432 



MY GARDEN. 



stiff branches with impunity, but severe frost is apt to brown the leaves. 

 I have several plants, and had several others, which were killed through 

 moving-. The first planted in this country is at Kew, but one of 

 the finest is in the garden of the late Mr. Tabor (fig. 962 a), at Brent- 

 wood. In Chili, its native country, the cones are reported each to yield 

 two or three hundred seeds, and to be an important article of food for 

 the Indians, just as the seeds of the stone pine are an article of luxury 

 to the inhabitants of Italy. I have seen cones formed in this country. 



In Beddington Park, near the church, are two fine Larch-trees 

 (Larix europaa), which must be of considerable age (fig. 963). Several 



Fig. 962/1. — Araucaria imbricata. '"■ '^ ^ — " FiG. 964 — Larch at Dunkeld. 



Fig. 963. — Larch in Beddington Park. 



trees were imported from the Tyrol in 1738, and five were left at 

 Dunkeld. The two in Beddington Park are not so old as two now 

 growing at Dunkeld, nor as some growing at Paradise in Monnymusk 

 parish, Aberdeenshire. One of the first imported was kept in the 

 dining-room at Monnymusk House till too large, and then was planted 

 out in the avenue of beech-trees. This larch is not nearly so large as 

 those magnificent trees at Dunkeld, one of which is fifteen feet round 

 at three feet from the ground, and 96 feet high (fig. 964). The Larch 

 is a very beautiful tree in early spring, and has proved highly remu- 

 nerative to those who planted it fifty years ago, as it has been used 

 extensively for railway sleepers. Of late years it has become liable to 



