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mann
ARBORICULTURE.
Edinburgh: Printed by Thomas Constable,
fOR
EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS.

LONDON . . HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
CAMBRIDGE MACMILLAN AND CO.

GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE,
ARBORICULTURE

OR A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON RAISING AND
MANAGING FOREST TREES

AND ON

THE PROFITABLE EXTENSION OF THE WOODS AND
FORESTS OF GREAT BRITAIN

BY JOHN GRIGOR

THE NURSERIES, FORRES, N.B.

AUTHOR OF THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY'S PRIZE ESSAYS ‘ON RAISING FOREST
PLANTS,’ ‘ON FOREST PLANTING, AND ON TREES ADAPTED TO VARIOUS SOILS AND SITUATIONS,’
‘ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES,’ ‘ON FOREST PRUNING,’ ‘ON THE NATIVE PINE
FORESTS OF SCOTLAND,’ ‘ON PLANTING WITHIN THE INFLUENCE OF THE SEA,’ ‘ON
THE DEODAR,’ ‘ON THE VARIETIES OF THE LARCH CULTIVATED IN GREAT
BRITAIN,’ ‘ON THE LARCH PLANTATIONS OF SCOTLAND,’ AND ON
VARIOUS OTHER SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH ARBORICULTURE.

EDINBURGH
EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS

1868.
jie
DEDICATED

BY PERMISSION

Go the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland,

WHOSE OPERATIONS
HAVE GREATLY EXTENDED AND IMPROVED

THE WOODS AND FORESTS THROUGHOUT THE KINGDOM.

JOHN GRIGOR.
PREFACE.

In writing the preface to a book it is usual for its author
to state what gave rise to the work, or to indicate its
supposed superiority to the works in circulation on the
same or on similar subjects. In the present case, it may
suffice to state that, during the last forty years, while the
author successfully established and conducted the Forres
Nurseries, he has written numerous papers on arboricul-
tural subjects, for which the Highland and Agricultural
Society of Scotland has awarded prizes.

The articles on the timber trees adapted to the climate
of Great Britain published in that excellent work The
Agricultural Cyclopedia (by Morton), were also furnished
by the author, as well as papers from time to time on the
same subject to the leading periodicals of the day; and as
far back as 1838, Loudon, in his preface to the greatest
work that has yet appeared on the subject, “ ARBORETUM
ET FRuTICETUM BRITANNICUM,” acknowledges his obliga-
tions to the author for important communications respect-
ing that useful tree, “ the Scotch Pine in Scotland.”

These publications have, for a long period, given rise to
numerous applications by friends and customers of the
author for copies of his writings on Arboriculture, which,
from their publication in detached portions at various
Vill PREFACE.

times, could not easily be supplied. To meet this desidera-
tum, it was at one time intended to collect the papers as
they stood in the various publications, and embody them ;
this, however, was found unsuitable, as it would have
occasioned numerous repetitions, and swelled the volume
to too great a size; besides, the experience of upwards of
a quarter of a century had, to some extent, changed the
author’s views on subjects of importance. Many of the
articles therefore have been re-written to adapt them to
the present time, and some others have been added to
make the work complete on the various subjects, from the
harvesting of the seed to the felling of the full-grown
timber.

During the present century, not only have changes taken
place, to some extent, in the opinions of writers on the
best mode of cultivation and subsequent management of
our timber trees, but in several instances the trees them-
selves, with respect to some of the most common and
useful species in cultivation, are changed, and are found to
be less hardy and ill adapted to the climate of North
Britain. This is more especially the case with the Scotch
Pine and the Larch, and it arises from the importation, for
many years past, of large supplies of foreign seed grown
in warm districts on the Continent, which produce plants
so tender that in this country they form a very precarious
crop.

It is a remarkable fact, that the same care is not mani-
fested in the formation of timber plantations in general,
which may last for a century, that is usually shown in the
laying down of any of the common crops in agriculture.
In the latter, though the crop is only to last for a season,
the purity and the productiveness of the variety are care-
fully attended to ; while in timber cultivation, Scotch Pine
PREFACE. 1x

and the Larch for instance, are looked on as possessed of
no varieties or difference in hardiness.

So often does the formation of extensive plantations fall
into incompetent hands, that it may be stated, that in the
specifications for two of the largest plantations that the
author ever knew to be formed by contract, and belonging
to different noblemen, the American Spruce, a dwarf tree
which only attains to about one-third of the size of the
common or Norway species, was the only spruce mentioned,
and the proportion required involved the planting of
it in each plantation to the extent of several hundred
thousands.

It seldom falls to the lot of any one to raise plants and
form them into plantations, and to be able to report on
these plantations after they have_become valuable ; but the
author of the following pages having begun business early
in life, and formed several large plantations nearly forty
years ago, can refer to them, standing in great vigour, an
ornament to the scenery of the Highlands, mollifying the
blast, and after paying every expense, yielding a revenue
equal to that of the finest arable land in the country, where
the ground previously to these formations was not worth a
shilling an acre.

At atime when timber throughout the country is every-
where enhanced in price ; when woods and forests are fast
disappearing, chiefly by the construction and maintenance
of railways, and by the facility they afford for its transit
from place to place, it is believed that this work will be
appreciated. The favoured and distinguished approval
already vouchsafed from time to time on the appearance of
some detached portions of it, encourages the hope that it
will be esteemed both by landowners and practical men,
as pointing out the best mode of raising and extending the
x PREFACE.

profitable cultivation of the timber trees that are tried and
known to be adapted to our climate, and of averting those
casualties which at various stages of their growth are apt
to assail them.

With respect to numerous trees of recent introduction
from various quarters of the world, many of them are no
doubt interesting and ornamental, and it is hoped many
will prove valuable to the country; but until their hardi-
ness and vigour have been ascertained, and until they
become far more plentiful and cheap than they now are,
they cannot be recommended for profitable timber.

Tue NorsERIES, FoRRES,
October 1868.
CONTENTS.

L
PAGE
Calendar of Operations, . : ‘ : ‘ 1
IL.
The Rise and Progress of British Plantations, . 19
ITl.
Acclimatation, 3 5 ‘ f ‘ ; . : 24
IV.
On Nursery Ground, Manures, etc., y 3 ; - 36
Vv.
On Draining Ground—On Fences, and Roads for Plantations, . 41
VI.
Table showing the number of Plants required to plant an Acre,
from one foot to thirty feet asunder—On selecting
Nursery Plants, . ‘i é 2 . 3 é 47

VIL

Modes of Forest Planting—Notch Planting in Moorland, with
the small spade or hand-iron—Detailed results of this
mode of planting after thirty-five years—Notch Planting
with the common spade, and general remarks on Moor-
land Plantations, ‘ ‘ : é ; i z 53
xi CONTENTS.

VIIL
Pit Planting, and Planting on sais ne sa an with
Broad-leaved Trees,
IX.

On Planting in a Grassy Vegetation—On me where Timber
aie recently been removed, : i Fi

x.

On Plantations on Bog or Peat Soil—On Ground overspread
with Furze, or Whin, or other Rough Herbage—On
Planting exposed or barren Ground at a great Altitude,

XL
On Thinning Plantations,

XIL

On Sea-side Planting in the county of Norfolk—On the Sands
of Culbin and Kincorth in Morayshire—Cost of Forma-
tion, and the Value of some of these woods after Twenty-
four Years—Mode of growing Plantations on the Coast
of France—Plantations on the West Coast of Scotland—
Preparation of Ground—Time of Planting, etc.,

XIIL
Hedgerow Timber,
XIV.
Coppice,
Xv.
On Harvesting Bark,
XVL
On Pruning Forest Trees, and ee in Plantations for
Embellishment, 7 ; ‘ .
XVIL
On Raising and Managing Hedges, .
XVIIL
The Pine Tree—Scotch Pine, and its Varieties, and other hardy

PAGE

65

71

77

81

93

117

123

129

134

143

156
CONTENTS.
XIX.
The Spruce Fir,
XxX.
The Silver Fir,
XXI.

The Larch—Its Introduction into Scotland—Extensive Planta-

tions of the Tree on the Athole Estates—The Mode of
Propagating the Tree—Remarkable Examples of its
Growth—The Diseases to which it is subject, and the
best means of averting them, F 4

XXII.
The Cedar, ‘
XXIII. ’
The Cypress, .
: XXIV.
The Juniper,
XXV.
The Wellingtonia, .
XXVI.
The Araucaria,
XXVII.
The Oak,
XXVIIL
The Beech,
XXIX.
The Chestnut, :
XXX.
The Hazel,
XXXIL
The Hornbeam,

PAGE

187

196

206

234

245

249

252

259

262

280

288

293

297
X1V CONTENTS.

XXXII.
The Alder,
XXXII.
The Birch,
XXXIV.
The Willow, .
XXXV.
The Poplar,
XXXVI.
The Elm,
XXXVII.
The Walnut,
XXXVIII
The Maple—Sycamore, .
XXXIX.
The Lime Tree,
XL.
The Ash,
XLI.
The Plane Tree,
XLII.
The Horse-Chestnut,
XLIII.

The Common Pear Tree—The Crab iene Mountain Ash
and Service Tree,

XLIV.
The Cherry—The Common and Portugal Laurel,

XLV.
The Thorn,

PAGE

300

305

310

316

332

339

344

350

356

362

367

370

377

383
CONTENTS.

XLVI.
The Elder Tree,
XLVII.
The Laburnum,
XLVIIL
The Locust Tree,
XLIX.
The Holly,
L.
The Yew Tree,
LI.

The Usual Prices of Nursery Plants,

InpDEx,

xv

PAGE

389

393

396

400

404

409

413
LE

CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS,

A CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS will, it is hoped, be a useful
guide in recording the work that is usually performed in
nursery and forest management throughout the year; but as
much depends on the state of the weather, and on the climate
of the district in which the work is going on, the precise
dates cannot in all cases be adhered to.

The opening up of one season may, during spring, be early,
and accompanied with drought ; the next may be the very
reverse ; and that not unfrequently makes the difference of a
month in the period for the safe transplantation of forest plants.

With respect to all plants which come early into leaf—
such as hawthorn, larch, etc.—if the nursery ground possesses
a climate warmer than that where the plants are to be
inserted, when the planting cannot be performed sufficiently
early, the plants should be removed to the later district before
the buds are expanded, and should be carefully secured in the
ground against drought till they are planted out.

Both in the nursery and in the forest, the busiest period
by far in the twelve months occurs in spring, during open
weather in March and April. It should therefore be the
aim of the manager to leave no description of work to be
performed at that period, which can well be done at a time
when the work is less pressing.

Though much may be accomplished by practical informa-
tion of the time and the circumstances most suitable for the
operations with respect to forest trees, yet directions in
writing generally fall far short of the assistance and success
derived from the exercise of common sense and experience.

A
2 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—JANUARY.

JANUARY.

Continue to fell and cut up timber. Thin plantations,
prune hedges, clear out all ditches and conduits which may
not have undergone a clearance since the fall of the leaf. In
frosty weather at this season, drive to the depot all accumula-
tions of decayed leaves for forming vegetable mould, the heaps
of which should be completed by this time.

Open weather at this season is suitable for planting all sorts
of forest trees, particularly in dry situations.

As the plots in the nursery become clear of plants, dig the
ground over roughly, or dig it up into ridges, so that it may
be exposed to the influence of frost.

In removing from the nursery one-year transplanted larches
or pines, which generally stand in lines nine to twelve inches
apart, if a portion of them is required to be kept for another
year, remove only every second or alternate line; and if
the plants in the remaining lines stand closer than about
three inches apart, they should be loosened with a spade
or fork, and thinned to about that distance, thus leaving
the lines about eighteen to twenty-four inches apart, and
the plants about three inches asunder—the proper distance
for their becoming two-year transplanted plants. When thus
thinned out, dig the ground between the lines. Similar treat-
ment and thinning out should be practised on all one-year
transplanted plants where they have not sufficient space for
growing, and are intended to become two years transplanted.

If the weather is open and dry, the sowing of all seeds
which were kept in pits during summer should now be com-
pleted ; such as hawthorn, holly, mountain-ash, yew-tree, etc.

If acorns or chestnuts are not yet sown, this work should be
completed as soon as possible.

Insert cuttings of deciduous plants that are propagated by
that means, such as poplars, willows, elders, etc.

Scotch and other pine cones are commonly ripe at this
season; severe frost changes them from a deep green to a grey
colour, giving them a hard surface, which indicates their matu-
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—JANUARY. 3

rity, after which the seeds are extracted with a very moderate
degree of heat compared to what is necessary for such as have
been gathered before undergoing the influence of severe
frost ; all sorts of pine, fir, and larch cones may now be
collected and the seeds extracted. If gathered in dry weather
they may be stored in a dry place to any depth, but larch
cones suffer if stored in a wet state. The extracting of the
seeds from cones can be accomplished during weather un-
suitable for most out-door operations. The modes of pro-
cedure are detailed under the names of the trees—Scotch
pines, larch, ete.

If the texture of the soil in any part of the nursery ground
requires to be improved, frosty weather will be found suitable
for carting and applying heavy loam to such parts as are of a
loose and sandy description, and light sandy or peat soil,
ete., to such parts as are tenacious and apt to harden in dry
weather.

Nursery ground that has been frequently cropped with
various plants, is greatly renovated by a coating of fresh clean
soil ; that from a field after a potato or turnip crop is very
suitable, and where it is applied early in winter it has the
best effect.

As hawthorn springs earlier than almost any other nursery
plant, its transplantation both into hedges and nursery lines
should be completed now, or before the buds expand.

Trench ground, and forward all operations preparatory for
the hurry of spring.

Turn over manure-heaps, compost and leaf heaps, that they
may become pulverized.

FEBRUARY.

The operations recommended during last month are suitable
for a like state of weather during this month. If the weather
is suitable, continue to transplant all sorts of forest trees into
the forest, and also into nursery lines; plant hedges, etc.
Complete plantations on dry ground.
4 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—FEBRUARY.

Oaks, when two years transplanted in nursery lines, are
generally removed to the forest; and although they would
improve very much in appearance during the third year in
nursery lines, yet at this period they run so much to tap-
roots, that on being afterwards transplanted they are apt to
suffer from the operation, become stunted, and frequently
require to be cut down. It will therefore be found of great
benefit to the plants, when they are of a sufficient size for
forest planting, to loose and lift them from the nursery
lines, and prune off with a strong knife all straggling root
fibres, without shaking the earth from the roots, replac-
ing them immediately into the same ground, to remain for
another season before inserting them in the forest. This
operation of disturbing oaks in the nursery is speedily per-
formed by casting out an opening a stamp deep alongside
the outside line, so that after lifting and pruning the roots,
the plants are immediately inserted into the adjacent opening
and a stamp of earth turned over on their roots, thus form-
ing an opening for the next line, and so on, until the whole
lot of plants is replaced. It is advisable during this opera-
tion to throw out all plants that are much under the ordinary
size, as such would continue inferior, and are of no value. In
thus removing the plants it is not necessary, as in the ordi-
nary mode of transplanting, to tramp or firm the plants with
the foot, as they are removed with a considerable quantity of
earth adhering to their fibres. It is found that the increase
of small fibres becomes more abundant in loose than in firm
ground. It is of no consequence for the plants to occupy a
broader line, or not to stand up with such exactness as for-
merly. Plants thus disturbed will not grow much during the
ensuing summer; but on removing such into the forest in the
following year, their roots will be found compact and bushy,
and will require no pruning. Their success compared with
that of plants which have not undergone this operation will
be very apparent.

The foregoing method of preparing oaks for going out is
well adapted for two-years transplanted beech, whether they
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—FEBRUARY. 5

are intended for hedges or forest trees; and as all sorts of
plants are apt to suffer most from removal after having grown
vigorously, the operation will be found very useful on every
kind of plant that is apt to produce bare roots destitute of
that fibrous bushiness so necessary to successful transplanta-
tion. It is also necessary in all cases where plants stand so
close in lines as to be destitute of the space required for the
growth of another season; and in such circumstances ample
space should be afforded beyond that which the plants
formerly occupied. It is also useful in cases where the forest
ground is not ready to receive the plants, as it retards their
exuberance, improves their roots, and keeps them in a fit
state for being transplanted a year or two afterwards. Open
weather in any of the winter months is suitable for this work,
which should now be completed.

If the weather is open and the ground sufficiently dry, the
end of this month is a good time for sowing beech, ash, syca-
more, elm, etc., as thus they are generally less liable to be
injured by late spring frosts than if sown at an earlier period.

With equal quantities of clay and of horse-droppings,
thoroughly mixed with water, prepare for grafting. Thus
prepared, the mixture suits the purpose far better than if
only made up at the time of grafting, which is generally in
the end of March.

MARCH.

The thinning of plantations should be completed by this
time, for after the buds begin to expand, trees are much more
sensitive of cold, and the sudden admission of cool air has
an injurious effect. This is often apparent, particularly on
larches when thinned late in spring, compared with those
that have undergone that operation at an earlier period of the
season.

The formation of plantations of all deciduous trees should
be completed in this month, or as soon as possible, and all
vacancies or failures in former plantations filled up.
6 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—MARCH.

There are some sorts of ground, such as bare moorland,
partaking of moss to too great an extent, in which it is
difficult to plant so successfully in any other month, on ac-
count of the soil retaining a great deal of moisture, and
swelling during severe frosts, thereby raising and ejecting
the plants, notwithstanding the most careful drainage. All
plantations on soils of this kind are most successfully made
during the opening of the season.

In the nursery, during favourable weather, this is one of the
busiest months in the year, when everything fit for the forest
should be cleared out, and the plots filled up by transplanting
seedlings, or by digging over the ground in preparation for
seed-beds. All plots that are exhausted should receive a
dressing of well-rotted manure or vegetable mould. In such
parts as have become wild, or stand in need of renewal, plant
potatoes or turn it over preparatory to a turnip crop.

At this season nothing is more necessary to be guarded
against, both in the formation of forests and in the nursery,
than the exposure of the roots of plants to sunshine, or to
the drying influence of the weather. In lifting nursery
plants in bright weather, it is of great advantage to form them
speedily into bundles, and puddle the roots with earth and
water made to the consistency of thin paint, and to expose
them as little as possible until they are again planted.

Elm seeds which have been kept dry since their ripening,
if not yet sown, should be sown early this month. Birch
also, and all other crops, except those of the pine tribe
should be put into the ground before the end of this month.

Graft the different kinds of forest and ornamental trees
propagated by that method, such as beech, elm, oak, labur-
num, etc. ‘

Dig between nursery lines ; this will encourage the growth
of fibrous roots, and will be found the best method of keep:
ing down weeds.

7
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—APRIL. 7

APRIL.

All plantations of hardwood trees should have been com-
pleted before, or in the early part of this month; but it is
still suitable for transplanting all sorts of the pine tribe, par-
ticularly by the notching mode. Larches are also successfully
transplanted this month in a late season, or in late districts,
provided the plants have been removed carefully, and pro-
tected before their buds have. been expanded; and it some-
times happens that such plants escape injury from late frosts
better than those inserted at an earlier period, particularly in
plantations having a southern slope.

Complete the grafting of forest trees; look over and re-
pair the clay where any defects appear in those grafted last
month, when the clay has dried and become sufficiently firm.
Earth up the lines of dwarf grafts, leaving the scion only
above ground.

In the nursery the transplanting should be finished as soon
as possible ; and in South Britain the sowing of all sorts of
coniferee seeds should commence about the middle of this
month. In the North of England, and in Scotland, the most
approved time is about the last week of this month, or early
in the next, when the weather is in a settled state; for in
some soils excess of rain immediately after the sowing, and
before the soil gets dry, is fatal to the crop of larch, Scotch
fir, etc.

Immediately after sowing, all sorts of coniferous crops are
liable to be picked by birds; the beds should therefore be
securely netted over or overlaid with even drawn straw, fern,
or the spray of silver or spruce fir. As protection from birds
by the latter methods forms a shade on the surface, the cover
of earth on the seed should be made very slight. When none
of the foregoing methods of protection is adopted it is neces-
sary to set a watch on the crop. The destruction by birds
is always greatest early in the morning and late in the after-
noon.
8 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—-APRIL.

Weed all seed-beds of last year, and dig the alleys; dig
between the lines of transplanted plants, raking and smooth-
ing down the ground ten days or a fortnight thereafter, which
will effect the destruction of seedling weeds. The surface of
the beds of oak, chestnut, beech, etc., which were not finished
off at the time of sowing, should now be raked smooth, which
will have the effect of removing clods, destroying the weeds,
and adapting the soil for the springing of the crop.

Prune laurels and all sorts of evergreen shrubs.

The casualties which forest trees suffer by frost are gene-
rally much greater during this and the two subsequent months,
than at any other season of the year, and they are most apt to
happen after warm weather in March and April; it is there-
fore advisable to protect the beds of one-year-old seedling
larch, silver-fir, also those of hawthorn, which were sown early
in spring, and towards the end of this month the recently
sown beech, sycamore, ash, chestnut, etc.

Thave found that the easiest way of protecting these is to col-
lect the spray or small twigs of broom, spruce, silver-fir, Portugal
or common laurel, and to stick the twigs into the beds in an
upright position, which forms a shade and shelter for the
young plants. The cuttings of beech hedges are also suitable
when scattered on the surface of the beds, as such admit the
influence of the atmosphere, and do not retain much moisture.

It is found that although the twigs do not form a complete
cover, yet if they form a shade from the warm sunshine
succeeding a night of frost, the plants are generally safe. In
the absence of this precaution I have found that in many
situations, larch and silver-fir of one and two years old are on
an average headed down or deprived of their leaders once
every three or four years, which reduces them more than fifty
per cent. in value. Although nothing makes a more complete
or handy protection than the spray of the silver-fir, yet it
should not be adopted where the slightest fear exists of the
trees being infected with disease.

Fork out perennial rooted weeds where they appear through-
out the nursery ground.
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—MAY. 9

MAY.

See that the fences around plantations are in a secured
state ; and that no herbage or undergrowth interferes with the
progress of the plants. Clean hedges, clear out open drains,
and turn over decayed leaves and compost heaps.

Drain land for the plantations of next season, and erect
sufficient fences.

In planting land which has formerly produced timber, the
soil requires to be much exposed to the influence of the
weather; capacious pits should therefore be formed at this
season ; and all old roots cleared out which appear at the
edges of the pits. Form similar pits throughout all woods
where the standing trees are not close enough to develop the
resources of the soil, Prepare for barking oak. Towards the
end of this month in some situations the sap will circulate
sufficiently to render coppice and standard oaks fit for that
operation ; the earlier in the season the timber is removed,
and the stools dressed, the more vigorous will be the suc-
ceeding growth.

In the nursery, complete, if possible, the sowing of all sorts
of pine and fir seeds during the first or second week of this
month (see directions for last month). During dry weather
employ the hoes and rakes vigorously in the killing of weeds.
Weed seed-beds. Crop vacant lots with turnips or other
green crops, using byre or stable manure well decomposed ;
this is least apt to create disease in the ground.

JUNE.

Continue the forest work recommended for last month ;
urge forward the barking operations with all possible speed,
taking every precaution to prevent the infusion of bark by wet
weather.

The seeds of the wych or Scotch elm are usually perfected
and fit for sowing during the first or second weeks of this
10 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—JUNE.

month ; collect them fresh from the tree and sow them into
beds; there is always a larger or smaller proportion of the seeds
empty. The thickness in the bed should be regulated by the
quality of the seeds, which is always easily ascertained by
pressing them between the finger and thumb, which will
indicate whether they are full or empty. They should, how-
ever, be spread thick on the ground, so as to insure a crop,
as the seeds are not valuable; and the plants when too close
are easily thinned out at the first weeding. If the weather
is dry, the seed-beds should be watered and kept moist for
a week, when the seeds will begin to germinate. If required,
a further supply of seeds should be collected towards the end
of the month ; these should be thoroughly dried by the in-
fluence of the weather, so as to prevent fermentation, when
they may be packed up and kept from mice, and sown in
February or March. If sown now, after being dried, they
will not vegetate till spring.

The great work in the nursery at this season is the cleaning
of the ground, and keeping down weeds, so as to prevent
them from shedding their seeds. By the end of this month,
if all appearance of frost is gone, the twigs protecting the
seedling beds may be removed. Vacant lots of exhausted
ground should be well manured, and cropped with turnips.

JULY.

Continue to drain and fence land for plantations. Where
ground is to be planted which formerly yielded timber, dig
out the pits of a large size, soften the ground along their
edges, and expose the whole to the fertilizing influences of the
atmosphere. Perform the same operation where forest trees
are to be planted into pits in all soils containing iron, or
having a substratum of moorband or ferruginous crust; so
that these soils may be rectified before the season of planting.
This precaution should be taken with all soils which do not
appear perfectly sweet and congenial. In all such land where
plants are to be inserted by the notch system, this is a good
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—JULY. 11

season for going over the surface and disturbing the soil in
each spot where a plant is to be inserted, by the operation of
a tramp-pick, or common shoulder-pick ; this will bring into
play the purifying and fertilizing influences so necessary for
the successful growth of plants, and if the operation is well
performed, the spots broken up will appear quite distinct
throughout the ensuing planting season.

Look over young plantations, and clear away whins or rank
vegetation of any kind that is likely to injure the progress of
the plants ; where tall ferns are apt to prevail over plants
recently inserted, it is found that breaking down, or joint-
ing the ferns, at this season, placing their tops flat on the
surface, is more effectual than cutting, as in the latter case
they generally spring again, and in the former they seldom
do so, but lie flat on the surface of the ground during the
season.

All barking operations should now be finished for the
season.

Prune forest trees, look over those which have been a few
years planted, and those more advanced, and with the prun-
ing-knife shorten all competing shoots in order that the
leader may be clearly in the ascendant; and shorten also, or
remove all other growths throughout the tree that are likely
to run away with the sap, and that bear too great a proportion
to the main stem.

Prune hedges of all sorts of vigorous growth ; the switcher
is the most speedy and efficient implement. Pruning at this
season is particularly useful to hedges which are apt to be-
come too bare at the bottom; in such cases the top of the
hedge, consisting of its upper half, should be pruned once
or twice during summer to induce a growth lower down,
which latter part needs only be pruned once a year, but
should be carefully kept clear of weeds and vegetation of
every kind.

In the nursery, the great business of this month is to keep
down weeds; a little neglect in this respect generally entails
a great amount of labour, as weeds so readily mature and shed
12 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—JULY.

their seeds at this season, and unless they are very small and
young, this is sure to happen when the ground is hoed and
the weeds not immediately removed.

Look over, untie, and secure grafts, rubbing off all under-
growths. Turn over pits of hawthorn, mountain-ash, holly,
and other tree seeds, to decompose them regularly, and keep
them in a wholesome state. The end of this month is in
general the best season for budding ornamental trees (for the
operation of budding, see Lindley’s Theory and Practice of
Horticulture, p. 303). The bandages which secure buds
should be slackened and retied about ten days or a fortnight
after the operation, as they are apt, if the stocks are very
vigorous, to become too tight, and about the same period
thereafter it is generally safe to remove them altogether.

Turn over compost heaps ; and heaps of weeds which have
matured their seeds should be turned over and built up in a
compact form so as to induce fermentation, that their seeds
may be completely destroyed.

AUGUST.

Continue the operations of draining and fencing land for
plantations. As formerly recommended for all inhospitable
soils, or where former plantations existed, cast out the pits of
a good size, to expose the ground to the influences of the
weather. Break up with the pick the spots in ground where
notch-planting is intended. Prune forest trees; although
large branches should never in ordinary practice be removed
in well-managed plantations, yet, in case of necessity, this is
the best season for doing so, as the wound more speedily
heals at this than at any other time. See that no wild vegeta-
tion interferes with the growth of young plantations. Con-
tinue the pruning and cleaning of hedges.

Towards the end of this month transplant evergreens of all
sorts, preferring wet or cloudy weather. In the nursery, be
careful that all weeds are subdued and kept from seeding,
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—AUGUST. 13

which is particularly ruinous to ground which may next sea-
son be laid down in seed-beds.

The end of this month is the proper time for inserting
cuttings of laurel, box privet, yew, and all sorts of evergreens
propagated by that means. Towards the end of this month
the temperature of the earth and of the air is generally nearly
the same, and then plants root more readily than under any
other condition. Sharp sandy soil, partially shaded or having
a northern exposure, is most suitable.

The end of this, and the next month are best adapted for
transplanting evergreens. Immediately after the insertion of
the plant at this season, the heat of the ground excites its
roots so that they at once produce numerous young fibres or
spongioles, which process of nature insures its safety, and fixes
it in the ground before the approach of winter.

Complete the budding of ornamental trees as formerly
recommended.

SEPTEMBER.

Continue the operations preparatory to forest planting as
formerly recommended ; prune forest trees, thin plantations,
thin out the supernumerary shoots of young copse-wood, leay-
ing the most promising. This is the time most advisable for
ornamental or evergreen planting ; where specimen plants are
to be removed, remove them without delay, giving a copious
watering if the weather is dry.

Plant hedges and screen fences and underwood of holly,
yew, privet, laurel, etc., and all sorts of evergreens, preferring
moist and cloudy weather.

In the nursery the cleaning of the ground should be urged
forward, so long as the weather is dry and suitable for that
purpose ; dig between the rows of evergreens and other trans-
planted plants, finish the transplanting into nursery rows of
seedling holly, evergreen oak, and other evergreens.

In nursery management it is found a good method to
remove at this season all sorts of evergreens that are fit for
14 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—-SEPTEMBER.

going out. This is most speedily accomplished by casting out
a stamp or trench along one side of the lot, after which one
man precedes with a spade and loosens the plants thoroughly,
another follows lifting them up with one hand, and with the
other pruning or switching off all very extended or straggling
roots of unnecessary length, and placing them into the pre-
pared trench or opening in a slanting direction, with as much
earth as adheres to the roots; the digging up of the earth and
the covering of the one line prepares an opening for the next,
and so on until the whole is finished.

The growth of the season being nearly over at this time,
the plants receive no harm by being placed in a slanting
position ; and in removing them it is not necessary to fix
them in the ground by treading them with the feet; and as
the tops of the plants of one row extend over the roots of the
former line, their position keeps the ground warm if they
should remain throughout the ensuing winter, and if the
situation should be exposed, the foliage of the plants will
retain its greenness, and from their position will be exempt
from injury by snow or severe frost.

Evergreens which are thus disturbed in September, when
the temperature of the ground is greater than that of the
atmosphere, immediately throw out fresh spongioles, and
acquire a bushiness in root, which retains the soil and adapts
them for being successfully transplanted thereafter during
any month of winter or spring.

This treatment is particularly advisable in sale nurseries,
as such plants are lifted with great facility at atime when the
work of a public nursery is sometimes difficult to overtake,
and such as are not disposed of require to be again replanted
in rows before or early in summer ; but the fresh appearance
of the plants, and the valuable state of their fibrous roots, ren-
der them well worth the labour bestowed on them. If the
cuttings of evergreens were not all inserted last month, this
work should be now completed as formerly recommended.

Birch seeds usually ripen at this time, and should be col-
lected ; as they are generally mixed up with leaves and some-
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—-SEPTEMBER. 15

what moist, care should be taken that they are not confined
in sacks, as they are apt to ferment, which destroys their
vitality. Spread them in an airy loft until dry, when the
leaves should be sifted out, and the seeds kept until the time
of sowing in March or April.

Collect sycamore seeds, which are ripe about this time, and
the other varieties of maple, which in an early season are
matured in this month; these, when dry, may be kept in a
heap within doors until the end of March; if sown earlier,
they are apt to come up too soon, and perish with spring frost.

Cherry-stones should be collected and sown immediately in
dry ground; they do not vegetate in the first spring, but the
most successful crops are generally those that are early com-
mitted to the ground.

OCTOBER.

The draining and fencing of ground, and the making of
pits for plantations, should be continued. Where the sur-
face of the ground is bare, and readily admits frost, these
operations should be completed first while the weather is
still open, as those parts possessed of surface vegetation can
be worked during frost.

As already stated, it is of advantage in some cases to pit
and expose the soil to the influences of the weather for some
time before the plants are inserted. In other cases, where
the soil is congenial, the planting may follow with perfect
safety immediately after the pit making. Trench ground for
spring planting.

By the beginning, the middle, or the end of this month,
according to’ the season, all sorts of forest plants are ripe and
fit for planting. The present is the proper time for planting
dry ground of every description, whatever the mode of plant-
ing may be. Plantations in such places should therefore be
proceeded with as speedily as possible, both by notch and pit
planting. Such grounds, however, as are composed to a con-
siderable extent of organic matter—for instance, mossy or
16 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—OCTOBER.

boggy parts, which retain moisture,—should be left for spring
planting, as on account of this description of ground swelling
during frost the plants are apt to be ejected, particularly
those that are inserted by notch-planting.

Fell timber; thin out plantations; grub out furze on
plantation ground. Many of our most important hardwood
trees ripen their seeds at this time.

Underneath the oak, and particularly after frost with a
breeze of wind, the ground will be covered with acorns ; these
should be collected and spread out on a barn floor, so as to
prevent fermentation ; or if the nursery ground is ready, they
may be sown immediately. Prefer the largest; these are most
readily got by using a wire riddle of a size suitable for allow-
ing the small to pass through.

Beech-mast is also shed about this time, when it should be
collected and passed through a barn fanners, or exposed to a
steady breeze of wind in an open situation to effect a separa-
tion between the sound and the empty seed. When sown
immediately, it comes up, if the weather is fine, in the end of
March, or early in April, when the crop is endangered by
frost ; it is therefore better to spread the seeds on the floor of
a loft, turning them occasionally till they are dry, when they
may be kept in a heap, and sown in the end of February or
in March. The crop will then appear at a time when it will
generally be exempt from injury.

The seeds of maple of sorts, if not formerly gathered,
should now be collected ; also chestnuts, walnuts, and all other
sorts as they become ripe.

As the ground becomes empty in the nursery it should he
dug deep and turned over roughly, or cast into ridges, to admit
the influence of frost. Previously to this being done, such
parts as are exhausted should receive a coating of well-decom-
posed manure, particularly after crops of ash, elm, beech,
spruce, or hawthorn, which generally leaye the ground in a
very poor state.

Of all sorts of deciduous plants none require to be attended
to in early transplanting more than hawthorn or quick,
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—-NOVEMBER. 17

Transplanting this plant into hedges and nursery lines this
month or next affords the plant an early start in spring-time.

Turn over dung-hills and compost-heaps to induce decom-
position.

NOVEMBER.

The operations in the forest which should be carried for-
ward at this time are very diversified. Fell timber, thin out
plantations, grub up furze and all sorts of wild vegetation on
land for plantations, and to relieve those recently formed.
Repair drains and fences. Forward plantations of all sorts,
and all the operations recommended for last month as may be
found suited to the state of the weather.

Collect and cart leaves to the depét. Frosty weather will
be found suitable to cart to the nursery grounds such accumu-
lations of vegetable mould as have been prepared in pits or
recesses in the forest, and these pits or recesses should now
be filled up with fresh leaves as speedily as possible.

Plant hedges of thorn, beech, ete.

Frosty weather will be found most suitable for carting
manure, compost, timber, and all heavy materials, over soft
ground. Ridge up all plots of ground in the nursery as soon
as they become vacant, forwarding the nursery operations
recommended for last month as the weather becomes suitable.

Remove layers from stools, and plant them into nursery
lines. Dig around and dress the stools, giving them a coating
of vegetable mould mixed with fine sand and well rotted
manure, and lay down the young shoots, the produce of last
summer.

Collect tree seeds.

DECEMBER.

Continue to form pits and trench ground for plantations,
and forward planting, and the operations recorded for last
month which may be found adapted to the state of the
weather.

B
18 CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS—-DECEMBER.

The berries of hawthorn, mountain ash, holly, and
common ash, should be collected by this time. They should
either be mixed up with sandy soil and pitted where they
may be turned over every two or three months ; or, as these
do not vegetate the first year, they may be now sown into
rich prepared nursery ground ; and on the surface of the same
ground an annual crop may be raised during the first summer
of a light nature, as onion, radish, cauliflower, or cabbage
plants. These being carefully removed, the tree crop will
appear in the second, and to some extent, with respect to
hollies, in the third summer.

Turn over roughly or ridge up nursery ground, that it may
become pulverized and enriched by the influence of frost.

Prune and dress hedges, forking out and removing every
perennial weed in the ground on each side, within a yard of
the fence.
II.

THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF BRITISH
PLANTATIONS.

In this country the name Plantation is chiefly applied to
grounds planted with forest plants for the purpose of produc-
ing useful timber ; and it also distinguishes artificial woods or
forests from those that are of spontaneous growth. The uses
of plantations are very various. Not only is timber abso-
lutely necessary in every description of architecture and rural
occupation, but trees in a living state improve the climate, in
yielding shelter to lands exposed to rough winds, and shade
to those under a burning sunshine. Of the native trees of
Britain, there are only about twelve genera and thirty species
which attain the size of timber trees, or trees of above thirty
feet in height, and only three of these are evergreens—
namely, the Scotch fir, the holly, and the yew, if we suppose
the last to be a native.

It was during the sixteenth century that plantations began
to be extensively formed for timber and embellishment; but
long before that period many of the timber trees had been
introduced, and, in the absence of any distinct account, it is
generally believed that they were brought to Britain by the
Romans, or by the monks of the middle ages, with many of
our cultivated fruits and vegetables. Of our earliest intro-
duced trees we have the chestnut, the lime, the English elm,
and the beech, with the apple, the pear, the peach, etc. In
England previously to the reign of Henry vil., the timber
required for the purposes of construction and fuel was sup-
plied by the native forests of the kingdom. The first accounts
20 THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF

“we have of the introduction of many of the timber trees are
given by botanists and apothecaries in London, who gathered
together every description of foreign herbage, and formed the
most extensive collections of medicinal plants extant at that
time. In Turner's Herbal, published at different times about
the middle of the sixteenth century, he notices the introduction
of the common spruce fir, the stone pine, the evergreen
cypress, the sweet bay, and the walnut. Towards the end of
that century, Gerrard, who had a physic-garden in Holborn,
London, published the first edition of his Catalogue, which
gives an account of the introduction of the pineaster, the
laburnum, and a considerable number of smaller trees and
shrubs. The evergreen oak and the arbor-vite were also
introduced during that century.

In the seventeenth century, it appears that Dr. Compton,
who was Bishop of London from 1675 to 1713, introduced a
considerable number of exotic trees, and advanced this branch
of rural improvement more than any other individual of his
time, having imported many of our best trees, chiefly from
America. Botanic gardens began to be established through-
out England about the middle of this century, which greatly
facilitated the introduction of hardy trees.

In Scotland, the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh was formed
in 1680, and in 1683 the cedar of Lebanon was introduced
into it; and in the same year it was planted by Bishop
Compton at Fulham, and also in the Chelsea Botanic Garden.
According to the Hortus Kewensis, the most important foreign
trees introduced in this century, besides the cedar, were the
silver fir, the larch, the horse-chestnut, the acacia (locust-tree),
the scarlet maple, the Norway maple, the American plane,
the scarlet oak, the weeping willow, balsam poplar, balm of
Gilead, fir, the cork-tree, and the black and the white
American spruce firs, besides a great many smaller trees and
shrubs. During the early part of this century, the British
arboretum appears to have been greatly indebted to Parkinson,
a physician in London, who possessed a large collection of
plants, and was appointed apothecary to James 1. Parkinson
BRITISH PLANTATIONS. 21

is the first to record, in 1629, the introduction of that valu-
able tree, the larch, and at the same time the horse-chestnut,
but the introducers are not known.

The number of species of foreign plants introduced into
Britain during the eighteenth century was very great, amount-
ing to nearly 500, but three-fourths of these were shrubs.
More than half the number were natives of North America.
The timber trees consisted chiefly of oaks, pines, poplars,
maples, and thorns,—species or varieties of trees formerly in-
troduced. Botanic gardens by this time were established in
different countries throughout the world, and the interchange
of plants became general. Nurseries for every plant in de-
mand were established, and the taste for planting foreign
trees rapidly spread among the landowners of England. This
taste was greatly influenced by the Princess-Dowager of
Wales, who established the arboretum at Kew, and from the
celebrity of the plantations formed by the Duke of Argyll at
Whitton. Large plantations were formed at Croome, Syon,
Claremont, and at Goodwood. At the last-mentioned place
the Duke of Richmond planted 1000 cedars of Lebanon, five
years old, in 1761, which form part of the second generation
of the tree grown in England, having been produced from one
of the first trees known in the country. Among the other
English plantations of valuable timber trees may be men-
tioned that made at Pains’ Hill, Woburn, Strathfieldsaye, and
Purser’s Cross. Syon had long had an established fame for
trees before this period, having been greatly enriched by
Henry Earl of Northumberland in the beginning of the
seventeenth century ; and in 1750, an accession to the arbore-
tum was made of every kind of tree to be found in the
kingdom.

Notwithstanding our numerous importations of foreign
trees during the eighteenth century, it is remarkable that that
of the larch to Scotland from England, where it had existed
for a century, and yielded seeds for generations, should be the
greatest acquisition, and distinguish the period beyond any
other circumstance connected with British arboriculture. In
22 THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF

Scotland, early in the eighteenth century, a spirit of plant-
ing on a large scale, for profit, began to awaken. Among the
chief promoters of this description of planting was Thomas
Earl of Haddington, who formed large plantations, and wrote
a treatise on the subject. It is recorded that the Countess of
Haddington, at the same time, became so enthusiastic in im-
provements by plantation, that she sold her jewels to enable
her to plant Binning Wood, which comprehended 1000 acres,
and was formed in 1705. The plantations of Archibald Duke
of Argyll were also at the period very extensive in Scotland
as well as in England. By these extensive improvements the
taste for plantations is said to have been imbibed by the Duke
of Athole, the Earl of Panmure, Sir James Naysmith, Sir
Archibald Grant, and others; and by the example of these
landowners, planting became very general throughout Scot-
land. The great success of the larch forests of the Duke of
Athole occasioned that tree to be planted to some extent on
almost every property in Scotland.

The introduction of new timber trees during the present
century has been extensive, and in some instances very valu-
able, particularly in the Conifer. Some of the best of these
have been introduced by Douglas, a native of Scotland, who
went to North-west America as a botanical collector, and
introduced from the banks of the Columbia the Abies (spruce
fir) Douglasiz, the Picea (silver fir) nobilis, and many other
firs and pines of great beauty, though perhaps less valuable.
From other sources there have been introduced the Welling-
tonia gigantea, Cupressus Nutkaensis (known as the Thuiopsis
borealis), and the C. Lawsoniana, all of which are hardy, of
rapid growth, and of American origin. Of Indian importa-
tions, the Cedrus deodara is the most celebrated. A. silver
fir introduced from the mountains of the Crimea, Picea Nord-
manniana, is said to be hardier than the common species.

From the great size that these trees generally attain in
their native countries, it is reasonable to expect that many of
the recent introductions will become valuable additions to the
British forests, particularly after a few generations of the
BRITISH PLANTATIONS. 23

various species have been grown from seed and thereby aceli-
matized.

During the present century, the influence of the Highland
and Agricultural Society of Scotland has greatly facilitated the
spread of plantations throughout the country, by awarding
various premiums for the introduction of new timber trees,
for the cultivation of the native Highland Scotch pine, and
for the formation of extensive plantations throughout Scot-
‘land.

From the published reports of this Society, it appears that
the late Earl of Seafield was by far the most extensive planter
in Scotland during the first half of the present century, he
having, at the date of the last report on the estates, planted
30,000,000 of plants, in a space exceeding 8000 acres. This
extent of plantation, perhaps, has not been approached by
any British landowner since the formation of the extensive
' plantations by the Duke of Athole during last century. But
extensive as these plantations are, they are not greater than
those formed recently, and now in course of formation, by the
present Earl of Seafield, in proportion to the time that his
Lordship has been in possession. Since the Honourable T.
Bruce became commissioner on these estates, plantations have
been formed, chiefly in Strathspey, in a congenial soil, and to
an extent rarely equalled in this country.

The other extensive planters in the north of Scotland dur-
ing the early part of the present century have been the Duke
of Richmond, the Duke of Sutherland, the Earl of Fife, Lord
Loyat, Sir William G. Cumming of Altyre, Bart. ; and more
recently may be added Sir George Macpherson Grant of Bal-
lindalloch, Bart., Mr. Mathison of Ardross, and Mr. Fletcher
of Rosehaugh, etc., all of whom have planted large forests on
their properties.

Such is a glance at the progress of the formation of planta-
tions up to the present time.
III.

ACCLIMATATION.

THIS is a subject on which both practical and scientific men
of the past and the present time have entertained opposite
opinions. This may arise from different kinds of plants
having been experimented on by different individuals. Al
though all plants require a certain peculiar range of tempera-
ture, moisture, light, and atmospheric pressure, which in some
kinds cannot be greatly interfered with without proving fatal
to their existence, yet the limits are very different in different
tribes of plants; they are widest, as might be expected, in
those whose native habitat embraces a wide geographical range.

It has for long been supposed that the sensibility of plants
may be diminished by habit, by gradation of climate, and by
succession of generation. This theory will be found quite
correct, generally, respecting ligneous plants, but it does not
hold true with regard to agricultural crops, such as the cereals,
which do not exist during the winter. Unfortunately, almost
all the recorded experiments, that I am aware of, have been
in relation to annual crops, or crops which are naturally of
short duration, or greenhouse plants, the hardiness or tender
nature of which was not previously well known.

Among the greatest authorities for acclimatation we have
Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Macculloch. In advocating the
hypothesis Sir Joseph relied upon the following case :—“In
the year 1791, some seeds of the Canada rice-plant, Zizania
aquatica, were procured from Canada, and sown in a pond at
Spring Grove, near Hounslow. They grew and produced
strong plants, which ripened their seeds. Those seeds vege-
tated in the succeeding spring, but the plants which they pro-
ACCLIMATATION. 25

‘duced were weak, slender, not half so tall as those of the
first generation, and grew in the shallowest water only. The
seeds of these plants produced others the next year, sensibly
stronger than their parents of the second year. In this
manner the plants proceeded, springing up every year from
the seeds of the preceding one, every year becoming visibly
stronger and larger, and rising from the deeper parts of the
pond, till the last year, 1801, when several of the plants were
six feet in height,and the whole pond was in every part covered
with them as thick as wheat grows in a well-managed field.”

Respecting this experiment Dr. Lindley, who was no believer
in the doctrine of acclimatation, says, “It is to be remarked
that in the very first year this Canada rice grew as vigorously
as afterwards ; that its first progeny was feeble, that it only
recovered its vigour after it had been reproduced often
enough to establish itself in the deeper parts of the pond,
and that at last, after many generations, it was only as vigor-
ous as at first. The case was not one of naturalization, but
of deterioration succeeded by restoration, not improvement.
Many reasons might be assigned for the temporary deteriora-
tion; but that the plant was not naturalized is sufficiently
proved by its having disappeared long since.” And he adds:
“ Dr. Macculloch, who ably advocated the doctrine of acclima-
tation, rested his case upon two grounds ; the one, that many
sickly greenhouse plants acquired great vigour in Guernsey
when turned into the open air, and that seedling guavas were
productive there, although their parent was sterile; and the
other, that hardy varieties of the vine, the pear, and other
fruits, are well known to all cultivators. But this reasoning
was unsound; Dr. Macculloch did not show that the greenhouse
plants in question had become more hardy than they were be-
fore ; it only happened that they became more healthy ; and
in regard to the so-called hardy fruits thus alluded to, there is
nothing to show that their constitutions are at all hardier than
those of their parents; what is called hardiness in these
species consisting in an alteration in their time of flowering or
fruiting.
26 ACCLIMATATION.

“The constitution of such plants does not appear to be
more capable of resisting an unfavourable climate than that of
their forefathers. It is perfectly true that many so-called
greenhouse plants are now known to be hardy; but such
species have not increased their power of resisting our climate;
they never were tender;” and it is added, “If no good evidence
can be produced of plants having become acclimated by re-
peated sowings of their seed, the facts on the other side
are numerous and conclusive. The Peruvian annual called
Marvel of Peru, or Mirabilis, the common Indian cress or
Tropeolum, the scarlet running kidney bean, the tomato, the
mignonette, an African plant, the Palma Christi, or Acinus,
all natives of hot climates, have been annually raised from
seeds ripened in this country, some of them for two hundred
generations ; yet have in no appreciable degree acquired
hardiness, but the earliest frost destroys them now as formerly.

“ Potatoes, long as they have been cultivated from seeds,
are in no degree more hardy than those which are now
brought to us from Peru and Mexico; indeed, some garden
potatoes, imported in 1846 from Lima, and planted in Novem-
ber, stood the severity of the succeeding winter, when the
thermometer fell to 3° Fahr., rather better than the English
varieties which had been obtained from repeated seed-sowing
during a century.”

It is well known to market-gardeners that the earliest
varieties of the potato grown in the best climate of South
Britain when imported into the North become degenerate, and
later in the open ground, and this most readily when grown
at a high altitude. The same is observable respecting pota-
toes grown in hot-beds; the first crops they produce are
earlier than if the parent roots had been grown in the open
ground, and a climatic change is effected, although it does not
enable the potato to resist frost.

A similar change of lateness takes place in the growth of
the early varieties of garden pease. The first generation of
the early frame pea from seeds grown in Essex, when raised
in the north of Scotland will yield a variety that cannot be
ACCLIMATATION. 27

distinguished from the charlton, a later kind, or second early,
and repeated generations add to the length of the straw.

In the case of early cabbage, imported from the South to
the North, and grown for seed, the early quality disappears to
some extent in the first generation, and the cabbage becomes
larger in size, so that to raise the early York variety, from
seed, it is necessary to plant the early May or dwarf. Late-
ness is accompanied with hardiness in this plant.

In the case of turnip imported to the North they are apt
to lose their early ripening qualities, and to grow larger, and
later into the end of the season. This is a valuable quality
in the brassica tribe. It has the singular and valuable pro-
perty of giving hardiness to the esculent, enabling it to with-
stand the severity of winter better than those of earlier matu-
rity, which are more subject to frost.

Thus the Aberdeen yellow bullock turnip takes the first
place in the list of the British agriculturist,—Aberdeen being
the depdt for the seeds saved in the cool and elevated districts
throughout the north of Scotland. Now though we look in
vain for any acclimatizing influence imparted to resist frost in
annual crops, yet, in these biennials, the cabbage and turnip,
we think we can perceive distinctly enough, in a generation
or two, the power of the plants to adapt themselves to the
climate they occupy. The bringing forward of our remarks
on these plants may appear a digression from the object of
this work, but they have been referred to for the purpose of
showing that little can be expected to be done in acclimatizing
a plant that is an annual, and has no existence during the
months of winter, and that biennials are the shortest-lived
plants that can be expected to be inured to a low tempera-
ture.

It is pretty well understood that the purple laburnum (C.
Adami) is a hybrid between the common Scotch laburnum
and the dwarf, shrubby, purple cytisus (C. purpureus). The
original was produced in France. It is propagated by being
worked on the stock of any laburnum; as being a mule, it
(the purple laburnum) does not produce seed; but the tree
28 ACCLIMATATION.

often throws out blossoms of the two parent species, along
with the hybrid, so that the three sorts are found all in flower
on the tree at the same time.

About twenty years ago I planted on the margin of a
stream that runs past my house a plant of the purple laburnum.
It occupies a cool soil, only about three feet above the rise of
water ; for the first ten years it grew luxuriantly, and gene-
rally flowered very well, but it did not ripen its wood well, and
being tender, it required to be frequently divested of dead
wood, particularly after a severe winter. After being about ten
years planted, it broke out here and there through the tree
with tufts of the purple dwarf cytisus; these tufts or bushes gene-
rally died down to the branches from which they emerged, and
were pruned off along with the other dead wood throughout the
tree. After this process of discharging, or throwing off the ten-
der element for a few years, twigs began to appear of the com-
mon laburnum, which yielded blossoms of unusual size ; the
racemes produced seed which grew very vigorous plants of the
common laburnum, although the three sorts continued for a
few years very visible on the same tree, all from the one
scion or graft of purple laburnum, yet the cold summers
succeeding 1860 caused the hardy common tree variety to
shoot ahead, and it has now completely extinguished the
tender grafted kind, and ripens its shoots in the coldest
season, and continues to grow vigorously. What renders this
tree so interesting is the facility with which it adapts itself
to the character of the seasons. It was only in the warm
months of 1865 that the tufts of the cytisus purpureus again
became perceptible, the tree having during the previous four
or five cold seasons almost wholly returned to the hardy com-
mon Alpine or Scotch laburnum.

There is no tribe of plants with which I am acquainted that
is so susceptible of climatic influence as the Conifer. In the
celebrated native pine forests in the highlands of Morayshire
any variety among the trees can hardly be distinguished. But
I have taken seeds from these, and after raising them, have
planted them on the warm sands only a little above the level
ACCLIMATATION, 29

of the sea, where a variety of foliage and habit became per-
ceptible ; when these had yielded cones, and another genera-
tion of plants had been reared near the sea level, I have
found many of them so far removed from the ordinary type,
that some individual plants could scarcely be recognised as be-
longing to the species. This tree is found to accommodate
itself to circumstances, producing long or short yearly growths
in proportion to the ripening influence of the climate which it
inhabits. A few generations of the tree existing in a high
temperature would no doubt render its progeny nearly as
tender as our greenhouse plants. It is many years since I have
experienced the worthlessness of the plants of Pinus sylvestris,
or Scotch fir grown from imported seeds, on account of their
being too tender to withstand the severity of winter in the
north of Scotland, even in a nursery with some shelter.
Nevertheless the quantity of native Scotch fir seed sown in
Britain of late years, while a scarcity of seed in this country
prevailed, has likely been less than a tenth part of that im-
ported from the Continent, and sown throughout the country.
Hamburg is the principal depdt for Continental seed of this
tree, and the chief forests are Hagenow and Hagueneau.
These forests of similar name are far apart, and although the
difference in their altitude must be very considerable, the
seeds of both produce plants too tender for Scottish moorland.
Even those English nurserymen, whose grounds are considerably
elevated, find that the Pinus sylvestris from Continental seed
does not produce plants sufficiently hardy to endure the severity
of an ordinary winter. Compared with plants produced from
Scotch seed, even from a good climate, the difference is great.
It is perceptible in the one-year-old seedlings, but much more
so after the second year’s growth, when the plants from foreign
seed become quite brown, with a faded or scorched appearance
from the effects of the winter, and so damaged by the month
of March that they are often unsaleable ; while the plants pro-
duced from the seeds grown in the native Highlands of Scot-
land, under the same treatment, and standing alongside, have
a fresh green appearance ; and such is the contrast, that if
30 ACCLIMATATION.

placed on elevated ground a plot of the one can be known
from the other at the distance of a mile. In some warm
situations in England, however, the plants from Continental
seed are found to succeed, and with ample shelter they grow
rapidly ; while as timber trees in Scotland they are utterly
worthless in exposed situations.

The larch is another tree of great importance whose ante-
cedents stand much in need of investigation. We often see it
stricken down when young and in the vigour of growth, in
the absence of any visible disease, assuming all the appear-
ance of an exotic of too tender a constitution to endure the
climate of this country. -This sometimes occurs in the vicinity
of plantations of the same species, which luxuriate in the same
description of soil. The difference is occasioned by acclimata-
tion. No doubt the tree is to be found in some parts of its
native Alpine regions inured for generations to all the ex-
posure and cold that the species is capable of enduring, and
we might reasonably expect that the seeds of such trees would
produce plants quite suitable for the climate of this country.
On the Continent, however, the larch has now been cultivated
for generations as useful timber—in France, Germany, Prussia,
etc. etc., in a climate adapted to the vine ; so that seeds grown
in such districts and imported have of late failed to such an
extent as to cause the species, in some parts of our country, to
be altogether abandoned as a timber tree. The former genera-
tion of trees having been acclimatized or inured to great heat,
their offspring are unfit for at once enduring the extreme
change of Scottish moorland. Hence the sad spectacle to be
met with in many extensive plantations, of hundreds of acres of
larch of no value, where the cost of plants and planting, in
some cases, is required to clear the ground of trees in which
life is only apparent.

Many years have elapsed since I first cbserved the advan-
tage of acclimatization on the larch. In late seasons the
tenderness of plants grown from imported seed is readily
observed at every age, in nursery treatment; not only with
respect to the white larch of the Tyrol, which is the tenderest
ACCLIMATATION. 31

variety, but in plants of the red, or mixed variety, from dif-
ferent parts of the Continent. The demand, however, for Tyrolese
and Continental larch plants, and the frequent failure of the
larch seed-crop in Scotland, has often given rise to large import-
ations, especially during the cold wet seasons succeeding 1859.

In this part of the country—Morayshire—we have had the
most ripening autumn (I now write, 15th November 1865),
and the driest ever experienced. In these circumstances it is
interesting to compare the appearance of seedling larch from
imported seed, with those produced from home-grown seed.
Of my one-year-olds all are from home seed ; but of two-years-
old seedlings I have a few thousands from imported seed,
standing in the same lot with plants raised from home-grown
larch seed. Both were sown in the same hour; the soil and
the treatment were in every respect similar. Both sorts have
now for a season ceased to grow, and are of the full size
for their age, and are very equal, but the colour of the foliage
is at present very dissimilar. Those from Continental seed
appear quite green and succulent, having the terminal bud hid

among the leaves on the top of the shoot, while the foliage of
"those grown from Scotch seed has a rich yellow and ripened
appearance up to the top, disclosing the terminal bud full and
plump, and prepared to withstand any degree of frost that
may occur throughout the winter, or that might have occurred
for weeks past. The difference between the two sorts is very
marked, and from the colour of the foliage can be at once
distinguished as far off as the plants are visible. This circum-
stance is by no means new to me. I have always found it so,
but in a season so dry and ripening I would have expected
that the contrast between the two sorts would have been greatly
diminished.

I have occasionally, after severe frost in October and Novem-
ber, seen plants grown from imported seed that had been trans-
planted in lines for two years, standing with their tops droop-
ing, with unripened foliage adhering to the plants for many
months, while plants from Scotch seed in the same lot, and of
the same age and treatment, stood scathless.
32 ACCLIMATATION.

The influence of soil and climate on many species of Coni-
fer alters their character, even in one generation, and some-
times produces as important a difference as that which exists
between one species and another. I have sometimes observed
a very marked difference in the hardiness of seedling arau-
carias, which I believe they inherit from the situation or
climate in which the seed was produced.

I do not think that the influence of a hot climate is so
readily impressed on our hardy deciduous trees as it is on the
various species of conifer, yet I have observed it to some ex-
tent, on plants grown from Continental seeds, of two of our
hardiest deciduous native trees, the alder and birch, which
are decidedly more tender than those from home-grown seed.

I observe a paper presented to the Botanical Congress, on
the raising of peaches, nectarines, and other fruits, from seed,
by Mr. Thomas Rivers, Sawbridgeworth. He states that by
repeated generations from seed they are produced “ of a more
hardy nature than the old sort,” and that he has more than one
proof of the fact. He adds, “I may be accused of enthusiasm,
but I look to the future for new races of fruits with qualities
far superior to the old, and the tree of so hardy a nature as to
resist some of the unfavourable tendencies of our climate. I
have formed this opinion on the solid basis of observation
during a lifetime devoted to the cultivation of fruit-trees in
all stages of their growth.”

It is also worthy of notice that his late Majesty Leopold,
King of the Belgians, entertained a sound opinion of the im-
portance of acclimatation, and practically acted thereon.) In

1 “Leopold of Belgium, whose loss we lament in this country almost as
much as do his own subjects, had a character of shrewdness, which the
subjoined extract from a pamphlet of our friend, Professor E. Morren, of
Liége, will go towards justifying. Speaking of the progress of horticulture
and botany, the good old King remarked on the benefits conferred on the
world at large from the alliance of ,the two branches of science, and ex-
pressed his opinion that we need not pay so much attention to the discovery
of plants likely to be useful as food for man, as to those capable of being em-
ployed as forage plants. The human race, spread throughout the world, must
be in possession of nearly all the plants profitable as sources of food for man,
but with reference to those indirectly useful there is more scope. Moreover,
ACCLIMATATION, 33

the formation of his most extensive larch plantations in Bel-
gium, he specially ordered the plants from Forres nurseries,
the produce of the north of Scotland, as detailed under the
article LARCH.

The influence of acclimatation is very perceptible on the
Portugal laurel. In favourable seasons this tree ripens its
berries in the north of Scotland, and plants grown from these
are far more hardy than those produced from the seeds of a
warmer climate. The severity of winter and spring 1867 gave
very clear evidence of this being the case. I have trees of the
Portugal laurel ranging from four to upwards of twenty feet
high, raised from seed which ripened in Morayshire. Some of
these trees occupy unfavourable situations, the soil being too
moist, and only a little above the rise of water. Notwithstand-
ing the wet weather of autumn 1866, so unsuitable for ripen-
ing the wood, the young shoots are not only safe, but the
severity of the weather did not even discolour the foliage,
although the thermometer stood about zero ; while other trees
of Portugal laurel raised from imported seed, like many
of the exotic evergreens, are cut down to some extent, or ren-
dered very unsightly.

T had lately a consultation with the owner of one of the
largest and longest established nurseries in the west of Scot-
land, respecting the tender nature of the larch of late years,
both in the nursery and in the forest: He said that so far as
the nursery was concerned he was well aware of the fact, from
dear-bought experience ; that for several years his crops,
grown altogether from imported seed, had been so severely
damaged by frost, that on an average of years only about
a fourth part of the seedlings had escaped with their tops.
continued the sagacious monarch, it is not necessary to ransack the whole
world : China and Japan are the most important countries for us in this par-
ticular. In them is to be found a very ancient civilisation and skilful cul-
ture, carried on in a climate like our own. It is more advantageous to seek
what we want under such circumstances than to begin anew with wild nature.
We shall find in those countries plants adapted for cultivation and for our
requirements, offering less resistance to our proceedings than those that we
procure direct from their native wilds. Centuries are required to acclima-
tize plants.” —Gardener’s Chronicle, 1865, p. 1178.

Cc
34 ACCLIMATATION.

In future he was fully resolved to sow none but Scotch-grown
seed, which produced plants far hardier than those from
foreign seed, and in the event of a failure of Scotch seed,
he would be obliged to purchase young seedling plants
raised in a better climate than that which his grounds pos-
sessed.

Most people acquainted with the commonest operations in
gardening, have experienced the great difference in cauli-
flower plants subjected to the influence of cold during winter,
compared to those protected in a higher temperature. Even
our hardiest weeds that spring up under glass, in a higher
temperature, suffer greatly when exposed to the severity of
the weather in the open ground. This influence, which is
so perceptible in the succulent plants of a season, is, with
respect to trees, assuredly transmissible by seed to their future
generations; and it is reasonable to suppose that that hardi-
ness, or tenderness, will be more or less fixed, according
to the length of time, or the number of former generations
during which the tree had been subjected to such tempera-
ture.

Great are the advantages of international commerce in many
commodities ; yet it is to be feared that the importation of
the seeds of plants that are required to stand in exposed situa-
tions is not destined to benefit either our forests or our fields.
Whatever may be the fate of annuals or the crops of a season,
that law in nature which I have experienced to stamp its in-
fluence so deeply on the trees of the forest, may be expected
to be impressed at least on the perennial and biennial plants
of the field1 Of course it cannot be expected that plants
under the most skilful precautions will be exempt from frost
or the casualties of seasons. The hardiest indigenous plants
sometimes suffer, but generally their recovery is speedily
effected by seasonable weather.

