328 JOURNAL OF THE EOY.1L HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A few unfortunate planters possibly may have to start on so 

 many acres of plain flat treeless ground, but no one, I imagine, 

 would take it froru choice, that is if he could break sod on a 

 well-timbered domain where noble deciduous trees, no matter 

 how common, give relief, not only by their shape, but also by 

 their bright cheerful leaves. Conifers, like carpet bedding at 

 one time, forced all other allied subjects out of the field. The 

 novelty lasted for a short period, but fortunately the mistake has 

 been detected, as we now find the wealthy laying out enormous 

 sums of money in the transport of large deciduous specimens, 

 carrying from one to ten tons of earth about their roots, to give 

 life and variety to their collections. 



Conifers of most use to the English planter clothe the sides of 

 high mountains in their native habitat ; such trees are giants at 

 the base, pigmies at the summit, and form round-headed tops 

 nearest the sky-line. This fact in our small way should not 

 be lost sight of, as it is difficult to imagine anything less pic- 

 turesque than a few sharply-pointed spruces nearest to the 

 clouds. 



Making a Selection. — Having spent so many years upon 

 broken hilly ground, so admirably rich in sites for trees voted 

 tender in other parts of the kingdom, it is possible I may 

 enumerate some which might not stand in the flattest parts 

 of the Midlands. Reassuring, nevertheless, is the fact that 

 although not more than two or three species are indigenous, in 

 no country in the world are so many species and varieties found 

 growing well as in Great Britain. Brief as the Conifer epoch 

 is, we have already passed into its second era, the first having 

 terminated in 1860, when the early planters paid so dearly 

 for their experience — nearly all the Mexican Pines were swept 

 away. Many of the Junipers, especially the Cupressoides sec- 

 tion from the temperate parts of Europe and America, were 

 sadly decimated, and the same may be said of the grass-green 

 Pinus insignis, P. radiata, P. muricata, and some others from 

 Lower California. Excepting the beautiful Mexican Pines, 

 which the long-leaved Californian species have now replaced, 

 not one perhaps of the above is quite extinct in this country, for 

 only a few years ago I found a magnificent Fitzroya Patagonica 

 on the coal measures at Cole Orton, and a Cunninghamia 

 sinensis of large dimensions at Longleat ; still the disasters of 



