PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
18 
Drinkstone Park, informs us that he had seen a blackbird’s nest in a Wellingtonia , and a linnet’s in a 
Thujopsis. 
Culture, Soil\ and Propagation .—The geological formation of the district in which the IVellingtonias 
occur is granitic. Dr C. F. Winslow, in the “Californian Farmer” (8th August 1854), says, that at 
Calaveros they are enclosed in a basin of coarse siliceous material, surrounded by a sloping ridge of sienitic 
rock, which in some places projects above the soil. The basin is reeking with moisture, and in the lowest 
places the water is standing, and some of the largest trees dip their roots into the pools or water-runs. 
The soil in which they grow is rich and deep, and if composed, as it probably is, of the decayed 
remains of former giants of the same breed, it is no wonder that it is so. Mr Blake alludes to this in one 
of the extracts which we have quoted from his paper ; and Mr Matthew, in his letter to his father, above 
alluded to, says, “ The whole surface of the ground (at Calaveros Grove) is strewed with immense trunks, 
in many instances covered with vegetation, so as to look like green earthen mounds; and only by cutting 
into them one finds that they are composed of rotten wood.” 
The climate at the Calaveros Grove is good, neither very hot nor very cold, and not dissimilar to our 
own. “ In this upland region,” says Mr Thomas Bannister (“Gardeners’ Chronicle,” 1855, p. 838), “the 
air is very fine, and the water most pure and cold ; and, after suffering from the excessive heat at Murphy’s 
and lower down among the southern gold regions, you most relubfantly descend. The wild fruits were not 
ripe; but in the season there are, I was told, strawberries, plums, and other fruits in great abundance, very 
good of their kind. There is fine food for cattle.” Mr Matthew, in his letter, says, “ Amongst the under¬ 
brush are hazel, rasp, currant, gooseberry, dogwood, poplar, and willow, with a number of shrubs which 
you do not have in Europe, one of them the Rhus toxodendron , or poison vine.” The climate of the 
Mariposa Grove is described by Mr Blake as very similar to that of the Calaveros Grove. In summer it 
is warm and dry. In winter the snow falls, and rests about six feet deep, but nearly all disappears by the 
1st of May. Rain seldom falls, and he ascribes to this the great depth of soil which hides the rocks. The 
snow melts gradually, and runs off without cutting the ground. At the Calaveros Grove the ground 
appears to be lower, and much more wet, during the summer, than at the Mariposa ; and at the latter the 
trees are more widely spread on the slopes and high knobs of ground, where there is good drainage. 
As might be expedited, therefore, the climate of this country is perfectly suited to it. When it first 
came, it was kept by some in flower-pots, and under glass. The consequence was, that the plants so 
treated often became unhealthy and died, unless removed into the open air. It is now universally recog¬ 
nised as perfectly adapted to the climate of Britain. Merely to say that it is quite hardy in this country 
feebly expresses the trust that may be placed on it in this respedt. It stood the severe winter of 1860-61, 
and also the present (1866-67), in most places without being in the slightest degree touched, even where 
plants previously thought hardy were killed by the frost. Of it scarcely a plant was killed, and only a 
very few injured, and testimony to its perfedf hardiness has poured in from all quarters. 
Mr Palmer’s tables give the following results derived from 122 places, taken indiscriminately, viz.:— 
Places at which Plants were 
Killed. 
Much injured. 
Injured. 
Not injured. 
Total. 
England . 
3 
6 
15 
60 
84 
Scotland . 
1 
1 
4 
29 
35 
Ireland. 
• • • 
... 
... 
O 
n 
O 
4 
7 
19 
92 
122 
It thus appears that out of 122 places, deaths occurred at only four, and on inquiry we find that at 
two of these the deaths were not due to the weather, but to the plants. One, for example, was killed at 
Sudbrooke Holme, in Fincolnshire, and it is said to have been “ a poor sickly plant, i\ feet high. It was 
planted 
