SOME NOTABLE TREES AND SHRUBS 151 
expect the seed to ripen in this country, we should like to see 
the female flower here. 
Other trees that deserve notice are those fruit trees that are 
cultivated only for the beauty of their flowers. Such is that 
cherry tree which, owing to the fondness of birds for its fruit, is x 
known as the bird-cherry, Primus Padtis. It is a really beautiful 
tree that grows to the height of 40 feet, and bears abundantly 
pure white flowers, on long racemes, with five petals each. The 
cherries are black, bitter and small. It is admirably suited for 
ornamental purposes, as its bright green summer foliage is followed 
by autumnal beauty of red and yellow tints that contrast with the 
sheen of its ebon fruit. 
Perhaps the most beautiful species of Bird-cherry trees that 
is growm in England is Primus Mahaleb , the Perfumed Cherry 
tree, which is a handsome small tree with white bark, numerous 
branches, and wood, leaves, fruit, and flowers, alike powerfully 
scented, the flowers so much so as to be hardly endurable in a 
room. Wherever it grows it diffuses a most grateful fragrance 
all around, which may be well enjoyed at the top of Nightingale 
Lane, Richmond, where a fine Mahaleb cherry grows, and every 
spring sheds perfume on all sides. Its smell is said to be less 
powerful, but more agreeable, when it is dry than when the sap 
is in it. 
Sometimes a tree comes into notice in a strange way. This 
is the case with the Virginian Date Plum ( Diospyros virginiana ), 
which, though it was introduced into this country in 1629, and 
has grown to the height of 30 feet near London, attained 
celebrity through its fruit, the Persimmon, being the name given 
to a famous racehorse which won the Derby for the Prince of 
Wales ; and then everybody was wanting to know what the 
Persimon, as it is usually called, w r as. Its pale yellow flowers 
appear in July, and the yellow fruit is ripe when the tree drops 
its leaves in November. The tree grows much taller in the 
United States, from which country it was introduced. 
We might go on to mention the Chili pine, Araucaria 
imbricata, a well-known prickly tree, often called, as it may well 
be, the monkey puzzler, which took its botanical name from the 
people (Araucanos) in whose country it grows in Chili ; the 
Eucalyptus, one or two species of which have been introduced 
from Australia, and the Sequoias, gigantic pines which were 
introduced from California, and one of which is often called the 
Wellingtonia, much to the disgust of the Americans, it having 
been previously named after a remarkable Indian chief. Sir 
M. E. Grant Duff says that these pines are all very ugly, 
which we can hardly believe. But though the Sequoia has 
taken its place in our grounds, and grows well ; the Eucalypti 
which attain an even mightier size in Australia, have never 
yet withstood our worst winters, so that they cannot be ranked 
amongst our timber trees. 
But, surely, here in England we should be proudest of our 
indigenous tree, the oak, of which it may be well said that : — 
