NOTABLE TREES 
195 
Queen 
Elizabeth's 
Elm ( Ulmas 
campestris ). 
Red Oak 
( Quercus 
rubra). 
her sister Elizabeth (who spent some of her girlhood in Richmond 
Old Palace) was wont to sit beneath it. It is now a mere wreck, 
but sufficient of the original trunk survives to show its 
once enormous size. According to a local historian, 
the upper part of this tree was blown down in 1844. 
At that time its trunk was over 3 yards in diameter. 
It figures in most of the illustrations of the castellated 
palace built by George III. in 1803. 
A little to the east of the Pagoda there stands one of the finest 
examples of the Red Oak in Great Britain. The species was intro- 
duced to England from North America about the period 
when Kew House came into Royal occupation, and this 
tree was probably planted soon afterwards. Its trunk is 
14 feet in circumference. Although showing the effects 
of age, it is still healthy. 
One of the most characteristic trees in that region of wonderful 
trees, Western North America, is the Redwood. Not quite so big 
as the mammoth tree of Calaveras, it is, however, 
its nearest rival. Specimens have been measured 
that were 350 feet high, with trunks 50 feet in cir- 
cumference. Its cultivation in England dates from the 
first half of the nineteenth century, so that British specimens are still 
juveniles. The largest example at Kew is in the southern section 
of the Pinetum ; it is just over 70 feet high, and its trunk is about 
9 feet in girth. It shows very well the red-brown, spongy bark 
that gives to the redwood forests of California their beautiful and 
striking appearance. 
There are many fine Elms in Kew, but the only ones whose history 
is known stand in a row on the lawn south-west from 
Elm^ n ( £// S ^ er t ^ le ^road Walk. The “Seven Sisters” are now but 
cam esiris) fi ye > anc ^ some those that remain are sadly disabled. 
They owe their popular title to having been planted by 
the seven daughters of George III. 
Between the Conservatory and the Broad Walk there is the oldest 
and largest Sophora in Kew. The species, a native of 
China, was introduced into England in 1753, and this tree 
is one of five of the original importation that was obtained 
for Kew. Its trunk is very short, and is 12 feet 4 inches in girth. 
A few feet from the ground it divides into four great limbs, which 
Redwood 
{Sequoia 
sempervirens ). 
Sophora 
japonica. 