1 “The unfortunate circumstance which attends clover is its being ex-
tremely apt to fail in districts where it has been long a common article of

cultivation, The land, to use the farmers’ term, ‘ becomes sick of it.’

After harvest he has a fine plant, but by March or April half or perhaps more
of it is dead.”— Farmer's Calendar, p. 155.
ACCLIMATATION. 35

To prepare plants of any description for the formation of
plantations in bleak and exposed situations, it is necessary
that they should be raised in an open and airy situation, and
that, by standing well apart, they may be stout in proportion
to their height, and by frequent transplantation be well fur-
nished with an ample supply of young roots.
IV.
ON NURSERY GROUND, MANURES, Ere.

Exposure.—Nursery ground should be moderately exposed
and elevated, with a free circulation of the atmosphere, that
it may be exempt as far as possible from the severity of frost,
which in spring and in summer is often found to prevail in
low, damp, and hollow situations.

The aspect or direction of the slope of the surface is not of
very much importance. Yet it is desirable to have various
exposures when such can be easily obtained ; but level land
of good quality is found to suit all purposes. Although a
northern aspect in some situations is apt to retain frost till
late in spring, which is sometimes inconvenient for the inser-
tion, or removal of plants at that season, yet it is generally the
best for raising evergreens from cuttings, and the safest for the
growth of all plants like the larch and silver fir, which are apt
to spring early, and which suffer from late frost, in the opening
up of the season. (Directions, however, shall be given under
the names of the respective trees, by which such casualties
may be averted, or greatly mitigated on ground of any aspect.)

Soil.—The best soil for the ordinary purposes of a nursery
for forest trees is a sandy loam two feet deep, friable and easily
worked, free from stones, with a dry subsoil or thorough
drainage ; all sorts of moorland, ferruginous, or retentive sub-
soils, have an injurious influence, by retarding the ripening of
the summer’s growth of plants. It is, however, an advantage
to have a variety of soil in a nursery ; a heavier or stronger
soil than that described, though not suitable for seedlings, is
well adapted for larger plants. A sandy peat soil, and all
soft open soils that do not get bound up with alternate mois-
ture and drought, yield the most fibrous roots, and from such,
ON NURSERY GROUND, MANURES, ETC. 37

seedling plants are transplanted more successfully than from
ground of a stiff clayey tendency.

Drains.—If drainage is necessary, the drains should be sunk
at least four feet deep, and kept at some distance from the line
of hedges. When this cannot be avoided, as in crossing under-
neath a hedge for instance, to prevent the roots of the hedge
from choking up the drain, the tile or built eye of the drain
should be encased with broken stones, extending at least a foot
on each side, and above the conduit.

Nursery Fences.—Unless the ground is naturally very well
sheltered, hedges make the best nursery fence. If the shelter
is ample, wire fence is to be recommended, and in all cases where
hares and rabbits abound, wire netting is the most convenient
security, unless where there is on the spot a supply of timber
adapted for close upright paling.

In the formation of hedges the hawthorn generally makes
the most satisfactory outside fence. If much shelter is needed
beech is preferable to any others; and for the interior
divisions of a nursery, yew-tree and holly are found most
suitable. These two evergreens are of compact growth, very
ornamental, and not subject to disease, and though of rather
slow growth, yet, when properly nursed for hedges, they can
be transplanted three or four feet high, when they at once
form a shelter and screen. Evergreen privet is also suitable
for the same purpose. Excess of shelter is injurious to the
hardiness of the stock, and should be avoided. The shelter of
woods often renders nursery ground too confined, and their
vicinity is frequently infested with disease and the prevalence
of insects injurious to young plants.

In ground of any considerable extent a cart-road should
give access to the interior, for the convenience of carting
manure, and the easy removal of plants. The ground is most
conveniently cropped when the walks are laid out at mght
angles.

The best mode of adapting new ground for nursery plants is
to have it well trenched, eighteen inches or two feet deep, the
surface carefully placed in the bottom, in autumn, and laid
down the first season with a well-manured green crop—turnips
38 ON NURSERY GROUND, MANURES, ETC.

or potatoes. This renders the ground clean and soft, to a
sufficient depth for any crop.

In manuring for nursery crops without a previous green
crop, the manure should be well decomposed, and whether the
crop intended be plants or seeds, it suits best for the manure
to be dug roughly into the ground in autumn or early in win-
ter; or to have the ground ridged up is preferable, as this
admits more readily the pulverizing influence of frost, which
acts favourably on ground for any crop.

The evil effects of fresh manure often appear very con-
spicuously if applied to a crop of any species of conifer.
Hardwood plants are not so easily injured in this way ; but it
is not unusual to see nursery plots of pines and larches sadly
damaged by manure too fresh and full of urine being applied.
The mistake sometimes occurs of laying down the manure in
heaps on the ground for some time before it is spread and dug
in. Where this is the case, the spots in the seedling Scotch
pines and larches, where the manure-heaps stood, are generally

‘marked by the absence of plants, as distinctly as in agricul-
tural crops, where the vegetation is generally the strongest.

Even when manure is well decomposed and comparatively
dry, if it is allowed to remain in heaps on the ground, and
get washed into it by rain or snow, the effect is injurious.
If, therefore, manure is carted out in frost, it should be placed
in some spot adjacent till it can be dug down, or on ground
where it may not injure the ensuing crop.

Farm-yard manure is preferable to town manure. If town
manure is employed, it is the better for being mixed up with
a proportion of rank farm-yard manure sufficient to produce
fermentation in a heap, which destroys the seeds of weeds
before it is used for any crop. Wood or peat ashes in a dung-
hill form an excellent manure ; coal ashes, to a great extent,
are bad for seedling crops ; and manure composed of sawdust
is still worse, as it tends to engender fungi, which are the
prevailing enemies of the pine tribe.

A very good manure is formed by collecting the weeds of
the nursery. After they are dissolved in a heap, give one
bushel of lime-shell hot from the kiln to every four or five
ON NURSERY GROUND, MANURES, ETC. 39

bushels of rotted weeds; these should be formed into a heap
of alternate layers of lime and weeds; in a few days, when
the heap has swelled out, it should be carefully turned over
and intimately mixed while it is in a hot state, so that all the
seeds of weeds may be completely destroyed. This mixture
may be applied at the time of transplanting in the nursery, or
at the time of digging for seed-beds. In the latter case it
forms a good top-dressing, by applying it thinly on the sur-
face of the ground immediately after the ground is dug, and
before it is raked for seed-heds; about ten tons of mixture
per acre will be sufficient, and at that rate it may safely be
repeated every three or four years. If a much greater quan-
tity is applied, the intervals in its application should be
longer, unless the ground is rather strong and stiff.

Leaf mould is a valuable manure for seedling crops, if it
is well dissolved, and has been exposed to the atmosphere by
repeated turning. It is sometimes to be obtained in pits
and hollows, in hardwood plantations, into which the leaves
drift in rough weather; and it may be carted out, nearly
made, from time to time, as it accumulates.

It should be turned over twice or thrice, with an interval
of two or three months, before being applied, that it may be
thoroughly dissolved ; it is best adapted for seed-beds, and the
mode of application is that recommended for the lime mix-
ture, as a top manuring laid on between the digging and
raking of the ground. It forms a fine mixture of soil for
seeds, and is not apt to cake or harden on the surface after
heavy rain, which hardening is much against the growth of
small seeds.

Peruvian guano cannot be recommended as a nursery
manure. In some soils and seasons it excites a rapid but
rather feeble growth; and in late seasons plants stimulated
by it are apt to fail in maturing their young wood, and are
consequently more liable to the influence of frost. Plants
appear to require nourishment of a more steady, bulky, and
permanent nature, though not so stimulating, in order to pro-
duce well ripened wood, full and sound, with their terminal
buds well developed. Pines and firs grown on very poor
40 ON NURSERY GROUND, MANURES, ETC.

nursery ground, particularly during the second year of their
life, assume a yellow colour in their leaves; and although
nothing the worse, yet the appearance is often objected to.
In this case a dressing of guano, followed by rain in August,
or its application in a liquid state, will change the foliage to
a darker green in the course of a few weeks.

It is desirable that nursery ground should be large enough
to admit of the plots being restored to good condition every
fourth or fifth year by a well-fertilized green crop of turnips,
or potatoes, etc. All sorts of two or three year lined plants
exhaust the ground considerably ; among hardwood, ash, elm,
and sycamore are the most exhaustive, oak the least so; and
among the fir tribe, the Norway spruce reduces the condition
of the ground more than any of the other species.

Some of the most valuable crops of seedling Scotch pine
and larch that I have ever seen, were .produced on plots of
land very much exhausted by nursery crops, but renewed or
enriched a few months before being sown, by receiving a good
coating of fresh mould from a field in the vicinity, which dur-
ing the previous summer had yielded a crop of turnips, which
had been well manured, and kept clean and free from seeding
weeds during their growth; this soil was carted and spread
on the nursery plots, about two inches deep, and roughly dug
over during the months of January and February. A mixture
of various soils is very invigorating for all tree crops; and it
is found profitable to give an extra quantity of manure to the
field in exchange for soil well adapted for crops so important,
particularly where the carriage is not very distant.

In the private nurseries throughout the country, seedling
plants are seldom raised, as it is generally found more profit-
able to purchase young plants one or two years old. These
we have been in the practice of raising for many years to
numerous customers both in Scotland and England, who order
them a year before they are required, whereby we avoid to some
extent the risk of growing an overstock, and are thus enabled
to sell them generally about 20 per cent. under the usual rate.
Vv.
ON DRAINING GROUND FOR PLANTATIONS.

In Scottish moorland more plants perhaps have been lost
by being inserted into ground too wet than by any other
cause, and it is seldom that any considerable extent of ground
is found adapted for plantation, without some parts requiring
to be drained. Open ditches are generally best adapted for
this purpose ; every other kind is apt to be closed up by the
growth of the fibrous roots of the trees. In hilly ground it
sometimes happens that an open ditch cannot easily be formed,
owing to the depth required in some parts to allow the water
to escape, and the great width required at the surface to admit
a sufficient slope on the sides. Such places are generally small
in extent, and the best method is to build an eye of stone, or
to introduce a tile on a scale sufficient to form a discharge,
surrounding the conduit, in either case, with an accumulation
of loose stones, or rough harped gravel, which tends to inter-
cept the roots, and prevent a stoppage. Although land may
not appear very wet, yet if the surface or the subsoil be im-
pervious, and particularly if the surface is inclined to a great
space, catch-water drains should be excavated, and the mate-
rials placed on the lower side, that the flow of water into the
drain may not be impeded. Inclined moorland, or peat,
which retains moisture, may, in many cases, be relieved of
surface-water in the same way, by the operation of the plough.
I have seen this sometimes very expeditiously and effectually
performed by a trench plough, particularly where oxen can be
employed that are accustomed to the reclaiming of waste

land.
In laying out the course of drains in hilly moorland, it is
42 ON DRAINING GROUND FOR FLANTATIONS.

often necessary to exercise caution, and not bring too much
into any common discharge, along a great declivity, before
reaching a well-swarded channel or stream, as an accumu-
lation of water to one point of exit, particularly in ground
not adhesive, has the effect during floods of cutting ravines,
overlaying lower and more fertile grounds with débris, and
shutting up and diverting the course of streams, and the like.
To prevent such inroads it is sometimes necessary to cause-
way, in a concave form, the course of a drain along a steep
declivity. Stones for such a purpose are generally found
abundantly on the ground, and even when carted loosely into
the bottom of a ditch they have the effect of preventing the
water from deepening the trench, although they are not built;
but, if the descent is rapid, building is generally required.

Where stones are scarce, well-swarded turf, closely built,
by being set on edge, is found to suit the purpose, where the
discharge of water is not constant; in such the herbage grows,
and becomes quite fixed, and sufficient for the discharge of a
flood, if only of afew days at a time. For such places a
shodding of stone and turf alternately make the strongest
fence of any against the inroads of water. The stones, if flat,
should be set on edge, if boulders, on end; and although the
stones are generally round, yet by introducing a fresh turf set
on edge between each course of stones, the turf grows, and
the roots, belonging commonly to a mixture of grasses, fill up
all crevices underneath, and the wild native vegetation spreads
above, and thus encases the stones securely. I have seen this
description of work resist the inroads of streams in flood,
where more costly mason-work was of less use. The more
gentle the cavity in the bottom, or the slope on the sides, the
greater the strength of the work.

In forest planting, deep-rooted plants require a soil more
elevated above the rise of water than the pines and other
surface-rooted trees. Young plantations recently formed are
more apt to suffer in the absence of drainage than plantations
that are more advanced ; because, when trees (particularly
the pine tribe) become so far advanced as to form a cover on
ON FENCES FOR PLANTATIONS. 43

the ground, they have a tendency to dry it; they intercept
the slighter showers of rain and the humidity of the atmo-
sphere, and expose a large surface to evaporation. On a
large scale, however, forests have a tendency to increase the
humidity of the atmosphere and strengthen the springs of
water in their vicinity. In soil surcharged with water, where
it cannot be properly drained, the mode of ridging it is some-
times resorted to, and successfully adopted, for the purpose of
forming a cover of plantation, which improves the appearance
of the place, and under coppice is frequently attended with
profit. Ridging is performed by excavating every alternate
space of five or six feet in breadth; the space which forms
the ridge is thus raised in proportion to the depth of the
excavation. The work should be performed in summer; and
the operation of planting in this description of ground should
be in spring.

Fences.—It is hardly necessary that anything should be
said on the necessity of fences around plantations, or of the
best mode of forming them. The materials to be employed in
their formation will of course depend on the resources of the
district where they are required. In some situations the
expense of fencing a plantation is equal to the cost of plants
and the operation of planting; on a small extent it is some-
times much more. Perhaps the least expensive mode gene-
rally applicable for waste land, and to protect from the inroads
of cattle and sheep, is to form a turf-dike on the brink of a
ditch. The sward from the surface is built to form the out-
side of the dike, and the earth from the ditch forms what is
called a backing, being a bank or slope of earth falling from
the top of the dike to the surface of the enclosed ground.
This of itself is generally a sufficient fence against cattle ; but
a formation of this sort, to prevent the inroads of sheep, is
usually surmounted with a single line of wire, fixed with
wooden supports, and placed a foot above the top of the turf.
In districts where thinnings of young plantations abound,
these are used, instead of wire, to form the top bar. The
expense of construction must no doubt depend on the adapta-
44 ON FENCES FOR PLANTATIONS.

tion of the soil for a formation of this description. A usual
price, apart from the upper fixture or rail, is from 4d. to 5d.
per lineal yard of dike five feet high, measuring from the
bottom of the ditch to the coping-turf. The cheapest dike of
turf I have known to be erected, suitable as a fence or pro-
tection against cattle, was formed five feet high, at the cost
of 3d. per lineal yard. A common method is to form the
fence with earth, and to face up the outside with stones,
where such material is conveniently obtained.

I have lately built by contract in moorland about two miles
of dikes, of two sorts, where stones are found conveniently,
partly from newly improved land, and partly from cairns,
which abound along many mountainous districts in the north
of Scotland. These cairns form heath-covered mounds through-
out the moors, and require little or no labour to excavate. A
dry stone dike, five feet high, was built with a scarcement of
three inches on each side near the surface of the ground;
above that it started at the thickness of two feet, and rising
to four and a half feet in height, where it tapered to sixteen
inches ; here it was surmounted by a projecting cope, making
its entire height five feet. The cost of building was 10d. per
lineal yard, carting stones, 3d., making the price of the dike
ls. 1d. per lineal yard. This was the fence adopted where
the ground was level, or had only a gentle slope,

Where the ground was steep, the fence was formed of a
different construction ; there the surface of the moor was
excavated to the average depth of twelve inches, and to the
breadth of five or six feet. The surface turf was built up
to the height of about four feet, the earth excavated from
beneath the surface turf was cast over in the progress of
building to form the backing. This turf wall was then faced
up with stone from the bottom of the excavation to the
height of four.and a half feet, and a stone coping made the
faced-up side of the dike stand five feet high, with a scarce-
ment at bottom of a few inches, and with a slope or batter of
four or five inches. The surface of the embankment on the
opposite side was formed with a slope of not less than two
ON ROADS IN PLANTATIONS. 45

to one. Where this fence was formed at a right angle to the
natural slope of the ground, catch-water drains were formed,
which furnished additional material for the slope or back of
the dike, where required: These drains form a safeguard for
the dike during floods. The cost of this fence, including the
catch-water drain, amounted to 1s. 2d. per lineal yard; but of
course the cost of all such fences -depends on the supply of
materials and of workmen in their vicinity. It sometimes
happens during winter that dikes of every description become
drifted with snow, over which sheep find an easy access into
plantations; for this reason wire fences, as they are less apt
to accumulate snow, have become common for the protection
of plantations throughout the Highlands of Scotland.

Roads in Plantations.—It is usual, before planting land to
any great extent, to line out the roads which may afterwards
be required ; this is most easily accomplished while the
ground is bare, and the inclination of the surface can be
brought under the eye. It is seldom necessary at this stage
to do anything further than mark off the roads, remove ob-
structions, and form side drains, where the soil is wet, to
admit a carriage drive throughout the ground. These are
commonly formed from fourteen to eighteen feet wide, and it
is seldom that the use of such roads justifies any great outlay
in their formation, until they are required for the removal of
timber, which seldom occurs, to a great extent, before eighteen
or twenty years after the formation of the plantation.

The carriage of timber, on account of its vibrating motion,
is more severe on roads than that of almost any other com-
modity ; this accompanied with the circumstance, that roads in
woods have a tendency, in all sorts of soil, to retain moisture
from want of air, and from their seldom having been formed
with any substantial body of materials to support heavy loads,
accounts for the bad state in which they soon appear after
having been subjected to any considerable traffic. Few opera-
tions are attended with greater outlay than the formation of
good roads, and when such are only occasionally required in
the removal of timber from the forest, the cost forbids their
46 ON ROADS IN PLANTATIONS.

formation. I shall therefore only indicate what I have found
the easiest mode of forming a temporary road sufficient under
such circumstances.

In some soils the surface vegetation forms a tough sward
adapted for sustaining temporary traffic, particularly when it is
not confined to the same tracks, but shifted by being spread
over the surface of the roadway. In the absence of a firm or
gravelly soil, which continues some time passable, advantage
should be taken of frosty weather when the traffic is heavy.
I have found that the best method of making a road with a
soft surface passable, is to overspread it with a close thatching—
of the branches of trees, each branch six, eight, or ten feet
long ; larch, spruce, silver fir, beech, birch, elm, etc., all lie flat,
and can be built into a compact cladding across the surface.
Scotch fir is of use for this purpose, but inferior to many other
sorts. Having placed the branches in this position, the sub-
soil from ditches on each side of the road should then be cast
up on the cladding of brushwood, giving the road a convexity
of a few inches in the centre, and of a depth sufficient to cover
over above the branches about two or three inches. If the
subsoil is good gravel, this will make a strong and lasting
road ; or if gravel is to be had in the close vicinity, it is gene-
rally worth while to cart it; but whatever be the nature of
the subsoil, the branches prevent the loaded carts from sink-
ing to a great extent, and form a very passable road for the
purpose, and at the smallest outlay, as the materials are always
at hand.

In plantations formed for the growth of hop-poles, prop-
wood, or the like, that are to be cleared off at an early period,
—say ten, twelve, twenty, or twenty-five years—roads may be
made narrower, or they may not unfrequently be omitted
altogether ; but where extensive plantations are intended for
heavy timber, roads are indispensable, and their advantages
are well worth the space they occupy, as they impart a healthy
influence by the admission of air, and open up the interior of
the plantation, and allow the state of it to be ascertained.
VI.
ON SELECTING NURSERY PLANTS.

TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF PLANTS REQUIRED TO PLANT
AN ImprRIaAt ACRE FROM ONE Foot To THIRTY FEET, PLANT

 

 

FROM PLANT.
IMPERIAL ACRE. IMPERIAL ACRE.

Distance. No. Distance. No.
1 43,560 12 302
uy 19,360 123 270
2 10,890 13 257
24 6,970 134 239
3 4,840 14 222
3h 3,556 14} 207
4 2,722 15 193
43 2,151 15} 181
5 1,742 16 170
5k 1,440 164 164
6 1,210 17 150
64 1,031 173 142
7 889 18 134
7k 774 18} 127
8 680 19 120
8k 603 19} 114
9 537 20 108
93 482 22 90
10 435 24 75
104 395 26 64
11 360 28 55
114 329 30 48

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Selecting Nursery Plants——It is but reasonable to sup-
pose that with the view of laymg down a crop destined to
stand for generations—it may be for upwards of a century,
—every precaution would be taken to secure its vigour and
48 ON SELECTING NURSERY PLANTS.

success, by selecting plants of the most approved varieties of
the species; in many instances, however, this is not done.
Indifference, in this respect, with the trade, or with plant mer-
chants, who pass the commodity from hand to hand in course
of a few weeks, is not so surprising ; but with those who are to
own the plants in their final destination, ‘the selection is surely
worthy of the exercise of thoughtfulness and care. Seldom,
however, is this care taken; seldom is the same vigilance exer-
cised here, which the agriculturist displays in laying down a
crop destined to last only a few months. In arboriculture the
result stands far away in the future, whereas with the farmer
it is close at hand—the character and quality of his crops are
readily ascertained, and the difference between good and bad
is realized in a few months in a tangible form.

In the formation of plantations, great or small, the work is
generally proceeded with as if every tree or plant of its name
were equally good, without regard to variety, pedigree, or
climatic influence. All Scotch pines, for instance, are often
treated as one sort, and larch and spruce in the same manner,
yet in each of these there exists a diversity greater than that
found in wheat, barley, or any other grain. Although the
varieties and qualities of the trees will be found pretty fully
detailed under their respective names, yet as those named are
important leading kinds, as a guide to the selection of the
most suitable plants, I may here make a few remarks on each
of these trees.

The Scotch pine is a tree very susceptible of climatic influ-
ence; when removed from its native mountains to a warm
country, and grown from seed, it changes its appearance to
some extent, showing many seedling varieties. Every suc-
ceeding generation produces softer timber ; and away from its
native habitat the tree thus degenerates and becomes tender.
Since 1860, many tons of Scotch pine seeds have been im-
ported from the Continent into Britain, as already noticed,
and many millions of plants have been thus produced, far
too tender for the exposed moorland of this country. In
the best protected nursery ground they often perish in a
ON SELECTING NURSERY PLANTS, 49

severe winter. These plants abound in British nurseries.
The seeds are obtained at a cheap rate, labour throughout
the Continent, the principal expense attending them, being far
cheaper than in this country. Plants from Continental seeds
succeed only in well-sheltered ground at a low altitude. On
elevated and exposed moorland they are worthless. Unless
frequently transplanted in the nursery, they are barer in the
roots than the native plant, and consequently more apt to die
in being transplanted ; and where they have taken root and
lived for a few years, I have seen them in moors standing
about knee height in the first of summer, brown, of a scorched
appearance, and twiggy, being topped by frost, and worse
than nothing in the ground.

Pinus sylvestris montana is another variety of Scotch pine
which is imported from the Continent, and grown in this
country under that name. The plants of this tree have a
close resemblance to those of the native pine while a plant,
which is apt to lead to a serious mistake, as the Jontana of
the Continent, which is introduced and propagated to a véry
great extent, is a dwarf—worthless as a timber tree, as at most
it only becomes a spreading bush. With respect to this
plant the confusion is the more perplexing, as Don, in his
writings on the native varieties found in Scotland, has given
the name Montana to a valuable variety of the Scotch pine,
which differs widely from that which has of late years to an
unusual extent found its way to the nurseries.

The Montana of commerce, though imported from the Conti-
nent, is a very hardy plant, owing to its seeds being gathered
from the tree in its native habitat, which is always at a great
elevation. Unlike the loftier sorts of Pinus sylvestris, it is
unsuited for profitable cultivation in the warm plains of
foreign countries. The plants should be avoided for all
plantations in the course of being formed for the sake of
timber. Yet I have known this dwarf inserted with great
care, extensively, ten to twelve feet apart, with the view of
ultimately suppressing all the other plants associated with it
in the forest.—(For further particulars see PINE-TREE.)

D
50 ON SELECTING NURSERY PLANTS.

The selection of larch plants is a matter of great import-
ance; hardiness is the great desideratum, and the produce of
Scotch seed should have a decided preference to those grown
from foreign seeds, of which so many tons are yearly im-
ported, that during the last few years the seeds of this tree
saved and sown in Britain did not form a tithe of the quantity
imported from Hamburg and other Continental ports,—seeds
which are readily obtained in the planted woods in the
valleys and warm slopes of Germany, Prussia, and through-
out the Netherlands. Plants raised from these seeds are very
subject to frost; this is very apparent in the nursery treat-
ment, compared to plants from home-grown seed. The leaves
of both sorts sometimes unfortunately perish on very severe
occasions of summer frost, but seldom to the same extent.
The blighted leaves of early summer places the plant in the
most susceptible condition for the attack of the coccus laricis
or larch aphis, which lives on the juice. In the absence of
the leaves in winter the insect may be detected by the plants
appearing here and there dwarfed, and darkened in the colour
of their bark, as if subjected to the influence of smoke; such
plants ought to be avoided.—(See Larcu.)

In selecting Spruce Fir for forest planting, it is necessary
to know that the Norway species is the only sort fit for
becoming a large tree and yielding valuable timber, except
the Douglasw, which is easily known. But the Norway
species and the White American bear a close resemblance to
one another; and as the seeds of the latter are often im-
ported from America, and grown by the hundred thousand,
care should be taken to avoid it. The Norway and the
White American, grown together under the same circum-
stances, are quite distinct. The Norway is darker in the
foliage, more vigorous and robust in growth, particularly in
the leading shoot. The White American is paler in the
foliage and bark, shorter and more slender in its growth, its
foliage is closer on the branches, and the leading shoot is
seldom very vigorous ; it is a dwarf tree, and its timber is of
little value. Where the Norway species is grown on poor
ON SELECTING NURSERY PLANTS. 51

hard soil, the plants have very much the appearance of the
White American species.—(For further details on this subject,
see the article on the various species of SPRUCE FIR.)

I have now said enough to show the mistakes that are
most likely to arise in selecting plants of a few of the most
common kinds of the Conifer. Respecting many of the
other kinds of this tribe, we depend almost entirely on foreign
countries for the supply of seed; and although there is no
doubt that a great difference exists in the hardiness of the
produce of the seeds of the various kinds grown in their
native heights, compared with those from seeds produced in
the lower and warmer districts, yet these circumstances, not-
withstanding their importance, cannot be easily controlled,
and afford no choice in selecting newly introduced kinds in
a nursery.

It is of great importance to obtain plants grown from a
good stock, or from the most approved trees of their species.
For several years I cultivated the variety of oak known as
Q. robur pedunculata, This tree yields the best description
of oak timber. It also attais to as great a size as any other
variety of the British oak; although when in the nursery the
sessile variety generally gives the stronger plants, as of the two
its acorns are the larger. I could not, however, obtain a
better price for the sort selected than for those grown pro-
miscuously ; and as there are intermediate sorts between the
two, the difference is not very important, and the kinds are
now seldom grown apart.

In selecting cak plants from the seed-hed, there is commonly
a considerable difference in their size, unless the very small
acorns have been sifted out and not sown.

In transplanting young oaks from the seed-bed, those very
inferior in size should be rejected, as, although they are trans-
planted, they generally continue comparatively dwarfish, even
with the best treatment, in good soil.

In making choice of hardwood plants of any sort, good
roots are as conducive to their success as good tops, and much
more so with oaks, beeches, and birches, and with all sorts
52 ON SELECTING NURSERY PLANTS.

that are apt to get bare and destitute of fibres. When these
sorts have acquired the proper size for transplanting into the
forest, they are much improved, particularly the oak, by being
removed or disturbed in the nursery lines a year previous to
their being finally planted. This removal, if it should only
be from the site of one nursery line to the next, insures a
mass of fibrous roots, requiring no pruning on being planted
out, which gives the plant a great advantage over those not
so treated. And although, in consequence of being thus dis-
turbed, they are not so full in the display of young wood, yet
they are far more valuable than plants that have not been
recently removed, though the latter appear the more vigorous.
When an excess of vigour appears in hardwood plants, they
seldom take readily to the ground on being removed, parti-
cularly if they have been nursed in a sheltered situation.
Plants of every description, and especially those of the pine
tribe that are to become the inhabitants of bleak exposures,
should, in the nursery, have the benefit of open and airy
ground, to admit of the play of the wind on all sides; and
such as have been transplanted the preceding year will have
the best roots and the hardiest tops, and are best adapted to
survive under adverse circumstances.
VIL
MODES OF FOREST PLANTING.

In no work in general practice is there a greater diversity
of methods than in that of forming plantations.

This arises, to some extent, from the difference in the soil,
and in the herbage which overspreads it, in different parts of
the country. On the soil and exposure should depend the
kinds of plants, and on the herbage the size or description of
plants that should be employed; and by far the most im-
portant step in arboriculture is to adapt the plant to the soil
and climate congenial to its growth. Like every other opera-
tion that does not yield a, speedy return, the profit of a plan-
tation must always depend very much on its original cost.
It is not unusual to see plantations formed at an outlay of
£2, £3, or £4 per acre (for plants and planting), while
another equally valuable is formed on ground of the same
description, and with plants of the same kind, at less than
half the cost. This sometimes arises from the size of the
plants employed, and also from the mode of inserting them.
Sometimes the most costly mode will altogether fail, while
the least so is a complete success; but I have also observed
the reverse of all this—where the modes of planting reckoned
least expensive failed again and again, and the costly method
had to be adopted, which, under the circumstances, should at
first have been resorted to. The success of plantations, there-
fore, greatly depends on the skill and experience of the fores-
ter. I shall now detail as minutely as I can the different
modes of inserting the plants, and the sizes of the plants,
which I have found most successful under various circum-
stances. The mode of operation, the time or season of per-
54 MODES OF FOREST PLANTING.

forming it, the kind and the size of plants, etc., are all
dependent on circumstances, such as the surface soil, the
subsoil, the state of the native vegetation, the climate, and
exposure of the district, etc.

There are three methods of planting generally practised
throughout the country, namely, notch or slit planting ; pit
planting ; and planting on trenched or prepared ground.

Notch planting in moorland.—The implements by which
this operation is performed vary much in different parts of
the country. Two sorts, however, are sufficient for notch-
planting under every circumstance, namely the small planting
spade or hand-iron, aud the common garden spade. The
latter is improved for the purpose by being well worn down.
The hand-iron here figured has a blade
about seven inches long; its entire length
is eighteen inches, and its weight is about
two and a half pounds. The person using
it should have a small bag, for carrying
plants, tied round his waist. This spade
should be struck into the ground with one
hand in a slanting direction, which will
make it penetrate more easily than when it
is kept perpendicularly ; the plant is in-
serted by the other hand, and is placed on
the farther side of the hand-iron; and, by
turning the turf a little to one side with the hand-iron, an
opening is made for the roots. When the plant is put in,
the ground forced up should receive a stamp with the foot, to
make it firm. Moor or peat ground is naturally apt to con-
tract and shrink during the heat of summer, and when plants
are inserted by making a larger opening, the incision in some
soils opens, and exposes the roots at a time when they are
most apt to suffer. Persons planting with the hand-iron
advance regularly, each keeping the exact distance from his
neighbour that is required between the plants. An overseer
follows after every ten or twelve planters, to see that none
perform the work carelessly or slightly, in order to keep pace

 
MODES OF FOREST PLANTING. 55

with those who are most expert at the work. In a dry,
sandy, or gravelly moorland, with a cover of open heath, not
exceeding five or six inches in height, this mode of planting
is not only the most speedy, but also the most successful and
economical. It is not practised with plants of a great size ;
but it is adapted for Scotch pines and spruce two-year seed-
lings, or for such one-year transplanted, and for larches,
either one or two year seedlings, or for one-year seedlings,
one year transplanted, and for other plants not exceeding
the size of these, at the ages stated. In England, the
‘use of the small planting spade or hand-iron is almost alto-
gether unknown; and there the system of notch or slit-plant-
ing has been termed a@ coarse operation, because the plant is
inserted among the herbage without the soil being prepared
or pulverized ; but the cause of its being spoken of thus
disparagingly arises from ignorance of the advantages con-
nected with the system. It is necessary here to explain that
the herbage with which the plants are associated by this
mode of planting is that of the heath, which, when of a
moderate size, is far more favourable to the young plants than
. if they were inserted on a bare prepared surface. A cover of
heath affords great protection, while its open stems do not.
retain moisture to rot the plants, nor do its roots injure them
like those of a grassy vegetation. Moorland of the usual
description, situated at a considerable altitude, when much
disturbed and pulverized, is generally less adapted to the
growth of young plants than soil less expensively prepared.
This arises not only from the prepared soil and pulverized
spots being deprived of a shelter of heath, but also from the
circumstance of these places, thus prepared, absorbing an
excess of moisture, which causes the ground to swell during
frost, and subside in open weather, whereby the plants are
ejected. For this reason, the planter of experience, in the
progress of notch planting, will diverge from the regular dis-
tance if the spot happens to be bare, with a broken surface,
to take advantage of the nearest point possessed of a heathy
sward, into which he will insert the plant. In the native-
56 MODES OF FOREST PLANTING.

grown forests, it is not in the bare pulverized spots that the
young plants are found; in such they are ejected, and die ;
but, associated with the brown heath, they spring up and
prevail without any artificial aid; and it is into this descrip-
tion of soil, which nature has adapted for the seed-bed of
pines, that plants are usually inserted by notching.

The first over-stock of plants that I had in the nurseries
at Forres occurred in the year 1830. During that year I
planted, by contract, about two millions of plants, which were
all inserted into moorland by the hand-iron. The largest ot
these plantations was made on the estate of Ballindalloch ; it
measured about 400 Scotch acres, and contained 1,400,000
native Scotch pine and larch plants. They were notched
into the ground at the average distance of about four feet
asunder. The plants were distributed in kind and size to
suit the quality of the ground and the state of the herbage ;
and on an average each Scotch acre contained, as under, at
the following prices, for plants, carriage, and planting :—

500 one-year transplanted larches, . . £0
1500 two-year seedling do.,

500 one-year transplanted Scotch firs,
1000 two-year seedling do.
Carriage of plants to the moor,
Expense of planting 3500,

ooooo
Noe EK Owe
PE oo oO fo

o

Total expense per Scotch acre, £0 10

This plantation was well fenced, partly with stone, and partly
with turf dikes, and as no drains had been formed, I had
liberty in planting to avoid all spots too wet for the growth
of timber; these, however, were of no great extent. The
soil has generally a good slope or declivity, and ranges from
200 to 550 feet above the river Spey, which runs near to it.
The ground is probably from 350 to 750 feet above the
sea level, and about 25 miles distant therefrom. This plan-
tation was begun during the last week in February, and the
weather being altogether favourable it was completed in
MODES OF FOREST PLANTING. 57

thirty-four days. Its formation was reported in the Prize
Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland
for 1832, and being the first plantation, and consequently the
oldest formed by me, I inspected it lately, with the view of
ascertaining its progress and value as timber in thirty-five
years. I was accompanied by two practical men, the one a
forester in the constant practice of selling timber, and the
other a timber merchant; both well acquainted with the
purposes for which such timber is applicable, and with the
present state of the timber market.

I found the plantation generally in a very vigorous state,
and containing many remarkable specimens of rapid growth.
Near the base of the plantation, and where judicious thinning
had been practised, the best of the larches stood from fifty to
upwards of sixty feet high, and from four to five feet in girth
at the ground, and from. three feet six inches to four feet two
inches at the height of six feet. These contained from twenty
to twenty-five cubic feet of timber, and were worth not less
than 20s. each tree. Some of the best parts in the wood were
worth £80 per acre; and altogether the value of the timber
covering 400 Scotch acres, equal to about 500 imperial acres,
at a low estimate amounted to £31,600.

The native Highland pine presented some very fine speci-

mens of thirty-five years’ growth, containing from fourteen to
sixteen cubic feet of timber. Every year after this age a
plantation, when carefully thinned, makes a great accession
to the bulk and value of the timber.
_ As there has been a succession of several proprietors,
factors, and foresters on the estate since the date of the forma-
tion of the plantation, I am unable to give any correct detail
of the thinnings obtained from it up to the present time,
further than that the free revenue must have been quite suffi-
cient to have paid the cost of its formation, with interest, and
a rent for the ground many times greater than that obtained
for the best description of hill pasture. It had formerly been
only common heath or moorland.

During the next twenty or thirty years the repeated thin-
58 MODES OF FOREST PLANTING.

nings of this plantation cannot fail to yield many thousands
of pounds, with every prospect of the standing timber at the
end of either of these periods being worth more than double
its present estimated value.

At the time of the formation of this plantation the ordinary
transit for timber to market in the quarter was by floating in
rafts on the river Spey and shipping at Speymouth. Moun-
tain streams everywhere abound, and afford convenient power
for the manufacture of timber by saw-mills.

Other means of transit have lately been established. In
this remote district the Strathspey railway runs close to
the south side of the plantation, and cries aloud for traffic,
which no doubt enhances the value of timber in the
district.

The other plantations which I formed in the autumn or
winter of 1830 are equally successful. They stand on ground
of a lower altitude ; but as it was very bare and exposed, and
as a considerable portion of the heath had been burned off two
or three years before being planted, and as the soil consists
generally of a sandy peat on a dry subsoil of sand and gravel,
the smallest description of plants was employed, and the cir-
cumstances rendered close planting indispensable. The fol-
lowing was generally the number of plants inserted at about
three feet asunder :—

2000 one-year seedling larch, . ‘ 5; £0 2 6
1000 two-year do. do, . ‘ ‘ 0 2 0
3000 two-year native Scotch firs, . : 0 3 °0
Expense of planting 6000, 3 : i 0 3 «0

Total expense per Scotch acre, . £0 10 6

 

The above was the contracted price per acre; all plants for
replanting, if such should be required, were to be supplied;
but the expense of work in filling up was to be defrayed by
the proprietor. The ground being well adapted for the
plants, no failure was perceptible, except along a small space
of grassy vegetation which required additional drainage, and
MODES OF FOREST PLANTING. 59

for which a few thousand plants were furnished. A few
years after the formation of these plantations, the one-year
seedling larch plants which had been employed could not be
distinguished from those inserted at the age of two years.

Although one-year-old seedling larches only range from four
to seven inches in height, yet when they are transplanted into
favourable moorland, they often double their height during
the first year of their transplanted growth. No seedling
takes more readily to the ground or overcomes the check of
transplantation with greater facility.

Before finishing my remarks on notch planting with the
small spade, or hand-iron, it is necessary to state that this
mode is the most suitable only for moorland where the sur-
face is bare, and the heath not much above the height of the
plants. If the herbage is grassy, or composed of other vegeta-
tion than heath, stronger plants are necessary than those
adapted for being inserted by this implement; or if the sur-
face soil is composed of moss, or pure peat earth, of a greater
depth than the small spade can easily strike through, it should
not be employed. Pure peat is commonly found the prevail-
ing surface soil of moorland at a high altitude, and being
destitute of a sufficient mixture of sand, the plants do not
grow freely until they reach the subsoil. For this reason, the
quality of the surface soil, as well as that of the vegeta-
tion, should be taken into account in deciding on the mode of
planting, and on the plants to be employed.

On rocky ground, where it is difficult to obtain a cover of
wood, the hand-iron is often found most suitable; it enters
the crevices and makes way for the insertion of young plants,
where larger tools would not penetrate.

In such places the seeds of pines are sometimes sown, but
one-year seedling plants notched are generally most successful.
This implement is also to be preferred in the formation of
plantations on bare sandy links.—(See Sza-siDE PLANTING.)

Notch planting by the common spade——As already noticed, a
well-worn common garden spade is far better adapted for the
work than any other; being lighter, more wieldy, and being
60 MODES OF FOREST PLANTING.

worn to a circular form in the mouth, it cuts the herbage and
penetrates easily into the ground. If spades of this descrip-
tion are not at hand, new ones of a small size should be
formed into the same figure and sharpened for the work.
This spade is suitable in all rough ground where the heath is
rank and forms a close cover ; or where heath is mixed with
the mosses or other herbage, where the hand-iron is found too
light for the operation. This mode of notching plants with
the common spade is generally known as the “cross

cut,” the shape of the incision being made thus— ——|-
The surface soil being raised, the plant is inserted into the
corner and the turf pressed down with the foot. The work
is most speedily performed if a boy accompanies the spades-
man, carrying the plants and inserting them. Notch planting
with the common spade is sometimes practised by making
only a single notch or incision, into which the plant is often
inserted by the person who makes it; in this case the planter
carries the plants in a bag or apron tied round his waist.

The plants must be large in proportion to the herbage they
have to contend with. Transplanted plants should always be
used. Two-year-old seedlings which have been one year
transplanted of larch, and Scotch pine, or two-year trans-
planted spruce, are all fit for being notched with the common

spade where herbage of the sort referred to overspreads a soft
soil; but the preparation necessary for each spot where a
plant is to be inserted depends on the nature of the ground
and on the vigour of the herbage, as will be afterwards
explained.

Moorland Plantations, cost, ete—In forming plantations on
this description of ground, in elevated situations, Scotch pine,
larch, and spruce are the kinds most profitably grown. If
the exposure is rough and bare, 5000 plants are sometimes
judiciously employed per imperial acre, although that number
places the plants rather less than three feet apart. If, on the
other hand, the ground is such as is reckoned sure for the
plants to take root in, and the altitude low, or, if at a high
MODES OF FOREST PLANTING. 61

altitude, the surrounding hills afford a good shelter, 3000
plants are sufficient ; but unless the shelter is ample, the out-
sides should be made closer than the interior of the woods.
The proportions of the kinds depend on the quality of the
soil, but that most common is two-thirds of Scotch pine and
one-third of larch. With these regularly mixed the planta-
tion may be thinned out, so that ultimately it may consist
either of a mixture, or of any one of these kinds, as may,
from the appearance of the trees when somewhat advanced,
be considered most profitable. Where the larch thrives, it is
the most profitable of any tree; but it is subject to many
casualties, and forms too precarious a crop to consist purely of
the genus, except on the surest ground,—on the slopes of
ravines, along the alluvial banks of rivers, and in all situa-
tions where the soil, though somewhat moist, is open and free
from stagnant water. The same description of soil is also
adapted for the spruce fir, but the spruce fir is not suitable
for so high an altitude as the larch. Spruce grows well on a
level surface, and being less subject to disease, the tree may
be formed into masses by itself on favourable soil, where it
may be allowed to stand at a closeness which would be ruin-
ous to larch. Although the spruce is often planted on dry
soil as shelter to hardwood, etc., yet it never becomes valuable
timber in ground where its roots are undermined by drought.
Respecting the Scotch pine, there is no situation, however
dry, where it will not sustain itself; provided it has taken
root. It accommodates itself to a greater variety of soil than
any other tree, and is therefore employed in forming a mix-
ture in all plantations on rough exposures, and where there is
a doubt of other sorts growing, in consequence of the soil
being of inferior quality. The cost of forming plantations
varies according to the quality of the plants required for the
soil, and their price at the time. Plantations of the cheapest
description are formed by notching on good moorland, with a
herbage of heath; a common proportion and price per acre
are as follows :—
62 MODES OF FOREST PLANTING,

3000 two-year seedling native Scotch =

at 2s. per 1000, .  . £0 6 0

1500 two-year seedling Larch, ‘a te pee
1000, , i 4 ; ; 0 6 0
Planting with the ant -iron, ‘ ‘ ‘ 0 4 «0
£0 16 0

In sheltered situations, where close planting is not neces-
sary, the expense is 4s. or 5s. less per acre; 3000 plants
being commonly used.

If the soil is a grassy heath, with a close vegetation, stouter
plants are generally more suitable ; such are also more suit-
able where the surface vegetation is heath, but where the soil
is a pure. moss to the depth of a few inches, or where the
heath cover is rank or deep, in any of these circumstances the
plants and cost per acre generally stand thus :—

2000 two-year seedlings, one year transplanted,

native Scotch pine, at 4s. 6d. per 1000, . £0 9 O

1000 two-year sie one year trans-
planted, Larch, . : ‘ ‘ 0 6 0
Planting with the hand-iron, ‘ ‘ 0 4 0
£019 0

 

It is customary in the Highlands to burn off very strong
heath two or three years before the ground is planted ;
because, when the surface soil is favourable, a short heath ad-
mits of seedlings being used, instead of transplanted plants,
which is generally a saving of 50 per cent. on plants and
planting ; but where the surface soil is a pure peat, or mossy,
the transplanted plants are the surest, and ultimately the
cheapest. The advantage of transplanted plants on a mossy
surface is, that being stronger and possessed of more rigidity
of fibre, they are not so apt to rot by the constant moisture
retained by this description of soil; and when inserted they
come in contact with and more speedily reach the sandy sub-
soil, so necessary to their vigorous growth.

It is only in well-sheltered ground that burning is to be
MODES OF FOREST PLANTING. 63

recommended, and under any circumstance it is unfavourable
for plants to be inserted immediately after burning. The
play of the wind on a bare surface disturbs the plants, and
the absence of all other vegetation exposes them to the de-
predations of vermin and casualties which do not assail them
when surrounded by young vegetation.

Throughout the north of Scotland two-year-old seedling
Scotch pines and larches are planted at once into moorland,
to nearly as great an extent as transplanted plants; and the
expense of forming plantations of this sort is generally con-
siderably under £1 sterling per acre, including the cost of
draining, fencing, etc. Where the cost is above that amount,
it is commonly incurred in consequence of the plantation
being of a small extent ; the expense of enclosing in that case
often exceeds that of plants and planting.

Of the last 1000 acres of moorland which I planted, in four
or five different lots, about a fifth part consisted of one-year
transplanted plants. The average cost of this extent did not
exceed 15s. per acre for plants and planting, with all neces-
sary upmaking. About one-third of the whole was larch, and
the others were native Highland pine, with a small proportion
of Norway spruce; and the average number per acre was
3500, which placed the plants about three and a half feet,
asunder. The closest planting was formed on the outsides,
on hill-tops, and on bleak exposures, also along moist grassy
patches, overspread with rank herbage; the progress of firs
on such being always marked by a slowness of growth, until
they form a cover and suppress the surface vegetation, when
their effect tends to dry the ground, and convert its energies
purely to the growth of wood.

In very exposed and bare ground, the deseription of plant
most apt to succeed is Scotch pine, one year old, and one
year transplanted—a plant only two years old, but trans-
planted into nursery lines at the age of one. This descrip-
tion of plant is most tenacious of life, and seldom fails; yet
it is not in ordinary demand; it is sold commonly about 3s.
to 4s. per 1000.
64 MODES OF FOREST PLANTING.

The largest description of plants that are inserted by notch
planting, and fit for rough ground, with rank herbage, where
thé soil is soft and adapted for being notched with the common
garden spade, generally costs, per acre, including planting, as
follows :—

2000 two-year transplanted native Scotch pine, £0 16 0
1000 two-year seedling, one year transplanted,

larch, . : : : : ; 4 0 7 +O
Notch planting with the common spade, 0 7 «+O
£1 10 O

The expense of notch planting varies much, and depends on
the quality of the ground, and the roughness or smoothness
of the herbage. In soft smooth heath soil, a person practised
to the hand-iron will insert from 3000 to 4000 plants in a
day of ten hours; and the expense of labour only, in notch-
ing plants with this implement, seldom exceeds 3s. or 4s. per
imperial acre. Planting with the common spade, either by
th single notch or cross-cut system, is generally double the
price of planting by the hand-iron. In other cases, where the
herbage has to be cleared off, or where the ground is dis-
turbed by a pick, or the spots dug over by the spade before
the plant is inserted, the expense is still greater, in proportion
to the state of the soil, the labour bestowed, and the rate of
wages obtained by workmen in the locality.

It is usual to look over plantations of this description after
the second or third year of their growth, and to make up all
marked deficiencies. It is not necessary to fill up every spot
where a dead plant is found; but all such places as are not
possessed of a sufficient number to furnish the ground, so that
they will readily form a cover on the surface, should be
replanted.
VIII.

ON PIT PLANTING AND PLANTING ON
PREPARED GROUND.

Pit planting. —This is the mode generally resorted to in
planting the various kinds of two-year transplanted hardwood
trees, where the soil is generally deeper, richer, and better
sheltered than that usually planted with pinés. The more
capacious the pits are formed, the roots of the plants can be
the better spread, and have the greater extent of loose soil,
—circumstances necessary for their early growth. Pits are
usually made eighteen inches wide and fifteen inches deep ;
and that size is usually contracted for at 1s. to 1s. 6d. per
100, according to the nature of the ground, etc. In hard
soul it is usual to disturb the bottom of the pit with a pick
beyond the above depth. When plants beyond the age of
two-year transplanted are employed, the pits must be made
large in proportion to the size of the plants. Pits should be
made a few months before the plants are inserted; and, in
forming them, after the bottom is made quite soft, the surface
‘sward should be filled in first, chopped, and covered up to
the depth of five or six inches with the soil, which will be
considerably decomposed by the time the plants are to be
planted. In case, however, the surface sward is very thick
and matted, and the ground dry, and more especially in the
case of larch planting, the best method is to lay aside the
surface turf, and, at the time of planting, to divide it into two
halves ; one half, with the surface side under, should then
be placed on each side of the plant, after it is planted. It is
usual to plant ground moderately dry and sheltered in the
beginning of winter; and when the soil is of an opposite

E
66 ON PIT PLANTING

description, early in spring, during open weather: these are
the seasons most approved of. The operation of pit planting
is generally performed by a man and a boy; the man takes
out a spadeful or two from the half-filled pits formed in
summer, and the boy inserts the plant, with the roots well
spread; the earth, which should be pulverized, is then spread
on the fibres, while the boy moves or shakes the plant as the
pit is being filled; so that the roots are fully spread, and each
individual fibre is surrounded with the soil; after which, the
earth should be pressed down with the foot all around the
plant, which should stand perpendicularly, and about an inch
deeper in the ground than it had formerly stood in the nur-
sery, which point is readily known by the ground mark be-
tween the root and the stem. It is of great use, particularly
in dry soil, to observe, in finishing the upfilling, to leave a
regular concavity around the plant, suitable for retaining
moisture, which is valuable in establishing newly inserted
plants in pits, and is the more necessary on the slopes on hill-
sides, where the outer or under edge of the pit should be
carefully formed sufficiently high to intercept the rain, for the
benefit of the plant.

Prepared ground,—There is no method of preparing ground
which adds more to the vigour of a young plantation of hard-
wood trees than that of trenching, and when the subsoil is of
inferior quality, it does least mischief to the trees by being
placed to some extent on the surface. In all plantations for
ornament or for shelter, or wherever large plants are to be
inserted, and rapidity of growth is desired, there is nothing
that will effect the purpose so soon as deep trenching; digging
or ploughing is of much less benefit to trees, as their roots
penetrate to a considerable depth; it is therefore in the
looseness of the ground underneath that the great advantage
lies. It is only the expense of trenching for plantations that
prevents it being more generally adopted ; for every planta-
tion (except that of an open heath or moorland, where in
many cases it would be unsuitable for young plants) is bene-
fited by the operation in a very marked degree. The expense
AND PLANTING ON PREPARED GROUND. 67

of trenching is frequently compensated for by taking’ ‘a crop
of potatoes, carrots, or other roots, during the first season of
the plantation; and even when this method is not resorted
to, trenching in many cases is less costly than it at first ap-
‘pears. In all prepared ground where ornament and rapidity
of growth are required, it is necessary to keep the surface
clear and free of weeds during the first two or three years
after planting, until the trees form a cover sufficient to pre-
vent surface vegetation ; and the labour in doing so is always
much less on trenched ground than on that which has only
been dug or ploughed. Another advantage arising from
ground that has been well trenched is, that in it trees of a
greater size will more readily take root and become estab-
lished than in ground prepared in any other way. But when
plants are of the ordinary size, their growth in six years in
trenched ground is generally equal to that of ten years in any
other description of ground. Dry, sandy soil is frequently over-
spread with a closely matted herbage, chiefly composed of the
Fescue and other wild grasses, which, without being trenched,
render any mode of planting very uncertain. The closeness
of the surface sward intercepts the influence of showers, and
the depth of its fibrous roots is a great hindrance to the
growth of young trees. Furze not unfrequently forms a close
cover on good soil, well adapted for the growth of timber.
The preparation of such places is most speedily accomplished
by trenching the ground. By any other method the furze is
apt soon to reappear and interfere with the growth of the
trees. By trenching, the ground is softened and rendered so
clean that subsequent clearings are seldom required, as the
trees generally advance rapidly, and soon subdue all native
vegetation. In planting ground from which timber has re-
cently been removed, and in all hard and inhospitable soils,
trenching is to be recommended. It should be performed in
autumn, and the planting is generally most successful after
the severity of the winter is over.

Plantations consisting chiefly of the broad-leaved trees are gene-
rally formed by pit planting, and the plants used are commonly
68 ON PIT PLANTING

those that ate two years tratisplanted. In this, as in all other
modes of forest-planting, much depends on the quality of the
plants. If they have stood longer in the lines than two years
without being removed, and grown well, their reots will be
large and bare, and destitute of that fibrous bushiness so
essential to the success of a newly transplanted tree. Three
or four years’ transplanted trees appear much stouter and
more vigorous than those which remained only two years in
nursery lines ; but the former are apt to die, and rarely grow
freely for a year or two after being transplanted. Plants for
pits should always be of the best description, and picked in
the nursery lines ; a considerable number being often produced
more feeble than others, such should be rejected, as every
pitted plant is expected to be more permanent than many of
the plants closely inserted by notch planting. We have else-
where stated the advantages resulting from hardwood plants
being moved or transplanted in the nursery the season before
being finally planted out, which will generally make them
twice transplanted. This insures fibrous roots ; consequently
they rarely fail, but readily take to the ground, and contrast
favourably with plants bare in their roots from having been
too long in the lines without being moved.

In forming plantations for profit there are several circum-
stances that require to be kept in view. Almost every de-
scription of soil will grow several kinds of trees to a
considerable size ; it is therefore important to know the de-
scription of timber that will most readily find a market in the
locality, in order that that sort may be cultivated, whether for
hoops, crates, staves, agricultural or other purposes. In dis-
tricts far from a large town, and from water, or other cheap
conveyance, some kinds of timber are of comparatively little
value, It is therefore necessary to study the cultivation of
the kinds that will best afford a long carriage. In situations
of this sort it is always necessary to manufacture the timber
into stave-wood, or deal, or such articles as contain the
greatest value in proportion to their weight. For instance,
wooden bobbins are required in great numbers at all the large
AND PLANTING ON PREPARED GROUND. 69

manufacturing towns; in their manufacture there is perhaps
a greater waste of timber than in that of any other article
in ordinary demand ; they are readily manufactured by machi-
nery from any closely grained hardwood, and only weigh about
one fourth or one fifth part of the timber from which they
are formed; consequently, timber adapted for such purposes
is valuable, even though very remotely situated.

In a piece of ground of great extent its quality is often
found to vary. A loose deep earth will grow trees of any
description ; a dry, poor, gravelly, or chalky formation, will
suit best for the beech, the birch, and the pines. A clayey
soil, or a deep clayey gravel, is generally best adapted for the
oak, and the most profitable tree to intersperse with it is the
larch. The oak feeds chiefly on the subsoil, and the larch on
the surface ; the latter, being of upright growth, is not apt to
injure its associate. It is usual, in the formation of planta-
tions intended to be chiefly of oak, to begin by planting pines
and trees for shelter, and to insert the oak plants after the
nurses are a few years advanced ; this is a good protection for
the safety of the oak plants; but it is only necessary on bare
and exposed ground, as the larch and pines advance more
rapidly than the oak, and furnish shelter in a very short time,
when the whole are inserted at once. Beech is more profitably
grown alone than with a mixture. Itis apt to become branchy
and broad-headed ; its timber is only valuable when it yields
clean tall trunks, and these are most easily produced when the
species stands by itself; interspersed, it is apt to prevail over
more valuable sorts, and to become of a branchy and worth-
less figure. The ash and Scotch elm are trees which yield
valuable timber, particularly for the purposes of agriculture ;
they grow well together, and are almost equally hardy ; they
require a good, deep, loose soil, and the ash prefers that which
has a tendency to moisture. In low situated alluvial soil, with
moisture, the silver fir acquires a great size ; where the soil is
very suitable, it is often very profitably grown. When young,
it should be interspersed with faster-growing trees, such as
larch, willows, etc., as nurses, closely planted ; the silver fir
70 ON PIT PLANTING.

requires shade and confinement for eight or ten years;
alone, the trees admit of being grown very closely to one an-
other; as a mixture, they are very ornamental in the forest,
and tend to break the monotonous appearance of deciduous
trees. In planting rich swampy ground too moist for trees
in general, the large growing species of poplar and of the
willow, alder, and ash, should be employed, and for ever-
greens, Norway spruce, Scotch and silver firs. I have else-
where named the trees best adapted for exposure at a’ great
altitude, and for a description of the various kinds of soils
adapted to their growth, their quality of timber, etc., and the
reader is referred to the articles on the various genera under
their respective names.

The distance at which broad-leaved trees are planted varies
very much in different districts, and should depend on the
exposure of the ground and the value of young timber in the
neighbourhood. 1500 plants per imperial acre is usual, with
nearly an equal number of larches, firs, etc., to be first thinned
out—placing the plants about four feet apart. Sometimes only’
about 500 are pit planted, being placed nearly ten feet apart,
and the intermediate space should be filled up with sorts less:
valuable than the kinds that are intended ultimately to occupy
the soil. The kinds that are interspersed are generally of
the fastest growth when young, when they serve as nurses to
promote the growth of the more valuable sorts, and prevent
their getting into a bushy form ; and though pruning is not so
necessary in close plantations as in narrow belts and in hedge-
rows, yet many plants are found to require it; and such as
are pruned early and judiciously will be improved in quality,
and increased in their useful dimensions and ultimate value.
IX.
ON PLANTING IN A GRASSY VEGETATION.

LAND overspread with a grassy sward, whatever be the
quality of the soil, is more hostile to the growth of young
plants than that overspread with a cover of heath. This
arises from the roots of a grassy vegetation depriving the
plants of nourishment, and pressing more unfavourably on
them than when associated with heath. In such places
notched plants have a very poor chance of success, unless the
ground is previously prepared ; therefore, in the absence of
trenching or pitting, each spot should be prepared for the
plant by having a turf, or surface sward, about a foot square
removed. If the soil is hard, it should be opened up by
digging over a spadeful on each spot laid bare, or it may be
loosened by a tramp pick. This preparation of the ground
should take place in the autumn. If the surface herbage is
not very close and matted, the ground may be at once pre-
pared by digging over a spadeful where each plant is required,
burying the surface ; but if the sward is bulky, or the soil dry
and sandy, such as will not readily decompose the surface
vegetation, a turf should be pared off and laid aside, divided
and placed on the top, with the grassy side downwards, after
the plants are inserted. When ground is of good quality and
not hard, the removal of the grassy surface is sufficient pre-
paration. If the soil is dry, the planting may be performed
early in winter; if strong or moist, the prepared ground
should be exposed to the frosts of winter, and planted in
spring, by notching with the common spade.

A similar preparation is required where the surface soil is
composed of pure peat too deep for the plants to reach the
72 ON PLANTING GROUND

subsoil. In such, the Scotch pine and Norway spruce are
most suitable ; the subsoil in such places is often at the depth
of six or eight inches, and composed of a sandy gravel or
clay, a mixture of which, by being brought up to come in
contact with the roots of the plants is of much advantage,
particularly for larch; and if the spots are prepared in
autumn, and the plants inserted in spring, their success is
commonly certain.

The only method of bringing up a proper mixture of soil
in some parts is by the operation of the common spade. In
some ground, however, the pure peaty surface is much shal-
lower, and a stroke or two with a mattock or tramp pick
will penetrate into the subsoil, and form a mixture of soil
more speedily. Where the cost of preparing the ground is so
great, the plants should always be of the best description,
picked from those that are transplanted, and of a size suffi-
cient to cope with the herbage.

The following is the usual number of plants for an imperial
acre, and their prices :—

1500 native Scotch pine, two years trans-

planted, at 10s., ; . £015 0
1000 larch wicked two- year keeling, one
year transplanted, . ; 0 8 O
500 Norway spruce, two-year ead: oo
years transplanted, at 12s., ‘ . . 0 6 0
£1 9 0

 

The price of the labour per acre is often equal to that of
the plants; all depending on the nature of the herbage, soil,
and rate of wages in the district.

On planting ground where timber has recently been felled.—
The formation of healthy plantations on ground that has
lately been cleared of a close crop of timber is perhaps the
most difficult of any in ordinary practice, particularly if the
timber recently remoyed has been of the pine tribe. In
course of time the land improves for plants as the roots and
WHERE TIMBER HAS BEEN FELLED. 73

exuvie of the old wood decay. I have frequently observed
where timber had stood very close, that eight to twelve years
sometimes elapse before the soil becomes fit for the growth of
young plants by notching, without any more costly prepara-
tion.

Where the trees of the former plantation, however, stood
thin, which is often the case before the whole are removed,
spots are found here and there which admit of the growth
of young plants at once; and it would have been a great
improvement on any other method had such places in ordi-
nary good soil, not too dry, been planted with silver fir before
the complete removal of the timber. This tree has every
recommendation as a succeeding crop to larch and Scotch
pine, and shade and shelter are of advantage to it in early
life.

The surface soil of old fir woods is generally overspread
with a considerable depth of half decomposed vegetable suh-
stance uncongenial to the growth of plants, Burning is some-
times resorted to as a means of clearing the spongy surface,
and as a preventive against the ravages of the wood-beetle
and other insects which infest such places. But burning
is not always successful; and although it often makes a
more favourable surface for young plants if it is left for a few
years till a new vegetation arises, yet it is often impracticable
from the nature of the ground, and from its already con-
taining some plants which it may be desirable to retain.
Trenching over the ground and removing the old roots is the
surest; method, but the expense of the operation generally
prevents that from being practised on a large scale. Ground
that has produced a crop of timber is always hard and close
under the vegetable remains, and excludes the influences of
the atmosphere to such a degree that, unless it is well dis-
turbed, it remains long uncongenial to the profitable growth
of young plants. The birch and the willow most readily
spring up on the surface remains, as their seeds are adapted
for being drifted to great distances. The mountain ash also
not unfrequently appears, the seeds having been carried to the
74 ON PLANTING GROUND

old plantation by birds, and taken root from their droppings ;
and the plant being tenacious of life, exists through long con-
finement, and appears on the removal of the old trees. All
these, however, are generally unprofitable; although they often
form a cover on the surface, they grow much less vigorously
than if the soil had been disturbed and softened.

