CHAPTER IV 
THE PINETUM 
Adverse 
Conditions. 
The representatives of the great family of conifers (firs, spruces,, 
pines, cypresses, etc.) are planted along the south side of the Lake 
and on both sides of the walk leading from the Isle- 
worth Ferry Gate eastwards to the Holly Walk. The 
former section is called the Northern Pinetum, the 
latter the Southern Pinetum. Although all, or nearly all, the species 
that are hardy at Kew are grown here, only a proportion of them 
reaches perfection. No plants suffer more from fog and smoke than 
do conifers. Probably the resinous nature of the wood and leaves 
causes the soot to adhere to them more tenaciously than to ordinary 
evergreens. At any rate, the conifers at Kew are always dirty. 
Workmen handling them, even in late summer, when fogs have 
been absent for months, soon resemble chimney-sweeps. Moreover, 
the hot, dry summers, so frequent in the Thames Valley, are inimical 
to the well-being of many conifers, especially the spruces and firs 
• — moisture-loving trees that find in the wet, misty valleys of Scotland 
their most congenial surroundings. The pines succeed better at 
Kew than do most conifers, the open gravelly nature of the soil suit- 
ing them, and various members of the cypress group grow well in 
certain parts. Many of the conifers, however, achieve only a moderate 
success, and some are entire failures. The conditions required by 
the family as a whole are so varied that the best situation one could 
select would not perfectly suit them all. How much worse is it here, 
where neither soil, nor rainfall, nor atmosphere is what one would 
desire ! 
The first Pinetum at Kew was formed on the lawn near the Seven 
Sister Elms. It occupied a portion of the 45 acres which 
were taken from the Pleasure Grounds and added to the 
original Botanic Garden in 1843. Here still are several 
of the trees that were planted about that date. Most notable of 
them is a fine specimen of Pinus monticola, now 65 feet high. The 
188 
The Old 
Pinetum. 
