VALUE IN THE BEITISH ISLANDS OF INTEODUCED CONIFERS. 07 



Pinus Strohus, the Weymouth Pine, is an early intro- 

 duction, having come to Britain from the eastern parts of 

 North America in 1705, and at one time it was a popular 

 tree with the planter, owing to the high reputation it bears 

 as a timber tree in its native country. It has, however, failed 

 to prove a success as a forest tree in any part of Britain, 

 although we occasionally come across a well-grown specimen 

 of it. Its chief use is as an ornamental Conifer, and when 

 young and growing fast it forms a pleasing object among other 

 trees. At Logie Almond, on the Scone estates, Perthshire, 

 it is 90 ft. high and 7 ft. 6 in. in girth, and at Murthly 50 ft. 

 high and 7 ft. 8 in. in girth ; at Kevesby it is 50 ft. high 

 and 5 ft. in girth, and at Hewell 35 ft. high and 5 ft. 6 in. 

 in girth. 



Sequoia semioervirens is another of the gigantic trees of 

 California for the introduction of which to Britain we are in- 

 debted to the Eoyal Horticultural Society, fertile seed of it 

 having been sent home by the Society's collector, Hartweg, in 

 1846, from which the first plants were raised in this country. 

 Since that period it has been freely planted throughout Britain ; 

 and although in cold, bleak situations it suffers from exposure, 

 and is rather liable to frost-bite in spring, still in many places 

 favourable to its growth it has attained splendid dimensions. 

 It makes a very large bulk of timber in a given time, and it 

 may yet prove to be a profitable timber-tree in the mild and 

 moist climate of our western coasts, where it generally thrives 

 well within the influence of the sea-breeze. In England, at 

 Boconnoc, it is 75 ft. high and 13 ft. in girth ; in Ireland, at 

 Fota, it is 75 ft. high and 7 ft. 6 in. in girth ; and in Scotland, 

 at Castle Menzies, 74 ft. high and 4 ft. 6 in. in girth. 



Thuya gigantea is a rapid-growing tree of a very distinct 

 type, which has proved itself in the highest degree a success 

 in Britain since its introduction from North-west America by 

 both Jeffrey and Lobb in the same year (1853). Being easily 

 increased by cuttings, or raised from seed, which it produces 

 freely, it soon found its way into all parts of the country, first 

 as an ornamental tree, but for a good many years now it has 

 been freely used in plantations, where, in suitable soil, it grows 

 rapidly, and forms a straight, slender stem of excellent wood, 

 which promises to rival the Larch for telegraph-poles and such- 



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