62 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tropical heat destroys two opposite classes of vegetable life ; but the 

 catholicity — for want of a better expression — of the climate of the Cape 

 Peninsula, whose shores are washed by the warm waters of the Gulf 

 Stream, where the thermometer never touches zero (Centigrade), and 

 where the summer heat is always tempered by a breeze from the south- 

 east, gave him great hopes for the realisation of his daydream. In how 

 far he was justified in indulging this hope it will be for you to say after 

 I have concluded my description of the garden and its treasures. 



Some fifty-five years ago an Australian captain visited Cape Town. 

 He had on board a small plant of the Araucaria excelsa, popularly known 

 as the ' Norfolk Island Pine.' This plant was then six inches high. My 

 father, ever on the alert for new botanical treasures, heard of this plant, 

 and, knowing also that it was— as Mr. Veitch says in his " Pinetum " — the 

 most stately and imposing of the Conifera?, sought the captain and offered 

 him £5 for it, which was accepted, and my father brought home the 

 plant with all the enthusiastic triumph and ardour which all true 

 gardeners feel after the acquisition of some such botanical treasure — 

 more particularly so (such is poor weak human nature) if the happy 

 possessor is the sole and unique owner of such treasure. Well, the plant 

 arrived, and I well remember the fuss that was made over its being 

 planted, and the strong ringed fence put up around it to keep off intruders. 

 It has amply repaid all the care and attention bestowed upon it, for it 

 now dominates an avenue of seedling Araucarias, and towers up to the 

 height of 135 feet, and completely dwarfs some tall well-grown Oaks in its 

 immediate vicinity. This was the first specimen planted in South Africa, 

 and it is taller than any other plant of its kind on the Australian continent, 

 whose botanic gardens I have had the pleasure to visit. 



Next in order of importance and in rarity is the Dacrydium cupressinum, 

 popularly known as the ' Weeping Pine of New Zealand,' known also 

 in the Maori language as the 'Rimu.' Of all the Conifers this is, 

 perhaps, the most graceful. In fact, it is difficult to realise that it does 

 belong to the Conifene, whose characteristic features are associated with 

 ruggedness and rigidity of form ; whilst this Dacrydium has all the 

 gracefulness and pendulous habit of a weeping willow. This plant was 

 imported by the Botanic Gardens, Cape Town, of which my father was 

 the founder. But it did not seem to be at home there, as the locality 

 was open and exposed to the south-east wind, so it was removed to our 

 garden, where the environment was more in keeping with its native 

 habitat, and where it has flourished most luxuriantly and bids fair to be 

 one of the most beautiful objects in the garden. 



Between these two specimen trees there is a handsome group of the 

 papyrus of the Nile, whose stems attain the height of from 12 to 14 feet, 

 quite equal to those on its native banks ; and they are largely used for 

 decorative purposes. Within a few feet of the Papyrus, and on the banks 

 of the stream which nourishes it, is a very well-grown English Holly 

 tree, about 20 feet in height and 15 feet through, looking as grand and 

 glossy-leaved as if it were growing in the New Forest. This tree, every 

 Christmas Eve, has to yield at least one hundred sprigs to decorate the 

 Christmas puddings of at least a hundred English families who rejoice 

 in keeping up all the old time-honoured institutions of the homeland. 



