AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
199 
highest to the lowest, a cheerfully obliging dis¬ 
position is every where manifested. We could 
name some railroads pointing towards Ncw- 
York, where the reverse of this is just as appar¬ 
ent. A man can scarcely enter the office to get 
his ticket, or check his baggage, or show his 
ticket on the cars, without meeting that grudg¬ 
ing ungracious reception, which characterizes 
altogether a different class of gentlemen than 
those which direct the New-York and Erie. 
WELLINGTON’S TREE. 
The last few years have witnessed the intro¬ 
duction, from various parts of the world, of 
trees superior as objects of beauty, as well as 
for their timber, to those indigenous in Britain, 
and to the few earlier exotics. David Douglas, 
the zealous botanical collector, was one of the 
first botanists who made the timber trees a 
principal object of attention, and he was instru¬ 
mental in introducing into Britain many species 
that now form attractive ornaments to our ar- 
boretums and pleasure grounds.* His re¬ 
searches were chiefly carried on in the primeval 
forests of North America; while other collectors 
have borne home the treasures of the Himalayas 
and of the southern hemisphere. But, numer¬ 
ous and valuable as were Douglas’s American 
discoveries, it was not in the power of a solitary 
wanderer to exhaust the rich harvest of so ex¬ 
tensive a region. Ever since his time, there¬ 
fore, the hopeful eye of the arboriculturist has 
been directed to the west; and the efforts of 
many enthusiastic and danger-defying travelers 
have ministered, from time to time, to the con¬ 
ifer mania that now, happily for our country, 
excites the landed proprietors over the length 
and breadth of Britain, as did the less profitable 
tulip-mania of a former time the merchant prin¬ 
ces of Holland. 
Besides introducing many important plants 
to Britain, Douglas indicated the existence of 
others hidden in the primeval forests that were 
worthy of the attention, and that eventually 
aroused the curiosity of European travelers. 
One of these is a tree, a native of California, 
which, in its magnificent aspect, and its almost 
incredible proportions, seems to outstrip every 
other kind in the great forests of the far west. 
Particulars of its re-discovery have just come to 
hand, and have been published in the Garden¬ 
ers' Chronicle by Professor Lindley, who sees in 
it one of the most valuable additions ever made 
to our arboretums. Believing that no one 
would differ from him as to the appropriateness 
of the name proposed for the most gigantic tree 
revealed to us by modern discovery, he has con¬ 
ferred upon it the title of Wellingtonia gigna- 
tea. “Wellington,” said he, “stands as high 
above his contemporaries as the Californian tree 
above all the surrounding foresters. . . . Em¬ 
perors, and kings, and princes have their plants, 
and we must not forget to place in the highest 
rank among them our own great warrior.” 
The tree in question, or rather its seeds, and 
a young sapling, have been brought home to Mr. 
Veitch by his collector, Mr. Lobb, along with 
many other novelties of interest and importance 
to the horticultural world. Mr. Lobb gives the 
following account of it: This magnificent ever¬ 
green tree, from its extraordinary height and large 
dimensions may be termed the monarch of the 
Californian forest. It inhabits a solitary dis¬ 
trict on the elevated slopes of the Sierra Nevada, 
near the head-waters of the Stanislau and San 
Antonio rivers, in latitude 38 north, longitude 
120° 10' west, at an elevation of 5000 feet from 
the level of the sea. From eighty to ninety 
trees exist, all within the circuit of a mile, and 
these varying from 250 to 320 feet in height, 
and from 10 to 20 feet in diameter. The man¬ 
* He lias a living monument in Pinus Vouglasi, a tree of 
great beauty, forming extensive forests of a vivid green 
throughout the western parts of North America, and well 
known in alljour ornamental plantations in Britain; in many 
of which it is already of sufficient size to bear cones, 
ner of their growth is much like Seguoia ( Tex- 
odium sempenirens; some are solitary, some 
are in pairs, while some not unfrequently stand 
three and four together. A tree recently felled 
measured about 300 feet in length, with a diam¬ 
eter, including bark, 29 feet 2 inches, at 5 feet 
from the ground; at 18 feet from the ground, it 
was 14 feet G inches through ; at 100 feet from 
the ground, 14 feet; and at 200 feet from the 
ground, 5 feet 5 inches. The bark is of a pale 
cinnamon brown, and from 12 to 15 inches in 
thickness. The branchlets are round, some¬ 
what pendent, and resembling the cypress or 
juniper. The leaves are pale grass green; those 
of the young trees are spreading, with a sharp 
accuminate point. The cones are about 21- 
inches long, and 2 inches across at the thickest 
part. The trunk of the tree in question was 
perfectly solid from the sap-wood to the center; 
and judging from the number of concentric 
rings, its age has been estimated at 3000 years. 
The wood is light, soft, and of a reddish color, 
like redwood or Taxodium sempenirens. Of 
this vegetable monster, 21 feet of the bark from 
the lower part of the trunk have been put in 
the natural form in San Francisco for exhibition; 
it there forms a spacious carpeted room, and 
contains a piano, with seats for forty persons. 
On one occasion, 140 children were admitted 
without inconvenience. 
In commenting upon this account of the most 
wonderful of California’s natural productions, 
Professor Lindley offers a few apt reflections: 
“ What a tree is this—of what portentous as¬ 
pect and almost fabulous antiquity! They say 
that the specimen felled at the junction of the 
Stanislau and San Antonio was above 3000 
years old; that is to say, it must have been a 
little plant when Sampson was slaying the Phil¬ 
istines, or Paris running away with Helen, or 
iEneas carrying off good pater Anchises upon 
his filial shoulders!” 
