84 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in the struggle to a degree that our predecessors hardly 

 appreciated. Those, for instance, who remember the squares 

 of London a quarter of a century or more ago will call to mind 

 the deplorable appearance they presented in winter from the 

 absence of evergreens and from the general prevalence of mud- 

 besmirched, leafless Privets and Lilacs. At that time there 

 reigned an impression that evergreens would not live in London. 

 In point of fact, Hollies, Aucubas, Skimmiajaponica (the S. oblata 

 of gardens), and Osmanthus are among the very best and hardiest 

 trees and shrubs for town gardens. Khododendrons, in the 

 speaker's experience, form an exception to the rule ; but as they 

 are reported to do well in and about Manchester, it is probably 

 the soil rather than the air which is unfavourable in London. 

 Conifers, as a rule, are useless in town-gardens, probably from 

 their resinous exudations serving to retain and fix the deposits 

 of soot on the leaves, and thus impeding transpiration and 

 respiration by blocking up the breathing pores. 



A remarkable exception was mentioned by the speaker in the 

 case of Pinus excelsa, which grows fairly well in a London 

 garden where other Conifers (and many have been tried) have 

 failed. The slender drooping leaves, which allow the water that 

 falls on them to wash them ere it falls to the ground, may partly 

 account for this, though it will not do so in the case of the black 

 Austrian Pine [Pinus Laricio var. austriaca), which has also 

 been mentioned as doing well in towns, but of this the speaker 

 has no personal knowledge. 



The Maidenhair-tree (Ginkgo biloba), though a Conifer, is 

 deciduous, and so exceptional in all ways as not to invalidate 

 the above statement. It is, as before said, by reason probably of 

 the conformation of its leaves, an excellent town tree. 



In presenting the following lists the lecturer has confined him- 

 self for the most part to the enumeration of such trees, &c, as he 

 knows from personal experience and observation to do relatively 

 well in a smoky locality in a densely crowded part in the east 

 of London, and which, of course, may be seen under more 

 favourable conditions in the parks and nearer suburbs of the 

 metropolis. So far as the outlying suburbs and country towns 

 are concerned, the speaker's observations have been made 

 only in places where the conditions of life, as regards atmo- 

 spheric impurity, are not very materially worse than in the 



