248 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST., 
With the exception of a few of the largest, all the above were planted in 
the spring of 1861, and have since stood the winters uninjured, so that they 
may be considered perfectly hardy. There is a great number of smaller 
plants, very promising specimens, and among them are several good plants of 
Picea nobilis, also a very handsome young plant of P. lasiocarpa. Altogether 
there are about seventy-five distinct sorts of Conifers. 
M. S. 
ON THE SEEDING OF CONIFERS.—No. 2. 
Wellingtonia gigantea, Pinus excelsa, and Pinus Banksiana. 
Wellingtonia gigantea is well known as a noble and handsome tree, 
both as regards shape and colour, and we can now judge what an effect it will 
have in the future landscape scenery of this country, particularly when judi¬ 
ciously placed on the sides of extensive slopes and ravines, so as to catch the 
morning and evening sunlight. My present intention, however, is only to 
allude to its cones, male catkins, and seeding, which has occurred here for the 
first time, and as I have not heard of its producing seeds elsewhere in England, 
a few facts and remarks may be of interest. 
That the Wellingtonia has produced cones here and at many other places for 
several years is well known ; but, so far as I am aware, little has been seen or 
said of its male catkins till within the last two years, or thereabouts. The 
cones with us are produced not in any particular number in a cluster, they are 
in twos, threes, and fives, and as many as a dozen or fifteen have been counted. 
The cones formed in the spring of 1865 became full grown in 1866, and the 
seeds were ripe by the end of August or beginning of September. All of them, 
however, do not arrive at maturity at the same time ; but as soon as ripe, on 
a sunny, drying, windy day the scales of the cones open, and out fall the seeds 
if fully ripe, the scales closing up again at night and on damp days. The seeds 
are very small for such a gigantic tree ; indeed but few Conifers produce smaller, 
but they are very numerous. The male catkins with us have hitherto been on 
different branches from those producing cones. They are pendulous, when 
fully expanded about the diameter of a grain of wheat, and equal to about 
three of these in length ; the colour is a bright brimstone. Being full of 
pollen this is wafted about on dry windy days, as in the case of the Cypress 
and Juniper family. 
Pinus excelsa. —This is a very distinct and beautiful spreading-branched 
conical Pine, with foliage of a shining, glaucous, bluish green. It forms a 
beautiful contrast with Pinus insignis, Abies Douglasii and Menziesii, Cupressus 
macrocarpa, Picea nobilis, Webbiana, Nordmanniana, cephalonica, grandis, 
amabilis, &c. ISo one can form an adequate idea of the beauty and distinct 
character of these trees without having seen them contrasted in an extensive 
collection of finely-grown specimens, such as we have here. 
With us the cone of Pinus excelsa resembles the horn of a two-year-okl 
heifer in shape, size, and length. It is from 10 to 12 inches long, and pendulous 
from the shoot of the preceding year—that is, the growth of the year is made 
beyond it. The seed ripens in the second year; at this time, therefore, there 
is two-year-old wood above the cones. These are covered with turpentine the 
first year, which gives them a grey colour, and they are very heavy; in the 
second year they are light brown. They are attached to the shoot by a stout, 
tough footstalk of about 2 inches in length till quite ripe, when they can be 
easily gathered. 
Pinus Banksiana. —This species is more curious than beautiful, and would 
