the asfes of the trees are known 



and therefore furnish valuable data to the dendrologist and 

 student of forestry. 



Almost the only evidence of formal planting of trees is a 

 long avenue of splendid Cedars of Lebanon, eighty or ninety 

 years old, planted twenty-five feet apart and fifty feet between 

 the rows. These trees average considerably over eighty feet 

 in height, with trunks eight or ten feet in circumference. The 

 largest tree of this kind on the estate, planted just a hundred 

 years ago, is over 100 feet high, with a girth of trunk of over 

 fifteen feet. A Deodar Cedar, in fruit, planted in 1840, is 

 seventy-two feet in height and nearly ten feet around the 

 trunk. One of the prides of the estate is a Douglas Fir, Pseu- 

 dotsuga taxifolia, about a hundred and twenty feet high and 

 having a stem twelve feet around at several feet from the 

 ground. It is a splendid example of the adaptability of tfiis 

 evergreen of our Pacific Coast region to the soil and climate 

 of many parts of Europe. This specimen was raised from 

 some of the seed originally sent over by David Douglas 

 when he was collecting in the region of the Columbia River 

 for the Horticultural Society of London. It was sown in 1827, 

 and in 1830 the plant was transferred to the spot where it now 

 stands. Some years ago its top was broken by a winter storm, 

 or its height to-day would have been greater. In these sixty 

 years it has made an average annual growth of fully two feet 

 in height and has yearly added four-fifths of an inch to the 

 diameter of its trunk. Of course, there are other conifers 

 which make quite as much annual growth, but very few main- 

 tain the average for so long a time. Specimens of our Big 

 Trees (Sequoia gigantea), planted thirty and thirty-five years 

 ago, are respectively over sixty and nearly seventy-five feet 

 high, while the circumference of their trunks at five feet above 

 the ground is as great as that of the Douglas Fir just men- 

 tioned. The trunks of the Sequoias, however, are always very 

 large at the base and taper rapidly toward the top. It seems 

 to be characteristic of the Sequoias in cultivation that when 

 they get to be as old as these they begin to lose much of their 

 beauty of form, the lower branches becoming bare and strag- 

 gling in appearance. It seems to be the opinion of some 

 people who have carefully observed the growth and develop- 

 ment of these trees in England, that they are not destined to 

 attain the grand proportions or long life of the parent trees in 

 California. Certainly most of those which came under my 

 observation did not look very promising, considering that it 

 is not yet forty years since the first seed was brought to Eng- 

 land, and that the trees, although fruiting, must be regarded 

 as comparatively in their infancy. When young they make 

 handsome pyramidal or cone-shaped specimens. 



A Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), planted in 1845, is over 

 seventy-three feet in height, ten feet around the trunk, and is a 

 handsome specimen, with a full supply of branches to the ground. 

 Among the true Firs, one of the finest here, as it is also in its 

 native habitat, is the so-called Red Fir, Abies nobilis, which 

 was introduced to England by the same indefafigable collector 

 who secured the Douglas Fir, and probably from nearly the 

 same region. This specimen was planted where it now stands 

 in 1837. It is seventy-one feet in height, has smooth, slaty-gray 

 bark, and branches which sweep the ground. Abies grandis, said 

 to have been planted in 1861, is fully seventy feet high. Abies 

 Cephalonica, planted six years later, has reached the same 

 height; while the peculiar and interesting Spanish Fir, A. Pin- 

 sapo, planted at the same time as the Cephalonian, forms a 

 fine symmetrical tree, measuring sixty-six feet. 



The Spruces do not appear to be so well represented as the 

 Firs, but among them were noticed Picea Sitchensis, which, 

 planted just fifty years before, had reached a height of sev- 

 enty-three feet, with a circumference of trunk of eight and a 

 half feet, while a very handsome tree of P. Morinda (also 

 known as P. Smithiana), from the Himalayas, spreads its 

 branches over a diameter of nearly forty feet, and is more than 

 sixty feet in height. It was planted in 1843. As is character- 

 istic of the species, this specimen has long, graceful, pendu- 

 lous branchlets, which suggest a Weeping Willow. This is 

 another tree too tender to withstand New England, or, at 

 least, Boston, winters without generally receiving great, and 

 often fatal, injuries. Even at Washington, where specimens 

 may be seen on the public grounds, they do not appear to be 

 at home or thrive as well as they should. 



Quite a number of species of our western and south-western 

 Pines have developed into fine trees. Among them might be 

 mentioned such species as Pinus Lambertiana, P. ponderosa, 

 P. insignis, P. muricata, P. tuberculata, P. Monticola and others. 

 The tree which is said to be P. insignis, planted in 1839, is now 

 ninety feet high, with a trunk diameter of nearly four feet ; 

 Lambert's Pine, planted in 1843, is considerably over seventy 

 feet in height, with a girth over eight and a half feet, while a 



