HARDY CONIFEROUS PLANTS, 
165 
frequently clear of branches to the height of 
fifty feet. This tree is thickly garnished with 
leaves of a deep green colour : it assumes a 
conical outline, and is well adapted to form an 
agreeable contrast to white buildings, and in 
the distance, during summer time, it often 
displays itself to great advantage beside white 
poplars, especially if it is planted in masses. 
Jt grows slowly for the first few years ; but 
in a deep free loam, where there is plenty of 
moisture, it puts on a vigour which leads to 
its being recognised as a distinct species. 
The wood of this tree is light, easily worked, 
fine-grained, and lasting. In one important 
respect (that of resisting the effects usually 
produced by alternate exposure to wetness and 
moisture), it stands superior to every other 
description of American timber ; and this 
fact has led some of the railway companies of 
the present day to import it in large quantities, 
in order that it may be tested as to its fitness 
for sleepers. The houses of Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, and New York, sufficiently prove 
its great usefulness in those places ; for it is 
not only extensively used in the construction 
of their roofs, but in the shape of household 
utensils, such as pails, tubs, churns, casks, &c. 
For several out-of-door purposes it is found 
a valuable auxiliary in helping forward the 
commerce and agriculture of the country. 
The sides of fishing boats are formed of it, 
and in the shapes of gates, fences, &c. it lasts 
for half a century. Had Cobbett urged the 
adoption of this tree in England int^tead of 
the locust, he would have earned for himself 
a better reputation, and conferred a real bene- 
fit on his countrymen. 
To extensive proprietors of cold, marshy 
land, the writer would confidently recommend 
this tree to be planted on an extensive scale. 
To those also who have lands in maritime 
places, this tree offers every inducement, for 
it appears that the meadows of Virginia and 
Maryland are exposed, during high tides, to a 
considerable depth of salt water, a circum- 
stance which has no effect whatever in re- 
tarding the growth of the trees. 
The cones should be imported, and subjected 
to heat as recom,m<^nded for those of C. sem- 
pervirens. Boxes or pans are most conveni- 
ent for this species, because they can be shifted 
away from the sun at pleasure. Light sandy 
soil should be selected, and the seeds should 
be covered to the depth of a quarter of an 
inch. The boxes or pans should have the 
advantnge of a slight bottom heat, and when 
the plants are completely up, care should be 
taken to withdraw them to a colder atmo- 
sphere. They should remain two years in the 
boxes or pans, and then be planted out during 
the month of April in the open ground, where 
they will require pi'otection during winter, at 
least for a few years. Plants, one foot high 
are 6s. per dozen (1848). 
3. Ctipressus lusitanica, Tournefort (Cedar 
of Goa, or Portuguese Cypress). — Leaves in 
four rows, imbricated, adpressed, somewhat 
glaucous, terminating in spines, awl-shaped. 
Cones globular, covered with eiglit-angled 
rough reflexed scales. 
A beautiful branchy evergreen shrub, of 
an elegant pendulous outline, and well entitled 
to take its place on the best kept greensward. 
It has been known in England since 1683. 
One of the largest trees stood in the grounds 
of the Duke of Richmond at Goodwood, but 
it was killed by severe frost in 1740. At the 
present time, the finest specimens are at El- 
vaston Castle, and in the arboretum of the 
London Hoi-ticultural Society. A free, d^ep, 
loamy soil is its delight. Seeds are sometimes 
imported fi-om Portugal, but a great many 
plants are raised by cuttings treated like the 
more common sorts of heath. According to 
Miller, the tree is abundant at Bussaco, near 
Cembra in Portugal, where it is called the 
cedar of Bussaco. The seeds of this species 
should be treated in the same way as the fore- 
going. Plants one foot high are l.s. 6d. each 
(1848). 
4. Cupressus tonilosa, Lambert (twisted 
or Bhotan Cypress). — Leaves obtuse-ovate, 
small, adpressed, imbricated in four rows, of 
a light green. Cones about the size of a sloe, 
globose, angled, brown ; scales bossed. » 
One of the most elegant trees of the Hima- 
laya, where it grows in great profusion at a 
height of 12,000 feet above the level of the 
sea. It is there called the Hill Cypress. It 
is not improbable that this species may be- 
come serviceable even as a small timber tree 
in England, or at any rate rank with the most 
common and useful of our large evergreens. 
The wi'iter has bad seeds sent from an ele- 
vated part of the Himalaya, and one-year 
seedlings appear to be as hardy as the com- 
mon larch and Scotch pine. By far the best 
way to treat this valuable cypress is to steep 
the seeds a week before sowing them, and 
commit them to the open ground in the middle 
of April, so situated that the mid-day sun may 
not strike the beds where they are sown. 
They require a great deal of moisture, mode- 
rately and regularly supplied, yet often and 
carefully a'^^ministered. The seeds should be 
covered to the depth only of a quarter of an 
inch, and the young plants should remain in 
the seed-bed for two years, when they may be 
treated like larch or Scotch pine plants. It 
is not necessary that the seeds of this species 
should be sent by the overland route from 
India, for it has been satisfactorily proved 
that they will vegetate freely after being ex- 
posed to a five months' voyage. One year 