With regard to the age of the tree, we need 
hardly remind our readers that all such calcu¬ 
lations, founded upon the number of concentric 
circles of wood, are more or less fallacious. A 
tree may produce one circle of wood in one sea¬ 
son, and no more; but as interruptions of 
growth often occur — resulting from severe 
changes in the temperature—it is by no means 
uncommon for several layers to be produced 
during one variable summer. Calculations 
founded upon the thickness of the stem, proba¬ 
bly lead nearer to the truth, although increase 
in absolute size is likewise subject to variation, 
not only in different seasons, but especially at 
different periods of the tree’s age ; in youth, it 
grows rapidly; but as old age comes on, it 
often forms very thin additions to woody mat¬ 
ter. That the Wellingtonia is of immense age, 
there can be no doubt, although even at 3000 
years it does not surpass the calculations that 
have been made of the ages of other trees. De 
Candolle reported some authentic cases as fol¬ 
lows ; Elm, 335 years ; cypress, 350; ivy, 450 ; 
larch, 576; orange, 630; olive, 700; the Ori¬ 
ental plane, 720; the cedar, 800; the lime, 
1150 ; oak, 1500; yew, 2820 ; taxodium, 4000; 
and the baobab of Africa, 5000 years! 
While by some individuals the supposed age 
of the Californian Wellingtonia is doubted, there 
are others who likewise enter their protest 
against its reported dimensions. To one here¬ 
tical reader of the Gardeners' Chronicle , Dr. 
Lindley retorts: “That the tree was over 30 
feet in diameter is pretty clear from the num¬ 
ber of persons who can be seated in it. We un¬ 
derstand that a mounted horseman rode into 
the interior of a hollow tree that had been blown 
over, and after proceeding some distance in the 
interior, turned the horse and rode out again.” 
Additional testimony is afforded by a recent 
number of Morey's Magazine of Horticulture, 
(American,) in which there is published a letter 
from a correspondent at San Jose, mentioning 
amongst other things : “If you were to see the 
big arhor ritce now on exhibition at San Fran¬ 
cisco, 30 feet in diameter, you would be per¬ 
fectly amazed. When I went to see it, there 
were twenty people dancing in the hollow part, 
with chairs and sofas all round.” 
AVe have followed Dr. Lindley in treating his 
tree as an original discovery of Douglas, now 
introduced to Britain for the first time by Mr. 
Lobb; it remains for us, therefore, before clos¬ 
ing this brief notice, to point out the foundation 
upon which the opinion rests. 
During Douglas’s last visit to California, the 
ill-fated naturalist thus wrote to Sir William 
Hooker concerning a coniferous tree inhabiting 
that country, of which no further information, 
nor seeds, nor specimens ever reached Europe : 
“ But the great beauty of Californian vegetation 
is a species of Taxodium, which gives the moun¬ 
tains a most peculiar, I was almost going to say 
awful appearance — something which plainly 
tells we are not in Europe. I have repeatedly 
measured specimens of this tree 270 feet long 
and 32 feet round, at 3 feet above ground. 
Some few I saw upwards of 300 feet high, but 
none in which the thickness was greater than 
those I have instanced.” Should the tree here 
alluded to by Douglas not be of the same spe¬ 
cies as that now introduced by Lobb, then there 
still remains in California an arboreous wonder 
to reward the diligence of some other traveler. 
The discovery of new plants, in most cases, 
only extends the boundaries of systematic bo¬ 
tany, but the discoverer of a useful timber tree 
offers a substantial contribution to our national 
wealth.— Chambers's Journal. 
IMPROVING FRUIT, ETC. 
A correspondent of the Gardeners' Gazette 
says : “I have, from observation, and a series 
of trials, ascertained that all sorts of fruits can 
be raised about one-third larger than they usu¬ 
ally are, and their qualities much improved, 
simply by supporting the fruit in the following 
manner: As soon as it is fully developed, it 
should not be allowed to hang its weight upon 
its stalk, as the increasing weight strains the 
stalk, and in that way lessens the quantity of 
nutritious fluid flowing to the fruit. This may 
be obviated in some cases by laying the pear, 
apple, or whatever it may be, upon a branch, 
and fixing it with a piece of matter, to prevent 
its being moved by the wind; or by putting it 
into a small net, made for the purpose, at the 
same time keeping the stalk in a horizontal po¬ 
sition, when it can be done without twisting or 
bending it—as the bending, either accidentally 
or by the weight of the fruit, is, in my opinion, 
most injurious to its growth; for the pores of 
the woody stalk are strained on the one side of 
the bend and compressed on the other ; hence 
the vessels through which the requisite nour¬ 
ishment flows, being thus partially shut up, the 
growth of fruit is retarded in proportion to the 
straining and compressing of the stalk. The 
fixing of the fruit also prevents the risk of its 
falling off and getting damaged before it reaches 
maturity. I have grown dahlias upon the same 
principle, and with similar success, and I have 
no doubt that the most of flower blooms, espe¬ 
cially those which are weighty and inclining, 
can be grown much larger by the system re¬ 
ferred to, and, in short, all sorts of vegetables, 
trees, etc.” 
-«*♦- 
Making the most of Enjoyments. —Southey 
says, in one of his letters—“ I have told you of 
the Spaniard who always put on his spectacles 
when he was about to eat cherries, that they 
might look bigger and more tempting. In like 
manner I make the most of my enjoyments; 
and though I do not cast my cares away, I pack 
them in as little compass as I can, and carry 
them as conveniently as I can for myself, and 
never let them annoy others.” 
-- 
Vermont —Famous for the production of four 
great staples, namely, men, women, maple sugar 
and horses. 
The first are strong; the last are fleet; 
The second and third are exceedingly sweet; 
And all are uncommonly “ hard to beat.” 
