"WELLINQTONIA GIGANTEA. 211 



the height than that of most other large Coniferous trees, the circum- 

 ference at the base being often as much as one-fifth of the height. 

 In Abies Douglasii the circumference of the trunk at the base is 

 generally not more than one-eighth or one-tenth of the height, and 

 this proportion is not much exceeded in other tall Conifers, as Pinus 

 Lambertiana, Abies nobilis, &c. 



From the returns published from time to time in the horticultural 

 press during the past ten years, and supplied by the -owners of fine 

 "Wellingtonias scattered throughout the country, or by gardeners under 

 •whose charge they are, we find that the annual average rate of growth 

 has ranged from 18 to 33 inches after the first three or four years 

 from the seed ; the trees which made the most rapid growth being in 

 the south-west and south of England, while the others were further 

 north, the diminution in average yearly growth agreeing generally with 

 diminished annual average temperature and rainfall. Like all other 

 Conifers, the "VVellingtonia will not live under the influence of smoke, 

 and it should, therefore, never be planted as a memorial tree in the 

 immediate vicinity of large towns. For whatever purpose it is planted, 

 a space having a radius of not less than 20 feet should be allowed 

 for it, and a free circulation of air on all sides should be secured. 



Numbers of fine specimens in all parts of Great Britain attest the 

 complete acclimitisation of the "Wellingtonia. The largest of which 

 we have any cognisance, is growing at Powderham Castle, near Exeter, 

 the seat of the Earl of Devon ; this fine tree is now over 60 feet 

 high, the girth of its trunk at 3 feet from the ground exceeds 

 10 feet, and its lower branches cover a space having a radius of 

 about 16 feet. Other remarkable specimens may be seen at Poltimore 

 Park, Exeter; Kenfield Hall, Canterbury; Eedleaf, Penshurst, Kent; 

 Singleton, Swansea ; Bicton, Devon ; Highnam Court, Gloucester ; 

 Arundel Castle, Sussex, &c, &c. 



The facility with which the "Wellingtonia has adapted itself to the 

 climate of Great Britain, is partly explained by Professor Gray's account 

 of the climatal conditions under which it has flourished on the slopes 

 of the Sierra Nevada, and which he describes " as a happy mean in 

 temperature locally favoured with moisture in summer." For centuries 

 the wonder, and probably the worship of the wild man who roamed 

 through the silent Californian forests, its discovery has been its revival; 

 it has been infused with a new vigour ; it has received, as it were, 

 a new life in a new home, where its future will be the beautifying 

 of the lawns and parks formed to minister to the pleasures and 

 relaxations of busy civilized life ; but where also, removed from the 

 present by geological ages, its remote progenitors had once reared their 

 lofty heads in the primeval forests inhabited by the huge mastodon 

 and elephant, and at a time when the rhinoceros and other uncouth 

 Pachydermia wallowed in the swamps and marshes of these islands. 



