192 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



peopled country like ours, the cultivated 

 and residential land is likely to become 

 more and more a sealed book to them. 



In the April number of The Nine- 

 teenth Century and After, \\\ his plea for 

 a national park for Scotland, Mr. Charles 

 Stewart describes the purposes of such 

 a park as follows : — ( 1) The preservation 

 in its wild state of a large tract of coun- 

 try possessing natural beauty, varied in 

 its character and in its physical features, 

 and combining, if possible, mountain, 

 valley, forest, moorland, lofty peak and 

 rocky glen, greensward and lake, river 

 and burn, sea-cliffs and seashore. (2) 

 The strict preservation in them of speci- 

 mens of all the indigenous fauna of our 

 country — the red deer, fallow deer, roe 

 deer, hare, badger, otter, wild cat, fox, 

 and the minor quadrupeds, the caper- 

 cailzie, blackcock, moorfowl, golden 

 eagle,raven, and all the tribe of sea-eagle 

 and sea-hawk, and the lesser native birds 

 and.natural fishes. The enclosure once 

 acquired, to be in the words of the Act 

 of Congress when instituting the Yel- 

 lowstone Park: "forever dedicated and 

 set apart as a public park or pleasuring 

 ground." Mr. Stewart points out that 

 there are estates and stretches of coun- 

 try or islands in Argyll, Inverness, Ross- 

 shire, or Sutherland, offering all the 

 charms that could be desired and fringed 

 by sea, by sea-cliffs, and by seashore. 

 The island of jura (about 90,000 acres 

 in extent) or the island of Rum (about 

 43 ,oooacres) would either of them make 

 a noble national park. The enclosure 

 should not be less than 2 0,000 to 3 0,000 

 acres in extent, and 50,000 acres would 

 not be excessive. There are deer forests 



in Scotland which range from 40,000 

 to 80,000 acres; but even with 10,000 

 acres, if the ground be sufficiently varied, 

 all the essentials for the preservation of 

 big game could be attained. A capital 

 outlay of some ^30,000 to ^50,000 

 should buy a suitable place, and very 

 little further initial expense would be 

 needed. The direct advantages would 

 be the preserving intact of a large and 

 wild tract of country of great natural 

 beauty, and of protecting it for ever 

 from the inroads of the speculator or the 

 schemes of the mining and railway pro- 

 moter for public use, recreation, and re- 

 | sort for all time, together with the bene- 

 fit to our food supply, to science, and 

 to pleasure, from preserving the wild 

 animals and birds of our country and 

 rescuing them from extinction. — W. R. 



Rhaphithamnus Cyanocarpus. — Finely- 

 flowered sprays of this Chilian Needle Tree 

 have reached us from the rich gardens of Mr. 

 R. H. Beamish, at Glounthaune, Co. Cork. It 

 is a rare plant of much beauty, but too tender 

 for the open save in the most favoured districts. 

 It is one of the neat myrtle-like shrubs com- 

 mon in the extreme south of South America, 

 and needing much the same care as that plant. 

 Its shining dark green leaves, heart-shaped, 

 and about half-an-inch long, are thickly set 

 upon light graceful stems in clusters of three, 

 accompanied by an equal number of sharp 

 needle-like spines slightly longer than the 

 leaves, and to which the tree owes its name. 

 The stems and young growths are covered 

 with soft thick down of a rusty brown colour. 

 The narrow tubular flowers of white and mauve 

 appear round the leaf-axils towards the ends of 

 the shoots, which are free of spines. Though 

 small they are pretty, drooping thickly in clus- 

 ters of five or six at each point, and not un- 

 pleasant in smell. The plant reaches the height 

 of a small tree. Five other species have been 

 described, all natives of Chili, but this is pro- 

 bably the only kind in cultivation. 



