1692 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



obtained from the cocoa-nut, is used for making ropes and cables, which are very 

 durable under water; in the manufacture of hats and rain-cloaks^ (called so-i), which 

 are used by the peasants in wet weather ; and in making brushes and mattresses. 



This palm is largely cultivated in southern and central Japan, where it is 

 known as Shuro, but it does not seem to be a true native,^ though it is naturalised 

 in some places.' It is recorded from Tamsui and Bankinsing in Formosa ; but is 



probably only planted.* 



This palm was first introduced by Siebold,' who sent seeds from Nagasaki in 

 Japan to Leyden in 1830. Of the plants which were raised, one was sent to Kew 

 in 1837, where it was long an inmate of the Palm House; but it died some years 

 ago. The Chinese plant was introduced by Fortune," who sent six living plants to 

 Kew in 1849, two of which are still flourishing in the Temperate House, and are 

 about 40 ft. and 50 ft. in height respectively; while two, which were planted 

 out-of-doors, have remained stunted in growth and are only about 10 ft, high. 

 Another of these plants, which was sent to Osborne in 1849, was planted out in 

 front of the royal residence, and had attained^ 14^ ft. high in 1881. It is now about 

 21 ft. high and 2 ft. 4 in. in girth at a foot from the ground. (A. H.) 



The Chusan palm is perfectly hardy ' in our climate, but grows slowly in the 

 neighbourhood of London and to the northwards. It flourishes best in the south- 

 west of England and in the south of Ireland, where it attains a height of 25 to 30 ft., 

 and ripens seeds regularly. In the grounds of Tregothnan, I found in 1905 self- 

 sown seedlings in the grass, and transferred some of them to my own garden at 

 Colesborne, one of which has borne a temperature close to zero without injury. On 

 the lawn at Williamstrip Park, Gloucestershire, an old specimen has flowered on 

 several occasions. At Duncan House, Torquay, there is a group of about six trees, 

 14 to 25 ft. high in 1903, around which there are hundreds of young plants, which 

 have come from their seed.^ 



Plate 375 shows a tree planted by the Rev. Hon. T. Boscawen at Lamorran in 

 Cornwall, which was about 25 ft. high in 1905. At Riverhill, near Sevenoaks, the 

 seat of J. T. Rogers, Esq., I saw one of the original seedlings introduced by Fortune, 

 which was 27 ft. by 2 ft. 6 in. in 191 1. At Powis Castle, I measured one in 1906, 

 25 ft. high, girthing i ft. 10 in. at the ground, but 3 ft. 4 in. at five feet up. 



At Heckfield Place, near Winchfield, Hants, there are two good specimens^" of 

 different sexes, which were planted in 1869. They measured in January 1912, 

 17^ feet and 15^ feet respectively. 



' A rain-cloak and hat, brushes, cordage, and other articles made from this fibre, are displayed in the museum at Kew. 



2 Makino, in Tokyo Bot. Mag, xviii. 20 (1904), divides the species into two forms, var. iypica and var. Fortunei; but in 

 this he simply follows Wendland, and gives no distinguishing characters ; moreover, he states of both these supposed forms, 

 that they are planted and not native in Japan. 



3 Cf. Franchet and Savatier, Enum. Plant. Jap. ii. 2 (1879). 



* Cf. Matsumura, Index Plant. Jap. ii. l58 (1905). Elwes saw it planted in many places in Formosa up to about 

 4000 ft. elevation; and the fibre is used for the same purposes as in China. ' Cat. Rats. PI. Jap. 1856, p. 7, note. 



^ Fortune also obtained seed near Tsee-Kee, north-west of Ningpo, in 1853, from which plants were raised in England. 



7 Cf. Smith, Records of Kew Gardens, 116 (1885). 



8 Cf. Gard. Chron. i860, pp. 170, 362, where it is stated that this palm suffered much but did not die in Northampton- 

 shire in the severe winter of 1859-1860 ; while at Swansea, where the temperature fell to 10° Fahr., they were quite uninjured. 



9 Gard. Chron. xxxiv. 329 (1903) ; one of these palms was figured in Gard. Chron. xxiv. 420, Supply Illust. (1898). 



10 Cf. Gard, Chron. xv. 12, fig. 4 (1881), and xxiv. 216 (1885). 