The mode of procedure, therefore, in such ground, is to pre-
pare the spots for the plants a considerable time, say six or
twelve months, before planting; and four, five, or six feet
asunder are the usual distances, according to the exposure or
shelter for the plants. The surface accumulation of bark,
leaves, and foggage should be cleared off, not to be used, and
the solid soil disturbed with a pick-axe to at least the width
of fourteen inches, choosing the spots as free from roots
as possible; cut and clear out all such met within the
bounds to be prepared, while a second person following with
a tramp pick should disturb the bottom to the depth of at
least twelve inches. If the old trees have stood close, it is
usual for the spots, after having been cleared of the surface,
and all old roots picked out, to be rather under the ordinary
level of the ground, therefore a third person should follow
and dig a stamp or two of pure soil, as free from the remains
of the old wood as possible, and place such on each spot
where the plants are to stand. This gives the plants a great
advantage in “soil; it raises them rather above the level of the
surface, and forms a position in which pines are found to be
exempt from the attacks of the wood-beetles and of field-
mice. The hole also left open, which furnishes the soil, in
the vicinity of the plant, has an ameliorating influence, by
admitting air to the ground, and thus preparing it for the
spread of the young roots. This process has all the effect of
pit planting, and is less expensive, and generally as successful
for firs and larches.

When oak, elm, or other hardwood plants are to be inserted
after old wood, trenching or pit planting should be practised,
and the made pits should be exposed to the weather for
several months. Where there is rank jungle, or such vege-
WHERE TIMBER HAS BEEN FELLED. 75

tation as would confine or suppress the strongest descrip-
tion of one-year transplanted plants of pines, larches, etc.,
stronger plants must be employed, and pit planting should be
adopted ; and in the inserting of larch plants, in all cases
where trees have formerly stood, it is to be recommended that
no root-pruning should be practised. The plants should be
full of fibrous roots, and carefully removed from the nursery
grounds; and in all cases this is most easily accomplished by
employing plants that have stood one year only, after having
been previously transplanted.

The pits should be formed large in proportion to the size
of the plants, and their roots should be well spread. I have
observed plantations of larch that had been inserted quite
young into such situations more exempt from the disease
known as heart-rot, or pumping, than plantations formed
with older and stronger plants. The cut or mutilated root
fibre of a larch, or any other plant-root, will imbibe any
watery substance whatever that it comes in contact with;
whereas a sound root has its fibres terminated by healthy
spongioles, having the power of selecting, at least to a great
extent, those elements congenial to the vigorous development
of the tree. Every precaution, therefore, should be taken in
replanting land liable to produce fungi, particularly where the
larch, deodar, and such other plants as have an affinity for,
and are readily destroyed by mycelia, are employed.

Ground that has yielded a heavy crop of timber is con-.
sidered by many planters unfit for yielding another of the
same species. Its density and cover of matted roots is much
against the growth of any kind until the roots are decomposed,
or the soil broken up and prepared ; after which, Scotch pine
is found to grow after the same as well, and often much
better, than most other trees.

The soil that is congenial to the growth of a tree continues
so, provided the influences of the atmosphere are not excluded.
In the case of other species naturally springing after pine
forests, that arises in consequence of a new formation from the
exuviz which the pines deposit.
76 ON PLANTING WHERE TIMBER HAS BEEN FELLED.

The oak, after yielding a heavy crop of timber, springs up
from well-dressed stools far stronger than in the best planta-
tions newly formed on virgin soil.

After a crop of any sort of pine timber is cleared off few
aspects are more bare and unsightly. This suggests the pro-
priety of interspersing such with a few oak plants, although
at the distance of thirty feet apart, for which forty-eight
plants only are required per acre; and although these are
scarcely discernible during the vigour of the pines, yet, being
tenacious of life, they keep the ground, become deep rooted,
and are ready to spring up on the removal of the crop of
timber. In such cases, or in the case of fire destroying a
plantation, the oak acts a conspicuous part, in speedily renew-
ing the appearance, and ultimately becoming valuable.

In all cases where the soil is ordinarily moist and good,
few plants are of more profit for timber at present than the
grey poplar, P. canescens, the Italian poplar, P. monilzfera,
and the best varieties of tree willow. The timber of all
these is of rapid growth, and much sought after in the forma-
tion of railway carriages, brakes, ete.

The time of inserting plants in the prepared spots by a
notch with the common spade, or by common pit planting in
such ground, will depend on the nature of the soil; if dry,
the planting should be performed so as that they may have
the advantage of the winter moisture; if the ground is pos-
sessed of ordinary moisture, early spring should be preferred.
X.
PLANTATIONS ON BOG OR PEAT SOIL.

THERE exists a very great difference in the quality of bog or
peat soil. Some sorts are much more congenial to the growth
of trees than others. The prevailing cause of the sterility is
generally the excess of moisture which it contains, and the
quality of the soil is often greatly influenced by the nature of
the springs of water with which it is submerged. In bog or
moss there is also a great difference, dependent on its com-
position. That which is pure, free of sand, and possessed of
little inorganic matter, is least adapted for the growth of
wood, and it not unfrequently occurs that the barren soil is
accompanied with a bare and bleak exposure. Here we have
a combination of hostile elements, above and below ground,
which it requires plants the most tenacious of life to with-
stand.

Before forming a plantation on moss land it should be com-
pletely drained. This operation is often required to be made
a year or two before the plants are inserted. Open ditches
are the best and cheapest for the purpose, and, if possible,
they should be made down into the hard subsoil. The closer
they are made to one another they will be the more effectual.
I have drained moss with open ditches ten yards asunder, and
on an average eight or nine feet deep, when in less than two
years the soil collapsed fully three feet, and became well
adapted for plantation. Where moss is much shallower, and
the ditches can be easily formed into the subsoil, that material
brought up forms a valuable mixture for the growth of plants
in general after it has been exposed to the influence of the
weather. After bog land has been drained, when it is very
78 ON PLANTING FURZY GROUND.

destitute of inorganic substance, its quality is often improved
by being burned, provided there is depth of soil to spare
above the rise of water. After being burned it should rest a
few months at least before being planted.

Pines of every species grow better in mossy soil than most
other trees. The native Scotch pine should be preferred ; the
Austrian and Corsican are also suitable, but the latter is least
so in the absence of shelter, and notwithstanding the partia-
lity of the pinaster to pure sand, it also grows well in boggy
soil, and is found valuable for shelter in a rough exposure.
Pinus montana, a native of a high elevation on the Alps and
other mountains, is also suitable for shelter along the outskirts
of plantations in rough exposures, where it forms a compact
bush, very tenacious of life. In‘ soil of this description the
other evergreen trees to be recommended are the Norway
spruce, Douglas's spruce, and silver fir; in such the last named
often becomes valuable timber, though after planting it re-
quires shade and shelter from other sorts for a few years till
it takes root, when it often grows much faster than other
trees, and admits of standing very close. Although but little
is yet known respecting the growth of the Wellingtonia in
this country, yet it is ascertained to grow freely when young
in mossy ground, and with an excess of moisture that would
injure many trees.

Among deciduous trees, all the willows grow in mossy
ground, and are often turned to good account by being culti-
vated and cut yearly for basket-making, and at a more advanced
period for crate-wood, hurdles, etc. The best timber-tree
kinds are Salix caprea, S. alba, and S. Russelliana, Among
poplars, P. canescens and P. monilifera are most suitable. The
common birch and alder generally succeed. Where the moss
is very pure the ash only attains to a small size, but in this
soil it is often valuable when cut, and cultivated as coppice
wood.

Ground overspread with furze or whin, or with other rough
_herbage.—Where whins prevail, the usual mode of procedure
is either to contract for having the ground trenched or the
ON PLANTING EXPOSED OR BARREN GROUND. 79

whins rooted, or grubbed up four or six inches under the sur-
face, consumed, or cleared off the ground ; the cost of these
operations varies much, according to the cover and quality of
the ground. Where the cover is close, it generally ranges
from 30s. to 50s. per acre for grubbing, etc.

Trenching is generally much more expensive, but the ground
is at once prepared and deeply softened for the insertion of
the plants, and the whins are generally longer in overtaking
and interfering with their growth ; in all such cases the plant-
ing, whether by pit-planting after grubbing, or notching after
trenching, should be with plants of the largest size that are
likely to grow freely, and they should be inserted closely, in
order to form a cover, and subdue the native vegetation, which
is sure in such places to rise with vigour from seed, if not
from roots in the ground. The larch and the Scotch pine are
generally the first to form a close cover in such places; and
where these sorts are not intended to form the ultimate crop,
their services are generally useful in subduing the vegetation
—-particularly the larch,—although it should be cut out at an
early period to make way for other sorts. Two years’ trans-
planted larches from two years’ seedlings are usually about
thirty-six inches high, and I have never seen larches of
a greater age (that is, four years old) and larger size grow
.better when inserted into plantations; nor Scotch pine be-
yond that age (four years) when used in the north of Scot-
land.

On planting exposed and barren ground at a great altitude.—
Failures very often occur in establishing plantations in such
situations. The difficulty is commonly felt in getting a com-
mencement, or a shelter established to form a screen to future
accessions. In all such places, where shelter is required for
residences, garden, or agricultural grounds, the soil should be
well drained and trenched, so that every advantage may be
afforded to the successful growth of the trees ; indeed, in some
cases, in order to get the trees to make an early and vigorous
start, screen fences should be employed, composed of the
thinnings of Scotch fir plantations, turf dykes, or the like.
80 ON PLANTING EXPOSED OR BARREN GROUND.

The following kinds are the first to make an appearance and
a rapid growth in the prevailing winds of a high altitude :—

Hoary Poplar, Goat Willow, Wild Cherry,
Trembling Poplar, Mountain Ash,
Sycamore, Service Tree,
Weeping Birch, Alder,

among which should be interspersed the native Scotch pine,
with its varieties Montana, Mugho, Pinus eembra, and Aus-
triaca.

I have known several residences in the Highlands where it
was difficult to establish shelter. At all of them one or other
of the trees named was esteemed as the hardiest ; but perhaps
at none of them were all the sorts experimented on or tried.
For instance, I lately visited a summer residence or lodge,
situated at an altitude of 1200 feet. Here the mountain ash
grew wild in great vigour ; the largest trees in the neighbour-
hood consisted of this species, and their round heads standing
thirty feet in height were composed of a thicket of branches
giving no indication of the prevailing wind. Their berries in
autumn are very ornamental, and attract singing-birds, and
here this tree was pronounced to be the “sheet-anchor,” or
chief reliance for the protection of all other vegetable produc-
tions.

In the planting of bare moorland at a great altitude, I have
found no plant superior to the native Highland Scotch pine.
Its success depends greatly on the quality of plants employed.
In no case of rough exposures should plants be used that have
stood more than one year in the nursery lines after being
transplanted. Where the heath is quite short, one-year seed-
ling plants transplanted into nursery lines for one year is the
most reliable sort. If the heath is too rank for such, these
plants should be transplanted a second time into nursery
.lines ; and in all cases for such exposures, the plants in the
nursery lines should have the advantage of plenty of room in
well-exposed nursery ground. The same treatment should be
. bestowed on larch and all the other pines intended for such
_ exposures.
XL
ON THINNING PLANTATIONS.

THERE is no department in arboriculture more misunder-
stood or neglected than that of thinning plantations, par-
ticularly those of the Scotch pine and larch, throughout many
parts of Scotland. No doubt the native forests are left, for
the most part, to thin themselves by their own efforts; by
the provisions of nature, the timber is preserved in health,
and exempt from suffocation or injurious confinement ; but
this is never the case with respect to plantations. The native
and planted forests stand under very different circumstances.
These will be readily understood by my extracting the fol-
lowing article, which I sent to Mr. Loudon at the time he
was writing the Arboretum Britannicum.

In vol. iv. p. 2181, Mr. Loudon says :—“ After perusing
Mr. Grigor’s report on the native pine forests of Scotland,
of which an abstract is given in p: 2165, we wrote to him
for information on the subjects of thinning and pruning, as
actually practised in these forests, and also in artificial planta-
tions ; and as to the effects of the neglect of either or both of
these operations. To our application Mr. Grigor kindly and
promptly sent us the following answer :—

“The old trees of the native Scotch pine forests have
trunks quite clean and free from old stumps, so that the side-
branches must have rotted off when the trees were young and
of a small size. Some of the pines, grown on exposed situa-
tions, have strong side-branches, but not very near the
ground ; such branches are commonly found above large clean
trunks of from fifteen feet to thirty feet in length. When
the timber of these forests is cut up, loose knots are rarely

F
82 ON THINNING PLANTATIONS.

met with ; indeed, knots of any importance are seldom seen,
except where such were attached to live branches at the time
the trees were felled. The wood of the old trees appears so
clean and equal when sawn up, that in many, only very slight
marks of lateral branches are visible. The young trees of
from twenty-five to forty years’ growth present regular tiers
of decayed branches near the ground, which fall away in course
of time.

“The proprietors of the native forests sometimes prune
and thin the woods, but not often; they thin when the trees
are much crowded, and of nearly an equal size, especially when:
situated near a road or river, where timber is of most value ;
but this is not attended to in the more remote parts of the
forests. I have only seen the trees pruned when they stand
quite thin, or from having lost their leading shoots, by sheep
pasturing the ground, or other casualty, have become bushy.
In this case I have seen a considerable extent gone over in
January and February, and pruned to the height of from two
feet to four feet with the axe; the whole height of the trees
being from five feet to ten feet. In the Highland natural
forests the young plants do not often rise of equal strength
and size. There is commonly a portion of them (a sufficient
crop) stout enough to overtop the smaller ones; and the
latter are of much benefit in preventing the side-branches of
the former from advancing to a large size. The side-branches
of the true Highland pine naturally take a wide or horizontal
direction, whereby they are more subject to decay by the
closeness of the trees than if they inclined to a more perpen-
dicular figure, as do our low-country pines. In planted woods,
the pine-trees are commonly of the same size and age; and
then it is absolutely necessary to thin them as their tops rise
equal, and form a surface parallel to that of the ground on
which they stand ; therefore, without relief by thinning, the
whole are to a certain extent injured; whereas in natural
forests the difference of sizes and ages is great, and the
strongest prevail unhurt. I am acquainted with many artifi-
cial plantations of pines ; and the common method is, to thin
ON THINNING PLANTATIONS. 83

the trees gradually as they get too close or too high for their
girth. Planted pines are not commonly pruned, that being
considered the worst mode of treatment. Many proprietors
of late have given over thinning; but the woods are much
hurt by being too much confined: a good tree can scarcely
be seen, except near the outside, or where a road opens up
and admits air. I am clearly of opinion that we shall not
have good pine plantations until they are produced from the
seeds of the native Highland forests, which are more healthy
and permanent than the kind commonly cultivated’” 9th
September 1837, Loudon adds, “The Earl of Aberdeen ;
Macpherson Grant of Ballindalloch; Mr. George Saunders,
gardener and forester to the Duke of Richmond at Gordon
Castle; Mr. Roy, nurseryman, Aberdeen ; and other proprie-
tors and gardeners of the north, have sent us answers to all
our queries on the subject of thinning and pruning, which
correspond with those given above by Mr. Grigor.”

The natural provisions to prevent pines from rising close
to one another, and of equal strength in the indigenous
state, are very marked and interesting. The seeds on being
shed are provided with wings adapted to carry and spread
them throughout a wide district. They are never shed but
in a warm and dry day, and as soon as the seed receives the
slightest moisture it separates from the wing and travels no
farther. Of such as fall into the soil a small proportion im-
mediately vegetate; those that do not reach the soil, but are
retained on the surface vegetation, may be picked up by birds,
or are washed into the ground by the influence of the weather,
and vegetate during some succeeding spring, for, under certain
circumstances, the seeds of Scotch fir retain their vitality for
several years even after they are separated from the cone.
This is ascertained from seedlings appearing of various ages,
years after being sown on moorland where no plants or seeds
had previously existed. The diversity of situation also pro-
duces a great difference in the strength and size of the plants;
but even in the best prepared nursery-bed, where the seeds
are all sown at the same time, and vegetate together, the
84 ON THINNING PLANTATIONS.

plants are always unequal in size and strength. This arises
from the unequal strength of the seed; not only in different
cones, but in the same cone, some are far more strong and
robust than others, and are produced in the centre—those at
both the base and the apex are comparatively feeble. All
these provisions of ‘nature appear to be framed to prevent
trees of the same size and strength from pressing on each
other, as in the ruinous struggle too often witnessed in planted
woods.

The pine and the larch, if once deprived of their lateral
branches, have not the power of ever replacing them; hence
the safeguards established by nature differ from those relating
to trees in general, which have the power to furnish ample
top and side branches to increase their diameter after losing
their just proportions. It is therefore an absurd theory
which advocates the practice of not thinning pine plantations
on the plea that the native forests are not thinned, and yet
arrive at maturity, yielding the finest timber. The destruc-
tion of the tree by overcrowding had come under the notice
of Gilpin in Forest Scenery, by Lauder, vol. i. p. 173. That
writer makes the following interesting remarks :—“ All trees
indeed, crowded together, naturally rise in perpendicular
stems; but the fir has this peculiar disadvantage, that its
lateral branches, once injured, never shoot again. A grove of
crowded saplings, elms, beeches, or almost of any deciduous
trees, when thinned, will throw out new lateral branches, and
in time recover a state of beauty ; but if the education of the
fir has been neglected, he is lost for ever.”

Few descriptions of timber are more profitable or more
readily sold than that adapted for railway sleepers, particu-
larly larch timber; but without sufficient thinning it cannot
be readily provided.

I have just returned from inspecting a plantation for which
I furnished a superintendent and plants thirty-two years ago.
I recollected a portion of the ground being apparently well
adapted for larch, and, at my suggestion, a space of about
twenty acres, composed of a hazelly loam, with a subsoil of
ON THINNING PLANTATIONS. 85

gravelly clay, having been planted almost entirely with this
tree. This part of the ground had a slope to the channel of
a mountain stream, and it had a cover of heath from six to
eight inches, The plants employed were—

2000 larch, one-year seedling, one year trans-
planted, ‘ :

‘ ‘ £0 10 0
700 native Highland pine, two-year seedling,

 

one year transplanted, . . ; ; 0 2 6
Planting with the hand-iron, 0 3 0
Plants and planting per acre, . £015 6

The other parts of the ground were also planted four feet
apart, with two-thirds of native Highland pine and one-third
of larch; and each kind was varied in such a manner that
the sort reckoned most suitable prevailed here and there
throughout about 180 acres, which comprehended the whole
plantation ; a narrow track was left in planting as a road,
but being only nine or ten feet wide, it had been filled up
with the lateral branches of the trees, and being of no use,
was abandoned. I found the wood far too close, and although
thinning to some extent had been practised throughout the
whole, scarcely a well-proportioned tree was to be found ex-
cept at the outsides, or where a thinning—in consequence of
the failure of a few plants by some accident—admitted air. I
expected to be able to record some remarkable specimens of
larch, but I was disappointed to find it an almost impenetrable
thicket of tall trees, displaying a grey mass of dead twiggy
branches near the surface of the ground, surmounted by a
green and waving foliage some thirty or forty feet overhead.
There each acre contains from 1000 to 1200 trees, and the
average value of each is about Is. or 1s. 3d. If the twenty
acres were sold in one lot, it would readily fetch £50 per
imperial acre.

This plantation of larch has the appearance of having been
only once thinned, and that about eight or ten years ago.
I cannot say what revenue the thinnings yielded; but had
86 ON THINNING PLANTATIONS,

the wood been thinned early and judiciously, and other 500
or 600 trees been removed per acre, they no doubt would
have brought £10 per acre free, even if the thinning had been
begun early, when the wood was only fit for sheep-flakes, and
of little value. By this means only about 500 trees per acre
would have now remained, which would no doubt have been
worth on an average 4s. or 5s. each; thus the plantation could
not have failed to be worth double its present value. This,
however, does’ not represent half the loss of the mismanage-
ment. The 500 trees would have been in vigour and ready
for another thinning—only in the morning of their life, pos-
sessed of that justness of proportion indispensable to profit-
able growth, or the speedy formation of cubical contents. In
a soil so congenial, trees manifesting such vigour after the age
of thirty-two years require again early and repeated thinnings,
and the revenue per acre up to the age of sixty might be
expected to be not less than £150, leaving in each acre, at
that age, about 150 trees, worth on an average £2 each, or
£300 per acre. After this period the mode of procedure
should of course depend on the capability of the soil as shown
by the vigour of the trees. If they still continued to increase
vigorously in size, they should have ample space for the de-
velopment of their foliage, which would likely give occasion
for another thinning. About this time, a judicious mode of
procedure would be to insert into all the greater vacancies,
in well-prepared pits, plants for a succession, such as silver
fir, oak, deodar, Douglas fir, Wellingtonia, or such as stand in
need of shade and shelter in the first stage of their growth.
But I must now return to the plantation of thirty-two years
old as it really stands, and to the twenty acres of larch in
particular; for although in many parts of the wood the trees
stand too close, and are likely to get too tall for their girth,
they have in general been pretty well thinned, particularly
near the outsides. Where the soil is poor and exposed, the
trees are in consequence less vigorous, ruin has not so
speedily overtaken them, and by immediate thinning their
health may yet be preserved. Not so, however, with the
ON THINNING PLANTATIONS. 87

twenty acres of larches; although a thinning is now going on,
it is doubtful if the trees left will make much more progress.
The chances are, these will fall by the first hurricane of wind ;
if they escape that, their roots are sure to be strained and
injured, if not broken, by the trees being top heavy. Dead
roots connected with mutilated live ones give rise to Mycelia,
which are imbibed into the trunks, and occasion the well-
known disease called “ dry-rot,” “pumping,” etc. The Scotch
firs which were interspersed have been chiefly removed, and
such as remain, although too tall for their girth, are not in so
hopeless a state, and in course of time, if not uprooted by
winds, may regain their vigour. Gradual thinning is to be
recommended generally; and although in the present case it
cannot be practised with much assurance of success, yet
repeated thinnings over a space of a few years is better than
doing it all at once. The only question is, whether it would
not be better to clear the trees off at once by rooting them
out, taking advantage of their stems to facilitate that work
before cutting them. Had the ground been in a conspicuous
situation, I should have had no hesitation in recommending
that course ; for however common, few scenes more unsightly
are to be met with in woodlands than the display of unshapely
trees struggling for an existence, and diseased through mis-
management. In the absence of proper thinning, it is far
more profitable where ground is good, with moderate shelter,
to plant only half the usual number per acre, more especially
if the tree is the larch.

Another plantation is worthy of notice, and instructive on
account of the treatment it has received during the last six or
eight years. It was formed by me in the spring of 1841, and
is now twenty-five years old. It extends to 119 imperial
acres, of which about 100 acres consisted of a dry bare moor-
land, with a surface of stunted grassy heath and a gravelly
subsoil. The other part was more or less overspread with
furze, which required to be grubbed out and planted with
stout transplanted plants. Qn the whole, two-thirds of the
plants employed were native Highland pine, partly two years’
88 ON THINNING PLANTATIONS.

seedlings, and partly one and two years transplanted; the
other third was of larch of various ages, and all were inserted
at the distance of four feet apart, and planted by contract at
20s. per acre; no upmaking was required for years, until the
furze became strong, caught fire, and occasioned a small blank.
This plantation became quite vigorous, especially just after it
formed a cover and subdued the natural vegetation on the
surface, thus converting the whole energies of the soil to its
development. At the age of fifteen or sixteen years, thinning
was very much required, as the trees had become crowded.
It was at the age of eighteen and twenty, however, before the
first thinnings were made by the forester on the property,
and then it was not the more feeble and worthless that were
removed ; the primary objects appeared to be the obtaining
of wood for a special purpose and the raising of money—not
the relief and future well-being of the plantation. It has
been thinned again and again for timber for paling, prop-
wood, and for sale. The value of the timber removed is
unknown, as much of it was cut down for country purposes
and was not valued. I have not unfrequently witnessed with
regret the same sort of procedure in woods more matured
and consequently more profitable; the great profit of the
future being sometimes sacrificed for a small sum to meet the
present necessity. In the present case, however, no such
necessity existed ; the wood belongs to a wealthy corporation ;
yet just as the trees assumed a timber size of small value,
though suitable for the present purpose, they were struck
down as a gardener thins his asparagus bed in spring. The
trees which should have been first removed, now for the most
part fill the ground, unshapely and stunted, and the future of
the plantation is dwarfed for ever. I have before seen the
effects of such treatment both on Scotch fir and larch.

A proprietor who inherited an estate which he had seldom
or never previously seen, was averse to the planting of Scotch
pine, because woods composed of the tree sixty or seventy
years of age scarcely produced a tree fit for railway sleepers,
and not suspecting the early treatment of the trees, he con-
ON THINNING PLANTATIONS. 89

sidered the soil unsuitable for them. Another proprietor
who purchased an estate twenty years ago, which contained a
considerable extent of young larch plantation, then about
thirty years of age, where all the best trees had been thinned
out previously to the sale of the property, had difficulty in
accounting for the contrast at present between the dwarf
stunted old trees and the vigour of those of his own planting
in soil apparently similar. The effects of early mismanage-
ment are manifested as legibly in the vegetable as in the
animal creation, more especially in the Conifere, which have
not the power of re-establishing their lateral branches to
redeem their proportional girth.

It is necessary to plant pines and larches close in exposed
situations, and also in some cases to suppress a surface vegeta-
tion; early thinning, therefore, is sometimes necessary to
afford a sufficient space for the trees before the thinnings have
reached a size in ordinary demand; but the thinnings that
are of no use in one locality are frequently valuable in another.
Early thinnings are generally useful for small rustic fences,
and the trees with branches (brushwood) are suitable for
fences and shelter to young hedges, sea-side plantations, for
embankments, to prevent the encroachment of rivers and
rapid streams. In the Highlands this description of brush-
wood is employed by the agriculturists in forming sheds for
storing turnips during winter.

It is when the trees are apt to get too tall and feeble in
proportion to their girth that thinning must begin, and
plantations arrive at this point at ages which vary very much,
owing to the soil, the situation, the closeness of the planting,
and the species. No tree is more easily injured by confine-
ment than the larch. In some districts, however, this tree is
planted closely, and grown in masses, for the purpose of hop-
poles and prop-wood ; in such cases, however, the ground is
cleared of the whole crop while the plantation is yet young,
seldom exceeding twenty-five years of age.

In plantations intended to yield heavy timber, the smallest
trees should be first weeded out, giving sufficient room to
90 ON THINNING PLANTATIONS.

those of greater vigour and promise, as it requires a great
extent of foliage to mature healthy and sound timber. There
is no given space which trees of any particular age should
occupy. The skilful forester regulates the thinning so that
the trees may possess the figure for the purposes intended,
and the prosperity and profit of plantations depend greatly on
his skill and management.

In hardwood plantations, the oak, the ash, and the Scotch
elm are among the most valuable of our timber trees. The
oak is in general of slower growth than the others from the
plant, and requires rather more space to allow it to grow to
maturity in its best form; but the difference is compensated
by the value of its bark; and although it requires shelter
when young, it luxuriates in soils less fertile than that
required by most other sorts. In good soils, the oak, the ash,
the elm, and the sycamore may be grown profitably, either by
themselves or mixed. In thinning a young plantation of
hardwood, it is frequently found that a Scotch pine, or any
other tree inserted for shelter, presses too closely on a more
valuable plant, and yet that the shelter cannot be altogether
dispensed with ; in such cases the branches of the pine which
press too closely on the more valuable plant should be
removed in the first instance, and the tree itself at a subse-
quent thinning. The distances at which hardwood trees
should stand apart in a plantation, at any particular age,
depend on their luxuriance, and on the exposed nature of the
ground ; in narrow beltings they admit of being much closer
than in the depth of the forest.

Considerable loss is frequently sustained by producing
through confinement tall trunks without a proportionate
diameter ; and unless the soil is very congenial, and the trees
of great vigour, they are often slow to become stout or shapely
when ample space has at last been afforded to them. In
plantations formed with plants at a distance of four feet, the
thinning should commence when the plants attain to the
height of from twelve to fifteen feet, by removing the more
worthless kinds, which press too closely.on the others, and
ON THINNING PLANTATIONS. 91

fully half the number of plants inserted per acre should be
removed by the time that the most valuable portion is twenty
feet high. When they attain the height of thirty feet, they
should stand on an average fully seven feet asunder, or about
800 per acre. At the height of forty feet, which is generally
that number of years’ growth, the trunks are formed to a
considerable height; and at this stage of their progress it
becomes necessary to furnish considerable space for the deve-
lopment of the leaves of the trees which are to occupy the
ground, in order that their trunks may possess a girth corre-
sponding to their height ; therefore, generally speaking, they
should stand from eleven to twelve feet asunder, or at the
rate of from 300 to 350 trees per acre.

An acre of ash, of elm, or of sycamore, at the age of forty
years, in favourable soil, is generally found to contain from
2000 to 3000 cubical feet of timber, and at the age of sixty
about double that extent of measurable timber. This is
exclusive of the thinnings, which are gradually removed up to
this period ; which, even while plantations are young, form in
many localities a source of great profit. The oak is found to
be of rather slower growth from plants than the kinds last
named, but its growth from stools of former trees is equal
to these kinds) When oak and other trees, which spring
from the root, are felled, it is of advantage to the succeeding
growth to dress the surface of the stools into a convex form
with an adze, so that they may not retain water. It is also
necessary, in some parts, to remove a turf around the base of
the old trunk, to admit the influence of the weather and pro-
mote the young growths, the strongest of which, after having
advanced a few feet in length, should be selected, and the others
cut off.

At all stages of a plantation, space should be gradually al-
lowed, according to the growth of the trees, which, with some.
sorts, in favourable situations, extends till the plantation is
eighty years of age. But before this period, the trees, in
plantations of hardwood, generally became irregular in size,
and in their distances asunder, and the forest assumes the
92 ON THINNING PLANTATIONS.

appearance of a native wood. ‘This is commonly occasioned
by filling up, and often to some extent by the growth of stools
which produce saplings. Unlike the larch and pine woods,
the broad-leaved plantations are generally permanent; young
saplings everywhere exist, ready to take the form of timber-
trees, on receiving sufficient space by the removal of the
largest trees in their vicinity, and a thorough clearance is
seldom made. The profits derivable from the timber of hard-
wood trees are generally very great, but exceedingly variable;
being dependent on the soil, on local consumpt, on proximity
to a cheap conveyance, and greatly on the management.
XII.

ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

THE influence of the sea spray prevents the profitable growth
of plants over many extensive tracts of land adjoining the sea.
But while this is the case, there is also a great space of waste
land in maritime situations utterly barren, which by skilful
treatment could be rendered profitable by the growth of
forest trees. Nature, more especially unassisted nature, does
little to tempt man to plant by the sea-side ; it is a union of
the wild and the tame, which, though permitting it, she will
not foster. Hence we never see trees spontaneously arise in
such places. Art must therefore go to the fullest length of
her resources, often in the preparation of the soil, and more
frequently in forming a shelter—always in preparing the plants
for adverse circumstances. Without these preliminary steps
the ground had better remain as it is, for a plant that cannot
readily establish itself when inserted in the soil, cannot be
expected to withstand the buffeting of the far-fetched and
keen-edged winds of the ocean.

The formation of sea-side plantations is often more expen-
sive than of those formed under ordinary circumstances. This
arises mainly from its being necessary to erect screen fences,
to a greater or less extent, and to trench the ground in almost
every case, except where it is formed of sand-drift. In all
maritime situations the difficulty is most formidable where the
ground is near to the sea-level, with a gradual ascent, exposed
to the prevailing wind, with what sailors term a “long fetch,”
or great extent of rough sea. However close the position of
land may be to the sea, if it is elevated a few hundred feet
above high-water mark, the difficulty is more readily over-
94 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

come, as the salt spray exhausts itself at a lower altitude. In
such cases, where the ground forms a declivity, or falls from
the coast side, or where the outside shelter is established,
plantations enjoy an immunity, not only from saline influences,
but from the severity of the frosts of winter. The high tem-
perature of such places during the winter months acts favour-
ably on plantations in general, and particularly on many of
our best ornamental trees and shrubs. Plantations have
recently been successfully formed both in England and in
Scotland in the vicinity of the sea, in soil apparently of the
poorest description, which until of late was reckoned wholly
unfit for vegetation. .These plantations, however, are not
only giving promise of becoming profitable as timber, but are
already spreading a shelter, and consequent fertility, over the
adjoining lands. Some of the most thriving sea-side planta-
tions in England were formed at Trimingham and Runton, the
property of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., and stand on the
northern extremity of the county of Norfolk, on the cliffs ad-
joining that part of the coast known as the “ Yarmouth Roads.”
They were chiefly formed in 1840 and the three succeeding
years ; the ground ranges from 200 to 500 feet above the sea;
generally speaking, the surface is poor, and the subsoil a hard
ferruginous gravel. In a report on these plantations, for
which the Highland and Agricultural Society awarded the
late Mr. Grigor of Norwich their gold medal, the success of
these plantations is chiefly attributed, first, to the careful
preparations of the ground, by trenching eighteen inches in
depth ; second, to the fences, composed of furze and brush-
wood, and similar materials, having been erected as screens
six feet high; third, to the plants being of the best descrip-
tion, two and three years old, transplanted into nursery lines
the year before they were inserted into the plantation, and
consequently possessed of bushy or fibrous roots, and closely
planted 23 to 3 feet apart ; and fourth, to cleaning, by hoeing
the land for the first two years after planting, during which
period root crops were produced among the young plants.
These plantations embrace a space of 114 acres. The trench-
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 95

ing per acre cost £6, and the fencing, plants, and planting
upwards of £4, making the cost upwards of £10 per acre,
exclusive of hoeing, which amounted to less than a fourth part
of the value of the carrots, parsnips, and other crops.

In these plantations the black sallow or goat-willow (Salix
caprea), the alder, the birch, the ash, the sycamore, the Scotch
elm (Ulmus montana), and the pinasters, two varieties
(Pinus pinaster and P. p. minor), are recommended. I have
found all these very well adapted for sea-side planting, but
the success of the ash and the elm is more dependent on the
quality of the soil than that of the other sorts.

Respecting the sallow or goat-willow, it is stated that it
was the wish of the proprietor, the late Sir Thomas Fowell
Buxton, that the most of the trees planted on his estates in
this quarter should give place to the English oak, so that the
sallow was grown here merely for the sake of creating shelter,
in which capacity it is certainly without a rival amongst de-
ciduous trees. But though here used only as a nurse to the
oak, it is fortunate that this willow has claims upon the atten-
tion of the planter as an independent object. Its claims,
however, appear to be entirely hid from planters; for writers
on trees, I find, refer to it continually under the character
of an undergrowth, affording “excellent hurdles, and good
handles for hatchets,” and as used in the manufacture of gun-
powder, etc. Now, the fact is, that though it is almost
without exception kept down as an undergrowth, and used for
fences and hurdles, it is capable of becoming a great tree,
most singularly and beautifully clad in spring-time with hand-
some silken blossoms. On Mr. Moy’s farm, East Runton,
about three-quarters of a mile from the sea, is a specimen with
a trunk which, at four feet from the ground, is nine and a half
feet in circumference—thus proving that the tree not only
grows to a large size, but that it does so in the neighbourhood
of the sea.

Of underwood shrubs, the snowberry (Symphoricarpos race-
mosus) and the evergreen barberry (B. aquifolium) are strongly
recommended, The plantations of Trimingham and Runton
96 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

display a profusion of these shrubs growing most vigorously ;
and I can have no hesitation in stating that they are well
adapted for growing along with other trees near to the sea-
side. Their merits may be summed up in a few words. They
are both eminently beautiful—the former when clad with its
pure white berries from September to December, and the
latter throughout the entire year. This plant (the Berberis)
is furnished with pinnate, shining, holly-like leaves, and bears
beautiful racemes of yellow flowers, which are succeeded by
grape-coloured or bluish-purple berries in great profusion.
Though so unlike to each other in appearance, there is a
remarkable affinity subsisting between those shrubs, which
points them out as the fittest of companions ; they fear not
the sea-breeze, a fact which might have been anticipated from
their being both natives of the north-west coast of America,
from New Albion to Nootka Sound. Both plants when in
blossom are much sought after by bees, and the berries of
both are greedily eaten by game. The delightful uses to
which such plants may be applied will suggest themselves to
every one, and it is only necessary to remark that they are
best suited for being planted close to walks, which should be
introduced in all maritime plantations, for the sake of the
view over the ocean.

Time of Planting.—In maritime places the young trees should
be invariably planted in the spring, just immediately before
the time when the plants begin to grow. The next best
time is the last week in October. But though those trees
planted early in autumn furnish themselves with small roots
or tender spongioles previous to winter, these are not sufficient
to support the trees in such situations during the most trying
months ; so that it is infinitely better to let them have the
benefit of a full season’s growth before the effects of winter
are felt by them in their new situations. The last week in
March or the first week in April is a suitable time to plant
in such places. Planting in winter months has been tried
repeatedly in the neighbourhood, but with no success,

Choice of Plants.—Experience proves, that for the particular
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 97

situation under consideration, such plants as are two or three
years old are better than any other, and such as have been
transplanted in the nursery the year previous are to be pre-
ferred to those which have remained for two seasons.

Shelter—However well the land may be prepared and the
season chosen for planting the young trees, shelter is indis-
pensable, both as an outwork, or round the outside, as well as
an immediate agent in ameliorating the climate around each
tree. The best external fence between the young plantations
and the sea is furze bundles, or brushwood cut in summer-
time, with the leaves on the branches ; or failing these, a turf
wall, very broad at bottom and tapering to the top. The best
sheltering nurses amongst deciduous trees are the sallow,
alder, osier, and birch, and amongst evergreens the Scotch
pine ; but as these nurses would be gladly accepted in many’
instances as permanent occupants, I would earnestly recom-
mend them as particularly fitted for such situations. Oaks,
and the finer kinds of pines, should be surrounded with the
nurses, and particularly protected by them on the side next
the sea; but in ordinary cases it is sufficient to plant them
mixed with the nurses, so that the young trees may in a
general way protect each other.

Cleaning.—The hoeing of the land for at least two years is
all-important, and if a crop of carrots is taken from the
ground the first year, as has been practised here, they will
help to keep down the weeds, and pay the expenses for
plants, cleaning, fencing, etc.

Plantations formed chiefly on sand-drift along the sea-side on
the estate of Culbin—Within the last twenty-eight years, a
considerable extent of plantation has also been formed on the
sands of Culbin. These sands occupy several thousand acres
of the north-west corner of the county of Moray, N.B., and
are composed of small hills of sand, ranging from 20 to 140
feet high, the surface of which is ever changing by the influ-
ence of the wind. Along this district in rough dry weather
the atmosphere is thickened with sand-drift, and from the
prevailing westerly winds its course is generally eastward ; but

G
98 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

the ordinary driftings are intercepted by the river Findhorn,
and the sand is carried out to sea and forms a bar, where the
in-shore tidal current, running to the westward, carries it in
that direction, again to be thrown on shore and blown east-
ward; thus to some extent it forms an endless circuit.
Along the southern extremities of these sand-hills, at the dis-
tance of several miles from the sea, are beaches of rolled
boulders from twelve to twenty feet above the tide-mark.
Similar beaches exist in many parts along the south side of
the Moray Firth, and these, with the accumulation of sand,
are supposed to be due to the effects of the extraordinary
inundations of the German Ocean in the thirteenth century
recorded by Buchanan and Fordoun. But although large
mountains of sand are said to have been formed at this time
along the sea-shore, called the hiils of Maviston, yet it must
have been long after this period before they spread out, on the
cultivated land to anything like their present extent. In the
beginning of the fifteenth century the estate of Culbin was in
the possession of the Kinnaird family, and their descendants
continued to prosper on it for many generations. After the
middle of the seventeenth century the estate is known to
have consisted of sixteen very regular and compact farms,
so famous for their fertility that the district had acquired
the distinguished appellation of “the Granary of Moray.”
The rental of the estate at that time was as follows :—Money
rent, £2720 Scots (more than equal to sterling money now),
640 bolls of wheat, 640 bolls of bear, 640 bolls of oats, and
640 bolls of oatmeal. Such a rental now would be worth
about £7000 sterling per annum. Besides, the family had
valuable fishings in the Findhorn, which then ran westward
through the estate, but its course, having been drifted up,
was turned into its present channel during the general,
calamity. Towards the close of the seventeenth century the
then proprietor applied to Parliament to be exempted from
the payment of cess, because his estate, which twenty years
before was one of the most considerable in Moray, with an
area of about 5000 acres, was nearly all covered with sand,
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING, ° 99

and the mansion-house and orchard destroyed. Since that
period the property passed by purchase through several
families. The next rental, taken in 1733, after the estate was
almost entirely blown up with sand, shows the yearly value
in money and victual to be only £494, 4s. 4d. Scots. But
small as that amount comparatively is, it has also been extin-
guished, and for many years the district with its broad and
fertile fields, formerly designated “the Granary of Moray,”
has become altogether an arid waste of shifting sand, bearing
only the wavy ripple of the wind. Singularly enough, these
possessions have disappeared as completely as their occu-
pants, and their names are heard of only when the search
of the antiquary discovers them among the musty papers
of a bygone age, or deciphers them on the mossy tombstones
of the old churchyard, while he seeks for their locality in
vain.

The south-east portion of this desert comprehends almost
the entire property of Binsness, which measures 558 acres,
and has of late diminished in value almost yearly, by the in-
road of sand-drift. It stood in the cess-books of the county
in 1667 at £390, 17s. 2d. Scots of yearly rent. It possesses
no plantations whatever. Its arable fields have been aban-
doned to desolation, and the whole extent was sold in 1865
for the small sum of £660.

Kincorth Plantations —R. Grant, Esq., of Kincorth, was the
first to reclaim part of the sands in this quarter by plan-
tation, and all the sandy space on his. property is now
completely covered with thriving wood. In a report to the
Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, published in
1847, he says -—

“In the most advanced part of the plantation, which is
now eight years old, the plants average a height of at least
six feet, so that a man walking among them can scarcely be
seen ; and the author may truly report, that the average
growth of one year on the Scots firs was a foot, and on the
larches nearly eighteen inches; while all the younger parts of
the: plantation promise well to attain the same size at the
100 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

same age. Whether or not trees may ever become valuable
as timber, on such an arid soil, is a problem which can only
be solved in future years (for he is not aware of there being
any such existing under similar circumstances in this country) ;
but he is sanguine that they will attain a size to be very use-
ful for palings and other country purposes. But it was not
in the expectation of profit that he was induced to plant, but
entirely in the hope of obtaining shelter and ornament, and of
giving an improved appearance to a very dreary prospect. In
this object the author has every reason to believe, from pre-
sent appearances, that in due time he shall succeed; and it
would gratify him much, if, stimulated by the knowledge of
his success, any other proprietor of similar dreary and sandy
tracts, which are so frequent along the coasts of Scotland,
should be induced to plant them,”

These plantations, now (1865) from twenty to twenty-eight
years of age, range from twenty-five to forty-five feet in height,
and are very vigorous. They yield valuable thinnings, and
although they stand on pure sand-drift, give promise of pro-
ducing heavy timber at a period not far distant.

Observing that these plantations were treated in the most
skilful manner, I applied to Mr. Grant for information re-
garding their pecuniary return, and he has kindly favoured
me with.the following statement :—

“Forres House, 25th February 1865.—In answer to your
letter of inquiry respecting my plantation adjoining the sand-
hills of Kincorth, I write to say that, although I have not
kept any precise notes of the entire management, you may
rely on the accuracy of the following details. The extent of
the plantation is about seventy acres, but having been planted
during successive years, some parts of it are more advanced,
and have been oftener thinned than others. I have con-
stantly adhered to the rule of not cutting any trees in it ex-
cept in thinning with the object of improving the plantation.
The greater part of it was thinned twice without yielding any
pecuniary return, and at an expense of from £15 to £20,
each time, say in all of £35. From these thinnings, however,
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 101

I had garden and some field upright fences made, which
lasted substantially for four years. During the last six years
I have had all the ordinary flake-palings I required for the
farm made from trees in the older part of the wood,—I
should say at the least to the value of £10 or £12 annually.
In addition to this, I find from my book that within the same
period (six years) I have received for props £235, 9s. 6d.,
and have expended for thinning, etc. etc., £69, 16s. 4d.”
Although the cost of the formation of this plantation cannot
be exactly ascertained, yet it is quite clear, from the cost of
otler plantations adjoining (which will be immediately shown),
that the returns already realized are sufficient to pay all out-
lay, and interest at a high rate, up to the present time ; even
supposing the outlay in its formation to have been three or
four times the usual rate, which some small spots, that were
covered with grassy surface, together with the fences, may
have occasioned.

The present money value of the oldest part of this planta-
tion is not less than £30 an acre; and although other parts
are as yet of less value, on the whole, during the next twenty
or thirty years, the thinnings will pay the current rate of in-
terest on that amount, with every prospect of the timber in
the plantation increasing very much in value per acre during
the period. This is a moderate estimate of the value of the
plantation, yet it is clear that it will in future yield a re-
venue equal at least to that of ordinary arable land; and
beyond this the proprietor has fully realized the primary object
of its formation, namely, ornament, shelter, and a sure pro-
tection against sand-drift.

The success of the Kincorth plantations while they were
only a few years old induced the proprietor of Moy, whe
owns several thousand acres of the adjoining sands of Culbin,
to form plantations thereon.

Plantations on Culbin belonging to Moy estate—In the begin-
ning of winter 1840 I planted on these sands 199 imperial
acres with Scotch fir and larch, at the following cost per
acre :—
102 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

1800 one-year transplanted native

Highland pine, : £0 3 8
1000 two-year seedling, do., 0 1 8
800 two-year do. larch, 0 2 0
Carriage from Forres nurseries, 0 0 3
Planting, 0 3 2

199 acres, at £0 10 4 £102 16 4
Building fences and planting about
25 acres by the proprietor, ; : 97 14 9
In January and February 1842, I added to the °
above plantation seventy-four acres, but al-
lowed only 3200 plants per acre, thus :—
2200 two-year seedling and trans-

planted native Highland pine, £0 3 3
1000 two-year-old larches, . 0 2 6
Carriage from Forres nurseries, 0 0 2
Planting, . ‘ : : 0 2 10

74 acres, at £0 8 9 32 7 6

Making in all 298 acres, amounting to . £232 18 7

It will be observed that the expense of these plantations is
unusually small. This. arises from several circumstances.
The ground being soft, with little or no surface herbage, ren-
dered it suitable for small plants which were planted by the
hand-iron, by people in the vicinity much practised in the
work, and who could plant an acre each daily on such ground
without difficulty. The plantations were also made at a time
when the price of nursery plants was under the usual rate.
The expense of fencing these plantations was also very small :
only a part of the south and western boundary required pro-
tection, and that is enclosed by a turf wall five feet high. The
east end is fenced by the Kincorth plantations ; the north is
bounded by a vast extent of pure undulated sands, with a sur-
face destitute of vegetation, and bearing only the wavy ripple
of the wind, except where a clump of bent grass here and

~
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 103

there arises. No cattle or sheep frequent this quarter, and
a fence is unnecessary. The north sides of these planta-
tions stand nearest to the sea, and are formed on knolls of
pure sand-drift. These knolls are situated from one to two
miles from the south edge of the Moray Firth, at a part
where the sea is from twenty to twenty-five miles in breadth.
Their altitude varies from twelve to thirty feet above the tide-
mark.

The plants on both plantations advanced vigorously, and,
with the exception of a few small spots here and there covered
with sand, or where it was drifted away soon after the
plants were inserted, no vacancies existed. On lifting and
examining some of the plants of both sorts, from the pure
sand, it was found that they had furnished themselves with
tap-roots, which strike right underneath the plants to a great
depth ; but the greater portion of the roots run horizontally at
a depth of about four inches under the surface of the sand,
and extended over an almost incredible space. Many of the
plants six years planted were possessed of roots upwards of
twenty feet in length, which ramified into numerous lateral
fibres. Where the surface had remained undisturbed, there
was a remarkable uniformity in the depth of the fibres, both
in flat and in steep situations. Nature adapts the plants for
emergencies, and no instance was observable of their having
perished from drought, or having been removed by wind after
having grown a few years ; some of them stood where sand to
the depth of more than a foot had been drifted from under-
neath them, and continued to thrive with a great portion of
their roots laid bare. In other cases the Scotch firs grew
when drifted up with sand, and had only the growth of a
year or two above the surface. In this position the shoots of
Scotch fir do not strike root, but where the larch became
sunk in drift its shoots readily rooted at a depth of four
inches under the surface. Many stools were to be found
resembling handfuls of larch plants inserted into one spot,
showing that the soil or sand was well adapted for the growth
of cuttings.
104 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

Plants of every kind of conifer grown from seed deserve
a preference to those propagated by any other method ; but
the readiness with which the lateral branches of the larch
take root, when sunk in sand of this quality, suggests a very
speedy and effectual method of increasing some of the more
valuable conifers, the seeds of which cannot be obtained.

When the cover of trees begins to prevent the movement
of the sand, the vegetation first observed on the surface was
Hypocheris radicata, Polytrichum commune, Agrostis vulgaris,
Agrostis alba, Ammophila arundinacea, and Calluna vulgaris.
The first-mentioned plant strikes its root to a great depth,
grows freely, seeds abundantly, is a perennial, and likely to be
valuable in fixing sand. As to the relative fitness of the two
kinds of trees for the situation at first, there was some diffi-
culty in deciding which was the more suitable. The native
fir affords the best shelter ; it stands in great health, and has
much the advantage in appearance; its deep green contrasts
beautifully with the whiteness of the sand, which gives the
foliage of the native plant something of the lustre of a Hima-
layan. The larch, from the shedding of its leaves, which
soon decay, forms a dark stratum of vegetable matter on the
surface of the sand, which consolidates it and promotes vege-
tation, particularly the growth of the grasses, much sooner than
the exuvie of the Scotch fir; but both have their advantages,
and, in order to furnish a chojce of kinds in the operation of
thinning, a mixture is to be recommended, although there is now
no doubt that the Scotch fir is the more reliable tree, and will
ultimately, in most cases, yield the most valuable crop of
timber. Within the boundary of these plantations are several
beaches of rolled boulders of primitive and transition rocks.
Although the surface of these is stationary, and the soil in-
termixed amongst the stones, they are almost destitute of any
vegetation except moss; on these beaches the larches do not
grow, and the firs assume a yellowish green, and are much
more dwarfish than those in the pure sand. This probably
arises from the stones admitting the drought of summer to a
greater extent than the pure sand does.
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 105

Along the south side of the ground, under these plantations,
where the surface is a sandy peat, the cover is a short grassy
heath ; on such parts the plants grew freely, and are generally
taller than on the pure sand. In other parts along the out-
skirts of these sandy regions, although not comprehended in
the plantations here referred to, there is a considerable extent
of flat land under a close, rank, grassy sward; the ground is
a pure sand, with a slight mixture of decomposed vegetable
matter on the surface. This description of ground is, of all
others, the most difficult to get successfully planted ; for, when
plants are notched into such, they uniformly die of drought
during the first summer. The matted herbage intercepts the
ordinary showers, and keeps the ground destitute of moisture
at the depth of a few inches. When a surface turf is pared
off before the plant is inserted it has a better chance, and
when the ground is pitted or trenched it is still more for its
advantage. The preparation of the ground should be made
several months before the planting, and the planting should
be done in early autumn, or in moist weather in March or
April. In places of this description, the risk of sand-drift on
a trenched surface, where it is not convenient to thatch it
with brushwood, sometimes prevents the destruction, by
trenching, of any surface vegetation which may already
exist.

The annual growth of both kinds of tree in these woods in
the purest sand was upwards of fourteen inches long, and
contrasts favourably with that of plants in apparently better
soil, more solid, but overspread with a matted surface of the
natural grasses ; thus illustrating the advantage of planting on
a loose open soil, with a clean surface, whether poor or rich.
When such plantations reach from ten to twelve feet in height
they are fit to yield a large supply of thinnings, which are
well adapted for reclaiming the sands and limiting the en-
croachment of sand-drift. These thinnings or brushwood are
valuable for the purpose of being spread over the newly
planted sands in the roughest exposures; overlapping or
spreading the brushwood in an imbricated position, causes it
106 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

to stick to the surface, and thus it affords shade and shelter to.
the young plants in situations where they would otherwise
perish.

The plantations on the Culbin sands belonging to the Laird
of Moy are now twenty-two and twenty-four years old, and
form a very compact wood of nearly 300 acres, affording
great shelter in their vicinity, and forming a striking contrast
to the barren hills in their neighbourhood. The trees con-
tinue to advance most vigorously. The tallest larches are
about forty feet high, and the best Scotch firs about twenty-
eight feet high; generally the wood stands from twenty to
thirty feet high. Roads have been opened up through the
plantations, and thinning has been practised, first to a small
extent in 1855 and 1856, which yielded little or no return ;
but from a statement furnished by the factor in charge of the
property, prop-wood yielding a return of £482, 8s. 6d. was
sold in 1864, and a further sale of £400 was expected before.
the necessary thinning was effected. I have not ascertained.
the cost of the operations of thinning, road-making, etc., but
it is clear that the return already received for the prop-wood
thinnings is more than sufficient to pay the original formation
of the forest, with interest and all expenses up to the present
time. From its present healthy state, 1865, the forest cannot
be valued at less than £22 per acre, or altogether, £6556.
Frequent thinnings will be required: from time to time, at
intervals of only a few years, as it is easy to see that the
vigour of the trees has a tendency to draw them up too tall
in proportion to their girth, Allowing trees to become
drawn up through want of thinning is the ruin of many of
the woods of our country, and should always be guarded
against, particularly since it unfits the timber for railway
sleepers, so constantly in demand, and so profitable. Of late
years a few hundred acres have been planted in addition to
those already described, but these have failed to some extent,
from the ravages of rabbits, which overrun the place.

The market for pit-props has of late become somewhat
depressed in this country, in consequence of their abundance
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 107

and cheapness on the Continent, particularly near Bordeaux,
where they are produced on sandy regions similar to that I
have attempted to describe, and to which I shall now refer.
Mode of growing plantations on sands along the French coast
The greatest triumph of arboricultural skill in reclaiming.
sand-drift was recorded by a Commission appointed by the
French Government to report on the pinaster forests formed
by M. Bremontier, of the Administration of Forests. In 1789
M. Bremontier commenced his operations at the Gulf of
Gascony, where the downs offered nothing to the eye but a.
monotonous repetition of white wavy mountains, destitute of
vegetation, and agitated by the wind. In 1811 the Commis-
sion reported that 12,500 acres of downs had been covered
with thriving plantations by means of sowing the seeds. The
process is as remarkable for its simplicity as for its success.
It consisted in sowing two pounds of the seeds of the pinaster,
mixed with four to five pounds of broom-seed per acre, and
immediately covering with branches of pine or other trees,
with the leaves on, commencing at the side next the sea, or
that from which the wind generally prevailed, and sowing in
narrow zones in a direction at right angles to that of the
course of the wind; the first sown zone being protected by a.
line of hurdles, this zone protecting the second, the second
the third, and so on. After sowing, the ground was immedi-
ately thatched with branches, overlapped, to protect the seed,
with a hurdle fence erected to intercept the progress of the
sand. In a word, wherever the seeds were sown the surface
of the sand was thatched. A thatching of rushes, reeds, or
sea-weed was also used, and was quite as effectual as the
branches. In six weeks or two months the broom-seeds are
said to have produced plants six inches high, which attained
three or four times that height during the first season. The
pinaster plants do not rise above three or four inches the first
season, and it is generally seven or eight years before they
overtop the broom, which often in these downs attains to the
height of twelve or fifteen feet. At the age of ten or twelve
years the pines have in a great measure suffocated the broom ;
108 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

they are then thinned, the branches cut off being used for the
purpose of thatching downs not yet recovered, and the trunks
and roots cut into pieces and burned to make tar and char-
coal. These plantations, and others in the sands of Bordeaux,
and between that city and Bayonne, constitute the principal
riches of the inhabitants, whose chief means of gaining a live-
lihood arises from the preparation of resin and tar from these
pinaster forests. The pinaster consists of numerous varieties,
all of which grow remarkably well in sand, or in dry, poor
soil, and endure the influence of the sea better than most
trees. In wet or fertile soil it is less hardy than in sand; in
the former its shoots become more succulent, less matured,
and are thus unable to resist the severity of the winter in
Scotland away from the influence of the sea.

Plantations on the West Coast of Scotland—Throughout the
islands of the Hebrides the Gulf Stream has a very perceptible
influence in ameliorating the climate in winter, and adapting
it to half hardy trees and shrubs in all cases near the sea,
particularly where plants are exempt from disturbance by the
prevailing winds, accompanied by salt spray. In such places
our hardy trees prosper in a manner similar to those in inland
situations, dependent chiefly on the quality of the soil on
which they stand. In less favourable situations, where the
sea is broad, and where a prevailing wind blows over it, the
most suitable maritime trees only can endure the exposure,
and the sorts to be employed should be judged of from the
quality of the soil they are intended to occupy. If it is a dry,
barren sand, or gravelly soil, the pines should be employed—
P. maritima, sylvestris, austriaca, laricio or corsicana, and for
underwood among pines we have montana, pumilio, or mugho.
Among deciduous trees few kinds succeed in soil of this de-
scription. The best adapted are the birch, the goat-willow
(Salix caprea), and the grey poplar, P. alba canescens, which is
the hardiest of all the white poplars.

Where the soil is of good quality, either a good, sound,
sandy loam, or a sandy peat, which is frequently the case
‘along the west coast of Scotland, all the pines, and also the-

i
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 109

deciduous trees above named, are quite suitable, together
with the sycamore, and other hardy maples, the Scotch elm,
Scotch laburnum, evergreen oak of all sorts, the moun-
tain ash, and the common ash. The last-mentioned tree is
found to be very dependent on the quality of the ground. It
becomes vigorous in places where the soil is rich, loamy, or
partly mossy, and moderately moist. The tree is very hardy,
and stands the wind very well. It forms its growth during
a few of our warmest months, and is not readily injured dur-
ing any other period of the year. But being bare for a long
period, the ash does not furnish a good shelter where such is
most required.

Many years ago I inspected a large plantation made in one
of the islands in the Hebrides, and found it a great failure.
It was formed on a scale of great magnitude, and was com-
posed of a considerable variety of plants. The ground ranged
apparently from 40 to 100 feet above the sea, and extended
from the sea for several miles inland, and was exposed to all
quarters, except here and there, where a stream had formed
a channel, and afforded sheltered slopes along its bed.
Seldom is a more trying situation for a plantation to be met
with, as the surface generally affords an extensive and unin-
terrupted sweep to the wind; nevertheless, there was a
greater obstacle than the exposure to contend with in the
successful growth of timber. The soil was peat moss of the
purest quality, of immense depth, often eight, ten, or even
twenty feet,—and so pure that sand could not readily be
found in its composition. Numerous ditches had been formed
to drain the ground, and deep as they were, they seldom
reached the subsoil, and if they had, their influence would
have been of little avail to the plantation, on account of the
purity of the vegetable substance which formed the soil, and
the humidity of the atmosphere continually acting on its
spongy surface. The vegetation on the ground formed a
rough grassy heath; and scarcely any part of the soil was so
dry that water would not be found to drop by squeezing a
portion of it with the hands, even in moderately dry weather.
110 ‘ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

‘When I inspected this plantation, it had been formed from five
to eight years. Life lingered in a plant here and there, but
none gave any promise of becoming useful wood, except a few
narrow beltings which covered the slopes along the sides of
streams. Here the plants stood under very different and
more favourable circumstances; the sandy subsoil had been
penetrated and disturbed by the action of water, and pul-
verized and ameliorated by the influence of the weather.
The plantation was thus entrenched some thirty or forty feet
under the ordinary level of the ground; the plants had their
roots in a congenial soil, and with their tops comparatively
undisturbed, they grew vigorously, and formed a very
marked contrast to those on the level surface.

Of all the plants inserted in this plantation under the
adverse circumstances already detailed, only two or three
sorts maintained an appearance of health. The tallest of
these was the P. pinaster maritima,.distinguished for growing
in pure sand; yet here, in soil of the opposite description, in
which sand forms little or no proportion, it had attained the
heicht of from six to seven feet in that number of years, even
in the most exposed situations. The other plants were
varieties of the dwarf pines pumilio and mugho, which do not
become more than dwarf spreading bushes anywhere; they
appeared in perfect health. These plants are indigenous to
the mountains of Central Europe. They are found on the
Alps beyond the limits of trees, and are seldom met with
higher than 7500 feet, or lower than 4000 feet of elevation,
where they prefer a swampy soil. These plants are only of
use as a change of surface vegetation or shelter for game. In
this plantation the Scotch fir appeared unusually tender, but
whether it was raised from the seeds of native forests or from
seeds imported from the Continent, I was unable to ascertain;
but its appearance looked like the tender plant of imported
seed. Instances were to be seen of a few older trees near to
this plantation, where in the same bare exposure they had
advanced to the height of fifteen to twenty feet in a short
stocky form, although standing alone. The kinds'were Scotch
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. ’ 11i

elm, ash, birch, and alder. These, however, all stood on
ordinary good sound soil.

An excess of moss or bog in the soil, although dry, has the
effect of producing a softness in growing trees, which renders
them less able to resist any unfavourable influence, such as
frost; or continued agitation by wind in a bare exposure; and
young plants, as well: as timber, produced in such soil, are
always short of the ordinary specific gravity.

No effort was made in this extensive plantation to form
any description of screen-fence or shelter. Reliance appeared
to be placed on the extent of the surface planted, which under
more favourable circumstances would have gone far to pro-
duce valuable timber.

The configuration of ground along the sea-side which is most
difficult to plant successfully is that which is exposed to a
rough sea, and is only situated a little above high-water mark,
with a regular slope towards the sea. With an undulated
surface, a portion of the plantation has always some protec-
tion; but on land nearly level, or having only a gentle slope,
the biting influence of the spray precludes the growth of trees
to a considerable distance inland. Where the ground is
sufficiently elevated, even on the brink of the sea, and on the
roughest coast, the effects of the spray are but little felt, as
its influence is exhausted at a lower altitude. This is illus-
trated by the thriving plantations on the caast of Norfolk, by
those on the “Sutors,” which guard the entrance to Cromarty
harbour, where heavy timber has been produced, and on many
other high cliffs which border the German Ocean.

The preparation of the soil for plantations has, under any
circumstances, a great influence on their future prosperity.
This requires to be particularly attended to where plants are
exposed in bleak and inhospitable situations. Where the
soil is not thoroughly loose to a considerable depth, it should
be made so by trenching. At a short distance from the sea
light sandy ground is often found overspread with a close
matted surface, composed chiefly of the coarser sorts of native
grasses; this surface herbage, with its numerous roots, which
112 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. .

abound everywhere in the soil, has a very marked effect in
impeding the growth of every kind of tree,—the native vege-
tation deprives the plants of nourishment; and of all soils
producing herbage along the sea-side, this description of land
is perhaps the most difficult to cover with healthy plantation.
In this case the injury to newly inserted plants by the her-
bage is equal to that arising from a dense and retentive
subsoil, and the remedy in both cases is that of trenching
the ground previously to the formation of the plantation. It
is to be recommended that in either case the trenching should
take place a few months before the inserting of the plants, to
allow the herbage time to decompose, and that the retentive
subsoil may become purified and pulverized by the influence
of the atmosphere.

Regarding the preparation of the ground I have only to
add, that under the adverse position of many sea-side planta-
tions, unless the soil is made thoroughly pervious to the roots
of the plants, every other effort will fail in producing vigorous
trees. Wet ground should be thoroughly drained, and in all
cases where an addition of good fertile soil can be made and
applied to the roots of the plants, success is thereby rendered
most certain.

