324 THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. [No.lt 



\*) of the soil getting dry, which, however, will seldom occur. In Sep- r®, 



(X tember, take them up with as little injury as possible to the roots, and °£ 



treat them during the winter and^spring as recommended for old plants. ^< 



If managed in the same manner the second summer they Will be good 



sized bulbs, and will afford an abundance of blossoms the following 



winter. 



Two parts fresh, turfy, friable loam, to one of turfy peat or decayed 

 leaves, with a liberal mixture of sharp sand, form a suitable compost 

 for the Cyclamen. — Alpha. Gard. Chron. 



GIANT TREES OF TASMANIA. 



The Boabab of Senegal (Adansonia digitata) the Cypress of Oaxaca, 

 (Taxodium distichum) and the famous Chestnut tree of Etna, have 

 often been cited as the giants of the vegetable kingdom. If we must 

 believe a late number of the ''Botanic Gazette," of London, all these 

 sovereigns will be dethroned, and reduced to the second rank by those 

 which have just been discovered in Tasmania, and which leave far be- 

 hind them those ancient monuments of nature. Here is what a tra- 

 veller says of them, in a letter addressed to the above Journal : 



a Last week, I went to see two of the largest trees which exist in 

 the world — if, indeed, they are not the largest which have been mea- 

 ured up \o this time. Both are situated by the side of a little stream 

 which is tributary to North-west Bay river, behind Mount Wellington, 

 and are of the species which is called here Swamp gum ; but I do not 

 know their botanical name. I read in the " London Journal of Bo- 

 tany," that Mr. Hooker, describing the new species of Eucalyptus, 

 gives the name of gigantea to the species whose astringent bark furn- 

 ishes tan to the colony ; but this name gigantea is more fit, on all ac- 

 counts, for the Swamp gum, which exceeds considerably in size and 

 form the tree described by Mr. Hooker, as can be judged by the fol- 

 lowing measurements, which I obtained, along with five other persons 

 who accompanied me on the excursion. One of these trees was stand- 

 ing, the other was thrown upon the ground, a circumstance which en- 

 abled us to measure it exactly. We found 220 feet from the base of 

 the trunk to the first branch, then from this point to the extremity of 

 what remained of the stalk, for it had been broken, and had become 

 already rotten, we measured still 64 feet; that is to say, in all 284ft. 

 so that before its top was broken, the tree certainly exceeded 300 ft. 

 At the base of the trunk we found 30 feet of diameter, and 12 feet at 

 the first branch, or at 220 feet high. This single portion of this co- 

 lossal tree would give, in my opinion, more timber than the largest 

 oak mentioned by Loudon in his treatise on trees, even including all 



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