CONIFERS FOR ECONOMIC PLANTING. 



61 



several good qualities that recommend it as at least a third-rate 

 tree for planting in our woods and parks. Better than almost 

 any other Conifer I know, the Mount Atlas Cedar will grow 

 on cold, stiff soils and where biting blasts are of frequent 

 occurrence. 



(15) Pinus rigida has been turned to good account on not a 

 few estates in Britain, particularly for planting on exposed sandy 

 tracts of land, where it affords a great amount of shelter to 

 other less hardy kinds. The timber is of no particular value. 



(16) Lawson's Cypress {Guiwessus Laiusoniana). — I was 

 agreeably surprised the other day to receive information from a 

 Scottish landed proprietor that the Lawson's Cypress, when 

 planted as a forest tree, had done well with him and produced a 

 large quantity of excellent timber. On the Churchill estate, in the 

 North of Ireland, this tree has certainly exceeded every expecta- 

 tion, the rate of growth being rapid and the timber of good 

 quality. It requires a certain amount of shelter, fairly good soil, 

 and plenty of room to develop its side-branches, the latter being 

 the most serious drawback to it as a general forest tree. 



Becapitulation. — Out of the two hundred and twenty-two 

 species of coniferous trees that have been introduced to this 

 country, the sixteen species just treated of are about the only 

 kinds that I can, from my own experience, recommend for 

 profitable planting in the British Isles, and it is very questionable 

 if any others of equal merit can be added to the list. Nearly all 

 the newer and rarer Conifers have been under my charge and 

 planted by me in quantity, so that I have had ample opportu- 

 nities in three of the most favourable situations in the British 

 Isles for acquiring a good knowledge of their requirements and 

 value whether for ornamental or profitable planting. 



Some others, such as Abies grandis and A, nohilis, Pinus 

 insignis, Thuyopsis borealis, and perhaps the Mammoth Tree 

 (Sequoia gigantea), might, perhaps, have been included in my 

 list ; but, from my own and others' experience of these, they 

 are not to be recommended, whether on the point of utility or 

 hardihood, for general forest planting in almost any part of the 

 British Isles. 