The time of planting depends very much on the nature of the
soil. I have transplanted pines successfully in every month
from the beginning of August till the end of May. If the
ground is dry sand the months of August and September are
very suitable for Scotch and other pines, provided they are
grown close at hand, and can be lifted and planted without
much exposure to the weather. If wet weather occurs in
April the planting of pines in sand is then generally very
successful, as they lose no time in fixing themselves in the
ground, and then start with the calmest months of the year.
This holds good with all the kinds of plants recommended,
but the fear of a want of moisture in many places renders it
necessary to plant earlier, so as to take advantage of the sap
of winter or early spring. Close planting is absolutely neces-
sary; from two to three feet plant from plant is a usual
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 113

distance in severe exposure, the principal part being pines,
which are generally obtained at a small price.

Screen fences for protection are of the greatest value in
plantations exposed to the sea-breeze. These fences may be
composed of turf, brushwood, or any material most convenient
that will afford shelter, and the higher they are built their
influence will extend over the greater space. Where the
thinnings of a young Scotch fir plantation are at hand nothing
will be found more effectual or more cheap in the erection.
At the distance of every 20, 50, or 100 yards, according to
the severity of the exposure and the figure of the surface,
‘another screen fence should be raised, and so on till the more
‘sheltered ground is reached where screens are unnecessary.
Stone dykes are least efficient, and cannot readily be formed
of a great height. They are sometimes, however, of great use
‘in supporting the thinnings of young fir-trees laid against
them, which raise a shelter to a considerable height ; the wind
acting on such material loses its force, and spreads a mild
and mollifying calm around the space, like the influence of a
hedge. Besides the ordinary screen fences in severe situations,
an open cover of brushwood, spread on the surface of the
ground, is often found of great use in a newly formed planta-
tion, even where the soil is not apt to drift. Although the
outskirts of plantations, under the most skilful treatment, on
an inhospitable exposure, are often sadly disfigured, yet at
every pace as you advance to their interior the trees become
taller and more shapely ; and on a level surface the tops of
the trees form a gentle ascent until the shelter becomes perfect.

The preparation of plants for sea-side planting is a very
important matter. Not only is it necessary that the plants
should be grown in an open and airy situation, but they
should stand individually at such distances apart as to afford
free scope for the play of the atmosphere all around them.
And in all cases, particularly with respect to the sorts that
are apt to produce bare roots, such as the various species of
pines, they should be removed in the nursery the season
before they are required for the plantation; by this means

H
114 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

the plants will be well supplied with fibrous roots of one
year’s growth, which most readily take to the soil, establish-
ing the plant on its removal. The pinaster is perhaps the
most difficult to remove in safety of any species of the Coni-
fere. This arises from its naturally long and bare roots. A
two-years’ seedling plant seldom takes root when removed ;
and in forming plantations with plants, those that have been
transplanted when one-year-old seedlings, and nursed in
lines for a year—namely, plants of two years of age, or
those that are three years old and have been twice trans-
planted,—are the only plants that are worth inserting. But
that peculiarity of organization which renders it difficult to
remove the plant with safety adapts it the more for being
successfully grown from seed in sand. Its long roots readily
strike to a great depth, and become wide-spread, and are
thereby the more serviceable in supporting the seedling plant
against drought and the casualties of a shifting surface.

The kinds of plants must, be regulated by the quality of
soil. In a pure, dry, drifting sand, the native Scotch pine,
pinaster, P. austriaca, P. laricio, are the most suitable. If the
situation is not very much under the influence of the sea
spray, the larch may be inserted as a mixture among the
pines, provided the sand is not pure, but mixed with vegetable
or other substances. The silver fir is seldom used as a sea-
side tree on account of its requiring, even in the best situa-
tions, a few years before the plant takes to the ground and
grows freely ; besides, in early life it requires more than usual
shade and shelter. After it becomes established in suitable
soil, which is a moist or mossy loam, and attains the height of
five or eight feet, few trees will keep pace with it. Gilpin,
who differs from other writers respecting the appearance of
this tree, says—“ There is a sort of harsh, stiff, unbending
formality in the stem and branches, and in the whole economy
of the tree, which makes it disagreeable.” He then continues—
“T may add that the silver fir is perhaps the hardiest of its
tribe. It will outface the south-west wind; it will bear
without shrinking even the sea air; so that one advantage
ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING. 115

at least attends a plantation of silver firs : you may have it
where you can have no other, and a plantation of silver firs
may. be better than no plantation at all.”—(Forest Scenery,
vol. i. p. 90.) I know many fine specimens of the silver fir not
very far from the sea, but in its immediate vicinity I have
never observed its powers of endurance to be superior to those
of the pines; and for the reasons stated it is seldom planted
in bare and exposed situations.

The pines suitable for maritime plantations, and more par-
ticularly for dry and sandy links, I have already noticed. In
a heavier description of soil a variety of trees as well as the
pines have also been named. Among willows, the goat-
willow or sallow (Salix caprea), the white Huntingdon willow
(Saliz alba), the Bedford willow (Salix Russelliana), grow in a
saline atmosphere better than most other plants. The variety
of hardy willows is very great; they are tenacious of life, and
will grow to some extent in soil of any description, dry or
moist. Several species are frequently cultivated on the sea-
side by fishermen, who manure them richly, and raise luxuri-
ant crops of withs, which are cut down every autumn for the
manufacture of fish-creels, etc. The black elder (Sambucus
nigra) and the scarlet elder (S. racemosa) rank among the best
trees for screen fences, and for forming a thicket in nursing
up more valuable sorts. Of the maples, the common sycamore
and the Norway maple are good maritime trees. The com-
mon alder and the beech should also be employed, and in
good soil the ash and Scotch elm. None of the poplars
except the grey (P. canescens) can be recommended. When
the soil is of ordinary quality, evergreen oak (Quercus tlex) and
its numerous varieties endure the influence of the sea better
than most trees. From the tree being naturally very bare
rooted, it is apt to fail on being transplanted, unless it is care-
fully prepared in the nursery, by being yearly removed for a
few years previously to enable it to acquire bushy root-fibres,
so numerous that the earth adheres to them in transplanting.
Such plants. inserted in soil well softened or disturbed, soon
take to the ground, and form .a desirable ornament near the
116 ON SEA-SIDE PLANTING.

sea-side, retaining their green and glossy appearance throughout
the severest winter. In such places the temperature is always
comparatively high. In the islands of the Hebrides many
half hardy plants endure the winter in the open ground. In
the island of Lewis the Auralia japonica ripens its yearly
growth, and there I have seen the common fuchsia standing
from six to eight feet high, with a trunk, the growth of many
years, covered with a rough bark, and more than a foot in cir-
cumference.

Among the shrubs most suitable for the sea-side are the
snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus), sea buckthorn (Hippophae
rhamnoides), the tamarisk (Myricaria Gallica) and Germanica
and the evergreen barberry (Berberis aquifolia). In dry soil
during winter the Laurustine is seldom met with anywhere in
greater beauty than within the influence of the sea. And as
an ornamental and efficient dwarf screen-fence for garden
protection few plants can be turned to better account than
the common whin or furze (Ulex europaeus). :

The kinds of trees and plants detailed, the preparation of
the ground by trenching, the selection of the plants, their
protection by screen fences, and surface cleaning where herb-
age is apt to cover the ground and impoverish them, are
the best means by which sea-side plantations may be estab-
lished. In such situations, particularly in loose sand, planta-
tions of the conifer often become of great value in a short
period, especially in undulated land, where any shelter is
afforded by the surface rising to some extent between the
plantations and the sea. Those of Scotch pine are often ripe
for being thinned for prop-wood at the age of twenty and
twenty-five years. Timber of this sort is in constant demand
(see the article on PINE-TREE), and although there are frequent
discouragements in establishing plantations in the vicinity of
the sea, yet it should always be borne in mind that as timber
of this description forms the return cargoes of coal vessels
along our shores, its value, compared to that of many planta-
tions, is greatly enhanced by the absence of a long carriage
from the interior of the country.
XIII.

HEDGE-ROW TIMBER.

TREES are cultivated in hedge-rows for the sake of their
timber, for shelter to the adjoining fields, and for embellish-
ment; and in many situations all these valuable objects are
obtained in the same locality. It is true, that where timber
generally arises to the greatest size and value, the situation
which produces it is that which stands least in need of shelter;
but where trees fail to become specimens of excellent growth,
on account of the climate and exposure, the value of the tim-
ber is often compensated for by the shelter which the trees
impart to the fields in their vicinity.

The quantity of timber grown in rows along roadsides,
around the extremities of estates, and in the division of fields,
throughout England, is supposed to be greater than that pro-
duced in close woods and forests. Many of her sheltered
plains are overcrowded, and present the appearance of one
continuous forest. In Scotland the case is very different ;
and in numerous instances, for want of the shelter and em-
bellishment of timber, the country assumes an aspect bare and
uninteresting. With respect to agriculture, both extremes
are to be avoided. An excess of shelter exhausts the soil,
enfeebles the crops, and renders their safety uncertain during
the humidity of autumn. On the other hand, bareness in
exposed situations is attended with many disadvantages. In
unfavourable weather, pasture and crops of every kind are
retarded; particularly in the opening of the season ; and fields
are found ill adapted for the more tender kinds of animals
which aré now to be found everywhere throughout the country.
The injury also sustained by. winds, both tothe stems of. the
118 HEDGE-ROW TIMBER.

growing plant during summer, and in the shedding of grain in
autumn, is often very considerable. We know districts of
light friable soil, where scarcely a season passes without in-
jury being sustained by the turnip crop in consequence of
exposure or want of shelter ; and it not unfrequently happens
that gales occurring in the end of June or beginning of July,
not only disturb and injure the young plants, but drift them
away. ‘The casualty is generally most severe when rough
weather ensues immediately after the young plants are singled
out. (In such-places, the old method of sowing on a ‘flat sur-
face is that most likely to be exempt from injury.)

There are however many situations where the cultivation
of hedge-row timber cannot be recommended. Many bleak
and weather-beaten tracts of cultivated land throughout
the country first require plantations formed, of considerable
breadth, on all exposed points, in order that single trees may
grow freely, and afford the shelter of hedge-rows. It is only
under the wing or protection of such woods or beltings, that
in many districts single lines of trees can be successfully cul-
tivated. However congenial the soil may be to the species,
unless the severity of the blast is temperate, and the cutting
winds mollified, hedge-row trees will fail to attain a size valu-
able as timber, or useful in continuing the shelter from field
to field, so as in any degree to equalize the climate through-
out the year, or to combine utility with beauty—the purposes
for which such plantations are generally formed.

The failure of hedge-row trees throughout Scotland is of
more frequent occurrence than that of any other description of
plantation. This often arises from the trees employed having
been allowed to grow to a large size without having their
roots adapted for removal by frequent transplanting ; some-
times from their not being sufficiently protected from cattle ;
often from the exposure of the ground, and the unfitness of
the plants for the situation; and not unfrequently from a
combination of these circumstances.

In all windy situations, plants should be employed stout in
proportion to their height, and with lateral branches. down to
HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. 119

the surface of the ground. The figure of trees varies con-
siderably, according to their kinds, their age, and according to
the physical circumstances in which they are placed ; such as
soil, situation, climate, and above all,.to their proximity to
other trees. Their natural form and outline under different
circumstances can only be known when they stand alone.
The sturdy oak alone in poor soil and cold elevated situa-
“ tions becomes a bush ; in the rich and sheltered valley planta-
tion it rises a lofty tree with a tall trunk.

In the growth of useful hedge-row timber the English elm
is the tree most generally cultivated in England. When a
plant, it naturally forms a bushy root; and if properly
nursed it admits of removal at a size beyond that of most
trees. Its figure is erect, and the spread of its branches does
not extend very far. It forms a useful pollard, admits of
being frequently lopped, and yields much useful timber in a
short time. The suckers which it produces around its roots
certainly form one of the greatest disadvantages to its being
used along cultivated fields ; but that circumstance, yielding a
supply of young plants, along with the advantages of the
tree, no doubt accounts for its being cultivated so generally
throughout England.

Next to the elm, various sorts of oak are to be recom-
mended as valuable hedge-row trees, although generally they
do not stand so erect as the English elm; yet they are less
destructive to the crops in their vicinity ; their roots generally
strike deeper than most trees, and consequently are less de-
pendent on the surface-soil for their support; and being late
in expanding their leaves, they do not overshadow the crops
in their vicinity early in the season. AJ] the common varie-
ties of oak are adapted for hedge-rows. The ‘Turkey oak
grows the fastest, and is of an upright figure, until very old,
but it is less valuable as a timber tree than most other oaks.
The ash is, in some districts, of very frequent occurrence as a
hedge-row tree; but it is ruinous to grain crops within the
range of its roots, and it can only be recommended along road-
sides, meadow and pasture lands, and the like, in the absence
120 HEDGE-ROW TIMBER.

of tillage. As a timber tree, particularly for agricultural pur-
poses, it has no superior.

The larch, although seldom introduced into the hedge-rows
of highly cultivated districts possessed of a superior climate,
is nevertheless a very suitable tree; it forms an agreeable
variety, and breaks the monotonous appearance of some dis-
tricts. It is profitable, being of rapid growth, and valuable
as timber, and is less subject to disease in an isolated position
than in masses. No tree is less injurious to green crops ; its
leaves enrich the soil, and when shed are commonly deposited
on the surface around its roots. In rough situations, however,
it is apt to be bent by prevailing winds, and to become un-
sightly.

For avenues, where a depth of embowering shade and
seclusion are required, the lime-tree, with its large umbrageous
head, yielding sweetly-scented blossoms, has no superior. The
horse-chestnut also is generally a favourite in such places.
The Spanish chestnut, sycamore, Scotch elm, beech, and planes,
are all of that large and spreading habit of growth which
recommend them for such purposes.

For situations too rough and exposed for trees in general,
the sycamore, service tree, mountain ash, beech, Scotch
elm, and hoary poplar (Populus canescens), are most likely
to succeed. The three kinds first named are remarkable for
their unyielding character in cold or windy situations, and
even at great elevations they grow erect and produce well-
balanced heads.

Of evergreen trees, the varieties of holly and oak are the
best adapted for hedgerows. Of these, the tallest growing
are Turner’s evergreen oak and the Fulham oak, a sub-
evergreen.

Among flowering plants for ornament, the varieties of
thorn, laburnum, and scarlet horse-chestnut are pre-eminent.
A ready method of establishing lines of the numerous species
of the first-named genus is, by selecting strong stems of the
eommon hawthorn or quick, in a vigorous growing hedge.
Such will readily train to a considerable height, when they.
HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. 121

may be grafted with the varieties and species of the tree.
Those most handsome and attractive in flower are the scarlet
and double-red; and several other interesting kinds are
noticed in our article on THE THORN.

In planting hedge-row trees their roots should not be sunk
under the surface beyond their natural depth; the upper
fibres should be so situated as to be influenced by every
shower. For the first few years after the tree has been
inserted, its vigour of growth is much accelerated by the
surface of the ground being loosened and kept clear of
herbage around a space comprehending the range of its roots.

The mode of pruning trees under any circumstances is of
great importance, but never more so than when they are
placed in hedge-rows. In the forest, their proximity to one
another generally, to a great extent, supersedes the necessity
of much pruning; but when situated individually, no part of
their management is more important than that this operation
should be performed skilfully. It should be attended to
early, so that there be no necessity for the removal of large
branches. The method of pruning trees for useful purposes
appears to be ill understood, or, if understood, it is seldom
adopted. The common method is to clear the trunk of lateral
branches to a considerable height, and allow the higher ones
to take their course. This has a tendency to produce a large
head, widely spread and ramified, and, where this figure of
growth is desired, we know of no other method which will
so speedily accomplish the purpose, because it has the effect
of establishing a host of branches equal in magnitude to the
leader. This retards the height and adds to the breadth of
the tree. Where bulk of useful timber is aimed at, the mode
‘of treatment should be very different. It is then necessary
to direct attention chiefly to the top or leading shoot, and to
the branches in its vicinity, with the view of continuing the
length of the trunk, and preventing it from dividing into
forks or clefts. This is accomplished by preserving one lead-
ing shoot, and in shortening the competing ones, or such as
bear a considerable proportion to the leader, to about half
122 HEDGE-ROW TIMBER.

their length; and the same method is recommended in deal-
ing with all luxuriant side-branches throughout the tree, the
progness of such branches being impeded, in a greater or less
degree, in proportion to the distance from the extremities at
which they are cut. By- this treatment the principal flow of
sap will be directed into the proper channel, which will
greatly increase the height of the trunk; and the remaining
portions of the side branches may be removed close from the
trunk in after years, when they will occasion no blemish in
the timber, they being still of small diameter. September is
the best month for pruning, in general, as then the wounds
are immediately healed by the descending sap. The timber
of detached trees is generally hard and good, and if cleanly
grown by being early and judiciously pruned, it commonly
sells at as high a price per cubical foot of measurable timber
as clean timber grown in a forest. But if it is coarse, with
large knots, or mutilated by the removal of large branches,
the value is often depreciated forty per cent. In some dis-
tricts the value of hedge-row timber is often reduced one-half
by the mischievous practice of nailing paling to trees to save
the trouble of inserting stakes. It almost invariably happens
that the nails become imbedded in the timber, and frequently
no external mark gives evidence of the circumstance, and it
is only discovered when the carpenter's tool comes in contact
with the iron in cutting up the timber. Owners of timber,
and those who have charge of estates, should guard against
this evil wherever it is practised.
XIV.
COPPICE

CoprPice, or Copse Wood, consists of trees naturally grown
or planted, which spring freely from the root, and are cropped
or cut down periodically before they attain the usual size of
timber trees. There are situations in which the coppice has
a finer appearance, and as an embellishment is more in
accordance with the accompanying scene than full-grown
timber trees, such as on small islands, along the margin of
lakes and rivers, in narrow belts, in broken and detached
corners of land, and not unfrequently it may afford a vista
in the forest, where taller trees would exclude the variety
and richness of the scene. But if it is principally. with the
view of realizing a profitable return that a plantation of
coppice is to be raised and husbanded, very few situations
admit of this being practised with great success.

The change that has taken place during the last twenty or
thirty years in the value of coppice-wood and bark, compared
with that of ordinary plantations, is very great. The intro-
duction of foreign bark and other substances adapted for tan-
ning leather has reduced the British bark to about half its
former value; the best oak bark now seldom exceeds £7 per
ton, notwithstanding the rise of all sorts of wages, which
enhances the cost of harvesting the commodity, while, during
the period referred to, the timber of ordinary plantations has
greatly advanced in value.

There are some soils on which coppice grows freely for ten,
twenty, or perhaps thirty years, until it attains to nearly that
number of feet in height, when its progress becomes almost
imperceptible. This may sometimes arise from the effects of
124 COPPICE.

a bad climate, but more frequently from an inhospitable sub-
soil; and when such soil cannot be improved by drainage, it
is most profitable to devote it to the growth of coppice.
Whenever trees of any kind arrive at such a period of their
growth that their yearly increase does not amount in value to
the interest of the money which, ‘at the time, they would pro-
duce, if revenue is purely the object, they, of course, should
be cut down. This is more particularly the case with coppice,
since it not only springs again, but in some situations yields
a.far greater value and bulk of timber for particular purposes,
when cropped two or three times in fifty years, than the trees
would produce if allowed to stand during that period. The
oak is a common coppice tree, and valuable chiefly on account
of its bark. It is frequently found in woods, sometimes
indigenous, and sometimes planted, where its growth becomes
stunted even in youth, where there are no vigorous shoots on
the extremities of the branches, but, instead of this, a curled
and feeble termination of the spray. Dead twigs will occa-
sionally be seen towards the top, and, above all, the bark will
cease to expand, and no longer exhibit those light red and
yellow perpendicular streaks in its crevices, which are sure
evidence of its expansion, and of the consequent growth of
the wood underneath. Stunted oak of this description is
often found to grow freely for some time after being cut
down, and in some soils such coppice is much improved by
the insertion of larches as standards.

For the sake of its bark the birch cannot be now profitably
employed as a coppice-tree. Of the kinds of birch the com-
mon tree is found superior to the weeping variety, as it
springs more vigorously, and is more tenacious of life when
cut down. But as all the birches are apt to shed their sap
profusely on being cut down, none of them are reckoned very
permanent.

Besides the oak and birch, the chestnut, the ash, the hazel,
and willow are commonly eultivated as coppice-wood, and:
sometimes the elm, the maple, and the alder. All those
spring from stools, .

“i
COPPICE. 125

‘The oak and birch are raised chiefly on account of their
bark, and are lopped at various periods, according to soil and
climate, from sixteen to twenty-five, or even thirty years.
The season of the year for felling trees which yield bark is
confined to the end of spring and first of summer, being that
at which the bark is harvested. The root-ends, or largest
pieces of oak coppice-wood, are usually employed in the
manufacture of wheel-spokes, and the other parts generally
sell for the purposes of smoking fish, making charcoal and
firewood, at from 10s. to 15s. a ton. The value of oak
coppice is very variable; but at the age of twenty-five years
it commonly yields from £20 to £30 per acre, after paying
all expenses.

Birch is less valuable. The other kinds of coppice-wood
are commonly used for poles, hoops, hurdles, handles to
implements, charcoal, firewood, etc. As these timbers are
bulky in proportion to their value, they do not afford to be
carried to a great distance before being manufactured. The
revenue of coppice-wood is much enhanced by a local demand
in the vicinity of the ground where it is produced; and, next
to that, it is rendered valuable by a cheap and easy mode of
transmitting the timber to market. Chestnut is chiefly
esteemed for hop-poles, posts, etc.; and is durable in all
purposes where the wood comes in contact with the ground.
Its value for these purposes, however, in many quarters, has
been diminished by the thinnings of larch plantations having
recently become so plentiful; which timber not only exceeds
the chestnut, but almost every other kind, in durability. Ash
coppice is generally preferred for handles to implements,
hurdles, and for all purposes where strength and elasticity
are required. It is esteemed for hoops, in the formation and
manufacture of all dairy utensils; and is cut at various
periods, according to the purposes for which there is a
demand.

The hazel is adapted to dry soil, and is more frequently
cultivated as underwood than as coppice-wood. Although it
does not attain a large size, yet it yields an early and profit-
126 COPPICE.

able return, particularly in the vicinity of potteries, and other
manufactories, where it is frequently lopped every second or
third year, and used in the manufacture of crates. For barrel-
hoops, it is equal to oak ; for that purpose it is cropped every
five or six years. The plant grows everywhere throughout
the country naturally, and yields seed abundantly. For par-
ticulars respecting the genus, see HAZEL.

The willows consist of a great variety of sorts. For the
manufacture of baskets it should be cut down yearly ; a good
crop in some districts yields a clear revenue of £20 per acre.
Almost all the species of willow may be grown for the pur-
pose of basket-making ; but the Salix viminalis, or common
osier, the S. rubra, S. Forbiana, and S. stipularis, are greatly
preferable to many other sorts.

For hoops, poles, crate-work, hurdles, scythe and rake
handles, the willow is generally cut every five, six, or seven
years. The sorts most suitable for these purposes are S. caprea,
or goat sallow, and its allied kinds. No other species of willow
will produce such vigorous shoots in bad soil; and in soil of
good quality, after being cut over, shoots of one year will fre-
quently rise to the height of ten feet. The two best species,
for the larger purposes of willow timber, are S. alba, and S.
Russelliana. All the species of willow are grown from cuttings.
Those adapted for basket-making become enfeebled when
cut down yearly, and generally require to be renewed every
nine or ten years. The third year they attain their greatest
strength, and they commonly show symptoms of exhaustion
after yielding six or seven crops—a decay which does not
occur in the ordinary coppice willow when cropped at inter-
vals of several years.

Although all the kinds of willow will grow in ground much
more moist and swampy than is suitable for any other tree
except alder, yet their growth is accelerated and their quality
much improved by the ground being drained and thoroughly
relieved of stagnant water to within a few feet of the surface.

Coppice-wood is sometimes interspersed with standard
timber trees, which. convert it into underwood, and are apt to
COPPICE. 127

‘diminish the quantity and deteriorate the quality, except in
exposed situations, where a partial shelter may be required.
A few standards of oak in favourable situations are sometimes
left with advantage, as it comes into leaf at a late period, and
consequently does not form a deep shadow, during the open-
ing of the season. Although the larch is not a coppice tree,
because it does not spring from the root, yet it is less objec-
tionable than many kinds as a standard in coppice, as it rises
in an upright figure, soon becomes valuable, and other trees
generally thrive well in its vicinity—particularly the oak,
whose roots penetrate to a great depth, while those of the larch
spread over the surface ; and thus the two sorts at once bring
the whole strength of the soil into operation.

We have already stated that the sorts which yield valuable
bark are felled at the season most suitable for the manufacture
of that article, but the other sorts of coppice wood should be
removed any time between the middle of autumn and the
middle of spring. In cutting the timber it is necessary to
bear in mind that the stools are intended to shoot forth an-
other crop, and therefore require to be cut clean and smooth,
so that water may not lodge, and so low or close to the
ground, that the shoots which form the subsequent crop may
proceed close to the roots, and not at some distance over
them, in which case they would be liable to be blown off.
A bill or hook is best adapted for cutting small timber. In
removing stout oak coppice, it- is the practice to saw over
all the stems which stand above four inches in diameter, and
to cut the smaller ones with a hook or axe, which, in a prac-
tised hand, cutting upwards, leaves the stool unblemished.
Where a large oak trunk has been removed, the top of the
stool, if it be intended to spring again, should be dressed up
into a convex form, sufficient to discharge water. An adze
~ is the most suitable implement for this purpose, care being
taken that no part of the bark on the stool be injured. As
large stools are often more stiff to yield young growths than
stools of a smaller size, it is frequently necessary to remove the
‘surface herbage all around such, to enable them to spring freely,
128 COPPICE.

The second year after the removal of the timber, the stools
should be carefully gone over, and all supernumerary shoots
should be cleared off. The number to be left must be re-
gulated, in the judgment of the individual, according to the
space which the stool occupies, and the purpose for which the
timber is intended. In oak copse it is a common practice to
leave a few more than those intended to remain until the
general clearance of the timber, and these, the smallest and
most crowded, are thinned out, and barked, when about eight
or ten years old; with this exception, the whole of the copse-
wood should be cleared off at one time, as any other method is
injurious to the remaining crop.

In forming a copse wood of oak, chestnut, and willow, the
larger growing kinds should be planted at a distance of five or
six feet apart, with larch or fir interspersed as nurses. It is
usual to insert oak in fir plantations, after the firs have been
a few years planted, and attained the height of a few feet.
As larches are of quicker growth, stout plants form a shelter
when planted along with the kinds intended for copse. Hazel,
and such trees as are only required to attain a small size, should
be planted at four or five feet apart; and willows, for basket
work, at two feet. Trenching, though generally expensive at
the outset, is ultimately found to be profitable.

The inroads of cattle and sheep are not more destructive to
any description of property than to copse-wood. The rubbing,
the bite, and even the greasy touch of these animals, have a
wonderful influence in retarding the growth of young plants.
In the absence of more permanent enclosures, the coppice-
wood affords materials for a cheap and effectual fence. Where
it is cultivated to a considerable extent it is of much advan-
tage to have it in perpetual rotation, so that a portion may be
cleared and manufactured yearly. By this means a yearly
revenue is derivable from the ground, and the labourers of a
district are kept in the practice of thinning, cutting, barking,
etc., which will cause these operations to advance more
speedily, and in a manner superior to that usually performed
by hands unaccustomed to the work.
XV.

ON HARVESTING BARK.

THE oak furnishes the bark which is most esteemed by the
tanner in the manufacture of leather, and the birch that
which is most in repute by the fishermen in the preservation
of sail-cloth and cordage. The barks of the larch, chestnut,
willow, and some other kinds, are also valued on account of
their tanning qualities. The operation of barking or peeling,
and the mode of preserving bark, is the same in all the kinds,
and the value of the commodity greatly depends on the state
of the weather and the care bestowed during the time of its
being harvested.

The season begins as early as the sap of the tree circulates
so freely as to admit the bark to rise from the timber, which
varies considerably in different trees, and is also regulated by
the nature of the soil and situation, and by the earliness or
lateness of the season. That first removed is found to be the
strongest in the tannin principle, and consequently the most
valuable. When the tree expands into full leaf and produces
young shoots, the bark has deterioriated one half; nor is this
the only disadvantage of late barking, for the future growths
from stools, which form the following crop, rise but feebly
compared to those where the timber has been removed in
April or in May.

In detailing the process of barking it is necessary to re-
mark, that on old trees, and particularly on the birch, a rough
exterior bark or epidermis commonly exists, which is of no
value; this is removed by an axe, or more readily by an im-
plement termed a scraper, which is shaped like a common
draw-hoe, but is more powerful, and much sharper. It is

I
130 ON HARVESTING BARK.

found that this rough outside bark does not easily part with
the inner bark so early in the season as the inner bark rises
from the wood ; but later, when the sap flows more copiously,
it is readily removed.

Before the trees are felled, a person advances with a bark-
ing-iron or bill, and forms a circular incision, cutting through
the bark of the tree close to the surface of the ground, and
making a similar incision at the height of two feet ; between
these the bark is removed. A woodsman follows and notches
the tree about two inches deep all round the surface, which
prepares it for being cut through by the common cross-cut
saw. Immediately on the tree being felled, the smaller
branches are cut with an axe or bill, into pieces about two
feet long, from which, when tapped over a stone with a wooden
mallet, the bark loosens, and is readily removed. The bark-
ing-iron is applied in cutting through the bark around the
trunk and main branches, at places about two feet apart, and
with the aid of the mallet and barking-chisel the main tim-
bers are peeled. The tools used in the various operations no
doubt vary in form in different districts; a heavy axe and
cross-cut saw for felling the timber ; a light axe and a hedger’s
short bill for cutting through the bark—the former also for
use as a mallet ; and barking-irons of various sizes, which are
blunt duck-bill-shaped chisels, flat on one side and rounded on
the other, are the tools commonly used in England. Women,
in some districts, and boys, are employed, six or eight being
superintended by a man, who lops the branches, and assists in
turning the trees as the work proceeds. As the bark is raised
from the tree it is classed into two sizes—the smaller into
heaps, and the larger covering them, placed with the outside
uppermost.

We now come to the most important part, the process of
drying, which in a great measure regulates the value of the
produce, and in wet weather becomes very precarious. A
bark drying-shed should occupy the most airy situation in the
forest or in its vicinity. It should consist of a roof, which
may be formed of deal, and supported on pillars ten feet high.

4
ON HARVESTING BARK. 131

Across the house, at the distance of every eight feet, splits of
wood should be erected, four tier in depth, forming shelves to
dry the bark. The bark, on its removal from the timber, is
immediately collected and spread three or four inches deep ;
the smallest should occupy the lower ranges, and the large
bark the upper, with the outsides of the large bark uppermost.
Around this drying-shed an open space should be reserved,
capable of containing several ranges of shelves, which, when
supports and rails are formed, may be set up in a few minutes,
and should be taken advantage of in favourable weather.
Where no drying-shed is used, the bark is harvested in the
open ground, and commonly at or near to the spot where it
was produced. This is indeed the more common practice. A
set of straight limbs are supported on forked sticks along the
surface of the land, and about three feet from it ; against these,
first the small pieces, then the larger are piled, and over all,
forming a roof, the trunk bark is placed, sheltering the whole
from the effects of the weather. If the bark be of small size,
and showery weather occur while it is exposed, damage must
ensue; but if a considerable proportion has been yielded by
stout timber, it may, if put up thus with care, be preserved
with safety even during unfavourable weather. Of course the
most open and airy convenient situation should be preferred.
Another method may be described thus :—A few of the
forked branches are inserted into the ground, with the prongs
uppermost, to support rails or splits of wood from twelve to
eighteen inches asunder, similar to the shelves described for
the drying-house ; with this difference, that in the open
ground the rail on the one side should be placed a few inches
lower than the other, so that the surface of the bark, when ex-
posed on the rail, may form a declivity sufficient to discharge
water. It is found that rain on bark during the operation of
peeling, or immediately thereafter, while it possesses its own
sap, does it little or no injury, though afterwards, when but
partially dry, it infuses or extracts its virtues. Having
erected the timbers, the small bark is laid first on the rails to
the depth of about three or four inches, above which a cover
132 ON HARVESTING BARK.

of large pieces is then placed with their outsides uppermost,
which forms a shade and protection for the small. During
the preparation of bark, the forester should bear in mind that
the influence of sunshine on its inner side causes a large
decrease of its weight, by the evaporation of its most valued
juices, which do not escape while the outside is kept upper-
most in drying. After the bark has stood on the rails in the
shed, or in the open ground for a day, it is apt to get compact
and mouldy ; it should therefore be shifted and disturbed in
a similar manner every twenty-four hours, for three or four
days. That in the drying-shed, when crowded, should be
removed to the outside rails every favourable morning, and
placed under the roof every night, and during rain. In un-
favourable weather, two or three weeks are sometimes neces-
sary to dry it in the open ground, but under more favourable
circumstances it becomes quite dry in eight days. It is then
removed into a house and chopped to the size of about two
inches, an operation which is commonly performed by contract,
at six shillings per ton; this fits the bark for the tanner.
The cost of preserving bark must be always regulated by
the price of labour in the district, and the size of the timber
which yields it. One person will strip from stout timber
about five or six cwt. per day; from small timber only about
one cwt.

At Darnaway forest, near Forres, where several hundred
tons of oak bark are frequently manufactured in one season,
the expense of barking from trees ranging in diameter from
six to twenty inches, including peeling, drying, and chopping,
amounts to thirty-six shillings perton. In England,from which
the larger quantity of bark of course is derived, the process of
chopping and grinding the bark is generally done by the pur-
chaser, who buys it on the ground from the timber-merchant
or landowner. The work of barking, there, includes the fell-
ing of the trees, the stripping, and the piling of the bark ;
the smaller pieces against longitudinal supports near the
ground, to be afterwards covered with the larger bits, outside
upmost. Large-sized trees may be barked merely—the pieces
ON HARVESTING BARK. 133

‘being laid in heaps as we have described, for twenty shillings
aton. The value of oak bark, as of other kinds, is exceedingly
various; we have known it from £4 or £5 up to £8 per ton.
Birch bark is commonly about the same, but larch bark does not
exceed one half that price. The sap circulates earliest in the
larch, and its bark is speedily removed, but it is very light,
and ill adapted for distant carriage, on account of its bulk,
which is twice that of the oak bark, and it of late years has
seldom been manufactured profitably.
XVI.
ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC.

THE utility of pruning hardwood trees is generally ad-
mitted by experienced and practical men. It is sometimes
denied by those who have witnessed the bad effects of an im-
proper system, such as carpenters and mechanics, who readily
discover the evil resulting from the “lopping and boughing”
of a bad system, while they are unacquainted with the advan-
tages of early and judicious pruning, which leaves no mark on
the future bole, but directs it early into the figure most valu-
able as timber, and in some cases its effect on the individual
tree may be compared to that of the judicious thinning of a
plantation, as it directs the energies of the soil to the growth
of one trunk, instead of a number of smaller ones. Theorists
also sometimes deny the use of pruning, overlooking the fre-
quent necessity of directing the growth of the trunk in the
way most suitable for mechanical purposes, and they contend,
on physiological principles, for bulk, through the agency of
leaves. Although pruning does not in ordinary cases ulti-
mately increase the bulk or weight of wood, yet trees which
are early and judiciously pruned will be improved in quality,
increased in their useful dimensions and ultimate value, and
will grow in greater numbers on a given space.

But although early and skilful pruning is of advantage to
hardwood trees generally, it is not to be recommended for the
different species of coniferous trees except under unusual cir-
cumstances ; for instance, I have seen it practised with
advantage in native and planted woods in the Highlands,
where trees were far asunder and bushy, arising with two or
three stems, occasioned by being eaten over by cattle or sheep,
|

|

ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC. 135

or topped by black game, or some other accident. In such a
case as this,—where on account of the thinness of the trees
there are few or none to spare in thinning,—pruning, by
reducing such to one stem, is an advantage.

The figure of coniferous trees is in general all that could

\, be desired, therefore close planting, and ‘early and repeated

\

|

{

\

\

thinning, are all that this tribe of plants generally require to
bring their timber to maturity.
With respect to hardwood trees generally, in some situa-

‘tions the necessity of pruning may be in a great measure

obviated by close planting and timely thinning. These means
are generally most effectual in producing straight and well-
grown timber of every species. Where young trees stand
moderately close, their leading shoot, which is to form the
future bole of the tree, is guided upwards by its own natural
efforts, and as the lateral branches of the one press gently on
those of the others all round, they are prevented from acquir-
ing an undue strength, and ultimately disappear, leaving
straight and clean trunks, which are always of most value,
except in the case of oak timber for shipbuilding, which
should form an exception from the ordinary mode of treat-
ment, as will be noticed in the sequel.

All experienced foresters agree that the most beneficial
pruning is that which begins early, doing little at a time, but
repeating the operation frequently, and directing the ascend-
ency of the leading shoot till the stem of the tree has acquired
a proper form. When trees in a young plantation have pro-
duced three, or, very thriving, two years’ growth, pruning
should be commenced. The pruning-knife is the most suitable
implement, and where the work is early and frequently
attended to no other implement is required during the whole
progress of forest pruning.

The top is the principal part of the plant that requires
attention, in order that only one shoot may be allowed to
remain as a leader, the others next in size, if not very inferior,
should be headed down to about one-half their length, and all
the stoutest lateral branches shortened in the same manner.
136 ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC.

None of these branches need be cut close to the stem, and if the
plantation is moderately close this will be all that they require,
as they will get enfeebled and fall away ; but in more open and
airy situations those lateral branches which were shortened |
may be in four or five years removed close to the stem, before —
they are beyond the size of being cut off by the pruning-knife. |
Young plantations should be gone over every second year,
until the stems of the trees have acquired a proper form, |
having an eye to a sufficient girth in proportion to the height, .
which girth is promoted chiefly by side branches, at the same
time bearing in mind that next in importance to keeping the
tree in a proper figure should be the preservation of the
greatest quantity of its foliage. It is the general rule to
shorten the branch likely to gain an ascendency over the
leading shoot; but if the leading shoot is weak, stunted, or
unhealthy it is sometimes of advantage to remove it, and
prefer the more vigorous one, which through the flow of sap
will readily become straight and in proper form. A few years
after hardwood plants are planted it sometimes happens that
some of them are found stunted and making no progress; and
in the case of oak, elm, or ash, young shoots frequently appear
at the surface of the ground. This is sometimes occasioned
by the roots being too bare, or destitute of a sufficient supply
of young fibres, or from their exposure to the weather in
planting, or subsequent drought, etc. In such cases the plant
should be lopped over at the surface, or just above the most
vigorous shoot, which should be retained for the future tree,
and the other suckers should be pruned off. .The lopping of
such plants should be performed with a sharp knife by a prac-
tised hand, so that the operation may be made without dis-
turbing or straining the root of the plant. It is a common
error in the management of plantations to clear the stems of
all side-branches to a certain height at the first pruning, and
afterwards to operate only on the under branches of the tree.
This tends to produce a small trunk, an irregular top, and
side branches more vigorous than the leader. When this is
practised in exposed places, not one in a hundred ever becomes
ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC. 137

a large or valuable tree. Were pruning altogether abandoned,
trees of fifty years’ standing would generally be of more value,
rough, knotty, and forked as a great part of the timber would
be, than those subjected to such an injurious method.

It is in hedgerows and other open situations, where trees
are apt to ramify into an unprofitable figure, that pruning is
of the greatest value; but even in such situations it is not
necessary to shorten all the branches previously to their being
removed from the trunk, though it is to be recommended in
dealing with all luxuriant branches, particularly near the top
shoot, and in checking such throughout the tree ; the progress
of such being impeded in a greater or less degree in proportion
to the distance from their extremities at which they are cut.
When trees have advanced from ten to fourteen feet, the
oldest and stoutest branches (previously shortened) may then
be removed from the stem. Sometimes the small pruning-
saw is employed as the most efficient implement, observing
that at the junction of each branch to the stem there is a
swell or bulge, and the branch should be removed close to the
outside of it, at which point the diameter is not so great as at
the very bottom, consequently a much smaller wound is occa-
sioned, and sooner healed. When plantations are closely
attended to, however, the pruning-saw is seldom required.
The knife is the safest implement, its wounds heal most
readily, and where the branches are sufficiently checked by
being shortened they do not acquire a diameter beyond its
power. When trees are from fourteen to'twenty-five feet in
height, or from twelve to twenty years of age, they generally
advance very rapidly, and if not standing close in a plantation,
admit of more pruning than at any other period; but under
any circumstances trees are much injured by being severely
pruned; for, as already stated, pruning is only of much
advantage when performed early in those side branches which
are apt to bear too great a proportion to the leading branch,
thereby modifying the tree and directing its energies gradually
to the top, preserving at the same time a sufficient quantity
of foliage. All young hardwood trees should have tops long
138 ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC.

in proportion to their height. A good proportion in a tree of
thirty feet in height is twenty feet of top to ten feet of bare
trunk; but no given rule in this respect can be exacted for
all sorts, as a longer top is requisite in a rough exposure and
in poor soil than where the ground is well sheltered and
fertile. The skilful forester observes at a glance whether
the tree is possessed of a trunk stout in proportion to its
height, and, as in thinning, regulates the pruning accordingly.
Where height is required he subdues the side branches ; where
girth of trunk is necessary, he preserves them as the speedy
means of obtaining girth.

The evil consequences of cutting off large side branches
from timber trees require to be stated, as nothing can more
readily deteriorate their value, particularly if the branches are
cut close to the trunk. This creates a large unsightly wound
several inches in diameter; the influence of the sun and
weather cracks the timber, which imbibes water ; during frost
the fissures increase, and rottenness penetrates into the trunk,
and although the wound will collapse, and repeated layers of
wood in course of time will cover it over, yet the timber
remains unsound and much deteriorated. The experienced
timber-merchant has a quick perception of the marks of
lopping or mutilation, which often reduces the value of timber
one half, and where indications of the removal of large
branches appear, the forester is sometimes obliged to defer
fixing the price till the wood has been cut up. It is mutila-
tion of this sort that has created a prejudice against any
description: of pruning whatever, particularly with wood-
merchants and artisans. Where it is absolutely necessary to
remove a large branch, the method most safe for the timber
is to amputate it beyond its first side branches, which will
generally prevent dead or unsound timber.

As to the season most suitable for pruning timber I may
state that the shortening of stronger side branches and of the
competing shoots near the leader may be performed at any
season ; the outline, and consequently the wants of the tree,
are best seen during winter or early in spring, in the absence
ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC. 139

of the foliage. Spring, however, should be avoided with
respect to sycamore, maple, and birch, which are apt to bleed
like vines until the leaves are developed ; but it is found that
the best time to remove the branches from the bole is de-
cidedly early in autumn, say August or early in September,
then no sooner are they removed than the descending sap
immediately cicatrizes the wounds, which close up in course
of a few weeks.

Mr. Cree, an authority on pruning, says, “If we form an
estimate of the comparative value of pruned and unpruned
trees raised within an equal number of years, the advantage
which the former possess over the latter is very great. Take
twenty-five elms indiscriminately of a size suitable for making
naves for wheels, it will be found, if unpruned, that the
quantity of timber will not average in each above five feet.
Twenty-five trees which I have pruned will each contain
more than thirty feet of timber when arrived at the age of
the trees I have described above. Pruning is equally bene-
ficial to all sorts of deciduous trees.”

On pruning oak for naval purposes it is an important
object to manage it in such a way as to produce the greatest
proportion of bent pieces, or knees, which are always more
valuable for shipbuilding than straight timber. It is there-
fore indispensable that the trees have considerable space; the
proximity of roads, rivers, the outside of a plantation, or any
circumstance affording open space to some extent, is most
suitable for this purpose, and as the close pruning of the stem
near the surface of the ground has a tendency to make trees
ramify, when young oaks have advanced to the height of
from eight to ten feet. their lateral branches should be pruned
from the surface upwards close to the stem to the height of
from three to four feet, and if they are inclined to grow with
a straight top the leading shoot should be cut off, and two of the
strongest lateral branches which take a horizontal direction
should be left at those points where they will be least confined,
and the next largest branches should be shortened at the
same time. In the course of three years, or, if the plantation
140 ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC.

is very healthy, in two years, the trees should be gone over a
second time. Those side branches formerly shortened should
then be removed close by the stem, and the old top reduced
to the point where the principal leaders take a horizontal
direction.

The natural habit of the oak is favourable for the produc-
tion of crooks adapted to this purpose, and where a tree of
suitable description is found it.should be carefully assisted in
its progress by removing every obstruction in the way of its
horizontal growth. When a tree or limb is found to grow in
the desired figure, the removal to a considerable extent of its
side branches having an wpward tendency, and the leaving of
such as are on the under side, tend to establish the spreading
position of the limb. This method will generally occasion
crooked trunks, which are always more valuable, of whatever
figure, than straight trees. In many cases the shoots will
incline to the perpendicular, and not grow in the desired
form; but a far greater proportion of trees thus treated will
be of a superior mould for naval purposes than are found
among those where straight leaders have not been removed.

The pruning of trees for picturesque effect on lawns and
pleasure grounds being a matter of taste, where we have not
the standard of utility to guide us, very little need be said.
Some consider that trees which expose their trunks to a great
height are not only most valuable but also most ornamental.
But to display the peculiar outline and ramification of each
species to the greatest advantage, they should be left to
their own efforts, either standing singly or in masses, without
anything being done to them beyond the removal of a shoot
on the young plant when it happens to be too bushy, or the
amputation of a decayed branch in the more advanced state
of the tree. In nature, few objects are more lovely and mag-
nificent than a lofty tree, happily situated in a congenial soil,
standing unmutilated, with foliage suspended to the surface
of the earth, and unveiling only here and there a part of its
glossy trunk of goodly dimensions.

For pruning, and the treatment practised on the native
ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC. 141

Highland pine plantations, see Chapter x1, on “ THINNING
PLANTATIONS.”

Grafting in plantations for embellishment—In plantations
adjoining pleasure grounds, along the side of drives, or where
it is desirable that the ordinary species of trees should be
converted into kinds more picturesque in form or more attrac-
tive in foliage, this is readily accomplished by grafting, parti-
cularly if the trees are not more than twenty or thirty years
of age. The simplest and most successful method of grafting
such is to saw off the top where it is only an inch or two in
diameter, make a slit about an inch and a half long in the
bark of the stock, raise the bark with an ivory handle, to
make a space for the graft or shoot to be inserted, which
may only be six or seven inches long; prepare it by a smooth
slanting cut on one side, slip in the prepared scion with the
cut side next to the wood to the length of the cut of one inch
and a half; tie round with mat, and cover closely with graft-
ing clay all over the wound on the stock. After the clay is
dry, and all fissures filled up, the ball may be covered over
with moss or meadow hay, and tied over to insure safety and
exclude severe drought. When the stock at the point of
grafting is older and of several inches in diameter, another,
and the easiest mode, is, after sawing off the top, to tie the
stock round tightly for a few inches beneath the point of
amputation, and force down a peg of hard wood, or any
hard substance, between the wood and the bark, in the shape
of the prepared scion, then withdraw the peg and insert
the scion, pressing it tightly into the incision; by this
method two or three grafts or scions may be inserted around
the edge of the same stock, then clay as recommended. The
month of March is the ordinary season for the operation, or
just as the buds are beginning to swell. When the graft has
grown a few inches the clay should be removed, and the
bandage retied, adding a stalk to support the scion from
being broken off by wind. Among ornamental trees the oak
affords a great variety of evergreen and sub-evergreen,—such
as Turners, Fulham, and Lucombe ; and few trees are more
142 ON PRUNING FOREST TREES, ETC.

interesting in autumn than the brilliant foliage of the scarlet
oak. The family of maples are among the best for autumn
embellishment, all of which may be inserted on the sycamore
or on the Norway species, The scarlet, double-flowering, and
other varieties of thorn, scarlet horse-chestnut, purple beech,
weeping ash, and weeping elm of sorts, are all worthy of cul-
tivation. The common trees of the species form the stocks
best adapted for being engrafted with the rarer sorts, and
the nearer the kinds are related, the union is rendered the
more perfect and permanent.
XVII.
HEDGES.

ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES, AND ON KINDS OF LIVE
FENCES SUITED TO DIFFERENCE OF SOIL, CLIMATE, AND
MODES OF OCCUPATION.

Few improvements enrich the general appearance of a
country, or increase the value of property more, than hedges,
provided they are properly managed. The preparation of the
ground is the first important point. It should be trenched,
if practicable, to the depth of from 20 to 24 inches, and 4 feet
in breadth, with the surface placed in the bottom, and 18
inches of breadth of surface added to it from each side of the
trench, care being taken that the ground from the surface be
covered with at least 14 inches of clean soil, which will pre-
vent the weeds from vegetating. The additional surface will
raise the trenched part considerably higher than the former
level of the ground. When the subsoil is of inferior quality,
it does least injury when turned uppermost; but where
gravel, sand, or any inferior subsoils are found in large quan-
tities they ought to be removed, and the space filled up with

‘soil of good quality. This preparatory process should be per-
formed in autumn, that the frosts of winter may pulverize the
soil. Some subsoils, such as stiff clay, bog earth, or whatever
does not readily become pulverized, are unfavourable to the
growth of plants, and should therefore be exposed to the
influence of the atmosphere for a year before being planted,
during which period the ground should be dug or forked over
once or twice, giving at same time a liberal supply of manure.
No plant advances more rapidly under the influence of manure
144 ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES.

than the common hawthorn or quick, and when manure is
well incorporated with the ground before the plants are
inserted, it acts the more readily.

Planting, etc—The proper time for planting generally
depends on the nature of the soil. It is to be recommended
that all dry soils should be planted before winter, or early in
spring. Few plants break into leaf earlier than the common
hawthorn, and in all cases its early insertion gives it the most
vigorous start during the ensuing summer. Whatever species
of plants are employed, they should all be planted erect.
When they are inserted into their places in the notch, well-
rotted manure should be applied, mixed up with the soil
placed at the roots of the plants to a breadth of about two
feet, unless the ground has been previously enriched.

Laying plants in a horizontal position, on the brink of a
mound, always retards the growth, prevents the future appli-
cation of manure, and in some measure deprives them when
young of the genial influence imparted by showers; and
although by this method the ditch and mounds nearly form
a fence at the outset, and render the strength of a hedge less
requisite, yet the plants commonly require to be protected by
paling, and during my experience, I never found plants so
treated keep pace for two years with those planted perpen-
dicularly.

Where the soil is very damp it should be drained, and the
site of the hedge being trenched in the manner pointed out,
should be made up to a sufficient height, according to the
species of the plant intended. Where dry, it should be raised.
on each side of the plants, so as to leave them less exposed.
Having thus prepared the ground, stretch a line along the
ridge where the hedge is intended, and cut out a notch close
to it, of sufficient depth to contain the roots of the plants.
Prune the extreme fibres of their roots, and place the plants
at their proper distances against the notch. They will then
stand straight, with their roots inclined to that side of the
line on which they were planted, it being observed, that
although no ditch is made in the meantime, yet it is contem-
ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES. 145

plated to form one in four or five years, when the hedge will
be of sufficient height to remain without further protection ;
and therefore it is necessary in planting that the roots pro-
ject to the opposite side to that on which the trench is
intended. Should it be resolved not to form a ditch along
the hedge in a few years after it is planted, the hedge may
be continued, as it stands slightly elevated above the ordinary
level of the ground. The advantage of the ditch is, that it
helps much to strengthen the fence on the side on which it
is formed, and by casting the principal part of the soil from
the ditch to the opposite side of the hedge, it places the hedge
on a ledge cr slope, rendering it easily cleaned, and making it
more efficient as a fence, and the ground cast out prevents the
roots from injuring the adjoining crops. The ditch may be
formed large or small according to the circumstances or the
nature of the situation, and it is recommended to be formed
when the hedge is just about to become a fence of itself,
and at the time the fences for its protection are to be
removed.

The mode of planting the different kinds of plants is the
same, but the distances, the quality of soil suitable for each,
the size of the plants, and the kinds that may be associated,
are circumstances that require to be noticed in reference to
each species.

Hawthorn (Crategus oxyacantha).—This is the best of all
plants for an efficient fence in any soil of ordinary quality.
There are several varieties of the species, distinguished by
larger leaves and berries, and of more vigorous growth, but
the differences are not important. In selecting plants their
strength should be attended to, and not their age or height.
Plants six or eight years old, that have been twice or thrice
transplanted, and are fibrous-rooted, are always more profitable
than smaller ones, although they are double the price per
thousand; they admit of being planted thinner by a few
inches between the plants, they spring more vigorously, are
subject to fewer casualties, and require protection for a shorter
period. Few plants suffer more readily by having their roots

K
146 ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES.

much exposed to the atmosphere, particularly in the drought of
spring. The plant comes early into leaf, and should be planted
out in autumn, in winter, or early in spring. Early planted
hedges, compared with late planted, generally show a great
difference during the first summer. The practice common in
the east of England, which I have witnessed, of exposing
large lots of “quick” to the influence of the weather on
market days in spring, cannot fail at least to retard their
growth very much during the succeeding summer. Plants
two years transplanted, of the ordinary size, are generally
inserted six inches apart in a line of hedge. Those of a
superior strength, from a half inch to one inch in diameter,
may be placed from eight to ten inches, according to their
strength. Such plants should be cut over within two or three
inches of the ground-mark before being planted; after being
inserted the stumps should only be visible above ground ;
thus strong plants, in ground well prepared, often produce
several shoots each, some of them not unfrequently attaining
a height the first season of upwards of two feet. After plant-
ing, nothing further than cleaning by hoeing and raking is
required for the first two years, when the hedge should be
slightly pruned or equalized with a hedge-switcher, pointing
only such extreme shoots as are higher or extend beyond
the medium growth of the plants. When the plants employed
are much smaller, it commonly requires three years before it is
necessary to prune the hedge. With small plants, a hedge
composed of a double row gets more readily into shape, and
becomes more compact at an early date, the lines being ten to
twelve inches apart. One line however of strong plants is
generally the best. After the hedge receives its first dressing
or pruning, its vigour will be greatly increased by digging in
on both sides a good layer of well-rotted manure, similar on
each side to that applied to a drill of well-manured swedes.
If the hedge is properly kept, no perennial or rooted weeds
will be found within the trenched space of four feet in breadth
allotted for it. If such, however, have been allowed to accu-
mulate, they should be forked out before the application of
ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES. 147

the manure, which should afterwards be dug into the clean
ground; in this case a double digging is occasioned in con-
sequence of previous neglect, by allowing weeds to get
entangled with the roots—one of the common sources of
failure in hedges.

Few plants can advantageously be mixed with thorn in the
formation of fences; the best I have experience of is the
evergreen holly. When a plant of holly is inserted here and
there among thorns, although it may remain for some years
comparatively obscured, yet I have found that it ultimately
appears in vigour, and has a tendency to prevail and spread
rather than to be suppressed. This arises from its being an
excellent underwood—growing well in the shade of other
trees. It has no tendency to weaken a hedge, or to produce
gaps, and when regularly interspersed in a thorn hedge it
adds to its shelter and embellishment throughout the months
of winter. I have also found the evergreen privet thrive well
when interspersed with thorn ; it adds to the closeness of the
hedge, particularly near the ground, and affords a freshness to
the aspect in winter, but being a feeble plant it contributes
nothing to the strength of the fence.

The Beech (Fagus sylvatica).—This is a very useful plant for
hedges or screen fences. It luxuriates in dry, rich, loose soil,
but is apt to become diseased when placed near the rise of
stagnant water. It sometimes forms a fence in soil so dry
that the hawthorn fails to thrive.

The usual size of beech hedge plants is from eighteen inches
to two feet. Such plants are generally two years transplanted
and four years old, and range in price from 15s. to 25s. per
thousand, according to quality and the supply, etc. Plants
for hedges should be grown thin in the nursery lines, and well
furnished with branches near the surface of the ground, and
inserted as recommended for thorns, according to their size,
eight, ten, or twelve inches asunder. The plant naturally
grows with a good shape for a hedge plant, it also roots well
if frequently transplanted, and by affording it sufficient room
it is capable of being removed in safety into soil of ordinary.
148 ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES.

quality, where with little or no protection it almost forms a
fence at once. The most desirable feature in those large
plants is breadth or spread of branches close to the surface of
the ground, which necessitates ample space in the nursery lines,
and removal of the top shoots or excess of upward growth.
Where fences of this description are required on a large scale,
it is recommended that the nursing of the plants should be
adjacent to the site of the proposed fences. The preparation
of the ground for the plants should be similar to that for
hawthorn, but as a greater depth of trench is required for
their roots, the surface herbage of the trenched ground should
be placed at a depth not to be disturbed by inserting the
large plants into the line of hedge, unless it has had a suffi-
cient time to decompose before planting. Along with well-
decomposed manure lime is found to be of great advantage in
the growth of beech. The hedge may be formed any time
in open weather between October and April. If the situation
is much exposed to the severity of the weather, planting in
March or the opening up of the season is preferable to earlier
planting, which would subject the fence to be disturbed by
the winds for months before it would begin to take root or
establish itself in the ground. Such plants should be inserted
as close as their branches will allow them to stand, which is
generally a foot apart; when planted it is only necessary to
prune off the more straggling side branches and the more
aspiring tops with the pruning-knife, and dress into shape
with the switcher after the first year’s growth.

The Hornbeam (Carpinus Betulus)—This plant is sometimes
reared for fences. It grows close, and yields a great quantity
of leaves. It grows rapidly with the same treatment as the
beech, but is inferior in strength or resistance.

The Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is a very slow-growing plant
when young, taking generally about eight years to attain the
height of two feet, with a proportionable breadth and well
furnished roots. It would be a very easy matter to produce
plants of this height in half that time; this is readily effected
by keeping them close together in the nursery lines, and
ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES. 149

allowing them to remain without transplanting them, but this
would render them bare, and unfit for a hedge, and bad for
any purpose,—for unless they are frequently removed their
roots get bare, after which they are very apt to die on being
transplanted. Plants one foot high, which have been twice
transplanted in the nursery, are commonly used as hedge
plants; they are sold at about £2 per thousand. When
bushy plants, well rooted, about two feet high, can be obtained,
they are worth £6 to £8 a thousand. A dry, rich, loamy soil is
congenial to their growth. I find moist, cloudy weather in the
end of August or in September to be very suitable for their
removal; then their roots take to the soil at once, become
fixed before the winter, and start in spring with all the
vigour of longer established plants. The next best time for
transplanting is in spring, or in wet weather early in summer,
provided the roots are not much exposed. With respect to this
the plant is very sensitive. When healthy and of two feet in
height it is afterwards by no means a slow-growing plant,
and it forms a more desirable fence than any other evergreen
tree. (See HoL.y.)

The Crab-apple (Pyrus Malus) and the Crab-pear (P. commu-
nis) very readily make efficient fences; the only objection to
them is that they are subject to the attacks of caterpillar and
bug. Strong plants are to be had in nurseries at the price of
hawthorn of the same size. Their treatment is in all respects
the same as that recommended for the hawthorn, but they
do not make so close and compact a hedge as that tree. (See
Pyrus.)

Elder (Sambucus nigra, S. virescens, S. racemosa).—These
species of elder make a valuable screen fence in exposed situa-
tions; they retain their vigour at a great altitude and in a
diversity of soils in which few other plants will exist. In
cultivated fields with a good climate the elder is seldom or
never used as a fence, as it occupies a wide space, does not
rise in a compact form, is too soft and yielding as a fence
on level ground, and impoverishes the soil in its vicinity. I
have, however, seen the elder used as a hedge along the top
150 ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES.

of a two or three feet dike or bank of earth, and cut twice a
year, in June and in October, which alters its ordinary habit
of growth very much, rendering it close and compact; and
in such situations it forms an efficient fence and valuable
shelter.

The Common Privet (Ligustrum vulgare).—Of this plant there
are several varieties, of which some are much better ever-
greens than others. It is most readily grown from cuttings
ten or twelve inches long, planted in September in shaded,
sandy soil. These should be inserted two-thirds into the
ground in nursery lines, and the soil firmly tramped about
them, or the hedge may at once be formed with cuttings or
slips. The plant as a hedge is very ornamental when well
kept and often pruned, particularly in the end of August,
which enables it to push out foliage afresh, which forms its
winter clothing fresh and green. Of itself, the plant is too
feeble where a strong fence is required. It is therefore often
used on the top of a dwarf wall, and for garden and orna-
mental purposes.

The Yew Tree (Taxus baccata).—This is the most ornamental
of all evergreen hedges, but as it is poisonous it should not
be placed in any situation accessible to animals that would
brouse on its twigs. Its growth is compact and slow ;
it is easily dressed, and when well cared for it forms
an evergreen wall so close that small birds can hardly
enter it. Its roots grow as compact as its branches, and it
does not scourge the ground in its vicinity; it is rarely
touched by any disease, is very hardy and permanent, hence
its adaptation for green walls in gardens, nurseries, and orna-
mental grounds.

It is a usual practice in some nurseries where there is a
constant demand for hardy ornamental plants, to plant the
English yew in ample space, and train it into a hedge figure,
and by being frequently removed its roots become a compact
mass of fibre, insuring its perfect safety on being transplanted,
four or five feet high—a ready-made fence of the most ex-
quisite colour and polish. Frequent transplanting retards
ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES. lol

‘the plant considerably. Plants inserted as a hedge a foot
high, and that distance apart, and allowed to remain. with-
out being disturbed, will advance twice as fast as those that
are transplanted every other year. When young, the plant
only grows a few inches yearly, and the most vigorous estab-
lished yew hedge seldom yields shoots a foot long. (See YEW
TREE.)

The Whin or Furze (Ulex Europeus) is seldom cultivated as a
nursery plant, and when required as a hedge should be sown
on the line of fence. It is not permanent, being often killed
with frost, particularly at a great altitude. It however readily
springs from the root. Of itself it is not sufficient for a fence,
but placed on the top of a mound or bank of dry soil, it
forms a fence where few other plants would luxuriate.

For a whin hedge the ground should be dug over in autumn,
and if limed and manured so much the better. Well-rotted
manure and ashes are fertilizing elements for the whin.

In open weather in winter, or early in spring, the seeds
should be sown. A double drill is to be recommended, as it
accomplishes the object more speedily. Stretch a line on the
site of the hedge when the ground has been dug over, cleaned,
manured, and pulverized, and with a draw-hoe draw a rut on
each side of the line similar to that for garden pease, but only
about one inch deep; into these deposit the seeds, thick or thin
according to the quality. The price of seed commonly ranges
from 1s. 6d. to 2s. per lb.; which, if the seed is fresh, should be
sufficient for 80 or 100 yards of a double drill; the covering
is readily effected by drawing a rake along and thus closing
up the drills. The drills should be cleaned the first and
second years, until the whins prevail over the neighbouring
vegetation. Pruning with the switcher is all that is after-
wards required, and the hedge is made the more permanent
by being pruned so frequently as to be prevented from yield-
ing seed.

