TREES OF THE CAMBRIDGE BOTANIC GARDEN. 



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by good specimens well up to recorded height. This tree form is the 

 only one met with in Spain, in the Eastern and Central Pyrenees, and 

 in the French Alps, and is of rare occurrence in Switzerland. It 

 forms extensive woods in sub-alpine regions up to the timber line. 

 In the Cambridge Botanic Garden its height in 1910 was 41 ft. 6 in., 

 and it is now just over 42 ft. in height. 



Interest in this tree is chiefly from the botanical point of view. 



3. Larix dahurica var. pendula. (Fig. 2.) 



This is a remarkable specimen, and I have never heard of any 

 other approaching it. It is grafted at a height of about six feet 

 from the ground on Common Larch and spreads over a considerable 

 area, extending 45 ft. 6 in. in one direction over a pathway, 

 and 33 ft. transversely. In spring and summer the canopy of 

 green is charming and unique ; in winter the brown pendulous 

 twigs have quite an attractive appearance. 



Of ordinary L. dahurica we have a specimen which in 1906 measured 

 56 ft. in height and 5 ft. in girth. The species is not unlike L. 

 europaea, but the twigs are brown instead of yellowish grey, and the 

 tips of the bracts do not project from the cone. It is a native of 

 Saghalien, E. Manchuria, and Siberia. 



4. Thuya orientalis var. pendula Masters (Journ. R. Hort. 

 Soc. xiv. 252). 



The tree here recorded is believed to be the finest in this country. 

 In 1910 it was 23 ft. 6 in. high, and now measures 25 ft. high. It is 

 really the juvenile form of the common Thuya or Biota orientalis 

 maintained to adult age. Seeds have been raised and they have 

 produced the ordinary Thuya orientalis, which is native of North and 

 West China. Messrs. Edwes and Henry say that " this shrub was 

 first observed by Thunberg in Japan, and specimens were collected 

 near Yokohama by Maximowicz. It was also met with by Fortune 

 in China, and has been raised in Europe." As an ornamental tree it 

 is quite distinct, and grows as freely as the type. It was long regarded 

 as specifically distinct. 



5. Ephedra nebrodensis var. procera Stapf (Die Arten der 

 Gattung Ephedra, p. 80). 



A native of Persia, Caucasus, Armenia, Asia Minor, and Greece, this 

 is not really a tree, but rather a shrub, though not at all like any ordinary 

 shrub. It is a " switch plant," consisting only of slender green stems 

 without leaves. The present is quite the finest of any Ephedra, I 

 believe, in the British Isles. It measures 21 ft. through, and 7 ft. 8 in. 

 in height. It extends by sending up shoots from the ground, and in 

 this way it has increased at the rate of about 18 in. in four years. 

 Ephedra is one of the three genera of Gnetaceae, the other two being 

 Gnetum, from which the order derives its name, and Welwitschia, one 

 of the great wonders of vegetation. 



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