I ^^6 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Castillo and Dey^ state that enormous trees still occur, up to i6o ft. in height 

 and 1 6 ft. in girth ; and mention veterans, which are said when felled to have shown 

 4000 annual rings; but this seems scarcely credible. Captain Fitzroy^ in whose 

 honour the genus was named, and who commanded the "Beagle" between 1828 

 and 1836, states on good authority, that a tree in the cordillera on the mainland 

 opposite Chiloe had a stem measuring 76 ft. in length to the first branch, and 

 30 ft. in girth at five feet from the ground. It yielded 1500 planks. W. Lobb saw 

 on the precipices around Valdivia trees 100 ft. in height and 8 ft. in diameter; 

 and states ^ that it ascends the mountains to the limit of perpetual snow, where it 

 is occasionally only a few inches high. 



Fitsroya patagonica was first introduced^ in 1849 by W. Lobb, who sent home 

 seeds from Valdivia ; and again by R. Pearce, who collected in Chile for Messrs. 

 Veitch in 1859-1862. It is perfectly hardy in this country, and at Kew^ bore 

 without injury the severe frost of 1908- 1909, when the temperature fell to 10° 

 Fahr. ; nevertheless, it is slow in growth, and seems to develop oftener into a 

 bushy shrub than a tree, but this may be due to most of the specimens in cultiva- 

 tion being derived from cuttings. 



The finest trees are in Cornwall and Devon. One at Killerton, planted in 

 1864, was 34^ ft. by 3 ft. 2 in. in 191 1. Another at Bicton was 35 ft. high in the 

 same year. An ill-shaped tree at Penjerrick, dividing into several stems at the 

 base, was about 35 ft. high in 19 10. At Coldrenick a similar tree with several 

 stems was 25 ft. high in 191 1. Masters figured^ a tree at Pencarrow, planted in 

 1852 by Sir W. Molesworth, which was reported in 1902 to have been 21 ft. in 

 height, with a spread of branches of 46 ft. At Abbotsbury, a tree was killed by 

 drought in the summer of 19 11. At Upcott, Barnstaple, a well-grown and healthy 

 specimen was 28^ ft. high in January 1912. There are smaller trees at Highnam 

 near Gloucester, and at Leaton Knolls, Shrewsbury. In the pinetum at Uplyme, 

 Dorset, there is a fine tree, 30 ft. by 3 ft. 3 in. in 191 2. 



At Belsay Castle, Newcastle-on-Tyne, there is a fine specimen, which was 

 planted about 1856, and measured 28^ ft. high in January 1912. Sir Arthur E. 

 Middleton, Bart., informs me that it is growing in a sheltered place in an old 

 sandstone quarry, where the soil contains a considerable admixture of clay. This 

 tree has been kept from an early date to one leader; otherwise it would have 

 spread in an irregular way. There are also several bushy specimens at Belsay 

 Castle, where this species has never been touched in the slightest degree by frost. 



Nearly all the cultivated trees which we have seen bear only female flowers, 

 and in consequence the seed, which is freely produced, is infertile. A tree, however, 

 at Hewell Grange, Redditch, which is about 28 ft. high, is monoecious, and bore in 

 May 19 1 2 both male and female flowers in profusion, as well as a few which were 

 hermaphrodite. 



^ Jeog. Veg. Rio Valdivia, 28 (Santiago, 1908). Reiche gives the maximum as 180 ft. high, 16 ft. in diameter, and 

 2500 years old. 



2 Narrative of Voyages of the Beagle, i. 275, 282, and ii. 391 (1839). Cf. also Cook, in Loudon, Card. Mag. xv. 694 

 ^'^39)- ^ Joum. Hort. Soc. vi. 262 (185 1). 



Hortus Veitchii, 38, 46, 340 (1906). 6 j^^,^ g^u^ jgog^ p_ 235. 



« Card. Chron. xxxi. 392, Supply. Illust. (1902). 