Ditching—Where land is not so wet as to render the for-
mation of a ditch and mound indispensably necessary before
planting a hedge, these may not be formed until the paling is
152 ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES.

removed, at which time the plants will have become a fence.
In forming the ditch along a straight hedge, a line should be
extended about eighteen incbes from the stems of the plant,
which line forms the side of the ditch next the fence, and this
side requires to be considerably sloped. Where the soil is dry
and friable, the side of the ditch will be more oblique than
where it is firm; consequently the ditch must be wider. In
some situations by road-sides, only a small trench is formed,
about two and a half feet wide at top, one and a half deep, and
one foot broad at bottom ; but a ditch of a common size is four
and a half feet wide, two and a half feet deep, and one foot
and a half wide at bottom. In forming these, the greater part
of the earth is cast over to the opposite side of the hedge,
which is commonly about four feet high. It is therefore neces-
sary for the person who finishes the bottom of the ditch to
cast up the earth on the surface, while another turns it over
to the opposite side of the hédge, placing a part between the
hedge and the ditch, and raising it to the depth of five or six
inches. In this way any vacancy may be filled up by fixing
the adjacent branches into the soil. The ground thus trans-
ferred is made high along the side of the hedge, and sloped
down inte the field, which prevents the hedge from impoverish-
ing the soil or injuring the crops.

Fences for Protection of Hedges—The most judicious mode of
protecting young hedges depends on the resources of the dis-
trict in which they are situated. It is therefore unnecessary
to enlarge on this subject. Where thinnings of plantations
or heavier timber abound, wooden paling should be adopted,
and the figure or description of the erection will depend on
the kind of wood available. The smallest thinnings of larch
and fir plantations are suitable for upright fences, and larger
timber for horizontal rails. The cost varies much in different
localities. Where timber is scarce, recourse should be had to
wire fencing.

Sunk Dikes.—In forming a hedge and sunk fence there is
no method more effectual, where suitable stones are at hand,
than to cut out a ditch, casting up the best soil to one side, on
ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES. 153

the line where the hedge is to be planted, facing it up with
stones to the height of from two to three feet, and planting
the hedge about eighteen inches back from and alongside
of the mason work. The two surfaces of good soil form a
mound above the ordinary level of the adjoining ground, and,
supported by the stone facing, afford ample drainage; and
these advantages of position, soil, and drainage, commonly
yield an efficient fence at an early date.

Cleaning, Manuring, and Pruning.—It is well known to all
who have had experience in rearing hedges, that the first and
most important point is to have the ground thoroughly cleaned,
and that this should be carefully attended to in so far as
rooted weeds exist in the ground before the plants are in-
serted. A hedge for the first three years requires to be
cleaned by hoeing on each side and hand-weeding close to the
plants. During this period no agricultural crop should be
allowed to grow within four feet of the plants. After a
hedge has been three years planted, it should be manured
on both sides, in all parts where it is not thoroughly
vigorous; the manure should be well made or decomposed,
and immediately dug in on being spread. The steel fork is
more suitable for this purpose than a spade, as it is less liable
to injure the roots. The best season for manuring and
digging is in autumn or in open weather throughout the
winter, and the influence of manure is not more apparent on
any plant than on the hawthorn.

Pruning should begin three years after planting, or if the
young hedge is very vigorous, after two-years’ growth. The
most approved figure, and that most easily kept, is wedge-
shaped—broad at the base and tapering to a point at the top.
But for ornamental purposes the figures may be diversified.
The autumn or the months of winter are the usual time for
pruning hedges, but a second pruning at midsummer has the
effect of increasing their closeness. When young hedges are
apt to get bare or thin near the ground and show a vigour at
the top, it is advisable to prune the upper half only, once or
twice during the summer months, This has the effect of direct-
154 ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES.

ing the growth towards the strengthening of the lower
branches, and keeping the hedge in proper shape, and the
hedge-switcher is the most speedy and efficient implement for
all the fences of field or forest.

The four most important points to be attended to in the
raising and managing of live-fences are well-prepared ground,
well-prepared plants, thorough cleaning, and thorough fencing.
These things attended to, hedges soon become an ornament,
a shelter, and a sure protection.

The practice of planting timber trees in the line of hedge
has a very injurious effect on the fence, and seldom fails to
produce inequalities and gaps. Some trees are less ruinous
to underwood than others, but plants in hedges cannot
maintain a uniform vigour and regularity of growth when
subjected here and there not only to the shade and drop of
taller trees, but to the exhausting influence of their roots, so
strong and vigorous compared to those of the plants of a
pruned hedge. The kinds of hedge plants most suitable for
underwood are holly, yew-tree, and privet, but the thorn (or
quick) is readily injured by being overspread by any other
tree.

Old thorn hedges are not unfrequently met with in a
stunted state, entangled with weeds and full of gaps, so that to
form a fence requires the assistance of paling. To improve
this state of affairs the hedge should be sawn over near to the
surface of the ground, and a yard wide of ground on each
side should be forked over, carefully shaking out all the roots
of weeds, after which a liberal supply of well-prepared manure
should be dug in during autumn or in the winter months.
Where vacant spaces exist the soil should be cast out, and a
trench formed four feet wide and about two deep, into which
fresh soil from the field should be deposited and well manured;
a single or double line of thorns should then be inserted ; the
plants should be strong and well rooted from being often
transplanted. Such plants after being topped will yield strong
shoots the first year. The planting of thorn should be per-
formed in the end of the year, or in open weather in winter.
ON RAISING AND MANAGING HEDGES. 155

For this purpose well-nursed plants of holly or of beech are
also suitable for filling up gaps in hedges. After a cut down
hedge has made the growth of two summers, it should be
formed into shape by being pruned ; before being so, however,
the hedge should be gone over, and all small vacancies which
were not of such dimensions as to necessitate the insertion of
young plants should be closed up by training the adjacent
shoots into the vacancy and fixing them with a forked stick,
or by tying them into the proper position with willow twigs.
A hedge thus treated requires to be thoroughly protected, and
kept free from weeds until it becomes a fence.
XVIII.
THE PINE TREE.

THE genus Pinus is the most important of any belonging to
the natural order Coniferw, and perhaps the most valuable of
any genus of ligneous plants. It consists of evergreen trees,
natives of Europe, Asia, and America. Most of the species
produce timber of a great size, abounding in resin. Their
leaves are generally needle-shaped, disposed in groups of two,
three, or five, enclosed by a scaly sheath around the base of
the group. Pines generally flower in May and June; the
male and female flowers are separate on the same tree; the
cones become ripe in the end of the second year, or eighteen
months after the time of flowering. In their native countries
pines generally grow in masses, to the exclusion of other
trees; and the genus is remarkable for yielding timber of
large dimensions on-poor soil in elevated situations, and fre-
quently they are found on the extreme limits of arborescent
plants. Some of the species are therefore valuable in sub-
duing the severity of the climate in exposed districts, where
they are generally planted as the forerunners to broad-leaved
trees, and such as are not adapted to endure the severity of
an exposed situation.

All the species have a tendency to sport by cultivation in
soil and climate different from that in which they grow wild,
and by this means alterations in form and foliage are pro-
duced which tend to obscure the distinctions between the
ordinarily recognised species.

P. sylvestris: the Scotch Pine—This is the most valuable
timber tree of the genus in Britain, or even in Europe. It
is found in great perfection in native forests in the High-
THE PINE TREE. 157

lands of Scotland ; it also abounds in a wild state in many
parts of Norway, Sweden, Russia, Poland, and Germany. It
is almost invariably in an open or heathy soil that it springs
naturally ; a grassy vegetation, or a close herbage of any
kind but heath, is hostile to the growth of the young plant.
In grass it seldom appears a close crop, even in the vicinity of
the native forests, where the seeds are thickly dispersed ;
whereas in moorland, with a short heathy cover, the seeds
readily come in contact with the ground, and vegetate. The
stems of the heath are a sufficient protection for the young
plants, and open enough to prevent them from damping off
through confinement. In collecting the seeds of Scotch fir,
it is of great importance that they should be gathered from
the best native forests, such as those of Abernethy, Duthil,
Glenmore, and Rothiemurchus on the Spey, or Braemar on
the Dee, where the trees are found in an indigenous state.
There exist many varieties of Scotch pine, but these are found
very rarely in the best native woods; there the foliage and
figure of the trees are nearly all alike, and their timber of the
same age is uniformly red, hard, and resinous. But where
the tree is removed from its native habitat, and repeatedly
propagated in a different soil and climate, it runs into a
number of varieties of foliage and form, and after a few
generations in cultivation it becomes degenerate, short-lived,
and its timber is comparatively worthless.

The first published account we have of the varieties of
Scotch pine is in a Treatise on Forest Trees, by the Earl of
Haddington, published in 1760. His Lordship’says, “ When
I cut firs that were too near the house, there were people
alive here who remembered when my father bought the seed.
It was all sown together in the seed-bed, removed to a nur-
sery, and afterwards planted out the same day. These trees
I cut down, and saw some of them very white and spongy,
others of them red and hard, though standing within a few
yards of one another. This makes me gather my cones from
the trees that bear the reddest wood, as I said before.”
Boutcher, in 1775, says, “It has been an old dispute whether
158 THE PINE TREE.

there be more than one sort of the Scotch pine or fir,” but
the difference of the wood cannot be owing to the age of the
tree and the quality of the soil, for he adds that he has seen
many pine trees cut down, “of equal age, in the same spot,
where some, were white and spongy, and others red and
hard.”

A very minute detail of the true kind was published in
1811, by Mr. George Don, of Forfar, who describes several
varieties In a planted wood near that town. In describing
the cones of variety No. 1, a degenerated sort, he says, “ The
cones are considerably elongated, and tapering to the point,
and the bark of the trunk is very rugged. This variety
seems to be but short-lived, becoming soon stunted in its
appearance, and it is altogether a very inferior tree. It pro-
duces its cones much more freely than variety 2d; the seed-
gatherers who were to be paid only by the quantity, and
not by the quality, would seize upon the former and neglect
the latter.” Of No. 2 he says, “Its cones are generally
thicker, not so much pointed, and they are smoother than
that of variety No.1. The tree seems to be a more hardy
plant, being easily reconciled to various soils and situations.
It grows very freely, and quickly arrives at a very consider-
able size. This is the sort which, I conceive, might constitute
a distinct species, and from the disposition of its branches I
would be inclined to call it Pinus horizontalis, May I here be
allowed to conjecture that the fir woods which formerly
abounded in every part of Scotland, and the trees of which
arrived at a great size, had been of this variety or species ?
I have certainly observed that the greater part of the fir
woods of the present day, and which are so much complained
of, are of the common variety, or variety Ist.” Mr. Don adds
that No. 2 retains all the good qualities ever ascribed to the
Scotch fir, and accounts for the “decline” of the tree in
this country from the circumstance that No. 1 produces its
cones much more freely than the other, and seed-gatherers,
who are paid by the quantity and not by the quality, seize
upon the cones of No. 1, to the neglect of the better sort.
THE PINE TREE. 159

Mr. Don’s description of the cones of No. 1 accords exactly
with that of the third or fourth generations of the tree
degenerated by cultivation away from its native soil and
climate, in which case its cones are always long and tapering,
while the more pure the tree is, as in its native locality, the
shorter, rounder, and lighter in colour are the cones ; so distinct
in appearance that any seed-collector of experience has not the
smallest difficulty in knowing at once from their appearance
whether they are gathered from the native Highland forests
or from degenerate plantations. Cones are always most
abundant on the latter. Though Mr. Don’s description of the
trees as they appear is very correct; though he speaks of the
“defect” and “decline” of the Scotch fir, and recommends
the cultivation of the well-marked variety ; and though his
remarks have been of great use in directing notice to the tree,
yet it does not appear distinctly that he attributed the defect
to degeneracy, but to the cultivation of a bad variety, although
he adds, “May I here be allowed to conjecture that the fir
woods, which formerly abounded in every part of Scotland,
and the trees which arrived at a large size, had been of this
the best variety ?”

Several instances are known of plantations grown from
seeds during last century from the celebrated native forests
on the Spey, and although they occupy soil of various quali-
ties, the timber in all these woods has been famed for its
quality, while, in several instances, adjoining woods of the
same age, and on the same description of soil, grown from
degenerate plantations, yielded wood very inferior ; the march
boundary of the lands sometimes forming the line between
the good and the bad timber.

Botanists generally agree that none of the differences which
the tree assumes are sufficiently distinct and permanent to
constitute a specific character; but of this tree, Loudon, in
the Arboretum Britannicum, justly remarks, page 2150, “The
reason why we wish to keep every variety and sub-variety as
distinct as possible is, that in the practice of arboriculture,
whether for useful or ornamental purposes, a variety is often
160 THE PINE TREE.

of as much importance as a species, and sometimes indeed
more so; for example, in P. sylvestris, the Highland variety
is known and acknowledged to produce timber of a superior
quality to: the common kind.” Numerous instances of the
propagation of this tree from different sources tend, in every
way, to establish the fact, that this tree, by cultivation for
several generations, is very apt to become degenerate ; and as
it not only yields cones most abundantly at a low altitude, in
a district uncongenial to its best form of development, but
also produces them at a much earlier age than in the High-
lands, degeneracy is thereby accelerated throughout the
country.

The natural law of deterioration appears to be somewhat
general: the finest variety of wheat obtained from the genial
climate of the south, when sown in some of the more un-
favourable parts of North Britain, generally produces a good
first crop, but the experience of the agriculturist tells him
that the variety changes, and that it is more profitable to
renew the stock than to continue to reproduce from the seed
of his own growth.

The effects of soil and climate were pretty generally under-
stood throughout the north by the rural inhabitants of the
last generation, in the cultivation of flax. It being an annual
crop, a change in the plant soon became manifest, and not
more than the first crop of seed produced in some districts
could be sown without the fibre becoming of a coarse and
degenerate quality. This furnishes an illustration of a law
in nature to which many of our native plants are subject.
The Scotch pine, however, being a tree of great duration, and
by no means in general cultivation, its character remained
more obscure, and being of limited interest, its properties
were more slowly recognised.

More than thirty years ago, the Highland Society of Scot-
land, aware of the degeneracy of the plantations throughout
Scotland, on account of having been propagated from inferior
stock, and with the view of improving the timber of the
country, offered premiums, both for collecting the greatest
a

THE PINE TREE. 161

quantity of seeds of the P. sylvestris, from the most celebrated
forests in the Highlands of Scotland, with satisfactory evi-
dence that the seeds were sown, or sold for sowing ; and also
for raising the greatest number of plants from seeds of this
description. The offers by the Society extended over a period
of upwards of ten years; and all the premiums, both for col-
lecting the largest quantity of native seeds, and for raising
the greatest number of plants, were awarded to Messrs.
Grigor and Co. of the nurseries, Forres. The effect was a
reform in the cultivation of the tree, and planters generally
now obtain native seeds, or plants raised from such seed,
taken direct from the indigenous forests. Since notice was
directed to this subject by the Highland Society of Scotland,
the first extensive planter of the true native pine was the late
Sir George M‘Pherson Grant, Baronet; but by far the most
extensive planters of the tree have been: the late Duke of
‘Sutherland and the late Earl of Seafield, each of whom has
formed forests composed of several millions of the plant.
Large plantations of it have also been made by Lord Lovat,
Mr. Ellice of Glenquoich, Mr. Dempster of Skibo, and Mr.
Mactier of Durris, and, on a smaller scale, the tree has been
employed in the formation of plantations in almost every:
county in Scotland and England. Few Scotch landowners
have interested themselves more in the cultivation of forest
trees than the late Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart. Respect-
ing this tree, he gives the following advice in his edition of
Gilpin’s Forest Scenery, vol. i. p. 177 :—“It should be care-
fully remembered by planters that sundry wretched and
worthless varieties of the Scotch fir have crept into use,
which in some measure accounts for the miserable appear-
ance of the low-country planted trees. The greatest care
should be taken to plant nothing but those trees raised from
the seed of the true Pinus sylvestris of the mountains.”

A succession of unfavourable seasons since 1860 has occa-
sioned a great scarcity of Scotch pine seeds, and consequently
of young plants of the native tree of this country. This gave

rise to large importations of the seed from the Continent, from

L
162 THE PINE TREE.

which plants have been grown very extensively throughout
Scotland. These plants are utterly worthless, except in the
most favourable situations. In the most sheltered nursery-
ground they seldom survive the second winter without show-
ing the influence of frost; and unless protected in early
winter, they generally become quite brown by the spring of
the year, and unsaleable. This is a fact well known to Scotch
nurserymen, and to many in England, whose nursery grounds
stand elevated and exposed. The difference between the
plants of the native Scotch pine and the Continental P. sylves-
tris is quite perceptible when one year old, but much more so
at the age of two years; then the two sorts brought into
view on elevated ground standing side by side could readily
be distinguished at a mile’s distance, so great generally is the
contrast in colour: the foreigner has a dead and withered
appearance, while the native plant stands green and scathless.
Plants from imported seed have also the disadvantage of -
forming bare roots, and are, on that account, more difficult to
transplant in safety ; therefore to treat the plant skilfully, it
should be transplanted at the age of one year, which will
have the effect of giving it a more fibrous root, and of retard-
ing its upward growth, which has the effect of diminishing
the influence of frost to some extent during its nursery
management.. The upward growth of foreign Scotch fir,
however, in good shelter and in a favourable climate, is more
rapid than that of the native plant. This is very decided in
early life, but their girth is generally less, and, at best, the
tree assumes the tall, slender appearance which I have
observed conspicuously in the planted pine woods of Ger-
many, even where the trees had ample space. Some young
plantations formed in the Highlands of Scotland with plants
from foreign seed, suffered so severely by the summer frosts
of 1863 that the succeeding summers have not restored their
vigour, while the native plant stood exempt from injury.

The cones of the Scotch fir are ripe in the end of the year,
but after being exposed to the frosts of winter a less degree
of heat extracts the seeds, therefore they may be gathered in
THE PINE TREE. 163

March ; after this time the heat of the weather opens their
scales, and the seeds fall out.

If a large quantity of seed is required, the cones should be
placed from six to eight inches deep on a kiln, laid with deal
two inches broad, with a vacancy of half an inch between
each, to admit heat, and also to allow the seeds to fall
through on the cones being turned. The heat to be applied
should not advance beyond 130° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer ;
but a degree approaching to that may be kept up for the first
four hours, after which the heat should be withdrawn for
half an hour, and the cones then turned over with a spade
or shovel, and the seeds which fall through into the pit
underneath should be removed. It may be necessary here to
remark, that, the pit should be formed about a foot or two
feet under the level of the fireplace, in order that, for the
safety of the seed, it may be always cool, or of a compara-

-tively low temperature. After the first turning the heat
should be continued for other four hours, but the temperature
rather decreased, and another cooling of the kiln should then
take place, when the cones should be turned, and the seeds
removed as formerly; by this time the cones are nearly all
open, and their depth on the kiln is more than twice that at
which they stood when the heat was first applied. A steady
heat of about 110° is then kept up for a few hours longer,
which completes the process of drying, and all the seeds fall
from the open cones on their being riddled. It usually
happens, however, that a small proportion of cones remain
unopened ; these should be picked out and placed along with
the close cones for the next kilnful.

Brick or metal kilns are quite unsuitable for the drying of
seeds, and cannot be safely employed ; these materials imbibe
a greater heat than wood, and the seeds which come in con-
tact with such substances are deprived of their vegetative
principle.

If only a few pounds of seeds are required, these are most
conveniently extracted by exposure to the influence of sun-
shine. By placing the cones in a warm sunny situation,
164 THE PINE TREE.

sloping to the south, in a few days they will open, and the
seeds may be sifted out.

When the seeds have been extracted they should be mois-
tened with water, which will detach them from their chaff or
wings; and then, by winnowing and sifting, they are readily
made clean. The influence of our sunshine in April is not
powerful enough to open the cones of some of the foreign
species; but the heat stated for extracting the seed is adapted
to all the species of the pine, with this difference, that some
sorts require the heat kept up for a longer period than others,
particularly if the cones have been gathered immediately on
their becoming ripe.

The usual time of sowing Scotch pine in South Britain is
the middle of April; while in North Britain the last week in
April or first in May is the most approved time. The soil
best adapted for seedling pines is that which is well pulver-
ized, and rather dry and sandy than otherwise; such as is
not apt to get hard by alternate rain and drought; and it is
not necessary that it be made rich. After being dug and
smoothly raked, the ground should be marked off into beds,
four feet broad, with alleys twelve or fifteen inches wide.
The beds should be opened by removing the surface soil into
the alleys, by the operation called cuffing, which is performed
by a wooden-headed rake; this soil forms the cover for the
seeds; one pound of good seed is sufficient for sowing ten
or twelve yards in length of a bed; the cover should be
from one-fourth to one-half of an inch thick; the thinnest
cover is generally enough in heavy soil; but no exact
depth can be fixed, as that which is required in extreme
drought is too deep during a continuation of wet weather.

The beds require to be carefully protected from the ravages
of birds until the young plants have been a few weeks above
ground. The different sorts of linnets are generally the chief
depredators ; but in some districts the larks are very destruc-
tive; they not only eat the seeds while germinating, but also
the cotyledons when above ground; pigeons and partridges
are still more ruinous, particularly the latter during the night,
THE PINE TREE. 165

but these are less apt to find out the crop, and a season
sometimes passes over without a visit from them.

The seed-beds during the first and second summers require
no further attention beyond that of weeding. After the
second summer’s growth the seedling plants are fit for being
planted into bare moorland or heath. In the north of Scotland
a greater number of Scotch fir plants are inserted in plantations
at this age than at any other.—(See MOORLAND PLANTATIONS.)

To adapt plants for situations where they have to contend
with a rank surface vegetation or any other herbage than
short heath, they must be first transplanted into nursery
lines ; which is generally done when the plants are two years
old. The lines should be eight or ten inches distant, and the
plants two or three inches apart. These dimensions are
sufficient for their remaining one year in the lines, but nearly
twice this space is necessary for the plants if they are required
to be a second year in the lines, which brings them to the
greatest size and age at which the Scotch pine should be
removed. While on this subject, it is worthy of remark that
the plants best adapted for living in a bare and barren ex-
posure, such as a hill-top, are those which are transplanted
at the age of one year, and nursed one year in the lines, a
sort rarely used, but most tenacious of life.

The price of two years’ seedling native Highland pines is
commonly 2s. per 1000; one-year-old seedling and one year
transplanted, 3s. 6d.; two years’ seedling one year trans-
planted, 4s. to 5s.; two-year-old seedlings two years trans-
planted, 8s. to 10s. per 1000; the common varieties of the
tree produced from plantation woods are frequently sold at
fully one-third under these prices.

There is no other tree that grows so freely, and produces
timber so valuable on poor soils of very opposite qualities.
It luxuriates on the dry and gravelly heath-covered moors,
its roots penetrate among the fissures and débris of rocks,
and support the tree in the most scanty resources of almost
every formation. Stagnant water is ruinous to the tree; but
as its roots generally range near to the surface of the ground,
166 THE PINE TREE.

it exists on a very thin stratum above water, where trees in
general perish. Of all soils common in waste lands, pure
bog is most uncongenial to its growth; and although the
plant is sometimes seen to live in soil composed almost wholly
of this vegetable substance, yet the pine requires a mixture of
inorganic matter, in order that it may produce timber.

In early life the tree rises in a formal shape, particularly
in planted woods, where it indicates its age by the whorls of
its branches, or their marks on the trunk. Trees fifty years
of age are met with in sheltered situations, which furnish a
scale of their growth during the respective years of that long
period, when their entire height is often seventy feet. Some
of the tallest pine trees in Scotland measure upwards of 100
feet in height, but in a wild state they are seldom found to
exceed seventy feet. But although the growth of the tree
when young, particularly in planted woods, is according to a
regular form, yet in its native wilds it soon assumes a very
different character, presenting a massive trunk, with ramifi-
cations irregular and beautiful. It is an Alpine tree, prefer-
ring an elevated situation, a northern exposure, and a cool
climate. Throughout the Highland districts isolated groups
of the tree arise here and there in broken and varied outline,
scattered around lakes, and on the rocky knolls of an undulat-
ing surface, while single specimens stand throughout the
brown heath, investing the scene with an air of grandeur and
antiquity, of solemn and solitary beauty, which no tree but
the Scotch pine and cedar could confer. Such scenes are of
a very striking character during the heat of summer and the
snows of winter. In the Highlands of Morayshire, along the
roadside from Carr-bridge towards Aviemore, for several miles
magnificent specimens of the native tree stand with massive
trunks, broad and umbrageous heads, displaying a ramification
equal to that of the oak.

Wordsworth, who had a lively perception of the picturesque
grandeur of the native Scotch fir, wished to insert a few
plants of them in his grounds at Rydal, which we supplied,
and to show his appreciation of the tree I take the liberty to
THE PINE TREE. 167

quote the following letter, which he returned on receipt of

the plants :—
* RypaL Mount, 20¢h February ’45.

“DEAR Six,—Your plants were received with much plea-
sure, and you will be glad to learn that they are not injured.
My garden lies in something of a hollow, and is yet covered
with snow, but they are placed in a sheltered plot in front
of the house, and will be transplanted to the garden as soon
as the snow will permit.

“You were quite right in inferring that the fir was a
favourite tree with me, indeed, as perhaps I have told you
before, I prefer it to all others except the oak, taking into
consideration its beauty in winter, and by moonlight, and in
the evening.

“ Accept my sincere thanks for this mark of your attention,
and even still more for your good wishes so feelingly ex-
pressed.—I remain, dear Sir, faithfully yours obliged,

“Wa. WoRDSWORTH.”

Some of the best trees of the species in the kingdom stand
in the county of Moray, near Forres. A tree on the estate of
Brodie, lately felled, measured fourteen feet in circumference
at three feet from the ground; the trunk was sound and
shapely, with little or no taper to the height of about fifteen
feet, where it ramified into a large head nearly seventy feet
high, and fully ninety feet in diameter. The age of this tree
was 150 years. It had lost its top in early life and having
had ample space it ramified and spread like an oak. Its root
inverted forms a prominent figure on the lawn at Blackfriars
Haugh, Elgin, displaying a solid circular body of gnarled
timber, eleven feet in diameter.1 The ground on which this

1 This tree grew in the parish of Dyke, on the Hardmoor, the spot dis-
tinguished by affording the scene of the mainspring of the drama of the °
tragedy of Macbeth. It was on the Hardmoor, on the western side of the
park of Brodie Castle, where Macbeth and Banquo, returning victorious from
an expedition in the Western Isles to wait on King Duncan, then in the castle
of Forres, and on a journey to Inverness, are represented to have been saluted
by the weird sisterhood. Banquo, impatient, after a fatiguing journey on this
blasted, and to appearance boundless waste, thinks of the termination of

his journey, and asks
“ How far is’t called to Forres?”
168 THE PINE TREE.

tree stood was very wet, and notwithstanding its immense
size none of its roots descended more than two feet under the
surface. Other fine trees, but of inferior size, stand through-
out the forests of Brodie, Darnaway, and Dalvey, supposed to
be remnants of the old Caledonian forests, which at one time
extended from the Highlands of Perthshire to the shores of
the Moray Firth.

On the banks of the Spey at Rothiemurchus, Glenmore,
Abernethy, and Duthil, and along the northern slopes of the
Cairngorm mountains, native Scotch pine timber is produced,
in quality not inferior to the finest pine timber of any country.
Throughout the present century extensive removals of timber
were effected, particularly from such parts of these forests as
were situated near to the roads and rivers which gave an
easy transit for the wood.

For many years the forests of Rothiemurchus yielded a
large revenue, often exceeding £18,000 per annum.

Glenmore forest, the property of the Duke of Richmond

* The land of the mountain and flood,
Where the pine of the forest for ages hath stood ;
Where the eagle comes forth on the wings of the storm:
And her young ones are rocked on the high Cairngorm.”

In the end of last century the forest of Glenmore was con-
sidered the finest in this country. His Grace the Duke of
Gordon about that time sold the principal part of the timber
to Mr. Osbourne, an eminent wood-merchant in Hull, who
finished felling it in 1804. The timber was floated to Spey-
mouth, and principally employed in naval purposes. One of
the finest frigates built there of this timber for his Majesty's
service was named “The Glenmore.”

This forest is situated in a glen, and surrounds Lochmor-
lich, where the water of Abernethy, the Druie, takes its rise,
close on the north-west of the mountain of Cairngorm. Its
length is upwards of four, and its breadth nearly three miles.
When I last inspected this forest, there were still a great
many fine trees, particularly on the borders of the lake, but
none notable for great dimensions, except a few measuring
from nine to ten feet in circumference, of little value, being
THE PINE TREE. 169

knotty, bushy, and blemished. They stood at great distances,
commonly from 50 to 100 yards apart, and evidently had not
been considered of consequence when the intermediate ones
had been felled. In other parts they were in patches, on the
border of the lake, and on hill-sides; in both situations they
grow rugged in figure, and of great girth.

Notwithstanding the openness of this situation, and the
fertility of the soil, it seemed not congenial to the natural
reproduction of pine timber; partly from the ground being
depastured, but principally from the exuviz of the old wood,
for in the interior of the forest a young plant was rarely met
with. On examining this place, a flat of ground at a turn of
a small rivulet was pointed out as the spot where the largest
trees grew, one of which was called “The Lady of the Glen,”
the largest in the forest. It was cut up, and a deal from its
centre presented to his Grace the Duke of Gordon by Mr.
Osbourne. I have seen it in the entrance hall of Gordon
Castle; it is 6 feet 2 inches long, and 5 feet 5 inches broad.
The annual layers of wood, from its centre to each side,
number about 235, indicating that number of years. A brass
plate attached to the plank bears the following inscription :-—

“In the year 1783,
WILLIAM OSBOURNE, Esquire,

Merchant of Hull, purchased of the Duke of Gordon the
forest of Glenmore, the whole of which he cut down in the
space of twenty-two years, and built during that time, at the
mouth of the river Spey, where never vessel was built before,
forty-seven sail of ships, of upwards of 19,000 tons burthen.
The largest of them 1050 tons, and three others little inferior
jn size, are now in the service of His Majesty and the Honour-
able East India Company. This undertaking was completed
at the expense (of labour only) of above £70,000. To his
Grace the Duke of Gordon this plank is offered as a specimen
of the growth of one of the trees in the above forest, by his
Grace’s most obedient servant, WILLIAM OSBOURNE,
“Hon, September 26, 1806.”

I saw many blocks of extraordinary size near the spot
where this tree grew. The surface soil is composed of thin
170 THE PINE TREE.

sandy peat earth ; the subsoil of rich brown clay, which feels
quite soft, and forms a great part of the subsoil in the glen.
Perhaps no district in Scotland is better calculated than this,
so far as quality of soil goes, for growing larch, oak, or various
kinds of valuable hardwood.

The herbage consists of Calluna vulgaris, Juniperus com-
munis, Tormentilla officinalis, Polygala vulgaris, Agrostis vulgaris,
Narthecium ossifragum, Vaccinium Vitis Idea, Erica tetraliz, and
Prunella vulgaris, ete.

Along the outside of this forest young wood to the extent
of several square miles has sprung up since the removal of the
old forest.

These trees grow slowly until they reach the age of twelve,
which perhaps is owing to their roots not penetrating earlier
into the rich subsoil. They are of all sizes under fifty feet ;
some crowded, and others quite thin. This young forest is of
the usual age for bearing seed, but very few cones are to be
seen ; and on examining the ground around the trees, few of
those of former years are found, and those are smaller and
rounder than the cones of the low-country planted trees, as is
invariably the case in native forests.

The largest trees to be found in Strathspey at the time
stood on the outskirts of the forest of Abernethy, the property
of the Earl of Seafield, some of which were fifteen feet in
circumference, but short in the bole, and bushy. But in the
close parts of all these native forests throughout Strathspey,
trees of great girth display their clean boles to the height, in
many places, of upwards of forty feet, in figure as straight
and in taper as elegant as that of a billiard cue.

Strangers to those forests are surprised at seeing the size
and closeness of the trunks to each other, and must admire
the value of timber contained in small space. The forests
in Strathspey however have lately been greatly reduced,
owing to the high price of timber, enhanced by the introduc-
tion of two railways into the district; but although a great
quantity of fine timber has disappeared, the young native
woods are better protected, which, with very extensive plan-
THE PINE TREE. 171

tations of recent formation, occupy a greater space by some
thousands of acres than was covered with timber trees at any
time during the present century. The following is an extract
from the report on the pine forests of Scotland made by me to
the Highland Society of Scotland in 1836, respecting Aber-
nethy native forest :—

“Tt is one of the most ancient in Scotland, and from time
immemorial has been famed for the quality of its pine tim-
ber.

“Tt stands on the southern extremity of Morayshire, on the
south side of the Spey. The water of Nethy winds through
it, and is of the greatest importance to the forest, as it sup-
plies water-power to the saw-mills, and floats the timber to
the Spey, by which it is conveyed to the sea-port of Garmouth.
The timber of this forest contains a large quantity of resin,
and is therefore very inflammable. In the year 1746 a great
proportion of it was burned down, but a large extent has pro-
duced a new crop of excellent timber. The ground on which
the forest stands is partly hilly and partly level; the smaller
hills, and the sides of the larger to a considerable extent,
being entirely covered with trees. The soil is of various
qualities, but is principally composed of a thin sandy moss,
with a subsoil of hard hazelly-coloured gravel, and in some
parts it is a black mould mixed with white sand, and very
stony.

“ Along the banks of the Nethy I had an opportunity of
seeing a great quantity of very fine timber, barked and pre-
pared for floating; the largest of which measured 10 feet
7 inches in length, 6 in girth at the root end, and 5 feet 2
inches at the other end. The number of annual layers or
rings at the root end indicated its age to be seventy-three
years, and that at the upper end sixty-one years. The timber
was of excellent quality, well-hearted, clean, and full of resin,
and although from thirty-two to thirty-four of the last-formed
rings composed the sapwood, yet it bore a comparatively
small proportion to the bulk of the whole trunk, the trees
having of late years made but little progress. Many of the
172 THE PINE TREE.

trees were much older and smaller, consequently their wood
was closer and of superior quality.

“T was directed to a part of the forest which stands about
seven miles south of the Spey, as affording the best specimens
of large trees, many of which I measured close above the
swell of the roots, or about the height of one foot from the
surface, at which the largest were from 10 to upwards of 13
feet in circumference, and at the height of eight feet from the
ground from 9 to 12 feet, tapering with clean trunks to -the
height of from 20 to 35 feet, and shooting up to the entire
height of from 40 to 65 feet. These very old trees stand on
low and level ground on the side of the Nethy ; but perhaps
the finest tree in this forest stands on a steep hill-side adjoin-
ing, though not highly situated, which measures in circum-
ference, at the height of one foot from the surface, 13 feet 3
inches ; and at eight feet high 12 feet. It tapers to 32 feet
of trank, its whole height being about 50 feet, with a top
branching like an oak, to which all the large trees in point of
form bear a strong resemblance. <A few yards distant from
this tree one of similar dimensions had lately been felled ;
the stump and roots remaining to indicate its size. The
annual rings of this root indicate the age of 242 years, and
that of the top 224. The top lay at the distance of 27 feet
from the root, and I imagine that the tree had grown about
that length in eighteen years, that being the number of years
intervening between the ages of the root and top. Several
others had been felled of nearly the same size, which had
almost attained the age of 200 years. I observed from the
size of the interior layers that the trees had rapidly advanced
in growth between the ages of 8 and 70, the growth having
afterwards diminished, and eventually the outside layers,
although distinct enough to be numbered, are very minute,
and the whole timber is equally strong, hard, and red, to
within less than an inch of the bark. Many of them had
been thrown down by the great flood of 1829, the stumps of
which still remain, and show that the roots had derived all
their nourishment from the surface soil, none of them being
THE PINE TREE. 173

more than one foot from the surface where the subsoil is
hard and gravelly. These are discernible above ground, and
each forms a rib to the height of several feet on the side of
the trunk.”

The soil in the best native forests is of very various quali-
ties. The popular belief is that a poor soil yields the best
pine timber, but the soil of the native forests does not gene-
rally support this theory.

The soil of the old forest of Glenmore is generally of a
rich deep-brown earth, rather clayey than otherwise, and
apparently adapted for any description of hardwood timber.

In Rothiemurchus the soil is very changeable, and it affects
the size, and not the quality, of the timber. On the opposite
side of the Spey, in the parish of Duthil, better pine timber
can nowhere be found than that produced on slopes composed
of rich deep-brown clay. Abernethy furnishes the greatest
variety of soil. Generally speaking, it is a hazelly gravel, and
parts change from a dry sand to a deep black mould; on the
whole it is, perhaps, the least fertile district of soil occupied
by the forests of Strathspey ; yet uncultivated moorland has
produced an ash-tree upwards of twenty feet in girth; and
while traversing these woods, we were surprised to find a
common alder, standing on low meadow ground, near Lurg,
which measured upwards of fifteen feet im circumference,
which is beyond the girth of any tree of this species of British
growth hitherto recorded. From these illustrations of the
resources of the soil in the native forests, we need hardly add,
that it is at least equal to the soil on which the Scotch pine
produces inferior timber throughout the country, and that
the superiority of the native Highland pine ought by no
means to be attributed to the timber being produced on poor
soil.

The trees in the native forests are in general older than
most plantations throughout Scotland, and are of greater size,
even in proportion to their age. Notwithstanding this, it is
very uncommon to see a single tree in a decaying state. We
observed several trunks that had a few feet of timber scooped
174 THE PINE TREE.

out from the side of each to be used as candles by the cottars,
yet the trees continue quite green and healthy, with the
hollows overhung with turpentine icicles several inches in
length.

The pines grown in these districts appear to be of one
species, and differ from the great bulk of those produced in
the low counties of Scotland in the following respects :—

The Highland pine is of a more robust and shaggy appear-
ance. In early life it grows, although crowded together, to a
greater girth; it is found to attain a greater size on very wet
ground; its wood is redder and harder, and consequently
more durable, and is found to be more inflammable. It pro-
duces very few fertile flowers or cones, and what it does
produce are uniformly found to be rounder, smaller, and
whiter, and it outlives many generations of the common
cultivated fir, and ultimately attains a‘larger size.

It may be difficult to ascertain the differences in plants
necessary to constitute a distinct species, but if the superiority
of the Highland pines to the common tree of the low country
should not be attributed to a difference in kind, the great
proportion of the trees in Scotland, by repeated cultivation,
must have lamentably degenerated, since it is known that
thousands of the common fir have arrived at maturity, and
thousands have died of old age, without ever producing timber
in any respect comparable to those of the districts now
attempted to be described; and they who aim not to propa-
gate these magnificent objects of nature, overlook that analogy
which is everywhere observable in the works of creation.

In the parish of Dyke the remnant of a plantation seventy
years old, which did not form half a cover on the seventy-
three acres of ground which it occupied, was lately disposed of
by public sale for £2500. The wood had always been cele-
brated for its fine quality, and the last of it was employed for
railway sleepers, where the timber specified was that of “the
best. native Highland.” It could not be distinguished from
the finest Strathspey native wood, and people were recently
alive who knew that the young plants of this wood were
THE PINE TREE. 175

taken from the native forests in Strathspey, having when
they were children been employed at the formation of the
plantation. An instance is given in Lawson’s Manual of
“a plantation recently cut down, which stood on the north
side of the Perth and Dundee road, nearly ten miles from the
former town, the seed of which was, seventy or eighty years
since, received from the forest of Mar; and the timber,
although grown on a poor, damp, tenacious clay, besides
attaining to a great size, was found equal in quality to that
for which the above natural forest is esteemed.”

The durability of the red timber of the Scotch pine was
supposed by the celebrated engineer Brindley to be as great
as that of the oak; and Dr. Smith, in his essay on the pro-
duction of timber in the Transactions of the Highland Society
of Scotland, vol. i. p. 165, says that he has seen some Scotch
pine grown in the north Highlands, which, when taken down
after it had been 300 years in the roof of an old castle, was
as fresh and full of resin as newly imported timber from
Memel, and that part of it was actually wrought up into new
furniture.

There is no timber more generally useful than that of the
Scotch pine. The first thinnings of a plantation, retaining
the branches and leaves, are suitable for being employed in
the erection of screen fences, to protect young plantations from
the influence of the sea, and from the effects of the weather in
cold exposures, for sheep-flakes, and similar purposes. The
next thinnings are adapted for coal props, an article in con-
stant demand at all shipping ports. The usual prices for
common props range from Is, 9d. to 2s. per dozen; crown
props sell at from 2s. 9d. to 3s. per dozen.

These articles are bought in lengths of six, twelve, and
eighteen feet; seventy-two lineal feet make a dozen. Com-
mon props must stand three inches in diameter at the small
end, and crown props are not under four inches.

Prop-wood is very profitable when the carriage to the
shore is not expensive; and its value is not influenced so
much as that of other wood is by the price of foreign timber.
176 THE PINE TREE.

Young pine wood is also much used for paling, staves for
dryware casks, lath, and such purposes. When in a more
matured state, it is cut into deal for flooring, and all the other
purposes of house-carpentry, railway sleepers, etc. The
quality of pine timber is regulated to some extent by the
soil, and more by its age, but most of all by its variety, that
is, the purity or absence of degeneracy in which it is pro-
duced. The plantation wood of degenerate quality sells at
present for about 4d. or 6d. per cubical foot, while the native
Highland variety fetches about double that rate, and its
value is regulated by the price of foreign pine timber, which
has of late been much reduced. In a treatise on the strength
of timber, published by P. Barlow, F.R.S., showing the result
of experiments on the strength of various kinds of timber,
selected from the Woolwich dockyard, it is stated that pieces
of Riga fir, 7 feet long by 2 inches square, broke with a
weight of 422 Ibs.; pieces of the same dimensions, grown in
Mar forest, broke with a weight.of 436 lbs., each being the
mean results of three experiments. The mean results of a
second trial are recorded, with pieces 6 feet long, 2 inches
square. The Riga fir broke with a weight of 467 Ibs., and
the Mar forest fir with a weight of 561 lbs., showing a differ-
ence greatly in favour of the Scotch native timber.

The Scotch pine, as well as all the pines, are subject to the
ravages of various kinds of insects ; of these, several species
of beetles are among the most destructive, particularly the
Hylurgus piniperda, while the plants are in the nursery ground.
This is a small beetle of the size and colour of the seed of
Scotch pine, and varying in colour from a black to a light
brown, as do the seeds of most kinds of the pine. The young
shoots of all the kinds are commonly formed by the end of
June, and it is in this month that this insect, active and
on wing, generally begins its depredations, by boring into the
young shoot, and perforating it in the centre like the stem of
a tobacco-pipe. The more vigorous and succulent the growth
the more subject it is to be attacked, especially in sheltered
places, so that its ravages are chiefly confined to nursery-
THE PINE TREE. 177

grounds or to foreign pines placed in rich soil and shelter.
The leading shoots are often destroyed, which renders the
plant comparatively worthless. The first symptoms of attack
appear from the pale foliage and drooping young shoot.
These should be immediately picked off, collected into a bag,
and burned; many such twigs will be found to contain the
insect, which shifts from twig to twig during the summer
months. Its effects are seldom observed in the native forests
of Scotland, or in plantations in exposed moorland, and then
only on the sheltered lateral twigs. I have never seen an
exposed leading shoot injured in such places, therefore its
operations have only the effect of a gentle pruning or fore-
shortening of the tops of the lateral branches. There are
other beetles more destructive to the Scotch pine in the forest
than the one described. These consist of several species,
abounding in ground where fir woods have recently been cut
down. They find a congenial home in the old roots, and the
mossy herbage and decayed leaves protect them in the severity
of winter. It is when such places are replanted that these
insects are most destructive by feeding on the bark of the
plants of the fir tribe. They attack the plant first at the
surface of the ground, particularly if it stands closely sur-
rounded by a mossy herbage. When the bark is broken the
plant yields a flow of rich resinous sap, on which they feed,
and the result, in the course of a few weeks, is the death of
the plant. Field-mice sometimés commit the like depreda-
tions in similar situations, and on larger plants, but their
attacks are not so frequent.

No effectual cure for these evils is yet known, further than
keeping the plants clear at the surface of the ground. The
precautions best adapted to avert these casualties are detailed
in the article on replanting forest ground.—(See p. 74.)

Young plantations, commonly under thirty years of age,
are subject to an attack from the larve of several species of
moth peculiar to the pine. I have seen several acres of the
Scotch pine, both in the Highlands and in the low country,
stripped of every leaf, while all experiments in smoking and

M
178 THE PINE TREE.

dusting with poisonous substances were of no avail. The
larve descend into the surface cover on the ground, and
undergo their transformation ; but fortunately, the same trees,
so far as I have ever known, are not infested during a succes-
sion of summers. Such repeated attacks would infallibly be
fatal. An attack retards the growth of the trees during that
and the following year, but I have never seen the trees killed.
The first and second years after an onslaught, the trees
assume a curious tufted appearance, their leaves being con-
fined to the extremities of the branches, or to the newly-
formed twig.

Squirrels were known to abound in the large forests of the
Highlands from time immemorial, without any complaint on
their doings till of late ; but they have spread to an alarming
extent throughout the north of Scotland, and their depreda-
tions, by barking the succulent stems of the pine tribe, have
become very serious, as the effect is to deprive the tree of its
top. On many estates gamekeepers are employed in shoot-
ing them down. In doing so, however, care should be taken
that the shot do not perforate the leaders to a great extent, as
that occasions a flow of turpentine, and forms a weak point,
at which the tree is apt to snap during a gale of wind.

Pinus sylvestris Haguenensis (Loudon.)—This is the Con-
tinental variety of the Scotch pine, named after the great
forest of Haguenau, situated in France and Germany, and
extending on both sides of the Rhine to about 30,000 acres,
and from which British nurserymen are often supplied with
seed, not only in seasons of scarcity, but to a considerable
extent every year. The same variety constitutes the planta-
tions of P. sylvestris throughout France, Germany, and Prussia.
When young, the plant in this country advances rapidly,
rather more so than the native Scotch tree, provided the soil is
good and well sheltered; but it is of no value as a timber tree
in ordinary exposed plantations. We have already referred
to it under Scotch pine. The seeds are imported annually
at less than half the price of those of the native pine.

Pinus s. Pumilio (Henke); P. s. Mughus (Loudon); P.!s,
THE PINE TREE: 179

Montana (Baumann).—These pines are closely related to the
Scotch pine, but they are all of a very dwarfed habit of
growth, and bear a close resemblance to one another. They
are natives of high mountains, and abound on the Alps, the
Pyrenees, and other cold exposures throughout Europe, where
they become bushy shrubs; whereas, with a little more
shelter, some of them attain to the size of low bushy trees.
Their yearly shoots are very short, with the foliage thickly
set, of a dark green, and their habit being broad and spread-
ing, adapts them for cold and windy situations. As these
sorts are often found occupying the more elevated grounds
close to the forests of P. sylvestris, it is believed that their
peculiarities and habits are produced from the effects of
climate and situation, by the repeated generations of a tree
susceptible of great change in the course of a long period,
under such circumstances. They all produce wood, red, hard,
and durable, and from its very resinous and inflammable
quality it is used as torch-lights by the inhabitants of the
countries where it is produced. All these sorts blossom at
an early age, and produce cones very abundantly, particularly
pumilio and mughus. I have seen the pumilio produce a
female blossom during the third summer of its growth in the
nursery, and an infertile cone the fourth summer, while the
plant was yet under one foot in height. In nurseries these
trees are only grown for ornamental purposes, or by lovers
of variety. Although they are all stemless trees, the mon-
tana being only a tall bush, yet there are purposes for which
they may be found very suitable. I have seen in some of the
northern islands of Scotland the pumilio and mughus, though
only about two feet high, form a cover of rich green dense
foliage, on the most exposed ground, composed of pure moss,
and so wet that water might be compressed from the soil at
every season of the year, and where any other ligneous plant
could hardly exist.

The habits and the tenacity of life in these trees in the
most inhospitable soil and climate, adapt them admirably for
being planted as underwood, associated with the native Scotch
180 THE PINE TREE.

pine, as screen-fences, with the view of intercepting snow-
drift, which so frequently blocks up railways throughout
Highland districts. P. montana is best adapted for this pur-
pose, as it becomes a bush twenty feet high. There is very
little demand for these trees in nurseries, but as their seeds
are readily obtained from the foreign-tree seed-merchants at
a cheap rate, the plants could be grown to order at a few
shillings per thousand. There are five or six other varieties
of Pinus sylvestris recorded in nurserymen’s catalogues and in
cultivation.

P. Laricio (Poir), or Corsican Pine.—This tree was introduced
into England about the middle of the eighteenth century.
It is a native of various parts of the south of Europe, and
of the west and north of Asia. In the island of Corsica it
frequently attains to the height of 140 feet, but it does not
inhabit the poorest soils, nor is it found natural at a great
altitude. This species, like others extending to various coun-
tries, has many varieties. It is remarkable for its rapid
growth when young. In the Jardin des Plantes at Paris
it attained the height of eighty feet, with a trunk seven feet
in circumference, in a period of fifty-five years, and it has been
known to produce a top shoot three feet long in one season.
It is quite hardy, but in poor, exposed ground, the vigour of
the tree, after a few years, is not greater than that of the
native pine in upward growth, and its girth is somewhat less.
It therefore requires good soil and a favourable situation, into
which it should be removed at an early age, as, like all other
pines of early vigour, it is apt to form a root small in pro-
portion to its top, which renders it difficult to remove with
safety. The price of young plants fluctuates very much, on
account of the scarcity of seeds in some seasons on the Con-
tinent, from whence they are usually imported. One and two
year seedling one-year transplanted plants commonly range
from 10s. to 12s. per 1000. The timber of the tree, when young,
is soft and easily worked, like that of the rapidly-grown Scotch
pine ; when old, it is said to be tough and resinous.

P. L. Austriaca (Hoss).—The black pine of Austria was intro-
THE PINE TREE, 181

duced into this country by Messrs. P. Lawson ‘and Son of
Edinburgh, in 1835. It is propagated to a considerable extent
throughout Britain from imported seed. It is perfectly hardy
and of robust growth, particularly in soft soil of any quality.
It carries a breadth along with its upward growth, which
adapts it for exposed ground. In its native country it some-
times attains the height of 100 feet. Its mode of treatment
is similar to that of the Scotch pine, but as its roots are apt
to grow more bare and straggling than the roots of that tree,
the best rooted plants are those that are transplanted when
one-year-old seedlings, into nursery lines, where they may re-
main one or two years, as may be necessary to prepare them for
the ground they are intended to occupy. The tree commonly
yields a close compact foliage of the darkest green, and its
timber is strong and resinous.

P. Pinaster (Aiton): The Cluster Pine.—-This tree is in-
digenous throughout the south of Europe, in the countries
along the shores of the Mediterranean, and in other parts of
the world. Like all pines of an extensive geographical range,
the species is possessed of numerous varieties, sometimes dis-
tinguished by the length and colour of their foliage, the size
of their cones, etc. The tree was introduced into England by
Gerrard at the close of the sixteenth century. It is readily
grown from seed, which should be sown in the end of April
in beds four feet wide, allowing one pound weight of seed to
every six or seven lineal yards of a bed; the cover should be
half an inch deep, and the beds, like those of all other pine
crops, should be protected from the ravages of birds. The
seedling plants should be transplanted at the age of one year
into lines about eight inches apart, and the plants about two
inches asunder. When they have been one year in lines they
are fit for removal into sand, or bare exposed ground. If
they are not planted out finally after being one year in lines,
they should again be transplanted into wider space in the
nursery, in order to keep their roots sufficiently fibrous ; for
two years undisturbed, at any age, in almost any description
of soil, is generally fatal to the safe removal of the pinaster.
182 THE PINE TREE.

Notwithstanding the rapid growth of the plant when young,
it is not a favourite tree with planters in general throughout
this country, except within the influence of the sea, where the
variety maritima and all the other varieties of the tree grow
better than most plants. In rich or wet soil it does not
endure the frosts of winter; a dry, deep, sandy soil is indis-
pensable to its profitable growth, and in the vicinity of the
sea the temperature is to some extent equalized and adapted
for its development. Some of the best specimens of the tree
in Britain are to be found in the county of Norfolk, standing
nearly 80 feet high, with trunks 12 feet in girth ; many such
trees stand at Westwick Park, where few other species of
trees would become timber. On this property the tree has
been planted at intervals during the last 150 years, and it is
the principal species in a plantation of 500 acres produced
from seed grown on the property. In raising any of the more
tender kinds of the Coniferz, home-grown seed should always
be preferred to that grown in a warmer climate ; the rate of
growth may be rather shorter for the first few years, but if
they are exempt from the influence of frost, as is the case
with the native pine and the home-grown larch, compared
with those from imported seed, there is often all the difference
between a healthy plantation and a total failure. In open
sands the pinaster strikes its roots to a great depth, and de-
rives its support from soil several fathoms below the surface ;
it is of rapid growth, often attaining the height of 30 feet in
twenty years,and a tree has sometimes been known to grow five
feet in two years. In Scotland, when the tree is interspersed
in plantations, it has a tendency to grow crooked and towards
the side most exposed, and appears to prefer an open and airy
situation. I have seen it in some of the weather-beaten
islands of the Hebrides affording shelter as a hedge five or
six feet high where few or no other ligneous plants could live.
In a congenial soil it becomes a large handsome pyramidal tree,
and all the varieties are distinguished by their light green
foliage of a clustering habit of growth, occasioned by bare
spaces on the branches which have produced male catkins,
THE PINE TREE. 183

and which ever after are destitute of leaves, and give the
foliage a singular tufted appearance. The cones are generally
produced in groups which point outward in a star-like form,
whence the name pinaster or star-pine.

In general the wood is white and soft, and fit only for the
purposes of common deal. The greatest triumph recorded
in connexion with the history of the pinaster is that of con-
verting several hundred square miles of drifting sand in
France into a thriving forest, which I detail under SEa-SIDE
PuLantTING. These forests on the landes of Bordeaux, and
between that city and Bayonne, form the principal field for
the supply of seeds of the P. pinaster, which seldom exceeds
2s. 6d. per lb. To nurserymen this tree is generally unpro-
fitable. This arises partly from want of a regular demand for
the young plants, and partly on account of their readily over-
growing, when they must be cleared out. Therefore, grown
to order they could be furnished at a few shillings a thousand,
or half the usual rate.

P. P. folis variegatis is a very ornamental tree, and is pro-
pagated by inarching on any of the common kinds of the
species.

P. ponderosa (Douglas).—The heavy-wooded pine was intro-
duced into England in 1826. It is a native of the north-
west coast of America, and of California, and is found grow-
ing mostly on alluvial soils. In this country it is of a very
vigorous habit of growth; when a few years old it produces
leading shoots often about two feet long and one inch in
diameter. Its leaves are thickly set, and eight to ten inches
long (produced in threes). It is quite hardy, but not likely
ever to become a useful tree in this country, as it forms a root
small in proportion to its top, and is easily blown over by
the wind.

P. Cembra (L.)—The Cembran or Siberian pine is a native of
the Alps, of Siberia, of Switzerland, Italy,and other mountainous
districts, where it is frequently found associated with the dwarf
variety of the P. sylvestris. It was introduced into England more
than a century ago by Archibald, Duke of Argyll. The tree is
184 THE PINE TREE,

quite hardy, and consists of several varieties. It has for
many years yielded crops of cones in Britain. Some of the
best trees are found at Dropmore, Kew, and Whitton. The
seeds are large and edible, and being produced abundantly in
Switzerland they form part of the food of the peasantry of
those districts in which the tree is indigenous. The seeds
should be sown fully half an inch under the surface of the
ground ; they do not vegetate till the second spring, and the
plants are remarkable for their slowness of growth; they
should be transplanted when two years old into nursery lines.
This becomes an erect tree with a smooth bark, with leaves
(five in a sheath) of a fine green silvery appearance. Although
slow of growth when young, yet in after years it advances
more rapidly, and is believed to be a tree of great duration.
It retains its lateral branches down to the surface of the
ground in a very marked degree, and these are commonly
very short in proportion to the thickness of the bole. A
tree of this species planted at Croome in Worcestershire was
45 feet high at the age of thirty years. Though of formal
growth it is generally reckoned handsome, and its male
blossoms, which are of a bright purple, are the most attractive
and ornamental of all the pines. When young its root is
large and fibrous in proportion to the size of its top, which
enables the plant to be removed of a large size, and adapts it
to endure a rough exposure.

P. Strobus (L.): The Weymouth Pine—This tree is a
native of America, and abounds on the hill-sides from Canada
to Virginia, attaining its largest size in the State of Vermont,
where it is sometimes found upwards of 150 feet in height,
and from three to five feet in diameter. The tree began to
be cultivated in England in the beginning of the eighteenth
century, having been planted in large numbers by Lord
Weymouth on his estates in Wiltshire, and having grown
vigorously it was called the Weymouth pine. It is easily
propagated by the same treatment as the Scotch pine. In
rich soft soil it grows to a large size, provided it is protected
from the severity of the weather by hardier trees, or
THE PINE TREE. 185

reared in masses. It has a soft and delicate appearance, is of
formal growth, and has silky foliage. Its timber is white
and soft, and forms the white American pine of commerce,
which is extensively imported into Britain. It is remarkable
for being clean and free of knots; it is easily worked, and is
generally employed for inner doors, boardings, mouldings, and
the furnishings of house-carpentry. One of the largest trees
in Britain is at Strathfieldsaye ; it measures about 100 feet in
‘height, with a trunk about four feet in diameter. Although
the tree when young often produces top shoots two feet long in
one summer, yet its average progress throughout England, of
fifty or sixty years’ growth, does not exceed one foot yearly.
Few pines advance more rapidly during their nursery treat-
ment ; consequently they soon overgrow it; and the demand
for the plant is very small, the tree being generally unprofit-
able in Britain.

P. excelsa (Wallich).—The lofty or Bhotan pine is a native
of the Himalayan mountains, where it attains the height of
from 80 to 100 feet. In appearance it bears a great resem-
blance to the Weymouth pine, but it is of a stronger and
more robust habit of growth, with leaves considerably longer,
and branches more drooping. It was introduced into this
country in 1827. It forms a very ornamental tree, and its
growth is equal to that of the Weymouth pine. Ten-year-
old plants are generally 12 feet high. The timber is white,
soft, and very resinous; on the slightest incision the tree
readily yields a pure and limpid turpentine. Though the
tree has a rich and luxuriant appearance in soft and sheltered
ground, it assumes a bare and naked aspect when exposed to
the influence of wind, which prevents it from becoming a
generally useful timber tree. It grows from imported seed,
with the treatment adapted to the Scotch pine.

P. Lambertiana (Douglas) : The Gigantic, or Lambert's Pine.
—This tree is a native of the north-west coast of South America,
and was introduced into England in 1827 by Douglas, who
gives the following account of it in its native country :—
“One specimen which had been blown down by the wind, and
186 THE PINE TREE.

which was certainly not the largest, was of the following
dimensions. Its entire height was 215 feet; its circum-
ference at three feet from the ground was 57 feet 9 inches.
The trunk is usually straight, and destitute of branches about
two-thirds of its height. The species covers large districts
about 100 miles from the ocean, in latitude 43° N., and ex-
tends as far to the south as 40°.” It is added, “It grows
where the soil consists entirely of pure sand, and in appear-
ance incapable of supporting vegetation ; here it attains its
greatest size, and perfects its fruit in most abundance.” I
have seen imported cones nearly 18 inches long, but these
are generally badly filled, and I have seldom found among
them a cone that yielded ten seeds fit for germination. The
plants are perfectly hardy in the climate of North Britain ;
even when only one-year seedlings they withstand the in-
fluence of the severest winters. The young plant arises of
an elegant appearance, with leaves of a grassy green about four
inches long, and five in a sheath; its yearly shoot is shorter
than that of the Weymouth pine, and seldom exceeds 12
inches long, and is well matured before winter ; and the plant
when only a few years of age becomes remarkable for its great
girth in proportion to its height. The specimens of the tree
which J have seen in this country in rich soil with shelter give
little promise of ever attaining a great size; and I expect that
if ever it becomes great in Britain, it will be when placed on
dry sandy links like that on which Douglas found it indigen-
ous. The scarcity and consequent price of young plants have
caused them to be inserted in situations too rich for their
development, where they are very apt to be infested with the
pine-beetle. The timber is said to be white, closely grained,
and full of turpentine.
XIX.

SPRUCE FIR.

Spruce Fir—Abdies—This genus belongs to Monecia
Monadelphia in the Linnzan system, and to Conifere: in the
natural order of plants. It consists of several species of
evergreen trees, natives of Europe, Asia, and America, which
affect a soft and moist soil, with a cool climate, and are
generally remarkable for their erect growth and profusion of
foliage ; the leaves are solitary, and the cones, which ripen
during the year in which the blossoms are produced, are
pendant.

A. excelsa (De Candolle)—The lofty or Norway spruce is
indigenous to the north of Europe, abounding in Norway,
Sweden, Lapland, Denmark, and the north of Germany. It
is the commonest tree of the genus in cultivation throughout
Britain, and it is believed to be the loftiest tree indigenous
to Europe. It is of great beauty, of very uniform growth,
assuming a conical form, and, when allowed sufficient space
in a congenial soil, it retains, even at an advanced age, its
branches and luxuriant foliage, down to the surface of the
ground.

In some of the more fertile valleys of the native countries
of the tree, it has been known to attain the height of 180
feet.

It was early introduced into Britain, but the precise period
is not known. The earliest notide of it in England is given
in the Hortus Kewensis, by Turner, in the middle of the six-
teenth century. In Britain the tree blossoms in May and
June, and the cones, which it produces abundantly, become
ripe in the following winter.
188 SPRUCE FIR.

The mode of propagation is by seed. The cones may be
collected in winter or in spring, and the mode of extracting
the seeds and of sowing them, is similar to that recommended
for the Pinus sylvestris. (See PINE TREE.)

When the plants have grown two seasons in the seed-bed,
they are generally from seven to nine inches high, and fit
for being transplanted ; but sometimes, from unfavourable
soils or seasons, they are of weaker growth, In that case, if
they stand thin, they may be safely left in the seed-beds
during the third summer, and then transplanted. No other
species of the Conifer admits so well of being kept three
years in the seed-bed ; but when the spruce has sufficient
space, its naturally fibrous roots adapt the plant for removal,
in perfect safety, at that age.

The plants are sometimes removed direct from the seed-
bed into their permanent abode. In moorland, and situa-
tions where the surface herbage is not too strong for plants of
this size, and particularly where the soil is of a kindly nature,
the practice is quite successful. The more common mode,
however, is to transplant the seedlings into nursery-lines for
one or two years, according to the description of ground they
are intended to occupy. One-year transplanted plants are
seldom much larger than they were at the time of being
transplanted from the seed-bed, but they are much hardier,
their roots are more bushy, and they suffer less from trans-
plantation the second time. If plants are to be removed
after being only one year transplanted, they may be inserted
in the lines much closer than when they are to remain two
years. In the former case, the lines may only be about eight
inches apart, and the plants about two inches asunder. In
the latter case, the lines should be one foot apart, and the
plants three or four inches distant. A common method prac-
tised by nurserymen is to thsert the lines closely, and before
the second season’s growth to remove every other line, thus
making the distance of the lines apart the second double that
of the first year. Two-years transplanted plants are those
usually employed in plantations ; but if the plants are allowed
SPRUCE FIR. 189

ample space, they may, in most soils, from their naturally
fibrous roots, be successfully grown three years in lines, after
which they should be removed, either into the forest, or
transplanted again in the nursery, to insure their future
success.

