1118 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



* A. V. 6 crisp us. — Leaves curled and cut. 

 » A. U. 7 sa/icij alius. — Leaves narrow. 



Description, £c. The common arbutus will grow to the height of 20 ft. or 

 30 ft. ; but, unless pruned to a single stem, it assumes more the character of a 

 huge bush than that of a regular-headed tree. When it is pruned, however, 

 it tonus a small, picturesque-headed, evergreen tree of great beauty, at every 

 season of the year ; and particularly so in autumn, when it is covered with its 

 white bell-shaped flowers, which are slightly tinged with pink, intermixed with 

 its large strawberry-like fruit, which is 12 months before it arrives at perfection, 

 and which is, therefore, seen on the tree at the same time as the flower. 

 Smith says that the fruit is insipid, and scarcely eatable in England ; but that 

 in the Levant it is said to be much larger and more agreeable, as well as more 

 wholesome. The reddish hue of the bark is very remarkable in this and some 

 other species of Arbutus. The rate of growth of the tree, when young, and 

 properly treated, will average 1 ft. a year for the first 10 years ; and the plant 

 is of considerable durability. 



Geography. The arbutus is a native of the south of Europe, also of 

 varous parts of Asia, and of Africa, about Mount Atlas and Algiers; and 

 it is particularly abundant in Italy, in the woods of the Apennines. In 

 France, it grows as far north as lat. 56° ; but it requires protection, in the 

 winter, in the neighbourhood of Paris. In Britain, it is one of the doubtful 

 natives ; for, though it seems to be perfectly naturalised in the south of Ire- 

 land, it is, as we have seen (p. 34*.), considered by many as having been intro- 

 duced there. Some of the defenders of our indigenous flora, however, feel 

 no doubts on the subject. Mr. Babington, a writer in the Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 says, — " It has been doubted, if " Arbutus Z7 v nedo " is indigenous at Kil- 

 lurney ; but I cannot conceive it possible for any person, who has observed it 

 on the spot, to believe it to have been ' introduced by the monks of Mucross 

 Abbey,' which is the theory of the sceptical. It grows in several isolated 

 spots, far up the mountains, and is in its greatest beauty when springing from 

 the crevices of rock on the islets of the upper lake. My conclusion is, that it 

 is truly an aboriginal native of that country. The fruit is excellent." [!] (Vol. 

 ix. p. 245.) Mr. J. Drummond, in Mackay's Flora Hibernica, says that it is 

 certainly indigenous. 



History . The arbutus was known to the Greeks and Romans; but, 

 according to Pliny, it was not held in much esteem ; for, as the specific name 

 implies, he adds, the fruit was considered so bitter, that only one of it could 

 be eaten at a time. There can be no doubt, however, that it was an article of 

 food, in the early ages, both in Greece and Italy ; since in these countries, and 

 also in Spain, as well as about Killarney, in Ireland, it is still eaten by the 

 common people. Virgil recommends the young shoots as winter food for 

 young goats, and as fit for basket-work. Horace praises the tree for its shade; 

 and Ovid celebrates its loads of" blushing fruit." It is spoken of by Gerard 

 as, in his time, growing only in some few gardens in England. It is men- 

 tioned by various writers, both in poetry and in prose, who have been charmed 

 with its beauty. Among others, Mrs. Barbauld, in her poem entitled Corsica, 

 written in J 709, gives the following description of its appearance in that island 

 in a wild state : — 



" While, glowing bright 



Ueneath the various foliage, wildly spreads 

 The arbutus, and rears his scarlet fruit 

 Luxuriant mantling o'er the craggy steeps." 



And Miss Twamley has the following lines on this tree in her Romance of 

 Nature published in IH'.ltt. 



" See, like a ladye in a festal garb, 



How gaily deck'd she waits the Christmas time! 

 ]lcr robe of living emerald, that waves 

 And, shining, rustles in the frost-bright air, 

 Is garlanded with bunches of small flowers,— 

 Small belUshaped flowers, each of an orient pearl 



i o i delicately modeled, and just tinged 



With faintest yellow, as if, lit within, 



( h< re hung a fairy torch in each lamp flow n ' 



