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in America as Washingtonia californica, was discovered and intro- 

 duced by Mr. Lobb. Some of you may remember that it caused 

 no small sensation. It is the larijest of Conifers, and one of the 

 largest of trees ; all things considered, the largest. There grow 

 on Mouut Etna some enormous chestnut trees, some of them said 

 to measure a hundred and eighty feet round. Such size of trunk 

 is altogether exceptional, but the mammoth tree — the king of the 

 giant trees of California — has a diameter of as much as thirty 

 or forty feet, and a height of from two hundred and fifty feet to 

 four hundred feet. Try to grasp these huge dimensions. The 

 tallest trees in Europe reach about one hundred and eighty feet, 

 and the tallest in England are not much over one hundred and 

 ■ twenty-five feet. The mammoth tree in the British Islands does 

 not tower above its brethren, for ifc rarely exceeds eighty feet iu 

 height. The leaves of this great tree are small, and the cones are 

 only about two inches long. Not far behind the " gigantea " comes 

 its brother, Sequoia sempervirens, the Redwood, also a native of 

 California, and a tree of great value. For majestic growth and 

 interesting association, the Cedar of Lebanon has long been cele- 

 brated. It was always highly esteemed, and, even now, the Arab 

 considers it possessed of consciousness, and as being a divinity iu 

 the form of a tree. From the mountain forests of Northern India 

 comes the picturesque Deodar or Himalayan cedar, considered a 

 variety of the Lebanon cedar. This tree now adorns many a 

 British pleasure ground, and is a great favourite in England. Ifc 

 reaches a height of about seventy feet, and, in its native soil, as 

 much as two hundred feet, with a diameter of eight or nine feet. 

 The word " Deodara " means " Tree of God, " or " Divine Tree." 

 The Thuyas, or Thujas, are well known in England as arborvittes. 

 The names they bear in Japan and China have the same meaning 

 as the Latin, namely, " Tree of life." There is a Cypress so well 

 known that gardeners often call it by its specific name — " Lawson- 

 iana." It is a handsome fellow in Britain, but what can be said of 

 it as it luxuriates in its native Californian soil, reaching a height of 

 over two hundred feet, with a diameter of ten or twelve feet. A 

 remarkable Chinese tree, with an odd name, is widely planted in 

 Britain. It is the Maiden-hair tree (so called from the shape of its 

 deciduous leaves), or Ginkgo biloba, or Salisburia adiantifolia. The 

 word " Ginkgo " means full of leafless buds in winter. This 

 remarkable tree, geologists tell us, is a survival from very remote 

 times, and it cannot be distinguished from fossil specimens from 

 old strata. The same indeed may be said of some other species 

 which must have existed in the soil of our own land, such as it 

 then was, ages and ages ago. There is a New Zealander, called 

 .the Kauri or Cowrie pine, a great ornament to the forests. It 