The spruce admits of being removed at a great size, even
though more seldom disturbed during its nursery growth
than any other tree of the order.

Although the tree is so hardy that it is never affected by
any degree of frost during winter, yet it never attains to a
very great size in an exposed situation. It is, however, valu-
able as a nurse to other trees in young plantations, from its
numerous lateral branches and dense mass of persistent foli-
age, which furnishes great shelter.

It derives its nourishment chiefly from the surface, and
luxuriates in soil which is cool and moist, and, with a surface ‘
soil of ordinary quality, it is one of the few trees that will
thrive where the subsoil is wet and retentive. Even in dry
and sandy soil, unsuitable for the growth of its timber, the
spruce often advances sufficiently to form a shelter for the
establishing of other sorts, which ultimately become more
valuable ; but on approaching the size of a timber-tree in
such situations, it assumes a sickly aspect, and presents a
scanty foliage, compared with the luxuriance of the tree in
the cool alluvial deposit of the sheltered glen, where it is
developed in its most attractive form.

Perhaps the finest specimen of the species in Britain stands
at Studley, Yorkshire. In April 1853 this tree measured
124 feet 6 inches high, and is now upwards of 130 feet. At
a yard from the surface of the ground its circumference is
about 16 feet. Its age is believed to be about 160 years.

At Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, in an avenue formed on soft
alluvial soil, incumbent on gravel, watered by a mountain
stream and sheltered by the surrounding hills, there are some
fine specimens of Norway spruce, which were planted about
the year 1720. As these trees have been frequently mea-
sured from time to time, I am enabled to give the following
190 SPRUCE FIR.

tabular view of the dimensions of five of them in 1841 and in
1851, showing their progress during ten years, after having
attained to the age of about 120 years :—

 

 

No. Height in | Height in | Cubic Contents | Cubic Contents | Cubic Progress
Fi 1841. 1851. in 1841. in 1851. in ten years.

Ft. In. Ft. In. Ft. Ft. Ft.
1 95 6 100 4 198 252 54
2 98 0 105 6 238 306 68
3 98 0 103 3 213 240 27
4 98 3 102 4 200 254 54
5 102 0 106 9 187 233 46

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These trees have not increased in height during the last
ten years, and not much in girth.

From this statement it will be seen that the average yearly
growth in height during the previous ten years referred to,
was only from six to seven inches, but the average yearly
increase of timber in each tree was about five feet. They
are well furnished with branches and foliage far down on
their massive trunks, each of which is from four to five feet
in diameter at the surface of the ground, and their healthy
appearance gives promise of a further increase in their dimen-
sions. Their unusual vigour at this advanced age arises from
their enjoying sufficient shelter, on a soft soil, rich in alluvial
deposit, and from having at no period of their growth suffered
from confinement by being pressed upon by other trees.

In the growth of the tree in plantations, for the ordinary
purposes of timber or for profit, it is not necessary that the
lateral branches should be preserved; indeed, the quality of
the timber is improved by the trees pressing so closely that
the branches nearest the surface become enfeebled and drop
off. Pruning should never be practised on this species,
Under ordinary circumstances, a plantation of it is generally
fit for being felled at the age of seventy or eighty years.
SPRUCE FIR. 191

In growing this tree for ornament, it is absolutely neces-
sary that it have shelter, and at the same time sufficient
space ; for the natural beauty of the species is only fully
developed when the tree stands alone.

It is of formal growth, uniformly conical, and the foliage
on a good specimen is always rich and luxuriant down to the
surface of the ground. In the absence of those bold ramifi-
cations which adorn many other species, the gentle tapering
of its lofty top adds a gracefulness to the object, adapts it the
more for standing on a soft soil and enduring the vicissitudes
of a northern climate.

One of the best specimens of the tree in Scotland stands at
Blair-Athole. Its height is 110 feet 6 inches. It is full of
luxuriant foliage down to near the surface of the ground,
where the trunk measures four feet in diameter. It stands
in a low and sheltered glen on the banks of a stream, and in
soil composed of red loamy gravel incumbent on limestone.

After being a few years established in suitable soil, this
species advances rapidly, and generally between the age of
fifteen and thirty years, its yearly top-shoots are two feet long,
and with moderate shelter it is often sixty feet high in forty
years.

In close plantations the earliest thinnings are used as prop-
wood, and sell at prices similar to that of the Scotch pine.
The timber is white and soft; it is finely grained, and free
from knots only when grown in a close plantation. The
ordinary purposes for which it is used are planks and spars
for gangways and scaffolding, masts for small vessels, boarding
for roofing, railway sleepers, water-troughs, conduits, and
sluices. In value it seldom exceeds the price of the more
degenerate sort of Scotch pine timber. The principal resinous
production of the tree is Burgundy pitch, which is the con-
gealed sap melted and clarified by boiling it in water.

A. nigra (Michaux).—The black spruce fir is a native of
North America, and was introduced into Britain by Bishop
Compton, in the end of the seventeenth century. It has
reached the height of from sixty to seventy feet at Painshill
192 SPRUCE FIR.

near London ; and at Brahan Castle, Ross-shire, it has attained
the height of upwards of fifty feet. The tree seldom exceeds
these heights in Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
and the districts of Main, where it constitutes indigenous
forests of great extent.

In this country it is esteemed only as an ornamental tree,
for the richness and density of its foliage, and for its hardi-
ness. It luxuriates in a moist soil, and affords great shelter and
seclusion. In favourable circumstances its lateral branches
often strike root into the ground, and form a circle of young
plants around the parent tree. This species seldom produces
trunks of great diameter ; but it is remarkable for thriving
and maintaining its ordinary girth when the trees stand
unusually near to one another. It is raised from seed in
the same manner as the Norway spruce. It is of much
slower growth than that species, but its timber is strong and
elastic.

A. alba (Michaux): The White American Spruce Fir—
This tree was introduced at the same time as the species last
described, but this in every respect is an inferior species—
weaker in growth, and less ornamental. Under the most
favourable circumstances it rarely attains to the height of
forty feet.

The seeds of this tree are often imported from America in
large quantities, at a very low price, and it is sometimes to
be met with in British nurseries in lots of many hundred
thousand plants, which can be sold at a very cheap rate.

When young it has a striking resemblance to, and is often
mistaken for, the Norway species. When four years old, and
in after life, the plants have a more twiggy appearance; the lead-
ing shoot is generally short and slender, and destitute of that
robust habit of growth that distinguishes the Norway species.
But in poor soil the Norway plant generally assumes a white
or pale appearance, and then the sorts are the more difficult
to recognise; yet the one species yields a trunk fit for the
mast of a large ship, while that of the other seldom exceeds
the dimensions required for the mast of a fishing-boat.
SPRUCE FIR. 193

A landowner called on us one autumn previous to his going
abroad during winter, and requested to be furnished with
plants to form a plantation of a few acres, which he had
enclosed from a field of arable land, for shelter and ornament.
On our producing a list and marking kinds which we con-
sidered adapted for his purpose, the only sort he objected to
was the Norway spruce, stating that from some peculiarity
in the soil it would not grow, and although he admired the
common spruce very much, yet no spruce but the Douglasii
came to anything on his property. The Norway tree was
ignored at the time, but it afterward became apparent that
no Norway spruce existed on the property, and that the white
American species was mistaken for it.

A. Douglasiti (Lindley): Douglas’s Spruce Fir.—This is a
fast-growing magnificent tree, a native of the banks of the
Columbia river, in North-West America. It was introduced
by Douglas the celebrated Scotch collector, whose name it
bears.

The first plants in England were produced from seed in
1827. One of these planted at Dropmore attained the height
of nineteen feet in ten years, when it began to produce cones,
At that place the tree now forms very heavy timber, where
some of the best specimens stand upwards of ninety feet in
height. The tree is found to be quite hardy, and is much
esteemed throughout the country.

For some time the best Scotch production of this species
in the far north stood at Coul House, in Ross-shire. It
measured 47 feet 6 inches in height, with a trunk six feet
in circumference, at the age of twenty-four years; but on
account of its standing in an exposed situation it only
advanced ten feet in additional height during the next ten
years, when its trunk measured 8 feet 6 inches in girth.
Other trees in the north, much younger, but better sheltered,
are now far loftier.

In Morayshire some fine trees of this species embellish the
lawn at Seapark. At Brodie Castle the first generation of
this tree, grown from seed produced there, stand about twenty

N
194 SPRUCE FIR.

feet high, and the yearly shoots of these are sometimes up-
wards of two feet long. The young plants from British
grown seed are now getting so plentiful and cheap, that land-
owners possessed of suitable soil may insert them profitably
by the thousand.

Hitherto, on account of their value, the seeds have been
sown and the plants grown under glass ; but the open ground
treatment, adapted for the common spruce or for the Scotch
fir, is found quite suitable.

According to Douglas, the trunks of this species in the
forests of the North-West of America vary from two to ten
feet in diameter, and from 100 to 180 feet in height. He
gives the dimensions of a stump of this tree near Fort-George,
on the Columbia river, which measured, exclusive of the
bark, and at three feet from the ground, forty-eight feet in
circumference. In this country the tree frequently forms
leading shoots three feet long in one season, and notwith-
standing that circumstance it generally appears bushy in
proportion to its height. Its foliage is of the richest descrip-
tion, and bears a striking resemblance to that of a vigorous
yew-tree. The flag-staff at Kew Gardens is of the timber of
this tree imported from its native country, and stands 150
feet high.

It is believed, like other spruces, to thrive best in ground
having a moist subsoil, unaffected by the drought of summer,
particularly in sheltered ravines. Instances have occurred
of the tree having grown freely on gravelly and open sub-
soil, and died suddenly after protracted drought; and it is
to be expected, that with this, as with other species of
Conifer, excess of drought, or adverse circumstances in any
form, will be more fatal to trees of vigorous growth, than
to those whose previous progress had been of a more moderate
rate.

A. Canadensis (Michaux) : The Hemlock Spruce Fir.—This
is a handsome ornamental tree from Canada, of a pendulous
habit, but not worthy of cultivation in this country as a
timber-tree on account of the slowness of its growth.
SPRUCE FIR. 195

A. Smithiana (Loudon): The Khutrow or Morinda.—This
tree is known also as the Himalayan spruce fir, introduced
into Britain in 1818—a plant of great beauty when in health,

but it generally becomes diseased before reaching the size of a
timber-tree.

There are several other species of the spruce fir in cultiva-
tion, and employed as ornamental plants, which are not of
sufficient interest to call for any notice in this work.
XX.
THE SILVER FIR.

Stnver Frr.—This is the genus Picea of Linneus, but the
Abies or spruce fir of the ancient and of some of the modern
botanists. It is one of the most ornamental trees belonging
to the natural order Conifere, and consists of several species,
natives of Europe, Asia, and America. Some of the kinds
are only recently introduced into Britain, and are still very
rare trees. All the species advance in a uniform habit of
growth, and yield a straight bole, of regular taper, large in
proportion to the lateral branches, which range horizontally
in regular whorls, each of which presents a flat or frond-like
surface of foliage. The genus bears a striking resemblance to
the spruce fir, but the leaves are less numerous, and lie more
flat on both sides of the branchlets, and thus form two ranks ;
and the cones stand erect on the branches, and, when ripe,
their scales being deciduous fall away, while the spruce fir
cones are pendant, and their scales are persistent.

Picea pectinata (Loudon).—The common silver fir is found
indigenous in the north of Africa, and throughout central
Europe, abounding on the lower slopes of the mountains, and
in glens in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. On the
Carpathian mountains and on the Alps it occupies an eleva-
tion between 3000 and 4000 feet. In narrow valleys in the
south of Germany, between the Swiss mountains and the
Black Forest, on rich, friable, loamy soil, it attains the height
of 150 feet, with a trunk sixteen to twenty feet in girth.
From this district it was introduced into England in the year
1603, by Serjeant Newdigate, who then planted two two-year-
THE SILVER FIR. 197

old seedlings at his residence at Harefield Park, Middlesex.
According to Evelyn, these in 1679 had become “ goodly
masts,” the largest being eighty-one feet high and thirteen
feet in circumference. The other tree was of a less size,
in consequence of its having been scorched on one side
by the burning of the house adjoining to the spot where it
stood.

The silver fir, when young, is one of the most tender
timber-tree plants in British cultivation, and although its
progress is tardy during the first ten or fifteen years of its
age, yet, after it gets a little established in a suitable soil, and
attains the height of eight or ten feet, it advances with a
rapidity both in height and girth which is seldom surpassed
by any species of the Coniferz.

The cones of this tree become ripe in the beginning of
winter, and the scales fall away, allowing the seeds to be
extracted without the aid of artificial heat. They should be
sown in April, in a well-pulverized soil. The fertility of the
seeds, which varies exceedingly in different seasons, and is
indicated by their being full and plump, should, in sowing,
regulate their closeness, or the quantity which should be
deposited in a given space. The distance of two inches is
the space most suitable for the young plants to stand asunder
in the seed-bed. The mode of laying down the crop described
in the article PINE-TREE is suitable for the silver fir, and the
soil should form a cover on the seed about half-an-inch deep.
The seed-beds should be protected from birds until the end
of May, when the crop of -young plants generally appears
above the surface of the ground.

When the plants appear above ground earlier in May, it is
sometimes necessary to protect them, as the slightest touch of
frost destroys them. The protection may consist of a cover
of broom, or of the branches of any evergreen trees, which
may either be spread flat on the surface, or the smaller
branchlets may be stuck into the ground, close enough to
protect the plants, and yet so open as to admit enough of air.
Another mode, which is sometimes the most convenient, and
198 THE SILVER FIR:

protects the beds both from the ravages’ of birds and the
influence of frost, is to cover the beds immediately after they
are sown with straight-drawn straw, which forms a complete
protection, and is easily regulated in closeness or openness to
suit the health of the young plants. In situations where
such a covering is apt to be disturbed by the wind, a straw
rope should be stretched along the centre of the bed, across
the covering, and fixed by pegs to the ground. Some seasons,
however, and particularly when the plants are late in rising
through the surface, they are much less subject to injury
during the first year than in the succeeding years of their
nursery treatment. In the month of May, and in early.
seasons in the end of April, the slightest touch of frost -de-
stroys the newly expanded foliage and young growth,
when its influence is hardly perceptible on any other tree;
therefore twigs of evergreens or some other slight covering
is often required to preserve the top shoots of the young
plants.

When the second year’s growths are matured, the plants
should be transplanted into lines. But in the case of being
frost-bitten, the usual method is to allow them to remain the
third year in the seed-bed, that they may form tops, which
they do more readily before than after being disturbed. In
transplanting into lines, a moderately sheltered and shaded
situation should be preferred, such being more likely to pro-
duce healthy and well-topped plants of silver fir than an open
sunny exposure. The lines should be a foot apart, and the
plants a few inches asunder. After remaining in the lines
two summers they should be carefully lifted, and either
removed to the forest or replanted into lines to become a
larger size before being finally planted out. So slow is the
early growth of this tree, that plants thus treated, at the age
of six years, seldom exceed one foot in height; but their roots
are always found to be large and bulky compared to the size
of their tops, and the girth of the stems is uniformly great in
proportion to the height of the plant.

The soil most: suitable for producing silver fir timber is a
THE SILVER FIR. 199

rich deep loam, not absolutely wet, but that which is cool and
moist, rather than dry, such as usually occurs in valley ground,
ravines, and along the slopes of Scottish moorland, at no great
altitude. But the tree also thrives in heavy clay, and in soils
of very opposite qualities, that are not apt to be much affected
by severe drought.

It is valuable for filling up vacancies in woods, and for being
inserted among timber which is intended soon to be removed.
The excess of shelter in such places, which is fatal to many
kinds of young trees, tends to promote the growth of the
silver fir, and preserves it from the effects of late spring frosts,
to which, in this country, it is so liable while a plant. This
tree is altogether unfit for the bare and rough elevations
adapted to the native pine and larch. In countries where
the tree is indigenous, it is frequently associated with the
oak; and it is uniformly an inhabitant of a region less
elevated than that occupied by the P. sylvestris.

The yearly growths of the young plants of silver firs are
always very short, and from the circumstance of the buds of
the top shoots being generally unfolded simultaneously with
those of the lateral branches, and being exceedingly tender,
and sensitive to the slightest degree of frost, the plant gene-
rally suffers severely in the opening up of the season. When
it becomes more established, however, and has reached the
height of ten or fifteen feet, it assumes a more robust habit,
and shoots vigorously ; then the buds on the older and lower
branches become first developed, and those of the top shoot
at a later period, when they are generally exempt from
injury.

The tree has seldom been planted in masses by itself, but
where such has been the case in suitable soil, it has been
found that it admits of standing very close on the ground,
which tends to produce tall clean wood of a fine grain, and
notwithstanding the unusual closeness of the trees to one
another, they are found to attain a great girth, so that in
suitable soil, the cubical contents of the timber, per acre, in
seventy years is seldom equalled by any other tree. Hitherto
200 THE SILVER FIR.

the species has been employed chiefly for ornamental effect.
In Devonshire, Sussex, Bedfordshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire,
Derbyshire, and Northumberlandshire, its height is consider-
ably above the ordinary size of timber trees, and the best
specimens range from 110 to 120 feet high, many of which
measure 300 cubical feet of timber; and several instances
are recorded both in England and in Scotland, of a single tree
having produced upwards of 200 cubical feet of timber at the
age of seventy years. In the latter country the tree is of
more recent introduction, but specimens nearly a century old
are found interspersed throughout plantations, and ornament-
ing park scenery adjoining many of the principal residences
in North Britain. At Duff House, Cullen House, Ballin-
dalloch Castle, Balnagown Castle, it has long since become
conspicuous by the regularity of its pyramidal head, tower-
ing above all other trees, and generally ranging from 90
to 100 feet high; and instances seldom occur where a
tree of this species, of advanced age, in ordinarily favour-
able soil, is not very far beyond the size of other trees of
equal age.

The wood of the silver fir is generally of a pale yellow, and
the texture of its grain is commonly very irregular, even in
different parts of the same tree, if it has had space to become
of great girth. This arises from its unequal growth at different
periods of its existence. A transverse section of the trunk,
cut near to the surface of the ground, generally exhibits fifteen
to twenty circles, very closely arranged around the pith; after
which every year’s circle or growth of wood usually becomes
greater in diameter, to the number of twenty, thirty, or forty,
according to the quality of the soil. In ordinary cases, after
that period the layers are formed of smaller diameter, and the
timber is consequently of finer grain. Grown into large timber,
it is commonly formed into deal for the purposes of flooring ;
for which it is very suitable from its never showing any ten-
dency to warp. When grown in masses the timber is generally
finer, more equal, and adapted for masts, joists, rafters, and all
the ordinary purposes of carpentry, and it is sometimes used
THE SILVER FIR. 201

in wood-engraving. It usually sells at the price of common
pine timber.

This, like most of the other species of this tree, is very pro-
ductive of resin. It yields the Strasburg turpentine of com-
merce, so named from the extensive produce of the forests
contiguous to that town. This resinous fluid is collected from
the small blisters or tumours formed under the outer bark or
epidermis, and from other exudations of the tree. It is the
only tree of the tribe that yields turpentine employed in
the preparation of clear varnishes and artists’ colours; and
the resinous juice of the tree is manufactured into several
articles of great efficacy and importance in medicine and
in farriery. The essential oil of turpentine is the produce
of this tree, and is much esteemed in cases of strains and
bruises.

None of the Conifers spring from the roots when felled, but
roots of the silver fir have been known, after the removal of
the tree, to produce annual circles of ligneous matter, increasing
the diameter of the stump, and forming yearly deposits, which
have sometimes continued for many years. Around the out-
side of a stump about two feet in diameter I have counted
eight very distinct circles of this woody substance, of good
average breadth, corresponding to the number of summers
which had elapsed since the tree was felled. The substance
has a creamy white appearance, as compressible as cork, and
apparently impervious to moisture. Of the instances of this
curious formation, the most remarkable is that recorded by
M. Dutrochet, of a stump of silver fir, felled in the Jura
forests in 1743, which was still full of life when examined at
the end of the year 1836. This formation consisted of ninety-
two layers of woody matter, formed during that number of
years by the roots, deprived of their trunk and leaves, and
the wood which composed the stump at the time the tree was
felled had in 1836 entirely disappeared.

P. balsamea (Loudon): The Balm of Gilead Silver Fir.—
This tree was introduced into Britain from America at the
close of the seventeenth century by Bishop Compton. During
202 THE SILVER FIR.

the second and third decades of the present century this was
the most common silver fir, both in the Scotch and English
nurseries. It has now become comparatively rare, having died
off, and disappeared throughout the forests. I observe that
in seedsmen’s lists the seed is now offered by the ounce, at a
price which would have bought a few pounds forty years ago.
This arises partly from the scarcity of the tree now in this
country, and partly from its nature being better understood,
and grown only on a small scale, and that not for its timber.
It yields cones abundantly in this country, and it is readily
grown from seed by the mode of treatment recommended for
the P. pectinata, and in the nursery it is of rapid growth, being
at the age of five or six years twice the size of the common
silver fir at the same age, and at the age of eight or ten years
about three times its height ; but its vigour is of short duration,
and it often ceases to grow before it is twenty years of age.
In the most congenial soil, deep, moist, and well sheltered, it
seldom lives beyond the age of thirty or forty years, and it is
an unusually fine specimen of the tree that reaches forty feet
in height, or contains twenty cubical feet of timber. Not-
withstanding this it is a useful tree, on account of its early
and rapid growth, shelter, and ornamental effect. At the age
of ten years it is commonly more than that number of feet in
height. Its foliage is closely set, shorter, and more dense than
that of the common silver fir. The leaves are of a dark,
shining green above, and silvery underneath. It advances in
a pyramidal form, and gives a richness and shelter to all
newly-formed plantations into which it is introduced, and no
other tree is better fitted for shelter and ornament in shrub-
beries and beltings, until plants of greater duration become
established. But in all light gravelly soil, where the subsoil
becomes affected by the drought of summer, it assumes a
sickly aspect and dies, while in a deep rich soil of ordinary
moisture its foliage is found of the darkest and most luxuriant
description. Since “ Christmas trees” have become so fashion-
able in this country, the plant may be recommended as pos-
sessed of sufficient elegance for that purpose,
THE SILVER FIR. 203

Its timber is used for the purposes of common deal. The
resinous extract of this tree in its native country is known
under the name of Balm of Gilead, or Canadian balsam, and a
medicinal preparation of its turpentine is said to possess great
efficacy in certain stages of consumption. The tree yields its
resinous substance more profusely than any other of the
Coniferee. The bark, buds, and cones are often literally
encased with turpentine, which is of the most penetrating
taste, and highly odoriferous. It exudes copiously on the
slightest incision, and the species appears to inherit an early
decay from an overflow of resinous fluid.

P. nobilis (Loudon): The Noble Silver Fir.—This is a
most beautiful species, but of very slow growth when young.
It was introduced into England by seed in 1831, and in
October 1837 the largest plant in England did not exceed
the height of from one to two feet. At that time the
price of plants was three guineas each. Douglas, who intro-
duced it, says it is a majestic tree, forming vast forests on the
mountains of northern California, and producing timber of
excellent quality. He adds, “I spent three weeks in a forest
of this tree, and day by day could not cease to admire it.”
Of the original introduction, some of the plants came to the
north of Scotland from the Royal Horticultural Society. One
at Coul House, Ross-shire, has attained the height of 43 feet
3 inches, and the girth of 4 feet 6 inches above the swell of
the roots, the growth of thirty-three years. This species, on
account of its beautiful form and foliage, will no doubt be
always esteemed as an ornament. Seedling plants are now
getting plentiful throughout the country. The produce of
home-grown seed and plants may be had at a few shillings
each; ‘but although instances are recorded of plants, some-
what advanced, having yielded top-shoots three feet in length
in one season, yet, on the whole, the growth of the tree is
inferior to that of the common silver fir. The mode of
cultivation bestowed on the common silver fir is suitable for
this tree, and it is said that the timber of both species is
very similar.
204 THE SILVER FIR.

There are several other species of silver fir, natives of Cali-
fornia, esteemed in ornamental collections, such as Grandis,
Amabilis, etc. still too rare and costly for ordinary planta-
tions.

P. Pindrow (Royle): The Upright Indian Silver Fir—
This tree is found on the Himalayas and other mountains in
India, at an altitude of from 8000 to 12,000 feet, where it
is sometimes found to attain to the height of 150 feet, and
20 feet in circumference.

In this country it often forms a beautiful tree, with dark
green foliage. It grows rapidly, and stands any degree of
frost during winter, but, like most silver firs, it is apt
to be retarded by late spring frosts, after its leaves are
expanded. Plants one to two feet sell from 1s. 6d. to
2s. 6d. each.

P. Webbiana (Loudon): Captain Webb's Silver Fir—This
tree is also a native of the mountains of India, and is found
at the same elevation as the Pindrow, but it does not attain to
so great a size.

In this country, in all but shady situations, it is very sub-
ject to the casualty to which all silver firs are liable—un-
seasonable frosts. In health this tree is perhaps the most
ornamental of the genus. The upper surface of its leaves
is of a dark green, with white or silvery stripes distinctly
marked underneath. The cones are large and prominent, of a
beautiful purple colour. This species now yields seed in
Britain, where no doubt repeated generations of the tree will
become more and more hardy. Some of the finest specimens
in England stand at Dropmore, and at Theydon Grove, near
Epping.

P. Cephalonica (Loudon): The Mount-Enos Fir.—This tree
is indigenous to the mountains of Greece, where it flourishes
at an altitude of 4000 or 5000 feet, and forms a handsome
tree sixty feet high, with a trunk from nine to ten feet in
circumference. When its upward growth subsides, it forms
a broad spreading top, increasing the diameter of its bole.
It is quite hardy in North Britain, and grows with con-
THE SILVER FIR. 205

siderable vigour. Plants one foot high are sold at one
shilling each.

P. Nordmanniana (Loudon): Nordmann’s Silver Fir.—This
tree was discovered by Professor Nordmann, of Odessa, on the
Crimean mountains, at an elevation of about 6000 feet, where
it attains the height of nearly 100 feet. The timber in its
native country has a high reputation; and in this country the
young plant is Jate in expanding its leaves in spring, where-
by it is generally exempt from injury. It is reckoned the
hardiest silver fir yet introduced, but it does not attain to
the size of the common tree of the genus.
XXI.
THE LARCH.

Tor Larou.—Lariz Europea (Dec.)—This is the only
genus of the natural order Conifers, or cone-bearing tribe,
that is composed of deciduous trees.

This, the common species, is a native of the Alps of France
and Switzerland, and of the Apennines in Italy. It is also
indigenous on all the elevated and rocky situations in the
Tyrol, and on other mountains in Germany.

It appears that the tree was introduced into England during
the early part of the seventeenth century. In 1596, Gerard,
a physician in London, published a catalogue enumerating
upwards of a thousand sorts of plants of foreign and domestic
growth, in which he gives an accurate description of the tree.
But the first account we have of its being introduced into
England is given by Parkinson, an apothecary in London,
who wrote in 1629. In his Paradisus he notices the larch
to be “a rare tree, and nursed up with but few, and those
only lovers of variety.” Evelyn, in 1664, mentions a larch, a
flourishing and ample tree, growing at Chelmsford in Essex.
Miller, in the first number of his Gardener's Dictionary, pub-
lished in 1731, states that the tree was common in English
gardens, and that some large trees at Wimbledon produced
annually a great number of cones. Miller again, in the
seventh edition of the Dictionary, published in 1759, states
that the larch had become plentiful and common in most of
the English nurseries, and that of late years great numbers
of the tree have been planted, adding, that “those which had
been planted in the worst soil and situations had thriven
best.” From this period the nature of the tree became better
THE LARCH. 207

known ; and as none of the tribe, after having begun to
yield cones, seeds more abundantly, the tree spread rapidly.
The fertile plains of England, however, were not adapted for
its full development, as the elements most conducive to its
prosperity were wanting, namely, an elevated, open subsoil,
affording a ready discharge of moisture, and a clear and open
atmosphere. Generally speaking, all the trees of the species
in Britain, remarkable for their size, are produced in the
vicinity of high mountains and running streams.

From the accounts we have of the introduction of the larch
into Scotland, some state that it was first planted in 1725 at
Dalwick in Tweeddale, and several years afterwards at Dun-
keld, Monzie, and Blair; but the dates of the various reports
do not exactly correspond.

According to a report by the Rev. James Headrick, mini-
ster of the parish of Dunnichen, published in 1813, the larch
first reached Scotland shortly after the middle of the seven-
teenth century. In his General View of the Agriculture of the
County of Angus or Forfarshire, drawn up for the consideration
of the Board of Agriculture, he says, “It is generally supposed
that larches were first brought to this country by one of the
Dukes of Atholl about eighty or ninety years ago. But I saw
three larch trees of extraordinary size and age, in the garden
near the mansion-house of Lockhart of Lee, on the northern
banks of the Clyde, a few miles below Lanark. The stems
and branches were so much covered with lichens that they
hardly exhibited any signs of life or vegetation. The account
I had of them was, that they had been brought there by the
celebrated Lockhart of Lee, who had been ambassador to
Oliver Cromwell at the Court of France, soon after the restor-
ation of Charles u. After Cromwell’s death, thinking him-
self unsafe on account of having served a usurper, he retired
some time into the territories of Venice. He there observed
the great use the Venetians made of larches in shipbuilding,
in piles for buildings, and other purposes, and when he re-
turned home he brought a number of larch plants in pots,
with a view to try if they could gradually be made to endure
208 THE LARCH.

the climate of Scotland. He nursed his plants in hothouses
and a greenhouse, sheltered from the cold, till they all died
except the three alluded to. These, in desperation, he planted
in the warmest and best sheltered part of his garden, where
they attained an extraordinary height and girth.”

An account published in the Transactions of the Highland
Society, under the authority of the late Duke of Atholl’s
trustees, states that the first larches at that place were brought
from London by Mr. Menzies of Migeny, in 1738 ; that five
small plants were left at Dunkeld, and eleven at Blair in
Atholl, as presents to the Duke of Atholl. The five were
planted in the lawn at Dunkeld, in alluvial gravelly soil,
abounding with round stones, in a sheltered situation, ele-
vated forty feet above the Tay, and 130 above the level
of the sea. Three of the five were cut down, two of which
were felled in 1809, of which one measured 147 cubical
feet, and the other 168 cubical feet. The last-mentioned
was sold on the spot to a shipbuilding company in Leith
for 3s. a foot, or £25, 4s. the tree. The other two larches
are of immense size, and continue to grow on the lawn
at Dunkeld. The popular account, that the trees at Dun-
keld were the first larches introduced into Scotland, and
that they were imported from Italy with other exotics, and
nursed in a hothouse, does not appear to be correct ; but as
the trees at Dunkeld are now among the oldest and largest in
the country, it is by no means surprising that, in the absence
of the first imported trees, the tradition respecting their treat-
ment should be engrafted on the celebrated tree on the banks
of the Tay at Dunkeld.

Of the larches planted at Blair, one, 106 feet high, was cut
down, from which the coffin was made of the celebrated Duke
of Atholl who planted the tree so extensively. Between the
years 1730 and 1740, the larch plants were in request by
many of the Scottish landowners, who planted them to a
small extent, and generally ruined them by inserting them in
soil too rich and cultivated for their future success. Fre-
quently, too, the mistake occurred of inserting the plants too
THE LARCH. 209

close to the residences, and in places where the tree had not
space to become full grown, as is often the case at the present
time in fixing the situation for the Cedrus deodara, or Indian
cedar, which has been almost as common in Scotland during
the early part of the present as the larch was in the early
part of last century.

It is reasonable to believe that the larches planted in Scot-
land during the early part of last century were the produce
of seeds ripened in England, since many of the trees had, in
that country, yielded seeds at least fifty years before the time
of their insertion at Dunkeld. Whatever may have been the
size or age attained by the imported plants cultivated by Mr.
Lockhart on the banks of the Clyde, it is certain that they
were of no use to Scotland, in a national point of view; for
it was not from them that the tree was increased. Here it is
interesting to observe the more fortunate fate of the seedling
plants of British growth, introduced by Mr. Menzies, and
planted in Perthshire. They formed the great source from
which sprang all the finest larch plantations to be found
throughout Scotland during the end of the last and early part
of the present century, pointing at once to the importance of
acclimatation. A separate article will be found on that sub-
ject, p. 24.

From an abstract of a report on the Atholl plantations, I
find that James Duke of Atholl planted—

In 1738, . : ‘ : : . 16 larch plants.

Between 1740 and 1750, . ‘ . 350 35

Between 1750 and 1759, . ‘ . 1575 4
Total, , . 1941

Jobn Duke of Atholl succeeded Duke James in 1764: He
planted 11,400 larches. He had great difficulty in obtaining
plants to a great extent. Although the earliest planted trees
on the estates had begun to yield cones in his time to a small
extent, the greatest number of plants that they produced
yearly did not exceed 1000.

At the date of the accession of the celebrated planter, Duke

Oo
210 THE LARCH.

John, in 1774, the extent of the plantations of all sorts of
plants was only about 1000 Scotch acres. In 1829 the
extent of the whole of the plantations amounted to 13,378
Scotch acres, of which 8604 were of larch alone, besides
those mixed with other plants.

The following table shows the divisions of the forests and
the extent of the kinds planted, etc., to 1829 :—

ABSTRACT OF THE DUKE OF ATHOLL’S WOODS AND
FORESTS, 1829.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Observa-
Drvistons. Oak, | Larch. | Spruce. Boots Mixed. | Birch.| Torar. eons and
Scots No, in
ac, |dec,| ac, |dec.| ac. |dec.! ac. dec.| ac. |dec.!ac.'dec.| acres. |dec,| Plan-book,
Dunkeld, .. . | 11 |763) 279)/997| .. | .. |207,983) 195}432|..] .. 695/175 I
Fungarth, . . . |117 }958) .. |..|..]-.| 5/66: 1/834)..) .. 125/455 II.
East Boat, etc., | 23 067) 175/476] .. | ..] 88) ..| 20/308]..].. 256/851 iil.
Drumbuie, . . |132 | ..| 464/486) 11/385} .. | .. | 100/877]..] .. 708/698 III.
LetterandLows,} 53 |709) 291/501) ..|..| 28770) 2) ..| 2\684) 378/664 IV.
St. Columbus, . | 37 [106] 530/139} ..]..]..|.. | 257/544}..| .. 825/789 VIL.
Guay, etc., .. | 88 /510) 95/200}..]..]..].. | 11/006 194|716 xX.
Loch Ordie, . . | 20 | .. |2791/122150]..]..]..] ..]..[.. 2,961/122| XVIT.1
Loch Hoisher,. | .. | -. |2081)870,200]..]..]..] ..].. |. 2,231|870| XVIII?
Inver, etc., . . {104 |196) 116/103] 15/474) 25.036) 250|284 632:706 VIII.
Daluarnoch,. . {118 |814] 713/795) .. | ..] 34] ..| 84/715}..] .. 951/824 Ix.
Laighwood, . . | 24 |768] .. |'..|-.[-.j)..]e.] .. Jee }eel ae 24'768 Vv.
Kincraigie, . . 1/493} =-1)250)..]..)..]-.] 0. Jo. Jee]. 2/173) XI.
Kinnaird,. ..|..|[..|-.]..]--[.-].. e+] 1 [186)..| .. 91}186) XII.
Daleapon, . .. |110 |158) .. |..]..]..]..]..]} 94000]. |.. | d14|iss} «XIX.
Tulliemett, . . | 78 [353] 161/987|..|..|..]..] -. |..|--}..] 240/640) XVI.
Edradour, . . . | 42 /142) 99/433/..]..|..]..] Uljglol..}..} 153.485] XXI.
Balnamoor, . . | 18 |450| .. 500}. |..}..{..] 0. Jo. ].-f.. 18/950] = XIII.
Balnaguard,. . | .. | ..| .. | ..}e-]..| 9/500) 0. J. ]..d 9/500) XIV.
Logierait, . . . | 80 | .. | 253/200) ..)../..])..] 0. | oo foe]. 833/200 XV.
Killiehangie, . | 28 263] 299/503) ..]..]..]..] .. |.. [oe]. 327/766 xx.3
Around Blair,, | .. |-. | 300)..]../..}..}.. [1000] ..]--1..] 4,
Mimithoed, . 2». | awe bee] wn bas +. {| 800] .. ]-.]..
Total, . . |1070 Pare 542,87 48 pee dees ces 297 13, 378/466)
1 Planted 1815 to 1818, 2 Planted 1825 and 1826, 8 Planted 1817 to 1819.

Nore.—On the Duke's accession in 1774, the total number of acres planted was
about 1000. Consequently h¢ has planted about 12,378 Scots acres, or 15,473 English
statute acres. Allowing 2000 plants in each Scots acre when planted, makes the num-
ber of trees 24,756,000, but which in reality has been considerably more ; and 10 per
cent. may be allowed for making good, which makes the total number of trees planted
27,231,600.

As the ages of the respective plantations in each estate vary considerably, they
could not be marked on this abstract ; but they are distinctly enumerated in the Book
of Plans, in which the numbers correspond with those inserted here opposite each
division,

These plantations formed the source from whence the
numerous tree seed merchants of Perthshire derived their
THE LARCH. 211

supply early in the present century, and before the Con-
tinental larch seed became an article of commerce.

Since the larch has become a cultivated tree on the Con-
tinent in very warm situations, the imported seeds are found
to become more and more tender ; for seed collectors, finding
an ample supply at their doors, are not likely, with the great
competition in the trade, to ascend the rugged heights where
the tree is more hardy and indigenous for a supply of cones,
and for many years Continental seed has formed the chief
supply of the British nurseries, yielding not less than twenty
millions of plants yearly ; and during the unfavourable seasons
since 1860 for the produce of Scotch larch seed, the plants
raised from Continental seed must have amounted yearly to a
much greater number.

In appearance the larch is an elegant object, of a beautiful
conical form, and in favourable situations it is of the utmost
regularity of figure at every stage of its growth. Its trunk
is straight, and if allowed proper space it becomes massive.
It produces a great number of branches, commonly horizontal,
and when old of a graceful pendant figure, aspiring somewhat
toward the extremities, with branchlets which proceed from
the main shoot of the branch, of a drooping habit of growth,
The leaves, which are of a lively grassy green, are produced
in the form of bundles, except on the young shoots, where they
stand individually. The tree yields its male and female
flowers in April and May, and arrayed in its summer’s dress
it forms a very graceful and engaging object. The common
larch is the only tree of the genus that is worthy of cultiva-
tion for timber ; compared to it all the other species appear
feeble and ungainly, and how interesting soever they may
appear in collections, from the peculiarities and habits of their
growth, they are, in point of ornament, inferior to the common
tree. It consists of many slight varieties, of which some yield
red, and some white, blossoms or female catkins. The former
are the more common in Scotland. Trees are also frequently
met with of a delicate pink blossom, and of all the inter-
mediate shades between the red and white. The unripe
212 THE LARCH.

cones and the young wood of the trees exhibit to some extent
the same colours, but the red and the white flowering kinds
cannot be distinguished in winter. The red is decidedly the
hardiest tree, and best adapted for a late climate. The white,
or L. Europea flore-albo, is imported from the Tyrol. I have
repeatedly found that the seedling plants of this variety pro-
duced from seed imported from the Tyrol have failed to ripen
their tops so as to resist the early frosts of autumn, and even
‘when grown from Scotch seed they are more tender than the red
variety. All the finest specimens of the tree throughout the
country are of the red larch. The structure of the branches
and the rate of growth vary considerably in different trees of
the species. But although the most distinct colours of the
blossoms can be propagated from seeds with little or no
variation, yet the more important properties of structure and
growth are unfixed or accidental, and are not so uniformly
inherited by the seedling plants. It often happens that late
frosts in the end of April and in May, which is the time of
the blossoms of the larch, destroy the crop of seed. Unlike
the pine tree, the larch blossoms and ripens the cones during
the same year. The cones are ripe in the beginning of winter,
and in collecting them it is of importance to make choice of

1In a recent work on forest management the following statement is given:
—‘ There are two varieties of larch generally found in cultivation in the
plantations of Scotland, namely, the white and the red. The white is the
variety which attains the greatest dimensions of timber, and is the sort most
generally cultivated, although the two kinds are often seen growing together
in the same plantation, and that by mere accident. It is said that upon the
Atholl estates the red larch does not attain to more than one-third of the
cubic contents to which the white larch does ; and this is observable in every
plantation where the two varieties are found growing together.”

The foregoing statement is very apt to mislead the inexperienced planter.
The white larch when young is of more vigorous growth than the red, but as
itis far more tender, its vigour soon subsides ; and it ought to be avoided as far
as possible. I once grew it purely, alongside the red variety, in the nursery,
but found it extremely tender ; its top shoots seldom ripened, and in spring
they drooped, retaining the foliage of the previous year, and became of no
value. Fortunately the larch plantations in the north of Scotland contain
only a very small proportion of the white variety, probably not exceeding 5
per cent., and in grown woods I have never found the white the largest, but

the reverse. I know that the cultivated trees at Dunkeld and throughout the
Atholl plantations and at Monymusk are of the red variety.
THE LARCH. 213

those produced by healthy free growing trees, as such yield
the largest cones, the largest seeds, and the strongest seedling
plants.

Various methods of extracting the seeds are recommended
by different authors. That of boring and splitting the cones,
although well suited for manufacturing a few handfuls, and
well adapted to the circumstance of the times a century ago,
is now far too tedious. The present prices of larch plants
cannot afford the time and labour of dissecting the cones
individually. Another method recommended in some books’
on this subject is to “scatter the cones on the prepared seed-
beds, to let them lie there till natural chemical action makes
them discharge a sufficient number of seeds, and then to rake
them off, either for dispersion on other seed-beds, or for pre-
servation till another season.” Plausible though this method.
may appear, it is not practicable in the climate of Britain, and
can never yield a crop. The influence of our sunshine does
not extract the seeds from the larch cones with any degree of
regularity even at the hottest season of the year, and that is a
period at which the crop does not admit of being sown.

-» To extract the seeds of larch safely and speedily, the cones
should be placed on a timber kiln. Brick or metal covers
are unsafe, and the cones should be heated on wood. They
should be laid on about six inches thick. The temperature
should be raised to 100° Fah., but not above 110°; with this
heat the cones will be quite dry in about ten hours, during
which time they should be turned twice, and the seeds which
fall out at each turning should be immediately removed. The
heat may be kept at a lower degree, but in that case the time
for drying will require to be extended. The vegetative
powers of the larch seed cannot be destroyed by a degree of
heat considerably higher, but even at a higher temperature
very few of the seeds escape from the cones. The object
therefore of drying the cones is to render them brittle, pre-
paratory to their being thrashed. When dry they should be
removed from the kiln in a warm state, and laid about six
inches deep, on a floor formed of a fine stone causeway, where
214 THE LARCH.

they should be thrashed to pieces with flails. The operation
is facilitated by the dust and seeds being sifted out from
among the cones every hour or so as they accumulate. After
sifting, the cones should be replaced on the floor with an
additional quantity warm from the kiln, which should under-
go the same operation, and so on till all the seeds are obtained.
While in a mill of any ordinary construction the seeds are
invariably injured, by thrashing they are protected by the
dust and pieces of cones surrounding them ; even when the
stroke falls on the spot where the cones and seeds are thin,
the interstices between the causeway stones preserve the seeds
from injury. After thrashing, the seeds should be dressed
with a common barn fanner, which prepares them for being
sown. The price of seed is commonly from 2s. to 3s. per lb.,
and the expense of manufacturing seldom exceeds 6d. per lIb.,
whilst that of boring and cutting up cones individually with
a knife exceeds the value of the seeds.

In the climate of London, the larch should be sown about
the middle of April, and in the climate of Scotland during
the last week of that month. If the ground requires to be
enriched at the time of sowing, it should be with well-rotted
manure, decayed leaves, or vegetable mould; but the best
method is to make the larch crop follow after a crop which
has been well manured a year previously. The ground should
be light, well pulverized, and smoothly raked. The seeds
should be moistened for a few days, and then sown in beds
four feet wide. One pound-weight of seed should occupy
about four lineal yards of a bed, and the covering should be
one-fourth of an inch deep. The plants generally appear
above ground in a fortnight or three weeks, according to the
state of the weather. The crop is subject to many casualties.
It must be protected from the attacks of birds until the
plants have all been a week or two above the ground, and
situations should be avoided which are subject to the ravages
of the grub-worm.?

1 It is now more than twenty years, and shortly after the introduction of
the Italian rye-grass, that I occasionally grew in the nursery a plot of this
THE LARCH. 215

The beds should be carefully weeded throughout the season.
The young plants will have completed their first year’s growth
by the end of September, when a good crop should cover the
ground, and stand from four to seven inches high. A full crop
is too close for remaining another year. Itis therefore a com-
mon practice to loosen the plants with a fork, and to thin
them out to the extent of one-half during the ensuing winter
or spring. Those that are picked out should be trans-
planted into lines about one foot apart, the plants standing a
few inches asunder. Here they remain one year, when they,
as well as the plants left in the seed-beds, which have become
two years old, are fit for being planted into bare moorland.
Larches should never remain beyond two years in the seed-
bed. When stout plants are required, such as those best
adapted to overcome and extirpate a cover of furze, or other
rank herbage, the plants should be allowed to remain two
years in the nursery lines. A common practice is to remove
every other line in the lot of one-year transplanted plants
which affords the lines of two-year transplanted plants
during the last year of their nursery growth a space of two
feet asunder. They should never be allowed to remain more

grass for the sake of its seed crops. On one occasion, a crop of seedling larch
was made to follow the Italian rye-grass ; the soil was of a fine friable mould,
with a considerable mixture of sand and peat, well adapted for forming
fibrous roots, at the same time well fitted for the development of the larve
of the Tipula or crane-fly. I do not recollect in what month the grass plot
was broken up, but the surface sward was regularly placed under a stamp of :
clean earth, and the ground well pulverized. The larch crop was laid down
about the Jast week of April, in beds four feet wide, with alleys one foot ;
about the last week of May the crop had appeared above ground quite regular,
and had a very promising appearance ; and it was, I think, in the first week of
June, after an absence of a few days from home, that late one, evening, after
a heavy shower, I was surprised on looking at the crop to find that the plants
had disappeared entirely in five or six beds near one side of the lot. A
similar space adjoining contained an irregular half crop ; onwards the beds
stood much more complete, but at least 600,000 to 700,000 plants had dis-
appeared, On disturbing the surface and examining the ground, the enemy
was discovered to be the grub-worm in considerable numbers. As it was on
a Saturday night, the men, women, and boys who were in the habit of work-
ing on the grounds were immediately collected, and provided with dibbles ;
they went over nearly half an acre of ground ihat evening, forming a division
between the full crop and the blank land; this space they completely perforated
with holes—throughout the bedsand alleys in every blank space, whereno plants
216 THE LARCH.

than two years in nursery lines without being transplanted.
At that age they commonly stand from 2 to 2} feet high, a
height which is suitable for the roughest description of forest
ground.

Sometimes two-year-old seedlings aresput into nursery lines,
and nursed for two years, when they generally attain the
height of three feet. In forest planting the tree does not
appear to be well adapted for removal beyond this age and
size without being put back by the operation. Notwithstand-
ing its being deciduous, no plants can be employed so success-
fully as healthy larches closely planted to subdue and extirpate
a rough cover of herbage. The quality of nursery plants
varies exceedingly. The usual prices for larches of the best
description are—-

One-year seedlings, . ‘ 1s. 6d. to 2s. per 1000.

Two-year seedlings, . ‘ 3s. Od. to 4s. Pa

One-year transplanted, . 5s. Od. to 6s. s

Two-year transplanted, . 8s. Od. to 12s. <5

Protracted drought during the months of May and June
sometimes proves fatal to the larch crop, but a scarcity of

stood ; the holes were made to the average depth of about four inches. A
deep cut or incision was also made with a spade along some of the alleys three
or four inches wide at the surface, with the view of intercepting the progress
of the enemy. On visiting the ground on Sunday morning the spave was
black with crows—a place where they were not usually seen, and never since
at one time have I seen so many within the grounds. While they betook
themselves to some trees in the neighbourhood, without disturbing them long,
I saw the holes were generally empty, but some of them I found to contain two,
andsome three grubs. This operation had the desired effect, and no further
injury was observable by the larve that season. The assistance of crows was
unexpected, as they had not frequented the place previously. My idea was
that the holes would form the earth somewhat compact in the bottom, so that
the grub when entrapped would be unable to escape, at least for some time,
and that by a second application of the dibble into the same holes, they
would be destroyed or sunk, so as to render them harmless for the future ;
this second operation, however, was found quite unnecessary. I need hardly
state that ever since I have avoided laying down larch, or any of the fir or pine
tribe, after a grass crop. Nevertheless, occasionally, and during the last two
summers in particular, grubs were sometimes detected in the ground by
the people weeding the one-year seedling crops, and small blanks here and
there indicate the place of their abode, when a few dibble holes around the
spot is found a sure remedy against further ravages.
THE LARCH. 217

plants more frequently occurs from a want of seed, occasioned
by the late frosts in spring destroying the blossoms.

The growth of every kind of plant is interrupted to some
extent by being transplanted, but no kind will undergo the
operation more successfully or take to the ground more readily
than a healthy larch, provided it is not of an age beyond that
recommended. I¢ flourishes in soils of very opposite qualities,
from the dry and sandy to that which is wet and clayey ; but
in the presence of springs or moisture in the soil, it is abso-
lutely necessary that the water have a free exit. Although
frequently fine specimens of the tree are to be met with on
flats of sandy loam or clayey gravel, and on various other
qualities of soil, yet it is on the declivities, along the slopes of
ravines, on the shattered débris, and the disturbed soil of
the landslip or avalanche, that the tree is found to luxuriate
in its greatest vigour. In stagnant moisture, or on a sub-
stratum of till, or ferruginous gravel, it becomes stunted and
full of disease. But a ready discharge of moisture in the soil
must always be accompanied with a free circulation of the
atmosphere. It affects a cool and elevated situation, with a
cloudless sky ; therefore in all low and sheltered situations
the tree should have sufficient space for the full development
of its foliage.

On the Alps and Apennines it luxuriates at a great height,
and some scattered specimens of it are to be met with near to
the highest range of vegetation. In many of the Highland
districts of Scotland it may be observed filling the straths
with massy timber, and ascending the mountain sides associ-
ated with the native pine, and, with the exception of that tree,
perhaps no other plant, native or foreign, was ever spread over
so great a space in so short a period.

I think the larch is inferior to the native pine for produc-
ing timber at a great altitude; on this point I must differ
from some published opinions of high authority. The failure
of larch, however, in many such situations, not unfrequently
arises from the surface-soil at great altitudes throughout the
country being composed of too pure a peat soil, which is less
518 : THE LARCH.

adapted for the larch than for the native tree. No degree of
cold can injure the larch during’ winter, provided the summer
has ripened it, but few trees are more sensitive of the slightest
touch of frost while in a growing state. The leaves being
remarkably fine and tender, are readily affected by a sudden
change of weather. On southern exposures, along the warm
slopes of steep mountains, the larch is a very precarious tree.
The fine weather which frequently occurs during April and
early in May readily brings trees in such situations into full
leaf to be blighted by a succeeding frost, from the effects of
which they are always very slow in recovering, and sometimes
die. One of the largest plantations formed in the north
lately died, to some extent from this cause, along the southern
slopes, a few years after the plants were inserted; while on
the flats or level grounds of the same plantation the casualty
was only perceptible, and on the northern declivities the
plants were exempt from injury. For the sake of appearance,
as well as of economy, the larches in such places should
always be interspersed with some other tree.

A plantation consisting of larches purely has a bare and
uninteresting aspect during a great portion of the. year, but,
under any circumstances, the tree is generally found to thrive
better in a mixed plantation than in a plantation purely of
the species. It grows well when associated with the Scotch
pine, but the best specimens of rapidly grown larch timber are
generally to be met with interspersed with oak, which is late
in the development of its foliage, and drawing its nourishment
from a considerable depth in the soil, affords advantages to
the larch beyond any other tree.

The distances at which larches and other trees should be
inserted in a plantation must always be regulated by the
situation. In planting bleak and exposed moorland in the
Highlands of Scotland with larch and Scotch pine, 4000
plants per imperial acre are usually allowed, while on low
sheltered situations 3000 plants are quite sufficient ; and the
proportion of Jarch usually ranges from one-fourth to three-
fourths, according to the suitableness of the soil for the growth
THE LARCH. 219

of the tree, and the value of early thinnings in the district.
By having the kinds regularly interspersed, a choice is afforded
in thinning ‘the plantation, so that ultimately it may be con-
tinued mixed, or made to consist either of the one species or
of the other, as may be found desirable. For a description
of plants adapted to various situations, and the mode of in-
serting them, see the article on that subject. The larch,
when young, is of quicker growth than any other coniferous
tree, and for that reason it is best adapted for extirpating
furze and rank herbage. For this purpose, as already stated,
two-year transplanted plants are employed, and they should
be planted immediately after the furze or whins are cut down.
When closely planted, from three to four feet apart, they
generally overtop and suffocate the furze, so that the expense
of frequent clearings for the growth of the plants, even where
there exists a mixture of other trees, is rendered unnecessary.
In such cases, however, the larches require early and gradual
thinnings, as soon as the herbage is subdued.

One-year-old seedling larches, when produced from five to
eight inches high, are adapted for being finally planted into
moorland, where the soil is favourable and the heath short.
Some of the most healthy and rapidly grown plantations in
the north of Scotland were formed of larches of this descrip-
tion; but two-year-old plants are most frequently employed
in planting moorland when their average height is about
twelve inches, and sufficient to overtop the herbage on the.
surface of the ground.

In favourable situations in the north of Scotland, the tree
has been known to attain a height of upwards of forty feet in
twenty years, but thirty feet is the ordinary height in that
period. In Morayshire, along the banks of the Findhorn, the
tree shoots up with great vigour. I have known larch thin-
nings removed from a plantation composed of larch and oak
of the age of forty years, on the estate of Relugas, average
twenty cubical feet each tree, and sold on the spot, eleven
miles from the shore, at ls. per foot. About forty trees per
acre have been removed at a time from some parts, and twice
that number left interspersed with oak. This growth of
220 THE LARCH.

measurable timber may be stated as the average produce of
the larch in the best situations on the banks of the Find-
horn, in the forests of Darnaway, Altyre, and Logie, after a
growth of forty years, and where ordinary care has been
bestowed in thinning the plantations.

One of the finest clumps of larch ever produced in Scot-
land was grown at Brahan Castle, on the banks of the Conon,
in Ross-shire. This clump originally occupied about one
imperial acre. When I last saw it, the remaining trees were
about eighty years of age, and averaged about ninety feet in
height. This space must have yielded, besides small thin-
nings, at least 15,000 measurable feet of timber, a portion of
which still remained on the ground ; the trees standing on an
average about twenty feet apart, many of them containing
100 cubical feet each. On the opposite side of the river
the larches likewise advance with great vigour. In a mixed
plantation, having a northern aspect, on the lands of Conon
House, some trees, not exceeding forty-two years of age, were
lately thinned out, and their cubical contents ranged from
twenty-two to twenty-eight feet each, a size about twice that
of the hardwood with which they were associated.

At Ballindalloch Castle, on the banks of the Spey, there
lately stood some large specimens of the tree which were
planted in 1767. The following table shows the girths of four
of these trees at the age of seventy, and their progress up to
January 1851, after having been planted eighty-three years :—

 

 

 

 

 

Girtus w Avaust 1837, GirTHs In JANUARY 1851.
At At At At At At At At
1 foot. | 6 feet. | 12 feet. | 18 feet. || 1 foot. | 6 feet. | 12 feet. | 18 feet.
Ft. In.| Ft. In.] Ft. In. | Ft. In. |] Ft. In.| Ft. In. | Ft. In. | Ft. In.
No. 1, 9 63} 8 5| 8 43) 6 6§|//11 8|}9 63] 9 3/7 7
No. 2, 8 73} 7 1),6 4/6 0 910 }9 0 75,71
No.8, ./10 6 | 8 4/7 1] 6 63/18 5|9 8 82/17 8
No.4, ./ 9 1 7 3/6 5] 6 43|/10 63/8 4 77\7 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
THE LARCH. 221

The height of these trees then ranged from 75 to 80 feet.
The soil is dry and sandy, with a subsoil of sand, and, in some
parts, of sandy gravel and clayey gravel, elevated from 30 to
40 feet above the Spey, and about 400 feet above the sea.

The larch was introduced at an early period into Aberdeen-
shire. At Monymusk, Westhall, Tillyfour, and other man-
sions in that county, venerable specimens are to be met with,
which have stood since the tree was a rare plant in Scotland.
At Monymusk House, the oldest tree is said to have been
imported from Switzerland at an early period in last century,
but its dimensions are far exceeded by younger trees at Para-
dise on the same property, situated on the banks of the Don.
This beautiful Alpine spot is composed of soft alluvial soil,
incumbent on gravel, and drained by a mountain stream near
to its confluence with the Don. It stands 340 feet above the
level of the sea, and at the distance of fifteen miles inland.
The surface of the ground is level, richly wooded, and em-
bosomed with high mountains. Benachie, with its rocky
crest rising 1000 feet above its base, towers aloft and guards
it on the north. In this plain stands the finest specimens of
the larch I have ever seen. They form an avenue, and are
interspersed with Norway spruce firs. All these trees are of
great uniformity in size and shape; and as many of them
have been measured from time to time by the forester on the
estate, I am enabled to record the dimensions of two of the
larches, and their progress, after having attained a hundred
years of age :—

 

 

MEASUREMENT IN 1841. MEASUREMENT IN 1851.
Girth at |Girth at : Cubical || Girth at | Girth at # Cubical
surface. | 60 feet. | #eieht- | contents. || surface. | 60 feet. | Zeisht- | contents.

 

Ft. In.| Ft. In.| Ft. In.| Feet. Ft. In. | Ft.

 

 

 

In. | Ft. In.| Feet.
No.1, .] 12 6] 4 44101 3 233 15 0] 4 9 {102 4 276
No.2, .|12 0] 4 2/106 0| 208 14 0] 5 0 | 99 61) 269

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Top broken.
222 THE LARCH.

These two trees are only fair specimens of a few dozens
standing in the same avenue. The table shows their dimen-
sions at the age of one hundred years, and their progress
during ten years thereafter; but at the end of that period
their vigour began to cease, and in 1861, when I applied to
ascertain their progress during the ten preceding years, I was
informed by the intelligent forester, Mr. Taylor, that, at the
height of twenty feet, in many instances their girth had only
increased one, two, and three inches beyond that of 1851, and
during that period they had added little or nothing to their
height. There was but one exception to this general state of
affairs ; it was a larch known as, or marked, No. E. The
general appearance of this tree indicates more vigour than
that of the others. It stands quite clear of other trees, and
has a river frontage, and is sufficiently near to draw nourish-
ment from the running water, but perfectly free from stagnant
water. Its girth at the height of twenty feet was, in 1841,
8 feet 1 inch; in 1851, 8 feet 6 inches; and in 1861, 8 feet
11 inches. A gale in 1860 blew down one of the larches in
the line, and it was found that decay had begun, but only in
a small spot of no importance near the root, and the quality
of the timber was found very superior. When I first saw
these remarkable trees (in 1851), they were 110 years of
age. At that time I observed that the top shoots of many of
them were quite visible above the extremities of their lateral
branches, but very soon after their vigour subsided, and the
yearly growths of the tops disappeared, and now they pre-
sent a more round-headed form, and of late they in general
have a more open appearance, arising from the foliage having
become more thin and scanty.

The Norway spruce firs associated with the larches in the
avenue at Paradise are said to have been planted in the year
1720, and, notwithstanding the advance of about twenty years
in their favour, the larches are on an average the largest in
cubical contents, although not quite so lofty as their asso-
ciates. The avenue in which these trees stand is proportion-
ally wide, and they have long luxuriated in ample space.
THE LARCH. 223

Planted in straight lines, their massive stems arise like the
shafts of columns, and taper to the height of upwards of
eighty feet of measurable timber. Those who have seen the
larches at Paradise generally reckon them the finest speci-
mens in Britain.

I observe from the Court Circular that Her Majesty the
Queen has just paid a visit to Paradise (October 1866), re-
turning to Balmoral on the evening of the same day, after
accomplishing a journey of upwards of ninety miles through
the hills of Aberdeenshire.

The larch, in a congenial soil, and under proper treatment,
has been found to produce a greater quantity of valuable
timber than any other tree. The great mistake which has
hitherto attended its cultivation has been a complete disregard
of the acclimatation of the plant: hence the diversified state
of the larch plantations throughout Scotland. Some are
vigorous and profitable, others blighted and half dead, though
standing in the same description of soil and climate. Indeed,
acclimatation has hitherto been looked on as a chimera, and
has been stated to be so by some recent writers on arbori-
culture, who have supported their opinions by quotations
from the writings of distinguished men who have fallen into
error on this subject. They probably never had the oppor-
tunity of comparing or testing the hardiness of trees of the
same species, grown from seeds produced by trees in a warm
country, alongside of those produced from trees inured to a
far colder climate. (See the article under the head AccLIMA-
TATION.) This subject is of special importance in the growth
of larch. Hardiness forms the sure basis of success, and the
best means of avoiding many of the diseases and casualties to
which the tree is subject.

The late King of the Belgians took a lively interest in the
success of the Belgian larch forests. J have frequently heard
that during his tour through the north of Scotland, about the
year 1818 (then Prince Leopold), his remarks on the larch
plantations in the Highlands awakened among the landowners
an interest in the tree. His Majesty was aware of the neces-
224 THE LARCH.

sity of acclimatation. In forming a large forest of larch in
Belgium, he gave special orders to have the plants from the
nurseries of Messrs. John Grigor and Co., Forres, and sent the
orders twelve months before requiring the plants each year,
during the three years required to complete the forest. All
these plants were the produce of Scotch-grown larch seed, and
formed at least part of the third or fourth generation of the
tree in Scotland.

There can be no doubt that the reason why acclimatized
plants of the larch are so seldom sought after is, that the
great difference between plants from Scotch seed and those
from foreign seed is not known. It is seldom that the con-
trast in hardiness is brought under the planter’s notice. If
he has once seen the hardiness of the plant inured to the
climate, it forms a subject not to be forgotten; and then a
judicious planter would no more allow the plants from foreign
seed to be inserted in his plantation than he would any other
species of half-hardy tree.

I am not prepared to say that the influence of acclimatation
will extend so far as to make the tree more and more hardy
in proportion to the number of successive generations that are
produced by seed-bearing. It may be that a few generations
of the tree in this country will render it as hardy as its nature
will admit of becoming.

The plantations in my neighbourhood are generally very
healthy, and probably are composed of the third, fourth, and
fifth generations from the Atholl larch forests. Where bare
moorland adjoins some of them, the young seedling plants
may be seen in acres, from self-sown seed, like to the indigenous
growth of young pines beside the native forests.

