390 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



1855, and that some had withstood the severe winter of 1854-5 without protection, 

 though others were killed, a difference which he attributes to some of the seed having 

 been'' gathered from trees which grew at 8000 and some from trees at nearly 13,000 

 feet. Hooker^ further states that hundreds of plants were raised and widely dis- 

 tributed by Kew, but in every case these succumbed in a few years to virulent 

 attacks of Cocais /arias. As the climate of the Chumbi valley is much drier than 

 that of Sikkim, it is quite possible that seed from that locality would give better 

 results ; but I have never been able to keep the tree alive at Colesborne for long, 

 as it suffers from the dry climate, and seems to object to lime in the soil. Mr. 

 Barrie, forester to the Hon. Mark Rolle, has been very successful in growing 

 this tree from English- grown seed, and has sent me healthy young plants of it; 

 but the seedlings I have raised at Colesborne both from imported and home-grown 

 seed have always died, though protected by a frame. 



Remarkable Trees 



The largest specimen of the Sikkim larch we know of in this country is one at 

 Coldrinick, near Menheniot, Cornwall, the seat of Major- Gen. Jago-Trelawney. 

 I have not seen this tree, but the gardener, Mr. Skin, informs me that in 1905 it 

 measured no less than 57 feet by 4 feet 6 inches in girth. It has very spreading 

 branches, the width from point to point of the lowermost branches being 43 feet. 

 The cones were admirably figured in the Gardeners Chronicle,' and have 

 produced fertile seed. The seedlings require careful treatment, as they easily 

 " damp off." 



A tree of the original introduction is growing at Strete Raleigh, Devonshire, the 

 seat of H. M. Imbert Terry, Esq., who showed it to me in 1903, when it measured 

 40 feet high by 4 feet in girth. It is growing on poorish soil at a considerable 

 elevation, where it is a good deal exposed to the damp south-west winds, and perhaps 

 in consequence of this has thriven very well, and has borne fertile seed for some 

 years past (Plate 109). 



Another much smaller tree, which also bears cones, is growing at Leonardslee 

 in Sussex. There is also an old tree at Pencarrow, in Cornwall, which in 1905 was 

 only 12 feet high by 15 inches in girth, stunted and covered with lichen. It also 

 bears cones. 



Dr. Masters^ received flowering specimens in 1896 from The Frythe, Welwyn, 

 Herts ; but the tree from which they were obtained could not be found when Henry 

 visited this place in 1906. (H. J. E.) 



' Card. Chron., loc. cit. 



2 After this was printed a good illustration of the tree appeared in the same journal on 2nd March 1907, which shows 

 that it is not only larger, but a better shaped tree than the one I have figured. 

 ^ Card. Chron. xxvii. 296 (1900). 



