168 president's address. 



like size, when transferred carefully to a site at Hedgeley, which 

 had proved itself very well adapted to favour the development 

 of coniferous trees. Since that time these two Deodaras have 

 kept pace with each other very equally, standing as they do 

 side by side among other coniferse. But though the dark green 

 variety, with glaucous underside to its leaflets, is often seen 

 maintaining these features permanently in the warm southern 

 and western counties, my tree has gradually and almost com- 

 pletely lost them; appearing now in the normal garb of the 

 species. The other tree, of the pale, fresh green hue, has sus- 

 tained its original distinction with little or no modification. The 

 soil where they stand is a deep sandy loam, the slope northerly, 

 with moderate shelter from the west, north, and east ; elevation, 

 400 feet above the sea; air pure, with ample humidity, yet 

 elastic ; dews very copious. Prom this experiment it seems 

 reasonable to infer that the dark-green glaucescent trees of Deo- 

 dara cedar require a warmer mean temperature to maintain them 

 than do the apparently more tender, but really hardier, light 

 green, which an arboriculturist may easily select from the same 

 seed-beds. In like manner a richly glaucous specimen of the 

 common Juniperus rubra, or Red American Juniper, (improperly 

 called cedar,) transferred from the warmer "West of Scotland to 

 the sharp air of the Cheviots, at Hedgeley, completely divested 

 itself of its peculiar tints within two years, and assumed a simple 

 lively green ; at the same time showing signs of tenderness very 

 unusual in the normal individuals of this hardy species. 



The geographical distribution of well-marked variations may 

 contain the key to very important truths, since a change of lo- 

 cality might be made in order to test the reality of a supposed 

 specific distinction. The following occurrence has interested 

 me, in this point of view, humble and homely as it is. 



There is a well-known kind of lesser whin, gorse, or furze, 

 either found intermingled with the common Ulex Europcea in the 

 milder western and southern parts of England, or even, in some 

 districts, seeming to supplant it. It flowers in September, in- 

 stead of in April and May, like the larger whin. Its distinctive 

 characteristics of twigs, and flowers, and subordinate stature, are 