A person unacquainted with the nature of the trees and the
influence of seasons would be apt to suppose that if the plants
were too tender the severity of winter would clear the ground
of them in early life, so that there would be no chance of their
remaining to die by frost at a more advanced state in the
forest. This, however, is not the case so uniformly as might
be expected. Many are severely injured, but plants in nur-
THE LARCH. 225.

sery lines often renew their tops or leading shoots. Removal
by transplantation into nursery lines, or into the forest, has a
tendency to stop a luxuriant growth, and to harden and sus-
tain the plant for a short time against the severity of frost.
The period of the larch’s greatest vigour is that at which it is
most likely to suffer; that occurs near the time it is about
to assume a timber size, or from twelve to twenty feet in
height—more or less in some plantations,—dependent, to some
extent, on the nature of the soil, and on the seasons. The
period of the greatest vigour of the larch is readily ascer-
tained by inspecting the concentric circles on the stump of a
felled tree in the same description of soil.

The failure of the tree at this period of its growth in many
districts throughout Scotland arises purely from its being too
tender ; and its display of dead wood, with a few young shoots
emerging here and there from its stem, are just the symptoms
which all half-hardy plants present when frost-bitten.

Another prevailing mistake in larch management through-
out Scotland is the neglect of early thinning. The confinement
to which it is subjected just at the period it attains the size
of a timber tree, when commonly from ten to twenty years of
age, and frequently afterwards, is an immense loss to land-
owners and to the country at large. No other tree is so
speedily ruined for want of sufficient space. The larch leaves
are tender and minute, they present only a small surface to
the influences of the atmosphere, and therefore, in a crowded
plantation formed of trees of the same size, and situated on a
level surface, the leaves fail to elaborate the sap necessary for
the formation of timber, and the trunk becomes, and continues
to be, bark-bound, bare, and stunted. On its native Alps it
enjoys an inequality of surface, which furnishes more space
for its foliage, and a better exposure to light; there also it
possesses an advantage which always accompanies indigenous
forests—that of the trees being very unequal in size and in
age. Close planting is certainly necessary in rearing larch
timber in bleak and exposed situations. It prevents the play
of the biting winds on the surface of the ground, particularly

P
226 THE LARCH.

at the opening of the season, when the tree is most likely to
suffer ; and although the top of the plant, an important part,
is least sheltered, yet it least requires shelter, for the leaves of
a healthy young plant are always first expanded near to the
surface of the ground, and some time before the higher ones
become exposed to the influence of the weather. Thus a wise
economy in nature develops the top bud at a time when shelter
is least required and safety is most certain. But the benefit
of shelter is not the only advantage which arises from close
planting. It is found that a close cover of young plants of any
kind, with their branches and foliage in direct contact with
the surface, destroys the native herbage, converts the decayed
stems and roots into a manure, and directs the whole energies
of the soil to the growth of wood. The progress of a planta-
tion is always marked by a rapid growth immediately after
the trees have formed a cover, and suppressed the surface
vegetation. It is at this stage of growth that thinning is
absolutely necessary, but much neglected, in larch plantations.
The tree should have space in proportion to its growth.
Numerous instances are met with of broad-leaved trees having
been neglected, and rendered unshapely by confinement, which
have yet, by care, been restored to health and to a proper
figure; but there is no instance in which the larch, after
having been stinted by confinement, or reduced to a scanty
supply of foliage, has ever regained its vigour, or become a
healthy, well-proportioned tree. This neglect is so general
in larch plantations in some quarters, that it has given rise to
the idea that it is a tree of slow growth after the age of forty.

The larch is subject to many casualties. Of the insects
which infest it, the Coccus laricis is the chief. It was observed
in the end of last century throughout the larch plantations of
Scotland andEngland. It is rarely met with extensively on trees
of vigorous growth ; but in confined woods and low situations,
where there exists a great humidity of the atmosphere, it often
prevails to a great extent. Wet seasons, or whatever tends
to decrease the vigour of the tree, favour this insect. But
its effects are most fatal immediately after frost late in spring,
THE LARCH. 227

or early in summer, such as that which occurred in May 1861.
On the 10th of that month the thermometer exposed reached
80°, while on the following night or morning of. the 11th it
descended to 19°, being 13° below the freezing point. This
had a very damaging effect on the larch plantations through-
out the country. Such a visitation is usually followed by a
severe attack of the Coccus laricis, which multiplies with
amazing rapidity,’ and not unfrequently overspreads the sur-
face of the young branches, consuming every leaf as it emerges
from the bud, and several weeks sometimes elapse before the
tree is able to renew its foliage. The sap appears to exude
by the numerous perforations, and to form a black coating
resembling the effects of smoke, and the top shoots of such
trees are uniformly short and feeble.

This state of affairs shows the advantage of a northern
aspect and a cool situation, where the tree may not come
early into leaf. There are some dry, gravelly knolls exposed
to sunshine, which early in spring imbibe heat, raising the
temperature of the soil, and expanding the leaf very early.
In such soil the larch is a very precarious crop. Ample
space for the tree increases the extent of foliage, and is
always favourable to the tree when attacked. The Coccus is
least injurious where there is a free circulation of the atmo-
sphere, and where the plantation does not consist purely of
larches. Plantations formed of plants free from disease, and
thoroughly isolated from infected trees, have been known to

1 Respecting some kinds of this insect, Curtis states the startling fact,
that the spring broods are all females, and do not require any intercourse of
the sexes to render them prolific. They are pregnant at their birth, and if the
nit (as it is termed) brought forth by the fly in the spring be taken and kept
entirely excluded from its companions, it will be able to produce young ; and
if one of these be treated with the same precaution, it will yet be found to
retain the same powers of conception; and thus one may proceed for twenty
or thirty generations. This will explain their otherwise marvellous multipli-
cation; and the warmer the weather the more rapidly families increase; so
that it has been calculated by an eminent naturalist, that from one egg
729,000,000 of plant-lice might be produced in seven generations ; admitting
forty to be the maximum, and twenty the minimum, the average would be
thirty, and the generations from the spring to the autumn amount from
sixteen to twenty, or upwards.
228 THE LARCH.

remain free from the insect for many years. From the extent
and nature of the field in which the insect prevails, no prac-
ticable cure is likely to be discovered beyond that of using
the best means to promote the health of the plantation.
When the soil is congenial, and the plants acclimatized (that
is, the produce of Scotch seed), there is little to fear from this
insect.

The larch is subject to an atmospheric blight, which is
often observed to some extent, but it- sometimes falls with
great severity. It occurs at various periods when the tree is
in leaf, but most frequently about the end of July or the
beginning of August. It blasts the foliage, giving it a
yellowish tinge or ripened appearance, particularly the oldest
leaves, those recently expanded appearing only slightly
affected, except in severe cases. Its effects are frequently
ascribed to frost, but it commonly occurs during warm wea-
ther, when the thermometer indicates a high temperature.
Throughout some districts it attracted little notice until its
effects the following summer, by the want of foliage, exhibited
numerous dead twigs throughout the tree. During the sum-
mer of 1850, this blight severely injured the larch plantations
throughout Scotland ; other trees also, in some districts, suf-
fered, but in a less degree, from the same casualty. Ina
plantation composed of larch and Scotch pine, twenty-four
years old, situated in Inverness-shire, upwards of 1000 feet
above the level of the sea, where the progress of some of the
trees was marked yearly, the larches were tallest, but pre-
viously to 1850 their girths, on an average, were equal.
During that year, however, on account of this casualty, the
marked larches barely made any perceptible increase, while
the Scotch pine made an increase of nearly three inches,
namely, from 27} to 30 inches in girth.

The rot in larch is a disease which has been noticed by
various writers on larch since the beginning of the present
century. In some parts it is known by the term pumping,
doubtless from the resemblance which the hollow trunk bears
to a wooden pipe or pump. It is generally believed that the
THE LARCH. 229

disease begins in the root, and its progress is upwards. It is
not confined to the centre of the trunk. Old trees, when cut
down, are frequently found to be extensively diseased, where
the centre and many of the first-formed circles of wood are
perfectly sound. This, however, is not uniformly the case,
but as the circumstance frequently occurs, it shows that the
disease had not existed in the young plants, nor arisen in
consequence of the treatment bestowed on it during the first
stages of its growth.

This disease has always been found to prevail most in larch
plantations formed on ground which had previously yielded
timber. The decaying roots, and the fungi which accom-
pany them, tend to injure the roots of several sorts of forest
trees. In this respect the larch is by far the most sensitive ;
but instances have occurred of two-year-old oaks having been
killed by the white fibrous matter, or spawn, from rotting
wood, cutting off the tap-roots of the plants. I have known
a few cartloads of manure composed chiefly of sawdust to
create mycelium, and to kill several hundred thousand seed-
ling larch plants in one season, and to render the ground
unsuitable for that crop for many years. Every description
of fresh manure is injurious to the health of the young plant.
Where this disease is likely to occur, plants as young as pos-
sible should be preferred in all cases where they are suitable.
The natural figure of the larch tree is admirably adapted for
being supported by a small root, and its root is generally
found smaller than in any other genus, in proportion to the
cubical contents of the tree. The natural figure of the tree,
however, is changed in all neglected plantations, the expanse
of branches in the body of the tree is destroyed by confine-
ment, and when a plantation is newly opened by thinning,
the trees which possess top branches only, seldom escape
having their roots injured by the influence of wind. In
such cases, the movements perceptible on the surface during
a hurricane indicate the strain to which the roots are sub-
jected. The injury they thus sustain is followed by decay, and
no doubt this is an extensive source of rot in larch timber.
230 THE LARCH.

Another source, we believe, arises from the roots resting on
a retentive subsoil. A ferruginous crust or subsoil which
retains water is generally found to yield diseased larch tim-
ber. During winter, when the tree is in a dormant state, its
small fibres retain life in stagnant water for a considerable
time ; but in the months of August and September, the season
at which floods frequently occur, the spongioles are in an active
state, and stagnant water has been known to rot the weakest
fibres in the course of two days. Excessive moisture is thus
calculated to commence the disease in woods standing on
retentive subsoil, where it is imperfectly drained. The rot in
larch no doubt arises at first from a decayed or injured root,
and whatever tends to damage a fibre should be avoided.

It is generally admitted by vegetable physiologists that a
perfect root with its spongioles in a healthy state has the
power, at least to a great extent, of selecting the food adapted
to the plant; but let the spongioles become mutilated or de-
cayed, and they possess that power no longer, but absorb any
fluid with which they come in contact.

The rot is sometimes met with in young woods in the best
description of larch soil. It appears in thinning, when the
trees are no stronger than prop-wood ; this is commonly the
result of planting very large plants with mutilated roots.

I lately observed, on some fine specimens of the larch, about
forty-five years’ growth, being removed from a mixed planta-
tion of larch and oak, that the timber was generally quite
sound and healthy, pumping was of very rare occurrence, not
more than one or two instances of it in an acre on the aver-
age, and where it did occur it was generally in the centre of
the trunk. I saw, however, on one of the largest roots near
the outside, which yielded one of the heaviest trunks on the
ground, that the disease had taken possession of one side only,
forming a bulge or swelling which enclosed the vacuity in the
timber ; the stump left in the ground showed that the ailment
arose purely from one main root. To find out if possible the
source of the disease, I had the root laid open by excavating
the ground for the distance of a few yards, where it was
THE LARCH. 231

traced to a decayed post or stump, the remains of an old
paling which had protected a cottar’s garden. The extremity
of this root had been cut off in trenching the garden ground,
which brought the wound on the root in immediate contact
with the mycelium which overspread the decayed post, and
to which the disease in the root and trunk of the larch was
clearly traceable.

The Larch Blister —This is a disease which appears on the
stems or trunks of the tree, with a discharge of the sap, com-
monly on one side of the trunk, while on the other side the
ascent of the sap deprives the trunk of its regular shape,
giving it sometimes a flat or a bulged appearance. It destroys
the timber at the point of attack, which commonly extends to
twelve or eighteen inches in length. I find it prevails toa
very serious extent in many larch plantations throughout the
country ; in others it is comparatively rare, such as in the
larch plantations in my neighbourhood. My experience of
this disease has therefore been very limited, and I cannot speak
positively respecting its origin. I may state, however, that
the plantations in which I have seen it most prevalent are
situated either at a great altitude, or in places where frost is
likely to fall heavily. Often finding a great uniformity in the
position or height of the blisters on the respective trees, I am
inclined to think that it arises from a severe frost in sum-
mer, or while the tree is in a growing state, not sufficient
to kill the shoot, but to interrupt the free circulation of the
sap, and to form a weak point on the trunk. On examining
the leading growth of a vigorous larch, the produce of a sum-
mer in which a severe frost has occurred, the casualty is often
indicated by an immature or weak point marking the length
of the shoot at the time of the occurrence. A summer frost
or blight sometimes marks very distinctly the vigorous shoots
of the osier, forming a black spot or blemish, which in the
operation of weaving occasions it to snap at the precise point,

I expect the safety of the larch from this, as well as from
other diseases to which the tree is subject, is to be found
chiefly in having the plants of worthy extraction, the produce
of trees which have been acclimatized to the country.
232 THE LARCH.

Favourably situated, no tree’ becomes so valuable in so
short a time as the larch. In many districts the first thin-
nings are useful for rustic paling, props for plants, sheep-
flakes, and for similar purposes. It is much esteemed for hop
poles, and it is in constant demand for coal props at all
shipping ports, at from 2s. to 3s. per dozen, of seventy-two
lineal feet, where it usually forms the return cargoes in coal
vessels. As an agricultural timber it is particularly valuable,
being durable as posts in building, in palings, and in all struc-
tures where it comes in contact with the ground. Healthy
trees at the age of fifty years have been sawn into half-inch
laths, and employed in cladding fences, gates, etc., where it
has been known to remain sound for twenty years without
paint. It is adapted for lintels, rafters, joists, and the main
timbers in buildings ; but from its propensity to warp, and
from its being more difficult to plane than common deal, it is
seldom employed in flooring or in the lighter purposes of
finishing. In some districts it is manufactured into carts,
which are found to be very durable.

It is constantly employed for railway sleepers, for mill
axles, and in shipbuilding. For the last-mentioned purpose
the main roots, in connexion with part of the timber of the
trunk, form knees of great toughness, strength, and durability.
Since the late reduction of the duty on timber, larch has
sold at from 1s. to 1s. 4d. per cubical foot. I am induced to
believe that the value of larch wood in the manufacture of
furniture is not yet fully appreciated. In thinning a larch
plantation, of thirty-two years of age, of my own planting, I
had a tree felled and cut up into plank and deal, and after the
timber was well seasoned, it was sent to a cabinetmaker, who
was instructed to make it into a writing-table, with drawers.
The table was produced purely from the timber furnished.
It was varnished, had a fine polish, and a beautiful, clean,
yellow colour. It has now been upwards of four years in use,
and has become darker in colour, being now of a rich brownish
yellow, retaining its fine polished silky gloss. Although the
timber was rapidly grown, and some of the deals about a foot
THE LARCH. 233

broad, there is not the slightest appearance of warping, and the
joints are all close and perfect—so much so that it is difficult
to find out the points of junction. Few trees of British
growth could furnish anything superior.

Larch bark is sometimes preserved for the purpose of tan-
ning. It generally sells at half the price of oak bark, the value
of which is very fluctuating. As larch bark is twice the bulk
of that of oak, in proportion to its weight, it is seldom pro-
fitably manufactured.

The Venice turpentine of commerce is produced by the
larch. The full-grown tree in its native districts is pierced
to the centre with an auger. The turpentine is conducted
by a tube into a trough, and it requires no other preparation
to render it fit for sale than straining it through a coarse
haircloth. A healthy tree, when tapped, is said to yield seven
or eight pounds weight yearly for forty or fifty years. The
turpentine flows from May to September, but the timber is
rendered of no value.

No tree is so valuable as the larch in its fertilizing effects,
arising from the richness of the foliage, which it sheds annually.
In a healthy wood the yearly deposit is very great; the
leaves remain and consume on the spot where they drop, and
where the influence of the air is admitted, the space becomes
clothed in a vivid green, with many of the finest kinds of
natural grasses, the pasture of which is highly reputed in
dairy management. And in cases where woodland has been
brought under grain crops, the roots have been found less
difficult to remove than those of other trees, and the soil
has been rendered more fertile than that which follows any
other description of timber.

The other species of larch sometimes met with in collec-
tions are less vigorous than the common species, and cannot
be recommended as timber trees.
XXII

THE CEDAR.

Cepar.—Abies Cedrus (Lindley) ; Cedrus Libani (Barrelier).
—tThe cedar of Lebanon is an evergreen tree, indigenous to
Mount Lebanon in Syria, and to Mount Atlas in the north
of Africa. It is the most magnificent and picturesque of the
Conifers, or cone-bearing tribe. When allowed sufficient
space, it is more remarkable for the size of its bole and the
enormous expanse and number of its branches than for its
height. The elegance and grandeur of its appearance are fre-
quently extolled in sacred history beyond that of any other
tree. In the poetical style of the Hebrew prophets, it is used
to symbolize the spiritual prosperity of the righteous; and
whatever was beautiful and comely in the human countenance,
or commanded the admiration and respect of the beholder,
whatever was fearful even in the execution of the judgments
of Heaven, or peaceful and prosperous in the fulfilment of its
prophecies, found a striking similitude in Lebanon and its
cedars.

Some suppose, from the soft wood yielded by the cedar
when grown in this country, that the cypress, or some other
tree, must have produced the timber of Biblical times; but
none else indigenous to Syria is found to suit the habit and
character described by Ezekiel; and its failure, under the un-
natural circumstances of climate in which it is placed here, is
not extraordinary, for others of the Conifer, such as the
Highland Scotch pine, are known to degenerate the more in
the quality of their timber the oftener they are propagated in
an unsuitable clime, at a distance from their native country.

The modern history of Lebanon and its cedars is ample.
THE CEDAR. 235

Aimost every traveller who has visited Syria has ascended
Mount Lebanon. Belon is perhaps the first; he records his
visit in 1550. He says, “At a considerable height up the
mountain, the traveller arrives at the monastery of the Virgin
Mary, which is situated in a valley. Thence proceeding four
miles farther up the mountain, he will arrive at the cedars—
the Maronites, or the monks, acting as guides. The cedars
stand in a valley, and not on the top of the mountain, and
they are supposed to amount to twenty-eight in number,
though it is difficult to count them, they being distant from
each other a few paces. These the Archbishop of Damascus
has endeavoured to prove to be the same that Solomon planted
with his own hands, in the quincunx manner as they now
stand. No other tree grows in the valley in which they are
situated ; and it is generally so covered with snow as to be
only accessible in summer.”

We have the reports of successive travellers, at dates down
to the present time. Ranwolf in 1570, Thevenot in 1655,
Maundrell in 1696, Bruyer in 1702, La Roque in 1722,
Pococke in 1745, and others, bear witness to the existence of
the remains of an ancient forest in the highest part of the
mountain, which ultimately became reduced to a single clump
of very old and large cedar trees.

Lamartine, who visited the cedars in 1832, says, “We
alighted, and sat down under a rock to contemplate them.
These trees are the most renowned natural monuments in the
universe. Religion, poetry, and history have all equally
celebrated them. The Arabs of all sects entertain a traditional
veneration for these trees. They attribute to them not only
a vegetative power which enables them to live eternally, but
also an intelligence which causes them to manifest signs of
wisdom and foresight, similar to those of instinct and reason
in man. They are said to understand the changes of seasons ;
they stir their vast branches as if they were limbs; they
spread out or contract their boughs, inclining them towards
heaven or towards earth, according as the snow prepares to
fall or to melt. These trees diminish. in every succeeding
236 THE CEDAR.

age. Travellers formerly counted thirty or forty ; more re-
cently, seventeen ; more recently still, only twelve. There are
now but seven. These, however, from their size and general
appearance, may be fairly presumed to have existed in Biblical
times. Around these ancient witnesses of ages long since
past, there still remains a little grove of yellower cedars, ap-
pearing to me to form agroup of from 400 to 500 trees.” In
September 1836, M. Laure, an officer in the French Marine,
in company with Prince de Joinville, visited Mount Lebanon,
and ascended to the cedars, which stand on an almost level
space or plain, entirely surrounded by the steep peaks of the
mountain. They found fifteen of the sixteen old cedars men-
tioned by Maundrell ; but all more or less in a state of decay.
One of the healthiest of the old trees, but perhaps the smallest,
measured 35 feet 9 inches in circumference. All the trees
are much furrowed by lightning, which seems to strike them
more or less every year. Surrounded by the old trees, are
about forty comparatively young trees, the smallest of which
have trunks from ten to twelve feet in circumference. They
add that there was not one young plant of cedar in all the
wood of El-Herze, and that the soil of the forest of Lebanon,
on which there was not a single blade of grass growing in
September 1836, is covered to the thickness of half-a-foot
with the fallen leaves, cones, and scales of the cedar, so that it
is almost impossible for the seeds of the trees to reach the
ground and germinate.

The cedar was introduced into England after the middle of
the seventeenth century; and here it still possesses much of
that grandeur and majesty for which the tree is so celebrated.
At Claremont, in the neighbourhood of London, it stands 100
feet high, with a bole of 5 feet 6 inches in diameter. The
loftiest cedar in England is supposed to be one at Strath-
fieldsaye. It is 108 feet high, with a trunk upwards of
3 feet, and a head 74 feet in diameter. But perhaps the
largest, as well as the handsomest, specimen in Britain, is a
tree at Sion House, about 80 feet high, with a trunk 8 feet in
diameter at three feet from the ground, and a-head 117 feet
THE CEDAR. 237

in diameter. In Scotland and Ireland the tree is of more
recent introduction. At Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh,
are several fine cedars, about 120 years old, having been
planted in 1748. The following shows the circumference
and the rate of growth of the two largest, which stand
each about 70 feet high, with tops of nearly 100 feet in
diameter :—

 

Year,. . .| 1801. 1820. 1825. 1833. 1848.

 

Ft. In| Ft In| Ft In| Ft. In. | Ft. In.
First Cedar, . .| 10 0 413 14/14 0/15 1/17 1

Second Cedar, .| 8 6 {10 9$/11 4/12 3)14 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The largest cedars in the Highlands of Scotland are at
Beaufort Castle, the residence of Lord Lovat, in Inverness-
shire. These were planted in 1783, and allowing them to be
four years old at that time, their age (1867) would now be
88 years. The largest measures 18 feet in circumference,
with a top upwards of 60 feet in diameter, and about 50 feet
high, From measurement made, one of these trees, although
considerably broken by a severe storm, increased eighteen
cubical feet of timber in four years, and another twenty-eight
cubical feet during that time. The largest cedar at Beaufort
Castle contains upwards of 250 cubical feet of timber; and
the tree rises with all that boldness of outline and permanence
of aspect which rendered it the glory of Lebanon and the
boast of Palestine.

The cedar seldom yields cones before it is forty, and some-
times not before it is one hundred years of age, and it is not
until the tree has produced several crops that the seeds can
be depended on to vegetate. The catkins appear in autumn,
and the cones require two years to come to maturity. Per-
haps no other tree is naturally so destitute of the means of
increasing its species. The cones, when ripe, do not drop
238 THE CEDAR.

from the tree, nor do they discharge their seed, like other
species of the Conifere, through the influence of sunshine.
Unless they are gathered, they remain attached to the tree
for many years, when the scales give way and the seeds are
shed, leaving the axis of the cone adhering to the branch.

The cones should be gathered before the beginning of
April, when the seeds should be extracted and immediately
sown. It is from cones, the growth of the Levant and of
England, that the British nurserymen are supplied with seed,
and no other method of propagation is in practice. Seeds
are with difficulty extracted from fresh cones. The operation
is performed by sawing off about half an inch of the bottom
of each cone, which portion contains no seeds. A hole is
then bored into the axis, which is split up by the driving of
an iron wedge or spike. To facilitate the operation, the cone
may be steeped in water for a few days, or buried in the
ground for a few weeks, before they are manufactured. The
number of sound seeds in a cone varies much in different
trees, and is much influenced by the season. About fifty are
of frequent occurrence ; and although one person can safely
extract several thousand seeds in a day, yet nature appears to
have made no provision for the rapid increase of the tree, to
re-establish the forest overrun by King Solomon’s fourscore
thousand hewers. The seeds should be sown in April, in
light friable ground, and only placed about an inch apart.
The covering should be about half an inch deep in the open
ground. The young plants appear in breaking through the
ground in about six weeks, when the advantage of close sow-
ing is often apparent, from the ease with which the coty-
ledons disturb and rise through the surface ; whereas, in thin
sowing, when the ground becomes even slightly crusted or
caked, a greater effort is necessary in the individual plant to
get through, and the strongest only prevail.

It is a common practice in nurseries to sow the seeds in
heat under glass, and to pot off the young plants in June,
when their cotyledons only are full grown. Others remove
the plants when one year old into small pots, and shift them
THE CEDAR. 239

into larger as they advance. By cultivating the plants in
pots their removal in safety is rendered certain, and it enables
nurserymen to dispose of them at all seasons. It is attended,
however, with great trouble and expense when the tree is
grown in thousands, and, but for the reasons stated, that
process is not necessary ; for it is found that the treatment
usually bestowed on the larch and Scotch pine is adapted to
the cedar; that is, transplanting the seedling plants at the
age of either one or two years, into nursery lines, from which,
in other two or three years, they should be removed into their
final destination. Like all other kinds of Conifere, when
allowed to remain more than two, or at most three years,
without being disturbed, their roots are apt to take a wide
range, and to become destitute of that fibrous bushiness
which is indispensable to their successful removal. In many
situations, weak plants, if left unprotected, are apt to be
destroyed by vermin ; but much of the prejudice against the
cedar, in consequence of its slow growth when young, may be
traced to the plants being stunted in their early growth, and
not removed soon enough into their permanent situations.

The summit of Lebanon is nearly 10,000 feet high, and
part of the loftiest peaks are at all seasons covered with
snow. Near the bottom of the mountain is Beyrout, one of the
hottest towns in all Syria, where the thermometer frequently
stands at from 90° to 100° Fahr. during the night. The
snow of Lebanon there forms an article of merchandise, and
is used in cooling wines and liquors drunk by the passing
traveller. From the immense height of the mountain a dif-
ferent temperature prevails at various stages, as is thus
described by the Arabian poet :—“ Lebanon bears winter on
his head, spring upon his shoulders, and autumn in his bosom,
while summer lies sleeping at his feet.”

It is at the bottom of the highest peak of the mountain,
and at an altitude of nearly 8000 feet, that the cedars are
found. The tree is exceedingly hardy. A rich loam or sandy
clay soil is very suitable ; but it is found to thrive on soil of
various descriptions with an open subsoil, sufficiently above
240 THE CEDAR.

the rise of water, which must, however, be so near that the
roots may be able to reach the aqueduct. The majesty and
beauty of the cedar in Scripture is ascribed to a similar
cause: “The waters made him great,” etc. The celebrated
cedars at Chelsea have become greatly decayed since the
removal of a pond from which their roots derived nourish-
ment. When Lebanon was the glory of Syria, Ezekiel, evi-
dently a close observer of nature, had the most ample field
for observation, and no doubt, on the banks of the streams,
which were sustained by the melting snows at the hottest
season of the year, he had observed the cedars rise to a
height and magnificence which were not attained by those
differently situated. “Thus was he fair in his greatness ;
in the length of his branches, for his roots were by great
waters.” The nature of the tree remains unaltered, and all
modern experience points out a similar situation as best
adapted to its full development. The tree does not admit
of being pruned in root or branch. It has a strong pro-
pensity to produce lateral branches of a great size, and the
removal of these is found to yield no accession to the growth
of the top-shoot. Deprived of its top the plant is not apt
to form a leader, but becomes a gigantic bush of the wildest
grandeur. When the top is preserved, the tree commonly
rises in a broad conical figure, and when vigorous, will ad-
vance about two feet yearly. After it has attained its
height, the lateral branches continue to extend, until the full-
grown tree presents a head with a broad, flat surface, and
then, as Ezekiel expresses it, “his top is among the thick
boughs.” When planted closely in masses, it rises like any
other species of the pine tribe, with a straight naked trunk,
and it scarcely differs in appearance from the larch, except in
being evergreen. There are several seedling varieties of the
tree; some have leaves of a silvery, glaucous hue, others of a
deep green; some with branches upright, while others are of
pendulous habit. The timber of British growth is of a brown
colour, open in the grain and soft, and it does not support the
reputation of the cedar either for strength or durability.
THE CEDAR. 241

C. Deodara {the Indian Cedar) is the most celebrated coni-
ferous tree of the Himalayas, where it attains the height of
150 feet, with a bole of thirty feet in girth; and it seldom
falls far short of these dimensions. It is accounted sacred by
the Hindus, and is generally met with in the neighbourhood
of their ancient temples. It is found in Nepal, Kamaon, and
Cashmere, at elevations ranging from 7000 to 12,000 feet.
It was introduced into Britain in 1822. At Relick, in Inver-
ness-shire, a plant is now forty-five years of age, having vege-
tated there in the year the tree was introduced to this country.
At the age of sixteen this plant stood seventeen feet high, and’
at one foot above the surface of the ground the girth of its
trunk was two feet nine inches. Its present height is twenty-
seven feet, and its girth five feet. It lost its top many years
ago, and its upward growth has ever since been very slow.
It is to be regretted that this casualty seems to prevail
throughout the country with singular uniformity. The fine
specimens of the tree in the grounds of Norman Macleod,
Esquire, Dalvey, have to some extent suffered in the same
way, by some of them being deprived of their tops at the
time the tree attained to the height of: from fifteen to twenty
feet. This bears a striking resemblance to the failure which
often seizes some plantations of the larch, by the destruction
of the top and a display of dead twigs just at the time when
the tree assumes a timber size, and has begun to put on its
greatest vigour. In every species of the Conifere there is a
period in its growth at which it is more particularly tender
and susceptible of injury by frost than at other times. This
usually manifests itself in imported tender trees, such as the
larch from foreign seed grown in a warm country, while those
grown from British seed are exempt from the casualty ; thus
showing in the following generation the influence of acclima-
tization. We may therefore expect the next generation of
the deodara from home-grown seed to be much hardier, and
exempt from the casualty referred to.

Few seeds of the deodara have yet been produced in Britain.
Its cones are of the size and shape of those of the cedar of

Q
242 THE CEDAR.

Lebanon ; but they are deciduous, and fall to scales imme-
diately on becoming ripe, in October or November.

The seeds should be sown in April, and the mode of rearing
them is exactly that recommended for the cedar of Lebanon.
The seeds are generally found to lose their vitality if kept
beyond seven or eight months. Plants are sometimes pro-
pagated by cuttings, and by grafting and inarching on the
larch ; but seedlings are far preferable. The plant bears a
strong resemblance to the cedar of Lebanon ; but it grows
more freely, and with pendulous spray, resembling the green
waters of a playing fountain, and the diameter of the space
occupied by its branches, in open situations, is generally
equal to its height. Like the cedar of Lebanon, it is admir-
ably adapted for a lawn tree; but the great beauty of the
young plant frequently occasions its insertion in a spot far too
limited for its full development, such as the parterre, or
too close to the residence, where ultimately it must lose its
effect in embellishment ; whereas, if properly situated, with
ample space, and a congenial soil, it will rise in its true char-
acter, combining with its beauty a majesty and a grandeur
unsurpassed by any other tree, native or foreign.

The timber of the deodara is compact and resinous ; it emits
a refreshing odour, is susceptible of a high polish, and a piece
of it has been compared to a slab of brown agate. It has
been found perfectly sound in the roofs of temples which
must have stood at least 200 years.

In the Quarterly Review for January 1838, in reviewing
Moorcroft’s Travels in Ladaka, Kashmir, etc., an account is
given of the excursion of Captain Johnston, in August 1827,
to penetrate the Himalaya to the source of the Jumna, and
thence to the confines of Chinese Tartary. They traced the
course of the river up to Jumnotree. Cursola, a small village
in the very heart of the chasm, is described as an isolated
cluster of about twenty-five houses, 9000 feet above the sea,
with three or four small temples, having excellent roofs of
carved deodar wood. The glen from this village to Jumnotree
was gloomy, and the peaks were completely hidden by forests
THE CEDAR. 243

of the gigantic deodar. The Brooang Pass was only acces-
sible over a bed of snow; and on their descent from it on
the northern side they measured a deodar cedar, and found
it thirty-three feet in circumference, and from sixty feet to
seventy feet high, without a branch. “On the mountains that
enclose the valley of Kashmir, Moorcroft tells us, are immense
forests of deodar, the timber of which is extensively used in
their temples, mosques, and buildings in general. Such, says
Moorcroft, is its durability, that in none of the 384 columns of
the great mosque of Jana Musjid was there any vestige of
decay either from exposure or insects, although they had been
erected above a century and a half. Most of the bridges are of
this timber ; and some pieces in one were found very little
decayed, though they had been exposed to the action of water
for 400 years.” —Quarterly Review, vol. cxi. No. 121, p. 118.

In every particular the tree accords with the description
given of the cedar in Holy Writ, but it has never been found
on or near Mount Lebanon. Like many other species of
conifers cultivated away from its native country, it has given
rise to several varieties, none of which appear preferable to
the common tree. Young plants from seed are sold at 1s.
each, and plants more advanced, standing three to four feet
high, sell at about £10 per 100.

Cryptomeria Japonica (Don): The Japan Cedar.—This forms
a beautiful evergreen tree with leaves five-rowed, without
any footstalks, short pointed, very close together, incurved,
bright green, and about three quarters of an inch in length.
Branches horizontal, spreading, dividing alternately into
numerous branchlets, thickly clothed with leaves. Male and
female flowers on the same tree. Cones of the size of a hazel-
nut. Scales numerous, of a brownish red colour. Seeds ripe
in November. :

Dr. Siebold, in his Flora Japonica, says it is a majestic tree,
well deserving the name of cedar ; that it grows from 60 to 100
feet high, and four or five feet in diameter, with a pyramidal
head ; that it occurs in great abundance on the three great
isles of Japan, and most probably on the smaller ones; that
244 THE CEDAR.

a tenth part of the forests which cover the skirts of the
mountains, between 500 and 1200 feet of elevation, is com-
posed of this tree.

It was introduced into England in 1844, and a plant grown
from a cutting in 1845, the first introduced into Scotland,
stands on the lawn at Dalvey, Morayshire, 24 feet high and 3
feet 4 inches in diameter above the swell of the roots. Late
frosts in the opening up of the season sometimes discolour its
foliage for a short period, but its branches unprotected sur-
vive the severest winters. It yields cones abundantly, and
it is to be hoped that the following generations of plants from
seeds produced in the north of Scotland will be found more
vigorous, and better suited to our climate.
XXIIL
THE CYPRESS.

THis genus of coniferous trees probably derives its name
from the Isle of Cyprus, where one of the first species pre-
vailed extensively.

Cupressus sempervirens (Linneus).—The common or ever-
green cypress is a native of the islands of the Archipelago of
Greece, Turkey, and Asia Minor, where it grows to a great
size. Notwithstanding its abundance in Italy, it is said to
have been introduced into that country from Greece. In
Britain, where it is cultivated as an ornamental tree, it seldom
attains a height exceeding forty feet. It is remarkable for its
close, upright habit of growth, uniformly rising in a tapering
or flame-shaped figure, resembling that of the Lombardy
poplar. -Its erect figure has a striking effect under any cir-
cumstances, but particularly when it rises from among a
clump of round-headed trees. It has been so frequently
planted as an embellishment to tombs and cemeteries, that it
has become, in the language of the poets, the symbol of the
last residence of man; and the ancients considered the tree
as an emblem of immortality. Perhaps the best specimen in
Britain stands at Stretton Rectory, Suffolk; it measures sixty-
three feet high, with a trunk two feet in diameter. One of
the oldest trees in Europe of which there is any record is the
cypress of Somma, in Lombardy, respecting which, it is said,
there is an ancient chronicle extant at Milan, which proves
that it was a tree in the time of Julius Cesar. Its height is
121 feet, and ata foot from the ground it measures 23 feet
in circumference. So respected was it by Napoleon, that, when
laying down his plan of the great road over the Simplon, he
diverged from the straight line to avoid injuring it.
246 THE CYPRESS.

There are many remarkable instances recorded of the dura-
bility of cypress timber. The doors of St. Peter’s, at Rome,
the predecessor of the present edifice, which had lasted from
the time of Constantine to that of Eugene Iv. (above 1100
years), were of cypress, and were found, when removed by
Pope Eugene, to be perfectly sound. Pliny says, respecting
the durability of this wood, that the statue of Jupiter in the
Capitol, formed of cypress, had existed above 600 years,
without showing the slightest symptom of decay ; and that
the cypress doors of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, when
400 years old, had the appearance of being quite new. The
timber of this tree is supposed to be the “gopher wood” of
which Noah’s Ark was constructed. It possesses all the
qualities of durability usually ascribed to the cedar; and
some believe that the cedar-wood of Biblical times must have
been the timber of this tree. It is not found of sufficient
size and numbers for the wood to be generally known in this
country, but it is in common use in Candia and Malta, and itis
always employed as the inner coffin or shell for burying Popes.

The cones of the tree become ripe early in spring, and they
are opened by a heat of 100° Fahr., and the seeds fall out.
They should be sown in April, in early, friable soil; the
plants will appear before the end of May. They should be
protected from the severity of the first winter; for unless
they are grown in very dry ground, and have the benefit of a
warm and ripening summer, their tops do not become sufii-
ciently matured to withstand frost. After the first year’s
growth is completed, the young plants should be transplanted
into nursery lines; and that their roots may be kept bushy
and fibrous, they must be disturbed or removed every second
year until the plants are finally situated. An excellent
method in practice in nurseries, is to insert the plants into
pots at the age of one or two years, and to shift them into
larger pots, according to their growth. The cypress requires
a situation moderately sheltered, and does not admit of a
great elevation. Unfavourable seasons of late, particularly
the severe winter of 1860-61, have rendered this a very
scarce tree throughout Britain, more especially in low, moist
THE CYPRESS. 247

situations ; while it is observable that trees situated in dry
sandy soil, where they ripened or matured their growth, have
escaped injury even in places much exposed. Beautiful ex-
amples of this tree are to be found in the cemetery on the
Cluny Hill, Forres, where they luxuriate in vigour.

The Branching Cypress (C. horizontalis), according to some,
is a distinct species; others consider it only a seedling
variety. It differs in the branches, taking a more horizontal
range than the common species; and it is said to yield the
best timber.

C. Lawsoniana (Murray) : Lawson's Cypress.—This tree is
of more recent introduction than any of the preceding kinds,
and from all that is yet known of it, it promises, in Britain,
to become the leading tree of the genus. It was introduced
in the year 1854, from northern California, where it grows
wild in valleys, particularly along the margin of streams,
where it sometimes attains the height of 100 feet, with a
girth of six or seven feet, in lat. 40° to 42°; and, according
to Murray, who introduced it, it formed the handsomest tree
seen by him in the whole expedition.

It is found to be quite hardy, yielding cones and maturing
seed in this country at an early age. Being easily raised from
seed, and readily taking to the ground when transplanted,
being also a tree of rapid growth and of extreme beauty, it
cannot fail to become soon one of our most common evergreen
trees. When only a few years old, it frequently produces
shouts about two feet in length, of a drooping habit, like the
deodar, which take an upright form the second year. It is
raised from seed like the common species, and is apt to sport
into varieties, which are already numerous, of all shades of
colour, from a grassy green to a glaucous hue, while some are
variegated. All have a graceful and interesting appearance,
and at no distant period, in good soil and shelter, this plant
may be expected to be a companion to the larch and native
Highland pine, adapted to the same treatment in Scottish
moorland.

The timber is said to be very good, easily worked, and pos-
sessed of a strong odour.
248 THE CYPRESS.

C. Nootkatensis (Loudon); syn. C. Nutkaensis (Lambert) ;
Thuiopsis Borealis (Fischer) ; Abies Aromatica (Rafinesque.)—
This is a tall evergreen tree, of recent introduction, from
the north-west coast of North America, where it attains the
height of 100 feet, with spreading or curved flexible branches,
which, when old, are covered with small blisters filled with a
fine aromatic balsam. The tree abounds at Nootka Sound, in
Observatory Inlet, and on the island of Sitcha. It is found
to be quite hardy in the north of Scotland, vigorous in
growth, of great beauty, and its foliage is seldom discoloured
by: the severest winter.

C. macrocarpa (Hartwig) ; syn. C. Lambertiana (Gordon.)\—
This tree was introduced into this country about the year
1840, from the wooded heights of Monterey, in Upper Cali-
fornia, where it forms a tree sixty feet high, with a stem nine
feet in circumference, with wide-spreading branches and flat
top, like a full-grown cedar of Lebanon, which, when old, it
very much resembles. While young, and until its upward
growth subsides, it advances with a pyramidal-shaped head,
with foliage of a bright grassy green of great beauty, and it
grows very rapidly in rich soil. In Scotland, it is generally
reckoned quite hardy, but during the spring of 1867 it was
cut down by frost in some hollow situations, where the C.
Nootkatensis and C. Lawsoniana stood uninjured. It should
therefore have an open and airy situation, moderately ele-
vated, on dry ground, and all the better if the severity of
frosts is mitigated by the influence of the sea.

There are many other species of the cypress, such as Thyo-
ides, or white cedar, a native of North America; C. Torulosa,
from the Himalayas; but they suffer from frost, or do not
attain to the size of timber trees in North Britain.

The mode of growing the common cypress from seed is
adapted to the growth of all the species. In the absence of
seed, propagation by cuttings is practised on all newly intro-
duced and rare kinds, but plants from these are inferior to
seedlings.
XXIV.

THE JUNIPER.

THIS is a genus of evergreen shrubs and low trees,
natives of all quarters of the globe. It belongs to the natural
order Conifere, and to Diecia Monadelphia in the Linnean
system. It comprehends upwards of twenty species, some of
which run into an endless number of varieties.

Plants are generally propagated by the berries or cones,
which lie dormant in the ground for one and sometimes for
two years before the seeds vegetate.

Juniperus communis (Linneus), the Common Juniper, is a
well-known spreading evergreen shrub, which grows wild at
great elevations and in ground of very opposite qualities, but
prefers a deep, dry, loamy soil, partially shaded with higher
trees. Thus situated, it rises to the height of a tall shrub,
or dwarf tree; while on poor gravel, and in wet situations,
it only becomes a low spreading shrub. In the forest at
Cawdor Castle, North Britain, the best specimens measure
upwards of twenty feet in height, with trunks from eighteen
inches to two feet in circumference.

The plant forms an excellent underwood, and shelter for
game in general, and its cover is the favourite resort of the
woodcock. The berries remain on the plant for two years,
and are generally found at many stages of maturity; hence
the name of the shrub, from junior, younger, and pario, to
produce ; because, while some of the fruit is ripe, a younger
crop is still in course of being produced.

The berries form a powerful diuretic, and are much used in
medicine ; but their principal use is in the manufacture of
gin. From the plant an oil is extracted which is much
250 THE JUNIPER.

esteemed in the preparation of varnish. The spray is used as
fuel for smoking hams. The wood is fragrant, of a light
brown colour, and susceptible of a high polish ; and it is
generally used in forming the smaller articles of ornamental
turnery. In a loose, open soil the plants yield long, tough,
fibrous roots, which in the Highlands of Scotland are split up
and woven into creels and hampers, which are used at farm-
steadings for carrying potatoes, turnips, and for similar pur-
poses. These articles, thus manufactured, are remarkable for
their durability, when exposed to alternate moisture and
drought.

J. Virginiana (Linneus), the Virginian Juniper, commonly
known as the Red American Cedar, is the tallest hardy tree
of the genus. In its native country it is frequently met with
sixty feet high, with a trunk two feet in diameter. It was
introduced into Britain in the early part of the seventeenth
century, where it attains the dimensions which it acquires in
North America. In British nurseries this species is more
extensively cultivated than any other. Its progress from seed,
during the first four or five years, is equal to that of the
Scotch pine ; and no plant is more apt to produce seedling
varieties, which, while they differ in the size and shape of
their foliage, in the structure of their branches, and in their
habit of growth, are all of them handsome. It grows best in
rich, deep soil, and endures a more than ordinary degree of
moisture, which has the effect of forming it into a broad and
spreading tree; but it generally rises a beautifully formed
evergreen, of a conical figure, affording a great shelter. It
is thoroughly hardy, and is much esteemed in the shrubbery,
as a nurse or shelter for more tender plants.

The quality of the timber varies considerably in the different
varieties. It is generally of a glossy brown colour, and of a
fine grain, susceptible of a high polish, and used in the manu-
factures of the turner and cabinetmaker. Seedling plants
should be transplanted when they are one, or at most two
years old, and afterwards removed every second year, until
they are permanently situated,
THE JUNIPER. 251

J. thurifera (Linneus), the Incense-bearing or Spanish
Juniper, was introduced into this country more than a hun-
dred years ago. It is now in general cultivation. It formsa
beautiful, low, evergreen tree, with pyramidal head, seldom
exceeding thirty feet in height. It yields large berries, which,
when ripe, become black, and form a beautiful contrast to the
foliage, which is commonly of a vivid green. As an embellish-
ment to the lawn, or to add richness of foliage and shelter to
the shrubbery, few trees are more ornamental.

J. Bermudiana (Linnzus), popularly known as Bermudas
Cedar, is in its native country a tall tree, and yields timber
which is much esteemed for its fragrance. It is employed in
inlaying, being a preventive of moth and other insects. It is
also used in the manufacture of black-lead pencils. Although
it is nearly two centuries since its introduction, it is not yet
generally cultivated, being too tender for the climate or
Britain, and is seldom met with except in collections of the
genus. In the most favoured situations, it seldom exceeds
the stature of a shrub.
XXV.

THE WELLINGTONIA.

Wellingtonia gigantea (Lindley); Washingtonia gigantea (of
the Americans); Sequoia gigantea (Edlicher) : The Mammoth
Tree.—This new genus of Conifer, named in compliment to
the Duke of Wellington, was discovered in June 1850, in a
grove in Calaveras County, in the Sierra Nevada, near the
source of the Stanislas in Upper California, and about 225
miles from San Francisco. The tree having become known
to the California settlers, it is said they directed Mr. Lobb, the
botanist and plant-collector, to the Calaveras grove, who dis-
covered and introduced the tree into Britain in 1853,—the
“manuscript notice” of former explorers not counting as
publication. Besides the Calaveras grove, there are several
other groves of the tree known to exist throughout the
country. An interesting description of some of them is given
by Mr. Hutchings, in his Scenes of California. The Cal-
averas grove has been often described, and the public are
familiar with the names of these remarkable trees,—as the
Father of the Forest, the Mother of the Forest, Hercules, the
Two Guardsmen, the Three Graces, etc. etc.

The name of J. M. Wooster, June 1850, is cut on the
“ Hercules” tree, one of the party who gives the credit of first
discovering the trees, Mr. Hutchings tells us, to W. White-
head, Esq., who “ while tying his shoe looked casually round
and saw the trees” (June 1850).

Mr. Hutchings gives an account of the Mariposa grove, and
the girth of 132 of the trees, nearly half the number the
group contains ; only three of these reach or exceed 100 feet
in circumference, two are between 90 and 100 feet, and the
THE WELLINGTONIA. 253

others range from 28 to 90 feet. He reckons that when a
tree reaches 90 feet in girth, it will be 300 feet high ; and if
60 feet, it may be about 250 feet high, and so on. The
following quotation relates to the Mariposa grove :—“ One
mighty tree that had fallen by fire, and burned out, into
which we walked for a long distance, we found to be the
abode of the grizzly bear. Another tree, measuring 80 feet,
and standing aloof, was called ‘The Lone Giant ;’ it went
heavenward some 300 feet. One monster tree that had fallen
and been burned hollow has been recently tried by a party of
our friends, riding, as they fashionably do, in the saddle,
through the tunnel of the tree. These friends rode through
this tree a distance of 153 feet. The tree had been long fallen,
and measured, ere its bark was gone and its sides charred,
over 100 feet in circumference, and probably 350 feet in height.

“The mightiest tree that has yet been found now lies upon
the ground, and fallen as it lies, it is a wonder still; it is.
charred, and time has stripped it of its heavy bark, and yet
across the butt of the tree, as it lay upturned, it measured
33 feet without its bark. There can be no question that in its
vigour, with its bark on, it was 40 feet in diameter, or 120 in
circumference. Only about 150 feet of the trunk remains,
yet the cavity where it fell is still a large hollow beyond the
portion burned off; and upon pacing it, measuring from the
root 120 paces, and estimating the branches, this tree must
have been 400 feet high. We believe it to be the largest
tree yet discovered.” —(P. 148.)

It is reported that there are several groves at distances
varying from six to ten miles eastward of Mariposa.

Of the Frezno grove Mr. Hutchings says :—

“This grove consists of about 500 trees of the Taxodium
family, on about as many acres of dense forest land, gently
undulating ; the two largest we could find measured 81 feet
each in circumference, well formed, and straight from the
ground to the top. The others, equally sound and straight,
were from 51 feet to 75 feet in circumference.” It is added,
“It ought here to be remarked that Mr. L. A. Holmes
254 THE WELLINGTONIA.

and Judge Fitzhugh saw an extensive grove of much larger
trees than these on the head waters of the San Joaquim
river, about twelve miles east of those on the Frezno; but
it has never been explored.”—(P. 151.)

Every one interested in the growth of plantations in this
country must have observed the great advantages derived
by trees situated in glens and ravines, standing in a con-
genial soil and undisturbed by the influence of “ far-fetched”
and biting winds. An inequality of surface, even on a
small scale, is conducive to rapid growth and lofty dimensions;
something unusual therefore might naturally be expected
in the vegetation of a country where the configuration
of ground forms land-locked valleys, on the most magni-
ficent scale yet known ; a waterfall is recorded 2550 feet in
height, but being broken into three, the greatest actual height
of one unbroken fall is 1500 feet, and nearly twice the height
of Staubbach, the highest cascade in Europe. The shelter and
seclusion afforded by the country for the production of timber
is apparent from the following :—

“Tu-toch-ah-nulah lifts up his square granite forehead
3090 feet above the grassy plain at his feet, a rounded curving
cliff, as smooth, as symmetrical to the eye, and absolutely as
vertical for the upper 1500 feet as any Corinthian pillar on
earth. I have seen the stupendous declivity of the Italian
side of Monte Rosa, a steep continuous precipice of 9000 feet,
but it is nothing like Tu-toch-ah-nulah, being nowhere ab-
solutely perpendicular.”

Previous to the disastrous fire at the Sydenham Crystal
Palace, part of the bark from one of these enormous trees
was exhibited on a prepared frame 116 feet high, showing the
gigantic size of the tree from which it was peeled, which, though
dead, still stands, it is said, 363 feet high, 140 feet to the first
limb, 15 feet in diameter at 100 feet high, with its trunk 93
feet in circumference at the ground level, measuring outside
the bark, which was eighteen inches thick. The soil which
has yielded these magnificent objects is said to be a deep, rich
black loam. The groves form deep valleys in the mountains,
THE WELLINGTONIA. 255

and are about 5000 feet above the level of the sea. ‘This is
an elevation considerably greater than any of the hill-tops of
Britain, but it is only about one-third of the height of some
parts of the Sierra Nevada or snowy range of Upper California.
So far as I can yet judge of this tree, it is superior to most of
those recently introduced, and is destined to occupy a con-
spicuous place among the hardy trees of this country. Ihave
grown it from seed sown in the open ground, and find that
the young seedling plants stand during the severest winter.
At one year old the young plant is sometimes as small as
a one year Scotch fir. The two-year-old seedling is as tall
as that plant at that age, and more broadly ramified. It
should be transplanted from the seed-bed when one year old,
to give it sufficient room and to increase its root fibres, which
are naturally long and bare. Transplanting has the effect of
retarding its upward growth. The plant is remarkable in
early life for acquiring breadth in the spread of its branches
and the thickness of its stem.

In the nursery it requires frequent transplanting: or pot
culture to keep it in a safe state for removal. A plant on
my lawn furnishes a good idea of the progress of the tree.
It was sown in the open ground in April 1860. It stood
the severe winter of 1860-61, when a one-year seedling, one
inch, having a cover of about two inches of snow. It was
transplanted in the nursery in April 1862. In the spring of
1864 it was placed into its present situation; it has now finished
the growth of seven years, and stands 73 inches high; 32
inches of which were the measure of last summer’s growth
(1865) ; the spread of its branches, or diameter, is 52 inches.
The plant would have been much taller had it not been dis-
turbed by being twice transplanted, which has had the effect
’ of considerably retarding its progress, as will be seen from the
following figures, recording its progress in inches during the
seven summers respectively :—l, 4, 4, 9, 8, 15, 32=73 inches.
It will be observed that its growth last summer was six inches
greater than that of its first five yearsfrom seed. A vigorous
plant has the propensity of continuing its growth late in the
256 THE WELLINGTONIA.

season ; even in October I have known it to add an inch or
two to its height, and yet withstand the frosts of winter;
though it is subject to become brown by frost, and assume a
rusty appearance, yet I have never observed it killed down to
any extent. Unlike other evergreens, its autumnal growth
prevents it from being safely removed from the ground, if
vigorous, at that season.

In this country the Wellingtonia grows an exceedingly
symmetrical and handsome tree, with small heath-like leaves
lying nearly close to the branchlets, of a bluish pale green
colour. The stem is very robust, and plentifully furnished
with branches spread out with great regularity, forming a base
of unusual breadth near the surface of the ground.

The tree is readily increased by cuttings. I have seen
some of these growing rapidly in a congenial soil, and almost
of a timber size, well furnished with branches, and altogether
of the most shapely figure, but, nevertheless, I would prefer
seedling plants.

It is supposed by some that as the Wellingtonia has already
yielded cones in this country, and fertile seeds at an age not
exceeding ten years, it cannot become a large tree in the
climate of Britain ; but from our experience of other large
trees this does not necessarily follow. The larch, for instance,
has been known to yield cones at an earlier period of its
growth, and yet the species attains the height of 100 feet.

The propagation of the Wellingtonia from cuttings, on
account of the difficulty in obtaining seed, has no doubt a
tendency to early fructification. This practice, however, is not
now likely to be long continued, and we may reasonably expect
soon to find seedling plants sold at a few shillings per 100.
From the nature of the tree, it is likely we shall have several
generations of it in the country during the present century ;
and judging from climatic influence clearly impressed on some
other kinds of Conifers, it is reasonable to believe that British-
grown seed will produce plants better adapted to our climate
than those of foreign growth. The seeds are remarkably

small, and such as would not readily exhaust a tree of vigour.,
THE WELLINGTONIA. 257

From the minute parcels of these seeds which I have had in
hand, I expect an ounce of them would number more grains
than a pound weight of the seeds of many kinds of pine. In
this respect the seed of the Wellingtonia resembles that of the
Scripture mustard, which is among “the least of all seeds, but
when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs.”

From the straggling nature of the roots of the plant when
it is only a few years old, it gives no promise that it will ever
transplant and admit of being notched into moorland with
the facility with which the young plants of Scotch pine and
larch can be planted. In woodlands, however, where the
soil is of good quality, and possessed of moderate shelter, such
as in glens and ravines, and in places where timber stands
too thin, and where there is protection, prepared spots at
considerable distances apart should be formed, a few feet in
diameter, by trenching, or by loosening the soil with a tramp
pick in autumn. Into these prepared spots Wellingtonias
from one to two feet high should be inserted in spring, and all
the better if the plants have been transplanted in the nursery
ground a year previously, unless they are taken from pots.
The tree luxuriates in soi] of very diversified quality, rather
inclining to moisture than otherwise, and does not object to
a great proportion of bog or peat soil.' It is expected that
on the properties in which this tree is early interspersed, it
will, within 100 years of the date of its introduction, have
emerged above the height of the ordinary trees of the forest,
and will be seen towering aloft, like the spires of a city.

Of this tree, the quality of the timber of British growth has
not yet ‘been well ascertained, although some of the largest
specimens are said to be upwards of twenty-three feet high,
with trunks four feet nine inches in circumference. The wood

1In the Gardener's. Chronicle of the 9th December 1865, Mr. Day ot
Theydon Grove, Epping, Essex, gives an account of some of the best grown
trees of Wellingtonia to be found in this country. He says,—‘‘ Of several
plants in the park here, one is planted in a very wet place—in short, its
roots are literally covered with water during the winter months. On
measuring its growth the other day, I was surprised to find that it had

grown 3 feet 4 inches in height this season.”
R
258 THE WELLINGTONIA.

in its native country is said to be soft and easily worked, not
apt to warp; of a reddish colour like cedar, but scentless. It
was reported that a tree cut down a few years ago in its native
country was found to contain upwards of 3000 annual circles
of timber, indicating that number of years of age, and that
the timber all round the exterior of the trunk which had
been last formed, was very hard compared to that nearer the
centre, although the trunk was quite sound. The wonder is
that the timber held together so long. It may be possessed
of incorruptible qualities, though not strong. In a far shorter
period the heart of oak moulders into decay ; for instance, the
Great Oak of Cowthorpe, in Yorkshire, the largest I ever saw,
whose age is unknown, has been hollow for many generations,
its interior forming a vacant space equal to the size of an
ordinary dwelling apartment, yet it continues to vegetate and
form wood externally.

In extreme old age our hardwood trees, generally, are more
subject to heart-rot than the various species of Conifera.
XXXVI.

THE ARAUCARIA.

Arawaria imbricata (Pavon).—This tree is a native of Chili.
On the Cordilleras in that country, it is found at various
altitudes, and in some instances it approaches not far from
the line of perpetual snow. It has been known in this
country since the end of last century. In 1795, Captain
Vancouver touched at the coast of Chili, and Mr. Menzies, who
accompanied the expedition, procured cones, seeds from which he
sowed on board ship, and brought home living plants, which
he presented to Sir Joseph Banks, who planted one of them in
his own garden at Spring Grove, and sent the others to Kew.
From this circumstance the tree was called at first, in England,
Sir Joseph Banks’s Pine. The tree is diecious, and the male
is said to attain in its native country to only a small size
compared to the female, which reaches to 150 feet in height.

Dr. Peeppig, in The Companion to the Botanic Magazine, gives
a detailed account of the araucaria forests. He says,—‘ The
araucaria is the palm of those Indians who inhabit the Chilian
Andes, from latitude 37° to 48°, yielding to these nomade
nations a vegetable substance that is found in the greater
plenty the more they recede from the whites, and the more
difficult they find it to obtain corn by commerce. Such is the
extent of the araucarian forests (pinares), and the amazing
quantity of nutritious seeds that each full-grown tree produces,
that the Indians are ever secure from want; and even the
discord that prevails frequently among the different hordes
does not prevent the quiet collection of this kind of harvest.
A single fruit (cabeza, a head) contains between 200 and 300
kernels, and there are frequently twenty or thirty fruits on one
260 THE ARAUCARIA.

stem ; and as even a hearty eater among the Indians, except he
should be wholly deprived of every other kind of sustenance,
cannot consume more than 200 nuts in a day, it is obvious
that eighteen araucarias will maintain a single person for a
whole year.”

Respecting the timber, he says,—“The wood of the araucaria
is red where it has been affected by the forest fires ; but other-
wise it is white, and towards the centre of the stem bright
yellow. It yields to none in hardness and solidity, and might
prove valuable for many uses, if the places of growth of the
tree were less inaccessible. For shipbuilding it would be
useful ; but it is much too heavy for masts. If a branch be
scratched, or the scales of an unripe fruit be broken, a thick
milky juice immediately exudes, that soon changes to a
yellowish resin, of which the smell is agreeable, and which is
considered by the Chilians as possessing such medicinal virtues
that it cures the most violent rheumatic headaches, when
applied to the spot where the pain is felt.” The scales of the
cones are deciduous, and are shed with the seed about the
end of March.

In this country the plant is more susceptible of frost in
low, damp, and confined situations than it is in more upland
exposures. In such in the north of Scotland, it generally
stands scathless during the severest winters; but the plants
raised in this country vary in the degree of frost they can
endure; no doubt according to the elevation at which the
seeds have been produced in their native country. It is not
particular as to the quality of soil, provided it is well drained.
In Britain its rate of growth is too slow for that of a timber tree,
seldom exceeding fourteen or fifteen feet in twenty years.
One of the first introduced trees, that at Kew, is the largest I
have seen, but it is small for its years. At the time I saw it,
it bore a large cone of a globular figure, and apparently seven
or eight inches in diameter.

The growth of the tree is uniform, stiff, and formal, and as
yet it is cultivated purely for ornament. It forms a conspicuous
object in the pleasure-ground, from the peculiarity of its con-
THE ARAUCARIA. 261

struction ; but dangerous if run against, as its numerous leaves
are stiff, and lanceolate, and readily pierce deeply; hence
arises the name in its native country, “monkey puzzle.”

With this tree there is no shedding of leaves, at least for
many years. The largest trees 1 have met with retain the
leaves that clothed the young plants twenty or thirty years
ago, now situated near or far asunder according to the thick-
ness of the stem. The branches are produced in whorls ; but
these do not indicate the age of the tree as the number of
whorls do that of the pine.

In the north of Scotland some fine specimens of the tree are
to be met with. It grows vigorously at Dunrobin Castle, in
Sutherlandshire. In Ross-shire, at Rosehaugh House, it forms
a handsome tree; and at Conon House, in the same county,
it stands from thirty to thirty-five feet high, with a girth of
four feet near the surface of the ground.

Seedling plants from imported seed abound in nurseries,
and are sold from one shilling upwards, according to size.

In the Gardener's Chronicle of 1st June 1867, I observe a
report by Mr James Barnes, Bicton, Devonshire, on the
splendid araucarias at that place, both male and female trees,
where fertilized seeds have been produced, and promising
young plants raised and planted out. Mr. Barnes has had
much experience in the conifers, and he says it is impossible
in any way to distinguish the difference between the male
and female trees about 30 feet high, until they yield blossom.
He gives no credit to the differences detailed by travellers of
the size and shape of the sexes in their native country, unless
these are developed at a more advanced stage of their growth.
It may be expected that plants grown from seed produced in
Britain will be found far better adapted to our climate than
those raised from imported seed.
XXVIL

THE OAK.

Oax.—The oak belongs to the genus Quercus, of Monecia
Polyandria, in the Linnean system, and to Corylacew or Cupuli-
fere in the natural order of plants. It is a well-known and
valuable tree, and a native of all quarters of the world. It is
adopted as an emblem of strength and durability, and from the
most remote antiquity it has been invested with a superiority
among trees. Transmitted through many ages, with a char-
acter so striking and pre-eminent, we justly recognise it as
“the monarch of the wood.” The genus is one of the most
extensive and varied that is to be found in the vegetable
kingdom. It comprehends about 150 species, inhabiting
chiefly the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere.
About a hundred species have been introduced into Britain.
These branch into an endless number of varieties. The
species are, generally, trees of great magnitude; but some
are of a middle size, others do not attain to these dimensions,
while some are mere shrubs, not exceeding the height of two
feet. Some species are evergreen, some sub-evergreen, but the
greater number are deciduous trees. The fruit in all the
species is the well-known acorn, remarkable for its uniformity
in size and shape. For the most part the oak attains to the
age of at least twenty years before it yields fruit, which is
usually the case with trees of long duration; but Loudon
states that he has seen in a pot a plant of Quercus lanata, a.
native of Nepaul, bearing acorns at the age of three or four
years.

As a useful timber tree the oak is equalled only by the pine
or fir tribe; and in furnishing bark for tanning it has no
THE OAK, 263

superior. One of the evergreen species, @. suber, a native of
Spain, yields the-cork of commerce. The common deciduous
species possess the property, when cut down, of springing
freely from the surface of the ground, which renders them
valuable in coppice. In this article it is necessary that we
confine our remarks to a few of the more prominent species ;
and that deserving of precedence is the British oak.

