192 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
A fine example of a species of hazel, the Constantinople Nut, 
grows about a hundred yards south of the Main 
Constantinople Entrance 
Nut (Cory las 
Colarna ). 
Cork Oak 
( Qaercus 
Saber). 
Its nuts are of little value as food, but 
they are enclosed in a large, curiously-divided recep- 
tacle. The trunk is 4 feet 5 inches in circumference. 
The oak which provides the cork that has become so important 
a requisite in civilised life is an evergreen species from South Europe. 
A specimen of it on the same lawn as the Seven Sister 
Elms at Kew shows the corky character of the bark very 
well, but the species requires a warmer climate to succeed 
perfectly. Perhaps the finest grove of Cork Oaks in the 
British Isles is to be seen at Osborne, Isle of Wight. 
Just inside the Main Entrance, on the left, is a noble representa- 
tive of the Corsican Pine, 86 feet high and 9 feet 3 
Pine (P‘ inches in circumference of trunk. It is said to be the 
, , , , oldest tree of its kind in Great Britain, having been 
brought from the South of France in 1814 by the famous 
botanist, R. A. Salisbury. 
A few yards east of the Cactus House there stands one of the best 
specimens in England of Coulter’s Pine of California. 
P’ne^jP R nbout 57 feet high, and its trunk is 7 feet 6 
Coalteri ) inches in girth. The most remarkable features are its 
long leaves — very similar in arrangement to those of 
a sweep’s brush — and its enormous, heavy cones. 
The Holm Oak is the noblest of all evergreen trees in the British 
Isles, if we exclude the pines, spruces, and firs, which belong to a 
totally distinct type of vegetation. It is a tree of South 
Europe, where it forms the dark, so-called “ Ilex ” 
groves. It reproduces, in the northern climate, the 
character of the olive more nearly than any other tree. 
The largest specimen at Kew (where the species thrives exception- 
ally well) is near the Victoria Gate. It is over 50 feet high, its 
branches cover a space 70 feet across, and its trunk is 12 feet round. 
Of several notable Horse Chestnuts in Kew, the finest is between 
the Rhododendron Dell and the river. Its lower 
branches rest on the ground, where some have 
taken root. Its branches spread over an area more 
than 100 yards in circumference. Another noble tree 
is on the south side of the Lake, opposite the finest oak in Kew. 
Holm Oak 
(Qaercus 
Ilex). 
Horse Chestnut 
(HSsculus 
Hippoca.sta.nam). 
