168 Dunse Castle Auraucaria, by Archibald C. Swinton. 



scrapers which the Eev. "W. Greenwell finds during his excava- 

 tions in the native country of flints, and of which he was so kind 

 as to present me with characteristic examples. It was found at 

 Penmanshiel, in the winter of 1874-5, in the field below the 

 house ; and probably indicated the site of a tumulus. 



Notice of Dunse Castle Auraucaria. By Archibald Camp- 

 bell Swinton, Esq. 



The following is the history of the remarkable Auraucaria in 

 the garden at Dunse Castle, a lithograph of which is given on 

 Plate Y., of the present volume. The seed from which this tree 

 was raised was sent from Brazil, to the late Colonel Hay, by the 

 brothers of his then farm steward. The Colonel not trusting to 

 local skill for raising the plants sent the seeds to his friend, Dr 

 Graham, then Professor of Botany in the University of Edin- 

 burgh. The seeds were sown and trees raised from them by the 

 late Mr Macnab, then at the head of the staff of the Botanic 

 Garden. Two of these trees were planted out, one at each end 

 of the terrace in front of the conservatories in the garden, and 

 were for many years objects of general admiration. They had 

 reached in 1861, the height of 27 and 28 feet respectively, but 

 by the frost of unprecedented severity, which occurred in De- 

 cember of that year, they were utterly destroyed. Colonel Hay 

 used to tell how the brother and sister (for the plant is 

 (" dioecious") of the Botanic Garden trees were sent to him by 

 Mr Macnab, as the produce of the one sowing. The one which 

 forms the subject of the lithograph is a female plant, about 44 

 feet in height, and has more than once borne cones. Its com- 

 panion has been supposed from its form to be a male. But this 

 is not certain. A third, much smaller and evidently younger 

 tree, completes the group ; which probably owe their escape 

 from the fate which befell their Edinburgh relatives, to the 

 sheltered situation in which they are planted. 



In a letter on the subject of these trees, Sir Pobert Christison 

 remarks : — " An important fact for cultivators is that they have 

 their internodes shorter and their leaves longer than most other 

 varieties I have seen ; and consequently their branches present 

 much finer diversity of light and shade. Other large trees I 

 have seen are on this account by no means so attractive, because 

 one sees light through and through them everywhere." 



