P. PUMILA AND FLEXILIS at 
is a rarity that comes from northern lands and from 
such ice-bound regions as Lake Baikal (E. Siberia). 
It is of dwarf rather than of full-tree dimension, 
since it only attains a height of 10 ft. It has been 
tried at a few places: at Leonardslee, for one, by Sir 
Edmund Loder ; so far they have only made (he tells 
me) a growth of 6 in. in the few years that he 
has attempted their cultivation, but even this effort 
seems to spell rapidity itself, when taken in com- 
parison with the history of its growth at Dropmore. 
There it only contrived a height of 10 in. after a 
fifty years’ attempt. At this rate it seems that many 
generations of owners would pass away to dust and 
ashes before any descendant heir-at-law would find 
himself able to enjoy a sight of it at full growth, 
much less to exhibit a plank from it, at a Royal 
Agricultural S.E. Forestry Show. But it is only fair 
to add that it never set up to be even in its Arctic 
homes anything greater than a dwarf or prostrate 
shrub, more fitted for a rock garden than a pinetum. 
We have made further allusion to this weird specimen 
of plant life under heading P. Montana var. Pumilio. 
P. Friexitis.—The Flexilis we may liken, and 
rémember it accordingly, on account of a peculiar 
characteristic that signalizes it, to the acrobatic 
performer of the fair. 
In the same way that the indiarubber man of the 
booth can contort his frame without any apparent 
inconvenience to his feelings or disarrangement to 
his system, so a branch of the Flexilis can be twisted 
to any degree or angle without fear of breakage. 
There is a hard-wood tree that we all know well, 
which is called by an ultra-opposite name, and for 
the very excellent reason that it possesses exactly 
opposite properties, and that is the Salix Fragilis, 
variously called the Brittle-twig and Crack Willow. 
