50 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cutting out some of the commoner stuff, especially my enemies the 

 "shop" Scotch firs, as I call them, which continued more or less to get 

 blasted by the gales of the ocean, and then it was I began planting all 

 sorts of things in the cleared spaces — Douglas firs, Abies Albertii, 

 copper beeches, sweet and horse chestnuts, Picea nobilis, P. Pinsapo, 

 P. lasiocarpa, and P. Nordmanniana, Cuprcssus macrocarpa and C.Law- 

 soniana, Thuja gigantea, bird-cherries, scarlet oaks, &c. — and now these 

 trees appear almost as if they had formed part of the original plantation. 

 I am still going on a little in this style, and have dotted about a lot 

 of Eucalypti, tree Rhododendrons, Arbutus, Griselinias, Cordylines, and 

 clumps of bamboos and Phormiums, which are giving a charming finish 

 to the outskirts of my plantation. 



Even the Eucalypti I find much hardier than that bad breed of 

 Scotch fir ; no wind, snow, or frost seems to hurt them here ; and in 

 case it may interest my hearers I will name those I find thoroughly 

 hardy : Eucalyptus cocci/era, Gunnii, Whittinghamii, cordata, coriacea, 

 umigera, and one or two others; but I warn all against trying 

 Eucalyptus globuhis — and yet that is the very species that most people 

 persist in planting. 



I ought perhaps to mention what does not do with me, viz., the 

 common Norway spruce. They will grow in low-lying hollows at the 

 rate of nearly three feet a year, but as soon as they get to about thirty 

 feet in height they look (as my forester very aptly describes them) like 

 red-brick chimneys among the other trees, and even if not directly 

 exposed to the ocean gales they get red and blasted. I tried also a few 

 Pin us Strobus in the peninsula, but they quite failed. I much regret not 

 having experimented on either Pinus Ccmbra or Pinus insignis. I know 

 the first-named would succeed, and, as the Monterey cypress (Cuprcssus 

 macrocarpa) does so very well, I should have the best of hopes of the 

 Monterey pine also, as they both come, I am told, from the same locality 

 in California. 



My latest craze is cutting out spaces, enclosing them with six-foot 

 fences (deer, roe, and rabbit proof), and planting them with nearly every 

 rare exotic tree and shrub which I hear succeeds in Devon, Cornwall, and 

 the west of Ireland ; and I think I may venture to say that 1 have been 

 fairly successful, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than if 

 I could look forward to a visit of inspection from some of the members 

 of the R.H.S. I fear I must confess to feelings of exultation when 

 I visit that charming collection in the temperate house at Kew, and 

 assure myself that I can grow a great many of its contents better in 

 the open air up here in the far north than they can be grown at Kew 

 under glass. 



What a proud and happy day it was for me, about two years ago, 

 when Mr. Dean of Kew honoured me with a visit, and I had the pleasure 

 of showing him my Tricuspidarias, Embotheriums, and Eucryphias, my 

 small trees of Abut Hon vitifolium, my palms, Loquats, Drimys, Sikkim 

 Rhododendrons, my giant Olearias, Senecios, Veronicas, Leptospermums, 

 my Metro8idoros and Mitrarias, &c. I have, too, some of the less 

 common things. One of them is a nice specimen of the Podocarpus 

 totara. from which the Maoris used to make their war canoes holding 



