CHAP. LXIX. £RICA CE^E. ARBUTUS 1119 



Properties and Uses. A sugar and a very good spirit have been extracted 

 from the fruit in Spain, and a wine in Corsica : but, in Britain, the sole 

 use of the plant is as an ornamental evergreen shrub or low tree. In the 

 neighbourhood of Algiers it forms hedges ; and there, in Greece, and also 

 in Spain, the bark is used by tanners ; and the charcoal made from the wood 

 is highly valued. The wood is white, hard, and heavy, but brittle, and with 

 little elasticity. The durability and abundance of its shining green foliage ; 

 the brownish red colour of its young shoots ; the waxy and delicate appear- 

 ance of its flowers, which are produced in abundance, at a season when most 

 plants are beginning to shed their leaves ; and the splendour of its fruit, 

 which, as before observed, is intermixed with the flowers, and often remains 

 on all the winter; render it a most desirable plant. In ornamental plantations, 

 the pink-flowered variety deserves the preference, not only on account of the 

 beauty of its flowers, but because the young shoots and the nerves of the 

 leaves partake of a reddish hue. 



Soil, Situation, Src. The common arbutus will thrive in any tolerably free 

 soil ; though it seems to grow fastest, and attain the largest size, in deep 

 sandy loam. It will grow either in open or sheltered situations, but does not 

 thrive under the shade of trees. The species is readily propagated by seeds, 

 which should be sown, as soon as they are separated from the pulp of the 

 fruit, in pots of light, rich, sandy soil, or heath mould, and then placed in the 

 shade, where they can be protected from the frost and the sun. Plants raised 

 from seed do not generally flower till 5 or 6 years old. The double, and the 

 scarlet-flowered, and all the other varieties, are propagated by layers ; or by 

 cuttings of the wood in a growing state, taken off in July, and treated like 

 cuttings of heath. 



Statistics. In the environs of London, in the arboretum at Kew, the common arbutus is 12 ft. 

 high ; and it is equally high, or higher, at a great number of places within the same distance of the 

 metropolis. In the Mile End Nursery it is 15 ft. high, and the diameter of the head is 45 ft. In 

 the Garden of the Horticultural Society, and in the arboretum of Messrs Loddiges, plants, 10 years 

 planted, have attained the height of 10 ft. In Scotland, in Argyllshire, at Castle Mainard, it is 13 ft. 

 high. In Ireland, on the lower lake of Killarney, a tree, or large bush, was 36 ft. in diameter in 

 1805 ; one at Power's Court is equally large ; and a similar one existed at Newtown Mount Kennedy, 

 but was blown down in 1804; at Morn Park, Cork, it is 32 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 

 2 ft. 3 in., and of the head 23Aft. The price of plants, in the London nurseries, is from 6d. to Is. 

 each, according to the size, or from 1/. Is. 6d. to 31. \5s. per hundred; and the scarlet-flowered 

 variety is 2s. 6d. a plant. At Bollwyller, and at New York, both the species and varieties are 

 green-house plants. 



2. m 2. A. hy'brida Ker. The hybrid Arbutus, or Strawberry Tree. 



Identification. Ker Bot. Reg., t. 619. ; Don's Mill., 3. p. 834. 

 Synonyme. A. andrachnoldes Link Enum., 1. p. 395. 

 Engravings. Bot. Reg., t. 619. ; and our fig. 920. 



Spec. Char., $c. Branchlets pilose. Leaves oblong, acute, serrated, glabrous. 

 Panicle terminal, pendulous, downy. Flowers white. Calyx glabrous. 

 (Don's Mil/., iii. p. 834.) Apparently a ^^ ^ 



hybrid between A. t/ v nedo, and A. An- 

 drachne. It has been cultivated in British 

 gardens ever since the commencement of ^gftMj 

 the present century, and is believed to ^ 

 have been originated in the Fulham Nur- 

 sery, where there were, till lately, some of 

 the largest specimens in the neighbourhood 

 of London, and where there is still one, 

 about 20 years planted, which is nearly 

 20 ft. high. This species grows as rapidly 

 as the A. C7 v nedo, forms fully as large a 

 tree, is more beautiful in its flowers which 

 are in larger panicles, and is nearly as 

 hardy. It flowers freely, and sometimes bears fruit, but is generally pro- 

 pagated by grafting. Plants in the garden of the London Horticultural 



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