Cupressus 1 1 8 1 



fort, in the original manuscript of his Voyage en Portugal, which is now in Prof. 

 Henriques' possession, describes the species as follows : Cupressus lusitanica, patula, 

 fructu minori. 



I saw this cypress growing at many other places in Portugal, but nowhere very 

 large, except in the beautiful garden of Monserrat, formerly the property of Mr. 

 Beckford, but purchased in 1855 by Sir Francis Cook, whose son, the present Sir 

 Frederick Cook (Viscount Monserrate in Portugal), keeps up this unique place with 

 the greatest care. The oldest cypresses here seem to have been planted something 

 like a century ago, and are extremely varied in habit, as well as in the size, shape, and 

 colour of their fruit. The tallest, in a low sheltered valley north of the house, was 

 blown down a year ago, and measured 3 ft. 5 in. in diameter on the stump. It is 

 said to have been taller than two trees still standing in the same place, one of which 

 is from 105 to no ft. high by 10 ft. 5 in. in girth, the other being about 90 ft. by 

 i2|- ft. In the Mexican garden there is an old tree about 70 ft. high, with a flat 

 umbrella-shaped top and a trunk clean to about 50 ft, ; several others on the slope 

 just below the house are extremely unlike this in habit, having spreading branches 

 down to the ground profusely covered with old cones, some of which were persistent 

 on branches twenty to thirty years old. Some of these trees were very glaucous 

 in colour, and had longer fruit with larger protuberances. The fruit was much more 

 abundant on these comparatively young and spreading trees than on the tall old 

 ones, and seed was escaping from the cones in the middle of April. Some trees were 

 so covered with male flowers as to give them a yellow appearance, and these bore 

 comparatively few cones. 



Introduction 



This tree was in cultivation^ in 1682 in the Chelsea and Fulham gardens and 

 at Badminton, and was probably introduced from Portugal a short time previously. 

 Miller, writing^ in 1768, says that it was then rare in English gardens, and mentions 

 large trees that had been killed by the frost of 1740 and 1762. It was probably re- 

 introduced during the Peninsular War, when many officers must have seen this 

 species at Bussaco ; and Loudon ^ states as a fact that Lord Ferrard brought seeds 

 to Ireland in 1809, which produced many plants. Plants were raised* at Glasnevin 

 in 1837 from seeds obtained from Coulter's Mexican specimens ; and in all prob- 

 ability Hartweg sent seeds from Mexico in 1840 to 1843. 



Var. Benthami was introduced, according to Loudon,^ under the name C. 

 thurifera, in 1838, when there was a plant a few inches high in the Horticultural 

 Society's garden at Chiswick, In 1843, ^ plant ^ 7 ft. high was growing in Lucombe, 

 Pince, and Co.'s nursery at Exeter. Uhde,'^ who was Prussian Consul at Matamoras, 

 in Mexico, also sent seeds soon afterwards to Berlin, the plants from which were 

 known as C. Uhdeana. This variety was sent out under the name C. Knightiana 



» Cf. Masters, xajoum. Roy. Hort. Soc. xvii. 5 (1894). It is mentioned by Ray, Hist. Plant, ii. 1414, 1798, 1916 (1688). 



2 Diet. ed. 8, No. 3 (1768). 3 ^^^. ^t Frut. Brit. i. 109 (1838). 



4 Loudon, Trees and Shrubs, 1077 (1842). = Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2480(1838). 



8 Card. Mag. xix. 36 (1843). ' Cf. Koch, Dendrologie, ii. pt. 2, p. 154 (1873). 



