VALUE IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS OF INTRODUCED CONIFERS. 87 



witli suspicion in many places where it formerly throve well. 

 Nevertheless, where it is free from insects, it is a fine handsome 

 Conifer, and grows moderately fast as a timber tree. The wood 

 is a good quality of Fir, and where the tree thrives it is not to 

 be despised in a forest. The finest tree recorded is at Poltal- 

 loch, Argyll, 70 ft. high and 6 ft. in girth ; the next in Wales, at 

 Penrhyn, 70 ft. high. The tallest in Ireland is at Markree, 60 ft. 

 high and 2 ft. 10 in. in girth ; and the thickest stem at Killarney, 

 10 ft. 6 in. in girth and 50 ft. high. 



Araucaria imbricata (Chilian Pine) is the most distinct, and 

 probably the most effective in contrast with other trees, of all 

 the Conifers that have been introduced into Britain. Although 

 brought home from Chili by Archibald Menzies, naturalist to 

 Vancouver's expedition, as far back as 1796, very few specimens 

 in this country are over fifty years old. Since then, however, it 

 has been a favourite with the ornamental planter, and in suitable 

 places it thoroughly deserves the prominence that has been 

 given it as a landscape tree. It is one of the hardiest, as it 

 is the sturdiest, of all Conifers in withstanding the force of the 

 wind. It thrives well, and grows with a straight upright stem, 

 in exposed places where few other trees can struggle upwards 

 with stems lying at any angle above the horizontal. It thrives 

 with remarkable vigour in the moist climate of our western 

 coasts, where on open free soil through which water freely 

 percolates it keeps pace in height with common forest trees. 

 In the western islands of Scotland it grows and thrives remark- 

 ably well ; and even in the Island of Shapinshay, one of the 

 Orkneys, it is among the tallest of the Conifers which can be 

 grown in that stormy latitude and maritime climate. Its usual 

 growth in the drier parts of the British Isles seldom exceeds a 

 foot in height annually, often much less ; but in the moisture-laden 

 air of our western shores it makes a growth of 18 in. in many 

 localities, and in those parts may yet form a valuable timber 

 tree, as the stem is always perfectly straight and the wood of 

 excellent quality. The grand specimen at Dropmore, of which 

 all Conifer lovers have heard, if they have not seen it, is 

 68 ft. 6 in. high and 8 ft. in girth, the finest tree probably in 

 the northern hemisphere of the Araucaria imbricata. It is 

 sixty-one years old, in vigorous health, and growing freely. The 

 next tallest recorded, and a very fine tree too, is in Scotland, at 



