130 FAMILIAR TREES 



our gardens as they would be agreeable for variety 

 of walks and shade. They thrive well in His Majesty's 

 new plantation in St. James's Park." These particular 

 trees were, however, felled before the year 1712. John 

 Ray, the contemporary of Evelyn, mentions the species 

 as growing in Bishop Compton's garden at Fulham, 

 where a wreck of an old tree still remains ; whilst by 

 1731, as recorded by Philip Miller in his "Gardener's 

 Dictionary," it had become common, and was known 

 as ripening seed in this country. 



It had long been valued as a timber tree in the 

 United States, and in Virginia and New England 

 was used for trenails in shipbuilding, being hard, 

 strong, inelastic, and durable. Much attention was 

 directed to it in Europe for this and other purposes 

 in 1762, in 1786, and at subsequent dates. It was 

 described as suitable for axletrees, cogs, or wedges, 

 as being a ,good fuel, and even as capable of cultiva- 

 tion as green forage for cattle ; and in 1791 a Mr. 

 Ebenezer Jessup proposed in the Gentleman's Maga- 

 zine that 10,000 acres in the New Forest and Forest 

 of Dean should be planted with this tree for the pur- 

 poses of the navy, stating that he knew posts made 

 of its wood to last from 80 to 100 years. In 1819, 

 from 50,000 to 100,000 trenails of the wood were 

 imported from America. 



William Cobbett, while farming on Long Island, 

 between 1817 and 1819, was struck with its utility, 

 and on his return to England brought home some 

 of the seed, which, from 1823, he cultivated on an 

 enormous scale at Kensington and Barnes. He wrote 

 of the tree in terms of the most extravagant eulogy 



