42 2 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



me that " in nearly every place where this variety has been planted in France, it has 

 proved to be in comparison with true Corsican pines the larger and finer of the two." 



In Calabria the cones are gathered in December before they open, and kept 

 till the following July, when they are spread out in the sun, and the seed falls out 

 naturally, not being sown till the year after. I brought back in 1903 a sack of this 

 seed which proved very good, and a large quantity of plants were raised from it 

 by Prof Fisher at Cooper's Hill, where they grew extremely well; better, as it 

 seemed to me, than the Corsican pine, and much better than they did on my lime- 

 stone soil. A number of these were sent to Culford, the seat of Earl Cadogan, in 

 Suffolk, where his forester, Mr. Hankins, says that they stood the drought of 1906 

 very well on sandy soil. So far as I can see at present, the tree is quite hardy, 

 and grows as fast or faster than the Corsican variety. It is equally difficult to 

 transplant. Time alone will prove whether this tree has any economic value in 

 England, but its superiority over the Corsican pine will be, I expect, only on soils 

 deficient in lime, which the latter endures ; and on granitic sand, in the warmer parts 

 of England, it would certainly be worth a trial, either as a pure plantation, or, as 

 recommended at Les Barres, in mixture with oak or beech. 



A tree ^ reputed to be of the variety calabrica is growing in the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Belfast, and was 39 feet high by 3 feet in girth in 1905. It is said to be 

 columnar in habit. A tree at Glasnevin, growing on the side of a hill, measured 

 in 1906 41 feet by 4 feet, and is pyramidal in habit, with branches ascending 

 at an angle of 45°. It is reported to have been planted in 1888, when four years 

 old from seed. 



Remarkable Trees 



Corsican Pine.— One of the oldest, if not the oldest tree in England, stands 

 near the entrance gate of Kew Gardens, and in 1903 measured 86 feet by 9 feet 



3 inches. It was figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1888, iv. 692, fig. 97, and 

 according to J. Smith =^ was brought to England by Salisbury in 1814, when a 

 seedling only 6 inches high. 



In the pleasure ground at Holkham are three large trees which the Earl of 

 Leicester believes to have been brought to England by a relative early in the 

 nineteenth century, but the date of planting is somewhat uncertain. In 1907 they 

 measured 85 feet by 1 1 feet, 80 feet by 9 feet 1 1 inches, and 80 feet by 9 feet 



4 inches. Plate 1 16 shows two of these trees. 



The tallest I have seen is at Brocketts, Herts, the seat of Lord Mountstephen, 

 which, growing in a sandy soil and sheltered situation, was, when I measured it in 

 1905, no less than 119 feet by 8 feet 6 inches. 



At Arley Castle, six fine trees, all over 100 feet high, measure 10 feet 

 8 mches, 9 feet 8 inches, 7 feet 9 inches, 8 feet i inch, 7 feet 8 inches, and 6 feet 

 in girth respectively. Plate 117 shows the largest of these. Two of them have 

 the habit of var. Pallasiana, but are indistinguishable in cones and foliage from 



varieLf "'""' " """■*""■' '"'"""" '''°' P- '"^' ^^ ^ P-"--' -^'. 'l'^«-t f-- the Ca..a,.anian or Corsican 



2 Records of A\ Bol. Gardens, Keiv, 2S6. 



