THE NEWER EVERCEEEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 515 



P. Bevoniana (Duke of Devonshire pine) — A fine, delicate, 



pendulous tree, with a charming green foliage, re- 



''^v Blanco sembling very much our P. palustris — called 



also, Pino real, or Eoyal pine, from its majestic 



character. It is from Mexico, growing 80 feet high — tolerably 



hardy in England,- and perhaps in our Southern States, but too 



tender for us at the North, except for pot-culture. 



' P. excelsa (Lofty Bhotau pine). — We hardly know what 



to say of this splendid tree, called by Mr. 



p. pondnia. Downing, that " affectedly pretty pine." It is 



p. Nepaienais. universally returned to us as hardy, from all 

 •fee, &o. «. 



parts of the country, though sometimes suffer- 

 ing from sun in summer. Near Boston, this is the case, and at 

 Natchez, where plants have to be shaded from the summer 

 sun. Mr. Barry writes us from Eochester, it is hardy there, 

 but wilt not make an old tree. Our own trees at Wodenethe, 

 which perhaps are some of the oldest in the country, being, or 

 rather having been, sixteen and eighteen feet high, certainly 

 suffer from sun and not cold . The winter of '55 and '5 6, which de- 

 stroyed some and damaged many other white pines here, and even 

 road-side cedars, produced no effect upon this tree, which was 

 entirely unprotected and uninjured ; and yet often in midsum- 

 mer, it will become ruptured in its leading shoots, and die 

 back. This may be on the principle of the frozen sap-blast 

 in fruit trees, where the damage done in winter, does not de- 

 velope the injury before the succeeding summer ; but we are more 

 inclined to believe, that the tree, if planted in r-ich holes, over- 

 grows, and a sort of apoplexy supervenes. We form this theory; 

 from observing that, where a great redundancy of growth has 

 taken place, and the feading shoot is three or four feet long 

 and extremely succulent, this rupture is most often the result, 

 when the sun being hot, activity of circulation is excessive ; 

 when, however, the exuberance of growth is checked by poor, 

 thin soil, the tree grows enough, and seems to mature its wood 

 as it advances through the summer — at any rate sufficient to 

 withstand what might be called determination of sap to the 

 head ; so that in future we shall always plant Excelsas in poor 

 soil. The variety itself is found in Nepaul, in the mountains, 

 and in Bhotan, above the region of the Deodar. It reaches a 