Q. Robur (Linneus) : The British Oak.—This is the most
celebrated tree of the tribe. It is indigenous to Britain, and
throughout many parts of Europe. It comprehends many
varieties, two of which are so distinct that botanists frequently
rank them as species, namely, @. 2. pedunculata and Q. RB.
sessiliflora. The former yields the acorns on fruit-stalks; in
the latter the acorns are sessile—it yields flowers and acorns
close to the branches without fruit-stalks. The first is the
most approved tree, as it produces the best timber. The
timber of sessiliflora bears a strong resemblance to that of the
Spanish chestnut, and the tree is more apt to retain its
withered leaves during the winter. Its greatest recommenda-
tion is, that it grows more freely than the other sorts when
young, particularly in an inferior soil and situation ; but after-
wards the difference in the growth of the trees, and in their
ultimate size, is hardly perceptible. Pedunculata is the more
common tree, both in natural and planted woods throughout
Britain ; but intermediate varieties of the tree are often
met with.

From the earliest accounts we have of British oaks, it
appears that the forests were chiefly valued on account of the
acorns they produced, which were generally consumed in
feeding swine and other domestic animals, while in years of
scarcity they were used as human food. The year of great
famine, 1116, is described in the Saxon Chronicles as “a very
heavy timed, vexatious, and destructive year ;” and the failure
of mast is thus recorded :—“ This year, also, was so deficient in
mast, that there was never heard such in all this land or in
Wales.”

The British oak is invariably propagated by seed; and, in
264 THE OAK.

forming plantations, the acorns are sometimes deposited in
prepared ground. By this method the young plants are sub-
jected to many casualties, and they seldom succeed so uni-
formly as those that have been raised in nurseries, prepared
for the forest, and planted out at the age of three, four, or
five years. In collecting seed, it is of great importance to
select acorns from the most approved trees. In the laying
down of an annual crop, the agriculturist is aware that the
result of a single season will depend greatly on the quality or
variety of the seed employed. In no case, therefore, should
that principle, which nature has everywhere established
throughout the vegetable kingdom, be more carefully ob-
served than in depositing those seeds which are to occupy the
soil for many generations, it may be for many centuries.
Time cannot develop the peculiar excellencies of a tree
unless the elements of these are contained in the seed.

Acorns generally become ripe and drop from the tree about
the end of autumn; and they may be sown any time from
that period to the beginning of March. Although acorns
ripen in Scotland, they are not so good in quality, and seldom
produce seedlings so stout as English acorns. They will grow
in any soil, but that which is light and friable is best suited
for the young plants. As the smallest acorns produce plants
which for some years continue of a weak and feeble growth,
it is usual, when the supply of seed is abundant, to separate
them by passing the small ones through a riddle of a size
adapted to retain the largest nuts, which only are used. In
nurseries they are generally sown in beds four feet wide, and
one bushel of sound acorns is sufficient for a bed twenty-five
yards long of that width. The nuts should be rolled or
beaten down with the back of a spade. The alleys between
the beds are commonly made fourteen inches broad. The
surface soil is removed from these alleys to form a cover on
the seed, which should in heavy soil be only half an inch
deep; in soil light and friable it should be nearly one inch
deep. In sowing during winter, or early in spring, the soil
from the alleys should be spread roughly, taking care that the
THE OAK. 265

seeds are all hid. In this rough state the covering should
remain until April, when in dry weather it should be raked
and equalized on the surface of the beds. By this process
the covering is exposed to the pulverizing influence of the
frost, the seeds of weeds will have vegetated, and will be
readily destroyed by the operation of the rake ; and early in
May the oaks will rise through the newly-disturbed and con-
sequently soft surface. At this period they are very tender,
and in North Britain are sometimes injured by late frosts.
Therefore a slight covering of leaves, litter, twigs of ever-
greens, or of any light open substance, continued to the end
of May, is often found to be a useful protection. No further
care is needful, but that of keeping the beds free of weeds
throughout the season. The seedling plants are sometimes
removed into nursery lines at the age of one year, but more
frequently when two years old. This operation may be per-
formed any time in open weather during winter or spring. In
removing the plants from the seed-beds, they should be care-
fully loosened, so that their lateral fibres may not be injured.
The extremities of their tap-roots should be cut off.

They should be transplanted into nursery lines, sixteen or
eighteen inches apart, and the plants about six inches asunder.
After being two years in lines they are generally from two
to three feet high, and fit for being planted into the forest.
If plants are required of a larger size for planting, they
should be again transplanted into a greater space, where they
may remain for two or three years, according to their pro-
gress. Such plants are commonly fit for hedgerows, or for
situations where smaller plants are subject to injury by vermin.
When the oak remains more than two years without being
transplanted, it begins to strike deep into the soil, and to lose
that bushiness of root which frequent transplanting is so
useful in producing. Therefore, plants which remain four or
five years in lines without being disturbed, may appear
vigorous and well-grown, yet, for want of fibrous roots, they
will be found of little use in forest planting. The oak affects
a strong deep soil, elevated considerably above stagnant water ;
266 THE OAK.

but it attains to a good size in sandy or gravelly ground, par-
ticularly when it is composed of a clayey mixture; and it is
found to luxuriate on ground of opposite qualities, and on
that too poor to produce ash or elm timber. The roots of
the oak penetrate to a greater depth than those perhaps of
any other tree, and therefore its prosperity is the more de-
pendent on the under stratifications of the soil. In rich
sheltered glens and valleys, when associated with trees, it
becomes lofty, with a tall trunk, while on the bare and ex-
posed upland it is found dwarfed and bushy. Although it
expands into leaf at a late period of the season, it is fre-
quently blighted by late frosts, the slightest touch of which
becomes visible on its foliage. A young oak plantation
should, therefore, in exposed situations, be reared with other
trees of faster growth ; and for this purpose, the larch, beech,
Scotch fir, balm of Gilead, and spruce fir, are well adapted.
In some bleak exposures it is necessary to have firs planted a
few years previously, and three or four feet high at the time
the oak plants are inserted. With shelter the young plant
soon takes a powerful hold of the soil, and being tenacious of
life it is rarely killed by confinement. When relieved, after
being pretty closely sheltered, it often advances rapidly, and
frequently produces summer and autumn shoots. These
autumn or Lammas growths are peculiar to the oak and a few
other timber trees, while young and vigorous.

In plantations or close woods, the tree, during the early
stages of its growth, is generally erect and pliant; but by
and by its habits become altered. Just before its top reaches
its full height, which is regulated much by soil and exposure,
its ramifications become more marked and dignified. But the
form and outline of a tree in a close plantation are always
influenced by physical circumstances. Its natural habit of
growth can only be known when it stands alone. Then the
monarchical character of the British oak becomes fully deve-
loped in the boldness of its outline; its roots are seen to form
a spreading basis on the surface, and to mark their sure foun-
dation in the soil; the magnitude and massive compactness
THE OAK. 267

of the trunk, surmounted by ponderous horizontal limbs,
become conspicuous ; and in winter, the gnarled bifurcations,
firmly built together, display an elegance in the twistings of
the numerous branchlets never exhibited by any other tree.
In summer, while the ramifications are less visible, the glossy
foliage, which, in a good specimen, generally towers into
galleries or tiers of light and shade, invests the whole object
with grandeur. From the most remote antiquity, the oak,
together with the cedar, has possessed a celebrity among vege-
table productions. On occasions of festivity, when branches
of trees were presented to the gods and goddesses of heathen
mythology, the boughs of the oak were offered to Jupiter.

Most of the counties in England possess some remarkable
trees of this species, and generally they are “full of story,
and haunted by the recollections of the great spirits of past
ages.” In Norfolk stands the celebrated Winfarthing Oak,
for the most part a ruin, but still producing foliage and acorns.
Attached to the tree is a brass plate giving its dimensions
thus :—“ This oak, in circumference at the extremity of the
roots, is seventy feet; in the middle, forty feet: 1820.” It
is said to have been called “The Old Oak” in the time of
William the Conqueror, and its age is believed to be 1500
years. At Bixley Park, the seat of the Earl of Rosebery, in
the county last named, is the Bixley Oak, seventeen feet in
circumference at five feet from the ground. It is calculated
to contain twelve loads of timber, and during the war £120
was repeatedly offered for it for the use of the navy. In the
same county, the great oak at Thorpemarket is one of the
finest trees in England, and in full vigour. At a foot from
the ground its girth is twenty-two feet; its trunk is forty-
two feet long, and the tree is seventy feet high.

“ The King Oak,” at Windsor Forest, is said to have been a
favourite tree of William the Conqueror; it measures twenty-
six feet in circumference at three feet from the ground. It is
the largest and oldest in Windsor Forest, and has stood up-
wards of 1000 years. “The Majesty Oak,” at Fredville, in
Kent, at eight feet from the ground, is upwards of twenty-eight
268 THE OAK.

feet in girth, and contains 1400 feet of timber. In Notting-
hamshire, “The Parliament Oak,” in Clipstone Park, the
property of the Duke of Portland, derives its name from a
parliament having been held under it by Edward 1, in 1290.
The girth of this tree is twenty-eight and a half feet. This
park was formed before the Conquest, and was seized by
William, who made it aroyal demesne. “ The Shelton Oak”
still stands near Shrewsbury, and is about twenty-six feet in
girth at breast height. This venerable oak is celebrated from
having been mounted by Owen Glendower, on the 21st June
1403, that he might obtain a view of the battle of Shrewsbury,
on his arrival with 12,000 men. In Bagot’s Park, Stafford-
shire, is an immense oak, twenty-eight feet in circumference
at five feet from the ground. Lauder’s Gilpin says of it,—
“The branches extend forty-eight feet from the trunk in
every direction; it contains 877 cubical feet of timber,
which, including the bark, would have produced, according
to a price offered for it in 1812, the sum of £202, 14s. 9d.”
This tree is quite fresh, vigorous, and beautiful.

In the West Riding of York, near the village church of
Cowthorpe, stands an oak, perhaps the largest in England.
Close to the ground it measures seventy-eight feet in circum-
ference, and three feet higher its girth is forty-eight feet. I
was residing in Yorkshire during part of the summer of 1853,
and the celebrity of this tree made me anxious to see it. I
found it about an hour’s drive east from Harrowgate, at the
upper end of the village of Cowthorpe, on ground slightly
elevated. As it stands pretty much in a line with the street
or road that passes along between two lines of thatched houses,
a person has a good view of the oak before getting close beside
it. Ata little way off it presented, as I thought, only a very
moderate appearance ; on getting near to it, however, I saw
that its girth was very far beyond that of any species of living
tree I had ever seen. I found it a great ruin. There were
two entrances into its interior. The principal one was of ample
dimensions to admit cattle, and thither those in the field re-
sorted for shade and shelter. The interior of the tree was
THE OAK. 269

4

literally a byre. I paced within the tree in one straight line
upwards of five yards. The innkeeper at Cowthorpe told us
that the day previous to our visit being a holiday at a neigh-
bouring school, the tree was visited by the scholars, their
teachers and friends, and that eighty-four persons stood within
the tree, and that it could: have contained a considerable
number more.

The head of the tree presented a display of dead branches ;
a great many were also strewn on the ground around, the
effects of a recent hurricane. The head also exhibited some
widely-spread living boughs, one of which, the nearest to the
ground, extended forty-eight feet from the trunk in a horizon-
tal line about eight feet from the ground. I could discover no
young shoots, but the live branches were well furnished with
foliage of a very healthy appearance. Nothing is known of
the age of this tree ; but looking at its enormous size in com-
parison to trees the growth of centuries, whose ages are ascer-
tained, one is led to believe that thousands of years must have
elapsed since this monarch of the forest was a small acorn
in the ground, and nursed among the weeds of a season.
We left the scene with mingled feelings of wonder and regret ;
regret that so remarkable an object should be so little
cared for.

Perhaps the largest and most valuable tree ever produced
in Britain was that called the “Gelonos Oak,” which grew
a few miles from Newport, in Monmouthshire, and was
felled in 1810. It is stated in the Gentleman's Magazine
for 1817 to have been sold for one hundred guineas,
under the apprehension of its being unsound, and re-
sold while still standing for £405. The expense of con-
verting it was £82, making in all £487 ; and subsequently
it was sold for £675. It is said to have contained 2426
cubical feet of timber, and its bark was estimated at the
weight of six tons.

Some districts of Scotland contain a considerable extent of
valuable oak forests ; but the dimensions of the best specimens
fall far short of those of English growth. In Roxburghshire,
270 THE OAK.

two fine trees stand on the property of the Marquis of Lothian;
one called the “ King of the Woods” stands seventy-three feet
high, and having had shelter in its youth, it has a clean and
branchless trunk, forty-three feet long, and seventeen feet in
circumference above the swell of its roots. The other oak,
called the “ Capon Tree,” possesses quite a different character ;
it has grown in a situation more exposed, and its figure is
consequently more bushy. The circumference of its trunk,
two feet from the ground, is twenty-six feet. The height
of the tree is fifty-six feet, and the space occupied by
the spread of its boughs is nearly 100 feet in diameter.
Several centuries ago, when Scotland was more closely
covered with timber, specimens of British oak were pro-
duced in it far finer than those which flourish at the
present time. Of this fact the gigantic trunks and pon-
derous limbs which are frequently discovered imbedded in
the soil throughout the country are the infallible historians,
and indicate by their age and figure that the trees enjoyed
ample space and a sufficient shelter,—elements indispensable
to the growth of large oak timber.

One of the finest oak forests in Scotland is that at Darnaway,
in Morayshire. Between the years 1830 and 1840 the sales
of timber and bark ranged from £4000 to £5000 yearly. The
oak timber usually sold at from 2s. to 3s. per cubical foot, and
bark varied from £6 to £9 per ton. The age of the timber
ranged from thirty to eighty years; and, after paying every
expense during the growth of the timber, the revenue of the
forest per acre was double that of the finest arable land in the
country.

Although the oak does not while young advance so rapidly
as some other hard-wooded trees, yet it is by no means an
unprofitable tree. During the early part of its growth in the
forest it is seldom or never planted by itself, but interspersed
and nursed with other sorts, which generally come to be of
some value on being removed; and after the oak is about
twenty years of age, it generally grows as fast as most other
sorts of hard-wooded trees, and its bark is always found to be
THE OAK. 271

of great value. Another great advantage arising from the oak
is, that a plantation of it never requires to be replanted after
the timber is felled. The roots readily spring, and form a
rapid growth, generally for the first ten years, twice as fast as
that of the most thriving plantation newly formed. This
advantage is greatly enhanced from the difficulty often arising
in immediately establishing a plantation on ground which has
recently produced timber.

Since the late reduction of the duty on foreign timber, the
cultivation of oak coppice is reckoned much more profitable
in many situations than that of heavy timber. Indeed, coppice
has always been found most profitable in situations destitute
of a cheap conveyance to the market; the carriage of bark
being always small compared with the value of the commodity.
In felling coppice-wood the ground is cleared, and the value
correctly ascertained per acre. (See Coppice; and for the
mode of “barking,” see an article on that subject.) In oak
forests where large trees are grown, the heaviest, or such
timbers as are adapted for particular purposes, are selected ;
and where the trees are of vigorous growth, the vacancies thus
occasioned readily disappear. An oak forest, therefore, affords
a constant succession, the sizes of the trees are very diversified,
and it is never exhausted. There is no tree better adapted
for coming to maturity, interspersed with oaks, or more profit-
able in a congenial soil, than the larch. From its upright
growth it occupies but a small space compared to its value ; it
readily overtops the oak, and sometimes affords a desirable
shelter in the opening up of the season. Its roots ramify and
draw their nourishment chiefly from the surface soil ; whereas
the oak strikes its roots deep and wide through various strata,
generally embracing a large body of inorganic matter; and
thus, since the trees depend on separate resources, they are
more profitably associated than most other kinds. The oak is
an approved tree for hedgerow timber ; its roots are not apt
to rob the surrounding crops, which are generally well advanced
before the tree comes into leaf, and for that reason its shade
is not so enfeebling as that of many other trees.
272, THE OAK.

Oak timber has long since acquired a just celebrity ; and
there is scarcely any purpose to which it is not applicable.
If strength or durability, or even elegance, is required, it is
resorted to; and it is prized in times of peace as well as war.
It is esteemed in our manufactories of household furniture
and of spirit casks, in architecture, in the peaceable pursuits of
agriculture, but above all in shipbuilding. Shakespeare, with
reference to the compact texture and knotty character of the
tree, describes it as “ the unwedgeable and gnarled oak.” The
contorted figure in which the boughs are frequently found
enhances their value in some parts of the country where there
is a demand for shipbuilding timber. For this reason the
means generally employed in the raising of straight timber,
namely, the closeness of trees to one another, or pruning in
order to direct the energies of the tree to the top, are departed
from in the cultivation of naval timber. The oak should be
allowed a considerable space to ramify. When it has advanced
to the height of ten or twelve feet, if it is inclined to a straight
figure, the leading shoot should be cut off, and two or three
of the lateral branches which take a horizontal range in a
direction where there is sufficient space for their growth should
be left, and at the same time the next strongest branches should
be shortened in order to impede their progress. This method
generally occasions crooked trunks, which, of whatever bend
they be, are always for shipbuilding more valuable than straight
ones. In some cases the shoots left will incline to the per-
pendicular, and not in a crooked figure; but of trees thus
treated a far greater number will be found of a superior mould
for naval purposes than of those whose straight leaders have
not been removed. In the absence of a demand, however, for
shipbuilding timber, straight, clean oak timber has lately been
sought after, at from 2s. to 3s. per cubical foot.

The British oak sometimes produces a great profusion of
oak-galls, which is believed to detract from the growth of
timber in the tree. The chief products of galls are tur-
meric and gallic acid. They are much used in the manufac-
ture of ink, and in dyeing; and in medicine they form the
THE OAK. 273

most powerful of all astringents. Galls are produced on
various species of the oak by insects of the genus Cynipide.
The galls of commerce grow on the Quercus infectoria, an
oak indigenous to Asia Minor, Syria, and Persia; a shrubby
plant which sheds its leaves, and seldom exceeds the height of
six feet. The gall-flies puncture the tender leaves or shoots
and deposit their eggs, around which the gall accumulates.
The most remarkable galls are those formed on the male
blossom of the British oak. These catkins appear in May,
from one to two inches long, and having shed their pollen,
become deciduous and drop from the tree in June ; but if they
have been seized on by the insects and punctured while in a
growing state, they remain attached to the tree until the galls
are perfected, presenting the appearance of the fruit-stalks
and berries of a bunch of unripe currants.

Q. Cerris (Linneus) : The Mossy-Cupped or Turkey Oak.—
This tree is a native of the middle and south of Europe, and
the west of Asia. It was introduced into Britain in 1735.
It is a tree of an elegant appearance, as hardy as the common
oak, of much faster growth, and it grows vigorously even in
very poor soil. It ripens its acorns like the British oak, and
the mode of propagation detailed for that tree is alike suit-
able for this species, with this difference, that, as Turkey oak
seedlings are generally taller than the other, it is better to
transplant them at the age of one year than.to allow them to
remain two years in the seed-beds. This species is remarkable
for producing a great number of varieties from seed, which
differ greatly in the size and shape of their leaves. It appears
particularly apt to hybridize with the evergreen oak; and
frequently in seed-beds of young plants a considerable number
of sub-evergreen plants may be selected. The leaves of the
tree are of a glossy green above, inclining to white underneath.
They are lobed and sinuated or dentated irregularly. They
die in autumn ; but, like those of the young beech, they often
adhere to the tree throughout the winter. In good soil the
tree attains the height of forty feet in twenty or twenty-five
years, and a proportionable girth. The tree generally ad-

Ss
274 THE OAK.

vances with a straight trunk, and, like that of the larch, large
in proportion to its lateral branches. It is altogether destitute
of that grandeur of ramification peculiar to the British oak.
Some of the oldest specimens of the species produced in the
south of England stand upwards of 100 feet high. The
timber takes an excellent polish, and is beautifully veined.
It is less durable than that of the common oak.

Q. C. Fulhamensis (Loudon).—The Fulham Oak is a valuable
tree. It is a fine, broad-leaved sub-evergreen, and is supposed
to be a hybrid between the Turkey oak and the cork tree,
Q. suber. The original tree of the kind, a magnificent
specimen, stands in the nursery ground of Messrs. Osbourne,
at Fulham. It is a lofty tree, about eighty feet high, round-
headed, and the girth of the trunk, a foot above the ground,
is thirteen feet. It is readily increased by being grafted on
stocks of the common or Turkey oak. The acorns of the
original tree, which are produced abundantly, have yielded
many interesting varieties, which are also propagated by
grafts ; but seedlings from the original tree are found to sport
or vary so much that they cannot be sold for the true Fulham
oak. Grafting, therefore, is the only sure mode of increasing
the tree in its purity. Grafts spring freely, and on stocks of
ordinary vigour frequently attain the height of three to four
feet the first summer.

Q. C. Lucombeana (Loudon).—The Lucombe oak is a hybrid
produced at Exeter, Devonshire, between the Turkey oak and
cork tree. It is a sub-evergreen, and noted for its rapidity
of growth. The original plant was produced upwards of one
hundred years ago, and the south of England is furnished
with many fine specimens of the tree. Its foliage has a great
resemblance to that of the Fulham oak, but the figure of the
tree is very different. It shoots up like a spire with a narrow
and pointed top, while the figure of the Fulham oak is round-
headed.

Another hybrid worthy of notice is Turner’s Evergreen Oak,
raised by a person of that name in Essex, at the close of the
last century. It is a hybrid between the common British and
THE OAK. 275

evergreen oak. In summer the tree has very much the appear-
ance of the British oak; in autumn its foliage appears more mas-
sive, dark green, and glossy. It is the fastest growing broad-
leaved evergreen tree that we know adapted to the climate of
Scotland. Like other hybrids, it is propagated by grafts,
which, when inserted on healthy stocks of the common species,
attain the height of four or five feet in two years; and after-
wards its progress is fully equal to that of the common oak till
it is twenty years old. We have never heard of its having
yielded acorns ; and we know that several specimens forty years
old were never seen in blossom, though at that age they were
forty feet high. It is believed that the tree will not attain to
@ great size, and that it is of rapid growth only when young ;
but as healthy specimens are found to retain the leaves of the
former year throughout the summer, it is a better evergreen
than any other hybrid, and its deep green and glossy foliage
will always recommend it as an ornamental tree.

Each of the red, white, and black American oaks compre-
hends a great number of species, some of which become large
spreading trees; but as their timber is generally soft and
porous, they are not profitably cultivated. The first-named
division is exceedingly ornamental, conspicuous among which
is Q. coccinea, or Scarlet oak, indigenous to New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Georgia. It was introduced into Britain
about the end of the seventeenth century, where it grows in
many instances more rapidly than the common oak. The
midland counties of England contain many fine specimens of
this tree, One at Croome, in Worcestershire, which stands
about 100 feet high, attained the height of ninety feet in
seventy-five years. At Strathfieldsaye, in Hampshire, a tree
of this species is from ninety-five to 100 feet high, and the
diameter of the trunk is three and a half feet. The species
produces acorns in Britain ; but it is principally propagated
from American seeds, which must be sown immediately on
their arrival, The confinement to which the acorns are sub-
jected during the voyage is apt to occasion fermentation, the
slightest touch of which creates vegetation, and unless the
276 THE OAK.

acorns are speedily committed to the ground they immediately
lose their vitality. Their subsequent treatment is similar to
that of the other oaks; but as they have a tendency to get
more bare in the roots than most other sorts, which occasions
a stuntedness in the plants on being transplanted, they should
be removed early into nursery lines, and planted into their
ultimate situations before their roots acquire a great strength.
The leaves of the tree are of a beautiful shining green, oblong,
and deeply sinuated. They vary exceedingly in size and
shape on different trees, and on the same tree at different
stages of its growth. All are remarkably handsome, and are
produced on long leaf-stalks. A luxuriant tree sometimes
yields leaves upwards of a foot in length, and six to
seven inches broad. The leaves are deciduous, and the
first frost of autumn generally changes them to a beautiful
yellow and red, which ripens into a crimson or scarlet of the
brightest intensity. In forest scenery, scarlet oaks, with
several of the red oaks of America, although of little value as
timber, will always be esteemed for their richness of effect,
when planted along the margins of woods, as lawn or park
trees, and for being grouped in irregular masses throughout
plantations, occupying declivities, and other conspicuous
situations.

Q. Ilex (Linneus).—The Common Evergreen Oak, like every
other species of the genus, consists of an endless number of
varieties. It is a native of the south of Europe and north of
Africa. It is the commonest evergreen in the neighbourhood
of Rome and Florence; and it has been cultivated in Britain
from a very remote period. It commonly rises to the height
of about forty feet; but many trees favourably placed as to
soil and shelter have attained nearly twice that height. It is
a tree of slow growth, but of great duration. It is somewhat
tender when young, but when once established, and advanced
to the height of a few feet, it grows in common well-drained
soil, in the climate of the north of Scotland, uninjured by
the severest winter.

It is propagated from acorns, which ripen abundantly in
THE OAK. 277

England. As seedling plants when sown in beds are apt to
form bare tap-roots, which are difficult to remove with safety,
this species of oak is generally grown in nurseries by being in-
serted in small flower-pots, an acorn in each. The young plants
are removed into larger pots in proportion to their growth,
and are benefited by a slight protection from frost during the
first three or four winters. Thus treated, they take to the
ground immediately, and grow freely on being set in their
final destination.

The tree forms a very handsome evergreen. The foliage is
abundant, of a rich dark green, having a fine polish, glossy
above, with a downy tinge underneath. The tree blossoms in
May and June, yielding male flowers or catkins, from one to
two inches long, on the shoots of the former year, while the
female flowers are produced on the newly-formed twigs; and
the acorns come to maturity during the second year. This
species endures the sea exposure better than any other European
oak. It is also better suited for embellishment in large towns,
as it grows in a smoky atmosphere better than most evergreens.
The progress of different trees of the same age in different
situations is very remarkable. This no doubt depends much
on soil and situation, but very much also on the variety, for
some kinds are known to vary as much in luxuriance of growth
as they do in the appearance of their foliage; and all the
varieties are not equally hardy. When the tree is allowed
sufficient space, it commonly forms a gigantic bush, and con-
ceals its trunk with its foliage, which it retains down to the
surface of the ground.

Its timber is tough and strong, and very heavy. In Spain
it has a high reputation for knee-timber in shipbuilding : and
it furnishes the best and most lasting charcoal. The finest
specimens of the tree in South Britain are at Mamhead, where
one measures eighty-five feet in height, and eleven feet in
circumference ; another stands fifty-five feet high, and twenty-
two feet round. In Scotland, at Newbattle Abbey, there
is a tree forty-five feet high, with a trunk upwards of
thirteen feet in circumference. The species is believed
278 THE OAK.

to live in vigour for 1000 years, and it is not subject to
disease.

Q. suber (Linnzeus) : The Cork Tree.—This species is rather
less hardy than the common evergreen oak, although it is a
native of the same countries, where it abounds on dry, hilly
situations. It seldom attains a height beyond that of forty
feet. Its mode of propagation in this country is exactly the
same as that of the evergreen oak.

The outer bark of this tree is the cork of commerce, and is
by far its most important product. When the tree is young,
the trunk is cleared of branches to the height of eight or ten
feet ; and when it is from twenty to thirty years of age, the
outer coating of its bark is a formation of coarse, porous cork,
interspersed with woody matter. On its being cleared off,
which operation is performed in July or August, it generally
takes eight or ten years to form another cover, which is of a
superior quality to the first. It is not, however, till after
another interval of eight or ten years, that the cork is pro-
duced in its purity, and of a proper thickness; but this
generally occurs at the third disbarking. The trees are ever
afterwards disbarked after the lapse of a similar period, care
being taken in the operation not to cut in to the inner bark
or wood of the trees. The operation by no means impedes
the growth of the tree, but has rather a contrary effect. The
quality of the cork is said to improve as the tree grows old,
and its duration extends for many centuries. Numerous parts
of Britain are well suited for the growth of cork, although
few specimens of the tree are to be met with. The largest
‘cork tree in Britain, and, Loudon says, “ perhaps the largest
in the world,” is at Mamhead in Devonshire. It is about
sixty feet high, with a trunk twelve feet in circumference
above the swell of the roots. It stands alone, three miles
from the sea, and about 450 feet above its level. The soil is
a fine, rich, red loam, on a substratum of red-stone con-
glomerate. Loudon remarks, “The head of the tree is oval
and compact, and its grand massive branches, each of which
would form a tree of noble dimensions, are covered with
THE OAK. 279

rugged, corky bark, resembling richly-chased frosted silver,
which is finely contrasted with the dark-green luxuriant
foliage.” In the same grounds there stands another tree of
the same species, which does not fall far short of the dimensions
stated. In Fulham nursery, near London, close by the King’s
Road, between Parson’s Green and Fulham, stands a handsome
cork tree, thirty-five feet high, with a trunk nine feet in girth
at one foot above the ground, and overspread with cork to
the depth of a few inches.
XXVIII.

THE BEECH.

TuE Beech—Fagus sylvatica (L.)—belongs to the natural order
Corylacee, and is one of our largest deciduous timber trees. It
is a native of some of the southern counties in Britain, and it
is found indigenous on hills of dry calcareous soil throughout
Europe. In favourable situations the tree generally attains
the height of seventy or eighty feet, with a trunk five or six
feet in diameter. Instances are recorded of the tree, when
drawn up in a close plantation, attaining to a height exceed-
ing 100 feet, and when allowed to stand alone, with ample
space, the diameter of its trunk, as well as the spread of its
branches, are at least equal to that of any other forest tree
grown in this country.

The tree is propagated by seed. It blossoms in the month of
May, yielding male and female flowers, and ripens the seed,
which is called beech-mast, the following October or Novem-
ber, when it drops from the tree, and where the ground is
bare is readily picked or swept up. Sometimes the seeds
are sown immediately after being collected. In that case,
the crop appears above ground in April, and is apt to suffer
from spring frosts. It is therefore advisable to keep the seeds
spread on a floor, thin enough to prevent fermentation and
moulding, until the month of March, and then sow them.
By this means the crop appears aboveground a month later,
and generally escapes the frosts of spring, and also the rav-
ages of mice in the ground during winter, which, near to
hedges, or in sheltered situations, are sometimes very great.
The ground for a beech crop should be dry and friable ; if
otherwise, the surface is apt to cake, confine and injure the
THE BEECH, 281

young plants as they rise, and most so if the crop is laid
down in rainy. weather. One bushel of good seed should
extend over forty yards of a bed four feet wide. After sow-
ing the seeds regularly, they are readily fixed in their places
by drawing a light roller over them. The cuffing should
then be drawn on, covering the seeds half an inch to an inch
deep. Where the cuffing is not a sufficient cover, additional
soil should be cast on with a spade from the alleys, where
such is required. The beds should be left without any
further raking or polish till the seeds are just about to
emerge from the ground; then, in a dry day, a careful hand
should go over the beds with a rake, and smooth and equalize
the surface. This will occasion the soil to be loose and pul-
verized at the time that is most required, and at same time
have the effect of a weeding, by destroying the small seed-
ling weeds. A few days thereafter, the crop is up, and gene-
rally has a very interesting display of cotyledons; but so
sensitive are the young plants at this stage to the slightest
touch of frost, that some question whether the beech tree is
really a native of Britain. A slight cover of straw, or fern,
or twigs of spruce, fir, or other evergreens, stuck into the
beds, close enough to shelter and shade the young crop, is the
easiest means of affording protection, which may be removed
about midsummer.

One-year’s seedling plants generally range from five to
eight inches high, and may be transplanted the following
spring. Or, if the plants are not too close in the seed-beds,
they may be transplanted into nursery lines after the growth
of two summers. Generally the seedlings of one year make
the best plants for hedges, becoming most branchy near the
surface of the ground, when transplanted at that age; and for
forest planting, those removed at the age of two years are, in
figure, best adapted for that purpose. The nursery lines
should be about a foot or fourteen inches apart, and the plants
in the lines about four or five inches asunder. The plants
should seldom remain more than two years in the nursery
lines without being disturbed, as their roots are apt to get
282 THE BEECH.

bare, which unfit them for successful removal afterwards. In
some soils, however, the roots keep fibrous enough till the
end of the third year. After being two or three years in lines,
the plants are generally fit for their final destination, but if
required of a greater size they should be transplanted, giving
additional space according to their size. The beech admits
of removal at a great size, provided its roots are kept in a
bushy state, by being frequently disturbed. A few years ago
I removed several hundred yards of beech hedge six feet high,
to make way for the Highland Railway through my nursery
ground. The hedge had been about twenty years planted, and
had been occasionally dug and root-pruned, to prevent the
spread of its fibres. It was trenched out in lengths of three
or four feet, and carted to a new situation, where it was in-
serted, and at once became a complete fence along a road
side. Hedges might thus be reared which would at once
become fences in most places, with little or no protection.
See HEDGES.

Few trees in a living state are so valuable as the beech for
a shelter or screen fence in prepared ground. It succeeds
everywhere, particularly in calcareous soil. It is well adapted
as an agricultural tree in sheltering fields in bare and exposed
situations, where the surface soil is apt to drift in rough
weather.

I know a fine screen-fence, planted twenty-five years, thirty-
five feet high at the present time. The top has not been
trimmed for the last twenty years. To the height of eight
feet it has been regularly under the shears, with an occa-
sional dressing at the root of lime and manure, at intervals of
six or eight years. It retains its foliage in winter, and is a
close and compact shelter down to the surface of the ground,
affording April weather in March, and the usual warmth of
May in April. In ordinary soil, after the plant has taken
root in the forest, its usual growth upward is from eighteen
inches to two feet yearly.

Considered as an ornament, few trees claim our attention be-
fore the beech. Its stem is massive and powerful, its bark is
THE BEECH. 283

smooth and of a silvery cast, and when the heat of summer
unfolds its silken foliage, it displays a verdure of softness and
delicacy, and when viewed in the park, amidst the sunshine
and showers of summer time, it is a gem indeed.

In growing beech timber, the most approved mode is to plant
the tree in masses by itself, about six feet apart, except such
as are planted on the outside or more exposed parts of mixed
plantations, for shelter. When the species stands by itself,
the trees, by pressing gently on each other, readily assume
the best figure, and thus supersede the necessity of pruning.
It luxuriates in a dry calcareous soil, and even in poor sands,
where many kinds of hard-wood plants can scarcely exist.
When interspersed throughout a plantation, it readily adds
depth to the forest, but it is apt to prevail and subdue more
valuable kinds. It is found more destructive to plants under
its drip than almost any other tree; so that even the holly
and yew are apt to suffer by it. It is seldom profitably
grown after the age of seventy years.

Beech timber is not generally valuable. It stands well
under water, and when it can be obtained of great length, it
is esteemed for keels to vessels. It is often used as piles,
flood-gates, and sluices, in the manufacture of chairs, bed-
steads, carpenters’ tools, shovels for maltsters, and wooden
rollers. The turner, joiner, and toy-maker consume large
quantities of it. At fishing stations along the sea-side it is
employed as firewood in smoking -haddocks, herrings, etc.,
and sometimes it is used as railway sleepers. It is very
superior as firewood, and its charcoal is esteemed in the
manufacture of gunpowder. The price of the timber varies
much in different localities, ranging from 6d. to 1s, 6d. per
cubic foot, and, when adapted for ship keels, at double that
price. The timber takes a high polish, and is often stained
in imitation of other substances. The beech cannot be
recommended as a suitable tree for coppice wood, as it
springs irregularly, and often fails altogether.

The mast, or nuts, are often yielded in great profusion by
old trees, and afford in autumn the choice food of the deer,
284 THE BEECH.

pheasant, partridge, ete. On the Continent, where the nuts
attain to the greatest maturity, they are used in the manu-
facture of oil, which is said to be little inferior to that of the
olive, and are esteemed both for food and light.

Although the vigour of the tree rarely extends beyond 150
years, yet it sometimes exists to a very great age. Of the
recorded trees of England, the old beech in Windsor Park
appears conspicuous; its girth is stated to be 36 feet, and it is
said to have existed before the Norman Conquest. It is still
in life, but has become a ruin. The celebrated beech at
Woburn Abbey, commonly known as “ Pontey’s Beech,” in
1837 was 100 feet high, with a clear trunk of fifty feet in
height, and containing 317 cubical feet of timber, exclusive
of that of the top. During the eight years preceding the
above date this beech only produced in its trunk five cubical
feet of timber, while a silver fir in the park at Woburn 114
feet high, and containing 350 cubical feet, exclusive of the
head, added to its trunk eleven cubical feet of timber in the
same period, thus showing a much greater rapidity of growth
in the silver fir than in the beech at an advanced age. Castle
Howard is celebrated for its beech trees, the highest is re-
corded at 110 feet, length of clear bole 70 feet, cubical con-
tents 940 feet, diameter of head 96 feet. The finest trees I
have seen in England stand at Studly Park, Yorkshire; they
are about 100 feet high. Some of these trees are very
remarkable : their trunks are short, but having ample space,
they display a wonderful ramification of branches and bulk
of top.

In Scotland, Morayshire is celebrated for fine specimens of
the tree; that at Earlsmill measures about sixty feet high,
with a trunk sixteen feet in circumference at four feet from
the ground. Dalvey, Grange Hall, and Burgie Castle are
also noted for many trees of great magnitude.

F. s. purpurea.—The purple beech is a well-known orna-
mental tree, a native of Germany, where it was discovered in
a wood between the middle and the end of last century.
From this tree all the purple beeches in Europe have been
THE BEECH. 285

produced, partly from seed, but chiefly from grafting. The
growth of the purple is equal to that of the common tree, and
the same treatment is adapted to the seeds of both sorts.
The seeds of the purple, however, do not produce plants
generally so dark in the foliage as the parent tree, although
few of them are altogether destitute of a dark hue. The
copper-coloured, and a few of different shades, have taken
their rise from seed cultivation, and all the varieties are
multiplied by grafting without deviation. The common
beech is the stock employed, but as the ordinary mode of
grafting is apt to fail to some extent, seldom 40 per cent.
succeeding, on account, it is supposed, of the hardness of the
wood, the surest method is to propagate by inarch-grafting.
This is accomplished by selecting a tree of the purple variety
having a bushy top, hanging down to the surface all round.
Select a few hundred healthy fibrous-rooted common beech
plants, about two feet high, more or less in proportion to the
size of the tree, or the number of purple plants required.
They should be planted around the purple plant, placing them
so that a young twig of the parent tree may be appropriated
to each stock or plant inserted. If the stocks are well rooted,
and removed with balls of soil at their roots, the working or
inarching may be performed in March, immediately after the
stocks are planted; but the most successful way is to let the
stocks get established in the ground for a year before the
time of inarching, which is the month of March. The hand-
somest plants are formed by making the junction not more
than ten or twelve inches from the ground. The operation
of inarching is very simple; it consists in taking a thin slice
off the side of the last year's shoot of the purple beech, in
depth about one-third of its thickness, about an inch and a
half in length, and nine or ten inches from its extremity,
then at the exact point on the side of the stock where the
scion can be brought in contact, and will lie close, make a
similar incision on the stock, cutting only a little into the
wood under the bark. The diameter of the stock being
always much greater than that of the scion, the incision on
286 THE BEECH.

the stock is commonly the broadest, therefore the scion should
be placed on the one side, bark to bark, so that the circulation
which flows immediately under the bark may meet in both.
Tongueing is sometimes practised in the operation ; that is
performed by making a slit at the upper end of the incision
nearly .a fourth of an inch long, cutting up towards the point
on the scion, and downward on the stock, and by fitting these
little wedges into each other, the twig is thus held in position
till tied up, and the future junction strengthened thereby.
Strands of bast form the most suitable ligatures. After tying,
no time should be lost in putting on the clay, which should
have been mixed up a month previously with an equal bulk
of droppings from the stable. In applying it on the graft it
should be made of suitable consistency, not too thin, lest it
should fall off, nor too thick, lest fissures should occur and
admit air, which should be guarded against; after a day or
two, the clay will be dry and may be coated over with moss
(sphagnum), or the dried mowings of lawn, etc. Should exces-
sive drought ensue, the grafted plants may be watered over-
head occasionally of an evening. After the inarched twigs
have grown for two months, the top of the stock should be
cut off above the ball of clay, and the junction with the old
plant severed when the summer's growth is nearly completed.
In winter or spring the young plants should be lifted, dressed,
and removed into nursery lines, each having a stake or sup-
port, tied below and above the graft ; and the space around
the purple tree may be filled up with stocks, for being worked
after a summer’s growth. By this means a tree the size of a
gooseberry bush will yield a few dozen plants. And one
several yards in diameter should produce several hundred
plants every second year. When the branches of the purple
tree are apt to get too high for this purpose they should be
pegged down, and kept in a suitable position, or pruned off,
so that the vigour of the lateral spray may not be weakened.
The usual price for a strong plant of purple beech is 2s. 6d.,
and small plants two years transplanted are generally sold to
the trade at 50s. a hundred. Although the tree forms a
THE BEECH. 287

striking embellishment when planted at wide intervals
throughout the demesne, yet closely inserted, or where a con-
siderable number of them at once come under the eye, they
have a sad and mournful appearance.

F. s. pendula—This is a beautiful weeping tree, propagated
by being grafted on a common beech. It proves an elegant
object when placed on the top of a handsome and lofty stem.
Its growth is direct downward, seldom ascending above the
point of junction with the stock.
X XIX.
THE CHESTNUT TREE.

CHESTNUT TREE.—Castanea belongs to the natural order
Corylacee. The genus derives its name from Kastanea, a city
in Pontus in Asia, of which locality the tree is a native.

C. vesca (Gaertner): The Sweet or Spanish Chestnut.—The
term sweet is applied to it in reference to the fruit, and in
contradistinction to that of the horse-chestnut, which is bitter ;
it is named Spanish, because the best chestnuts for the table,
sold in the London market, are imported from that country.
The tree is believed to have been brought to Europe by the
Greeks, from Sardis, in Asia Minor, about 500 years Bc. It
was probably introduced into Britain by the Romans for the
sake of its fruit, and being a tree of great duration, and ripening
its fruit in favourable districts, it could hardly fail to become
a permanent inhabitant. Linnzus united the genus Castanea
with Fagus, the beech, which was not done by any botanist
before his time, and which has not been adopted by any since.
The distinctive characteristics of the two genera are—that the
chestnut has male flowers on very long catkins, with the seeds
farinaceous, while the beech, on the contrary, has male flowers
on globular catkins, and the seeds oily.

The chestnut is one of our most ornamental large-growing
trees. The diameter of the trunk is commonly large in pro-
portion to the diameter of the head or height of the tree, and
the trunk generally assumes a convoluted or twisted appear-
ance; its leaves are broad and long, strongly veined and
serrated, of a dark green and glossy appearance, which change
to a mellow yellow, or ripened hue in the end of autumn. It
forms an important element in growing for picturesque effect.
THE CHESTNUT TREE. 289

As a park or lawn tree it is more tender than the oak, and
seldom arrives at the height or diameter of head attained by
that tree.

It prefers a deep sandy loam, or rich gravelly soil, such as
the débris of rock, where the subsoil is open and dry ; on such
its usual growth for eight or ten years after it takes root
seldom falls short of three feet yearly. On favourable soil, in
a close plantation and mild climate, it rises with a straight
clean bole, and usually attains the height of from fifty to sixty
feet. In exposed situations, and on retentive and wet sub-
soils, the tree ramifies near the surface of the ground, and
seldom ripens its young shoots sufficiently to resist frost.

One of the oldest chestnut trees in the world stands on
Mount Etna. M. Houel, in his Voyage en Sicile, states that he
visited it, and found it in a state of decay. It had lost the
greater part of its branches, and its trunk was quite hollow.
A house was erected in the interior, with some country people
living in it, with an oven, in which, according to the custom
of the country, they dried chestnuts, filberts, and other fruits,
which they wished to preserve for winter use ; using for fuel,
when they could find no other, pieces cut with a hatchet from
the interior of the tree. Kircher, about the year 1670, affirms
that an entire flock of sheep might be enclosed in the Etna
chestnut tree as in a fold. Brydon records his tour through
Sicily in 1770, and states that the decayed trunk of this tree
measured 204 feet in circumference. The oldest chestnut
tree in England is supposed to be that at Tortworth, the pro-
perty of Lord Ducie, in Gloucestershire. It stands on a soft
loamy clay soil, on the north-west declivity of a hill, Evelyn
states it to have been remarkable for its magnitude in the
reign of King Stephen (1135): it was then called the Great
Chestnut of Tortworth ; from which it may reasonably be
presumed to have existed before the Conquest. Strutt, in his
Sylva Britannica, in 1820, states its measurement, at five feet
from the ground, to be fifty-two feet in circumference, and its
cubical contents, according to the customary method of measur-
ing timber, to be 1965 feet. It is now about forty-five feet

T
290 THE CHESTNUT TREE. '

in circumference. The tree at that time ramified, at the
height of ten feet, into three limbs ; one of which, at the dis-
tance of forty feet from the main trunk, at the period already
mentioned, was stated to be twenty-eight feet in girth. The
largest chestnut tree that we know in Scotland stands on the
lawn at Castle-Leod, in the Vale of Strathpeffer, Ross-shire.
When we last saw it, at the height of three feet from the sur-
face, it measured twenty feet in circumference. It was sixty
feet high. The soil is rich and loamy, elevated about fifty feet
above the level of the sea, and the tree is surrounded with
high mountains. The timber of chestnut is less valuable than
that of oak, but it bears so striking a resemblance to the
timber of some species of that tree, that frequently the oak
in old buildings throughout the country has been mistaken
for chestnut. After the tree attains the age of fifty or sixty
years, the timber generally begins to deteriorate, and the wood
has the remarkable property of being more valuable when it
is young than when it is old. The sap, or outer wood, soon
changes into heart-wood ; hence the great value of the tree for
posts, fences, and all purposes where timber comes in contact
with the ground, or is alternately wet and dry. The timber
usually sells from Is. to 2s. per cubical foot, according to cir-
cumstances ; but it is for coppice-wood that the tree is chiefly
esteemed, being possessed of the properties of growing as
underwood, and of springing freely when lopped over. Its
bark is only half the value of that of oak. Full-grown chest-
nut timber is generally brittle, and apt to become shaky ; that
is, the annual layers divide from one another, and fall into
laths ; but when sound it is much esteemed in the manufacture
of liquor casks, and for this purpose it should be felled before
the trunk exceeds a foot in diameter.

As a fruit tree, in Britain the chestnut has not a high
reputation ; but from its rapid growth and close foliage it is
well adapted for a screen or shelter to the orchard. In
Devonshire and some of the counties possessed of the best
climates, the fruit is yielded in great maturity. In Spain it
is grown chiefly for its fruit, which has become not only a
THE CHESTNUT TREE. 291

common food for the peasantry, but an article of exportation.
According to M‘Culloch, chestnuts imported into this country
from Spain and Italy, during the three years ending 1831,
averaged 20,948 bushels ; and the duty of 2s. per bushel pro-
duced, in 1842, a sum which proved that the consumption of
that year must have amounted to 23,216 bushels.

As foreign seeds are often kiln-dried, to adapt them for
travelling in packages, the tree is generally propagated from
seeds of English growth, or from those produced in the earliest
districts in Scotland, where they ripen during favourable
seasons.

The seeds are frequently sown in October and November ;
when this is the case the young plants generally rise through
the ground in April, when they are in danger of receiving
injury by frost, unless protected. In some climates, where
late spring frosts are apt to prevail, nurserymen preserve the
seeds during winter, on a loft floor, and sow them early in
spring. By this method the young plants do not rise until
the middle or end of May, a season when, without protection,
they are more likely to be exempt from injury. The seeds
are sometimes sown in drills, and placed two or three inches
asunder, and the drills sixteen or eighteen inches apart ; but
the more common method is to sow in beds, four feet wide.
One bushel of fresh seed is sufficient for a bed thirty yards
long. The cover on the seeds should be one inch deep. If
the soil is very rich, it should be early and dry; otherwise
the plants will grow to a late period in the season, and fail to
ripen their wood sufficiently to resist the influence of frost ;
consequently they will lose their tops and become branchy.

The plants are sometimes removed from the seed-bed and
transplanted into lines, at the age of one, but more frequently
when two years old. In removing them they should be
classed into two sizes, and have the extremities of their tap-
roots pruned off. The plants in the lines should stand six
inches asunder, and the lines should be about sixteen inches
apart; where a greater space is allowed they are apt to be-
come crooked and branchy, and in need of pruning. After
292 THE CHESTNUT TREE.

remaining two years in the lines, the plants are commonly
from two to three feet high, which is the common size used
for forest planting. Such plants are worth 40s. per thousand.
If required of a larger size, it is necessary to transplant them
every second year, increasing the space between the plants
and between the lines; and any time during open weather
between October and the middle of March is suitable for
their removal.

Many writers consider the chestnut a native of Britain ; we
are not of this opinion; and although it is not very subject
to disease, all who are accustomed to cultivate the plant will
readily admit that, even in the earliest and most favourable
districts. of our country, it is influenced by unfavourable
seasons in a degree not felt by any tree indigenous to the
climate of Britain. There are many varieties of the chestnut
cultivated as ornamental and as fruit-bearing trees ; the most
distinct sorts are C. Americana, which has broader leaves than
the common tree; C. variegata, variegated with yellow and
white streaks; C. glauca, C. glabra, and C. aspenifolia. The
varieties cultivated in France for the sake of their fruit are
termed les marrons ; they are large, farinaceous, and sweet ;
and when roasted yield a rich aromatic odour. The seeds of
the varieties cannot be depended on to produce the same,
therefore the true kinds are propagated by grafting.
XXX.
THE HAZEL,

THE HAZEL, Corylus Avellana (L.), of Monacia Polyandria in
the Linnean system, and of Corylacee in the natural order of
plants, is a well-known deciduous shrub, or low tree, indi-
genous to the temperate climate of Europe. It is common in
all quarters of Britain, and rises with numerous stems of rapid
growth. Being hardy, it. occupies elevated positions in the
Highlands of Scotland, forming a jungle on waste and un-
cultivated spots, preferring situations partially shaded, and a
dry soil incumbent on sandstone, chalk, etc. It abounds on
slopes and precipitous places along the banks of rivers and
streams, and it often springs from fissures of rock, no doubt
from nuts deposited by the squirrel and other vermin. As
an underwood it adds density to the forest of deciduous trees,
but it does not endure the confinement of fir woods. _

It is readily propagated from nuts, which it yields abun-
dantly, and which ripen throughout the autumn and beginning
of winter, at times varying with the climate and altitude of
the situation. As the size and vigour of the seedling plants
generally correspond to the size of the nuts, it is of importance,
when they are very unequal, to submit them to the ordeal of
a wire-riddle adapted to class them into two sizes. As the
weak seeds produce a similar progeny they may be rejected,
or, if sown, they will have a better chance of success by them-
selves than if interspersed with those of more robust growth.
During winter, or early in spring, is the time for sowing them,
and the soil should be light and sandy. A bushel of seed is
sufficient for thirty lineal yards of a bed four feet in width.
294 THE HAZEL.

The covering should be one inch in depth. The young plants
break through the ground towards the end of May, and only
require to be kept clear of weeds during the summer. A
strong crop is usually removed into nursery lines when one
year old, but weak plants are allowed to remain two years in
the seed-bed.

In nursery lines the plants should be placed about ten or
twelve inches apart, and the lines two feet distant. After
remaining two years in lines, the plants are commonly removed
to their final situations.

The hazel is profitably cultivated in coppice, and as under-
wood. When lopped, it stools, and shoots up vigorously,
producing growths from established roots five or six feet long
in one season ; and in favourable soil it is not apt to become
enfeebled by the treatment. In Staffordshire, and many other
quarters, it is cultivated in the vicinity of potteries and
manufactories, where it is formed into crates of various sorts,
adapted for the transmission of goods, for which purpose it is
well adapted, being extremely tough and elastic. It is also
used in forming hurdles, hoops, walking-sticks, garden-seats,
and all descriptions of rustic work. The roots yield a valuable
timber for veneering, and for the manufacture of toys and
fancy wares. The wood makes a charcoal esteemed in the
manufacture of gunpowder and black paint. The hazel never
produces wood of a sufficient size for building purposes ; but
a good specimen of the tree is sometimes found to stand thirty
feet in height, with a trunk three feet in circumference.
When trained as a standard with one stem, it forms a very
handsome ornamental tree, and often yields a rich display of
catkins, which commonly continue in bloom during winter
and spring, before the leaves expand, the gay appearance of
which are generally appreciated at that season. It is also
one of our best deciduous plants for underwood ; as such it
adds richness, closeness, and seclusion to narrow beltings and
clumps. Few plants retain their leaves longer after they are
affected by frost, the influence of which imparts to the foliage
a rich yellow colour, which continues ornamental for months
THE HAZEL. 295.

before the leaves are shed. The effect of the plant as an
underwood is greatly enhanced, by the display of contrast,
when it is interspersed with the box, the holly, or the yew.

The common hazel comprehends an endless number of
varieties, many of which are cultivated exclusively for their
fruit, among which are the following :—Nuts or filberts,
C. A. tubulosa, C. A. crispa, C. A. tenuis; also varieties of
the Northampton and Barcelona nuts, great cob nut, etc. ;
and to insure the continuance of the respective qualities for
which these sorts are distinguished as fruit-bearing trees,
their propagation must either be by layers or by grafts. Great
quantities of nuts, both of the wild and cultivated kinds,
are sold in the English markets. Besides those of British
growth, large importations are made from France, Portugal,
and Spain. The latter are in the highest estimation, and are
generally sold under the name of Barcelona nuts. The follow-
ing quotation from the Dictionary of Commerce, published in
1834, furnishes an idea of the consumption of this article :—
“ The entries of nuts for home consumption amount to from
100,000 to 125,000 bushels a year; the duty of 2s. a bushel
producing from £10,000 to £12,000 clear.” Mr. M‘Culloch
adds, “ The kernels have a mild, farinaceous, oily taste, agree-
able to most palates. A kind of chocolate has been prepared
from them; and they have sometimes been made into bread.
The expressed oil of hazel nuts is little inferior to that of
almonds.”

C. Colurna (L.)—The Constantinople Hazel is the only
species of the genus which attains to the dimensions of a
timber tree. It has been introduced into England, and culti-
vated, but not extensively, in the neighbourhood of London,
for 200 years. It grows to the average height of our timber
trees. It has a white bark, horizontal branches, and is alto-
gether handsome, and quite hardy. Although it is readily
propagated by nuts, which it yields in favourable seasons, by
layers, and by grafting on the common hazel, yet it has never
become common throughout England. In Scotland it is still
more rare. One of the best specimens of the tree near London
296 THE HAZEL.

is at Sion, where it stands upwards of sixty feet in height.
This species is well worthy of general cultivation. There are
a féw other kinds of the tree, natives of America, of dwarf
growth, rarely met with except in collections kept for the
sake of variety. They possess no qualities to induce their
extended propagation,
XXXL

THE HORNBEAM.

THE HornBEAM (Carpinus).—This tree belongs to the natural
order Corylacee. The genus comprehends only three or four
species, all of which are deciduous trees. They yield flowers
unisexual ; those of the two sexes are in distinct catkins upon
the same plant.

C. Betulus (L.)}—The Common Hornbeam, which is the
principal tree of the genus, is a native of England, of Ireland,
of the south of Scotland, and of many parts of. central Europe,
avoiding the extremes of heat and cold. It bears a striking
resemblance in its leaves to those of the common beech, but it is
destitute of their glossy varnish or polish, and it presents the
appearance of a tree intermediate between the beech and the
elm. It is perhaps cultivated to a less extent than any other
hardy timber tree adapted to the climate of Britain. It
attains to a middle size, but is not valuable as an ornamental
tree, nor as timber. Although instances have occurred of the
tree attaining the height of eighty or ninety feet, with a trunk
three feet in diameter, yet trees two-thirds of these dimensions
are generally reckoned large specimens. In magnitude, there-
fore, it stands between the beech and the birch, and, like the
latter, it often produces trunks of a flat and irregular figure.

As a hedge plant the reputation of the hornbeam is con-
siderable. Compared with the beech, it endures pruning
better, and it has the advantage of being much less subject
to disease, and atmospheric influence, when grown for a long
time in a confined form, complaints which of late years have
prevailed to an alarming extent in several districts. It is
also superior to beech in being less injurious as a hedge plant
298 THE HORNBEAM.

to crops in its vicinity ; no doubt from its rooting and deriving
support at a greater depth from the surface. It grows close
and twiggy, and retains its leaves to a late period in the
season, but not throughout the winter so universally as does
the beech; and although it generally attains a greater height
during the first six or eight years than that tree, yet it seldom
forms a hedge so compact, bushy, and stout as the beech at
that age. As an agricultural plant it is valuable for screen
fences to shelter exposed fields. It endures a rough and
Windy situation, thrives well on the common sorts of soil, and
on cold, clayey ground it grows quickly, particularly when
planted closely, where it forms a thicket or a compact mass of
spray and foliage, which admit of being confined by pruning
to prescribed limits. It readily springs when lopped over at
the surface, or at any height from the root.

The seeds are formed in a small nut, and are usually ripe
in the end of autumn. When sown immediately on becoming
ripe they spring irregularly ; a few vegetate the first spring,
but the principal crop the second year. The usual mode of
treatment is to sow the seeds in spring, at: the rate of one
bushel of clean seeds to fifty yards of a bed four feet wide ;
the covering should be about half an inch thick. The seeds,
thus treated, remain dormant the first year after sowing, and
vegetate in the spring thereafter ; therefore where the ground
is valuable, a light annual crop may be grown above the seeds
for the first year, such as that of onion, lettuce, radish, cabbage-
plants, etc. When the crop of hornbeam is a very close one,
the young plants may be removed, or thinned out, and trans-
planted when one year old; but if they are thin, and have
sufficient space for becoming two-year seedlings, it is usual to
allow them to remain in the seedbed until the plants are
of that age. When lifted, the extremities of their roots
should be pruned off, the plants should then be inserted into
nursery lines, about sixteen inches asunder, and the plants a
few inches apart in the lines. After two years in lines the
plants are usually fit for hedges; and if they remain longer
without being removed, and a greater space allowed, they are.
THE HORNBEAM. 299

apt to become tall and bare near the surface, which renders
them unfit for hedge plants, until they are made bushy by
being cut down near to the ground. The plant being hardy,
and almost exempt from disease, its nursery treatment is very
simple, it being required only to allow the plants sufficient
room to keep them shapely, and to keep them free of weeds.

The wood of hornbeam is white, tough, and durable, adapted
for handles and stocks for tools, yokes for cattle, milk vessels,
wheelwright work, and other kinds of rural carpentry. Evelyn
states that for milk vessels it excels either yew or crab; and
Linneus observes that it is harder than hawthorn, and capable
of supporting great weights. Loudon records a piece of it;
two inches square and seven feet eight inches long, having
supported 228 lbs., while a similar beam of ash broke under
200 Ibs.; one of birch, under 190 Ibs.; of oak, under 185 lbs.;
of beech, under 165 lbs.; and of other woods at a less weight;
and yet, notwithstanding its powers of resistance, the horn-
beam has very little flexibility, it having, before it broke, bent
only 10°, while ash bent 21°, the birch 19°, and the oak 12°.
The timber is not in ordinary demand ; and where it is to
be met with it usually sells at the same rate as the beech.
As firewood, it is placed in the highest rank for heat, bright-
ness, and durability ; its charcoal is esteemed for its use in
cooking, in forges, and in the manufacture of gunpowder. Of
the common species, the incised-leaved and the variegated are
the chief varieties. The other species, namely, C. Americana
and C. Orientalis, being of small growth, are not cultivated as
timber trees.
XXXII

THE ALDER.

ALDER TREE—Alnus glutinosa (Gaertner).—The glutinous
or Common Alder belongs to the natural order Betulacew, and
is considered the most aquatic tree growing in the climate of
Britain. It is indigenous throughout Europe, and is met with
commonly on the banks of streams and in swampy situations.
In its wild state it seldom attains to a greater height than
thirty or forty feet; but cultivated in good soil, in various
places throughout Britain and Ireland, it has attained to the
height of from. sixty to eighty feet, with a trunk three to four
feet in diameter. It is- generally at full maturity at fifty or
at most sixty years of age, and, when timber is an object,
it should then be cut down. The finest trees of the species
in North Britain stand at Gordon Castle and Huntly Lodge.
There existed, during the early part of the present century, in
the parish of Abernethy, in Strathspey, a clump of alders,
adjoining part of the native pine forest, containing trees of
very remarkable dimensions. When I last saw them they
were in a state of decay, without a sound trunk among them.
They had lost their tops, and ranged only from twenty to
thirty feet in height; but six or eight of them had trunks
ranging from ten to seventeen feet in circumference, dimen-
sions greater than usual for trees of this species. The largest
recorded tree in England grows on the right-hand side of the
road upon entering the village of Haverland, Norfolk. It
stands in a damp, favourable situation, near to a rivulet, and
reaches the height of sixty-five feet. The trunk, at one foot
from the ground, is twelve feet in circumference. The next
THE ALDER. 301

largest recorded trees are in the Bishop of Durham's park at
Bishop-Auckland.

As an ornamental object, the alder is often deficient, more
particularly when young; and the praises which have some-
times been bestowed on its appearance arise from. its associa-
tion with rivers and rills, which are pleasant and enduring
beauties in nature; the alder, being a marginal accompani-
ment of these, comes in for a share of respect and esteem.
In a cultivated state, however, and in good soil, when the
tree attains to a considerable size, and is about to complete
its upward growth, it often assumes a change of character,
becomes more picturesque in figure, and displays a ramifica-
tion little inferior to that of the oak.

The timber of the alder is not valuable. When used for a
post, it soon perishes when it comes in contact with the
ground; but it is well adapted for piles in laying the foun-
dation of bridges or embankments beneath water. It has
also been successfully employed in a young state as brush-
wood, when cut in winter, for filling drains in the reclaiming
of marshy land. It is found suitable for the staves of fish-
casks and for packing-boxes, and it is sometimes employed
by last-makers, turners, patten and clog makers, along with
other soft wood, such as the willow and poplar. As the
wood is subject to the attack of insects, the finer pieces,
immediately after felling, are sometimes in Highland dis-
tricts immersed for a few months in a pit of water dug in
a peat bog; and the effect of this preparation is reckoned
more complete if the water is impregnated with a quantity
of lime. The wood prepared in this way is well adapted for
cabinets, tables, etc., and has some resemblance to maho-
gany. The charcoal of alder wood is esteemed in the manu-
facture of gunpowder.

The propagation of the tree is speedily effected from seed,
which is found in small cones, which ripen in October and
November. These should be collected when dry. The seeds
are usually extracted by spreading out the cones on a. loft
floor, to the depth of eight or ten inches; and, if situated
303 THE ALDER:

over an apartment where a strong fire is’ kept, the opera-
tion will be greatly facilitated. The cones are turned over
every day or two, until they become quite dry and open ;
after that they are threshed, or trodden with the feet, and
then the seeds are sifted out. The season of sowing the seed
is March, or early in April. Any rich friable soil will suit.
After being dug over smoothly, the beds should be marked
out four feet wide, with an alley of one foot between each.
A pound of seeds of ordinary quality is sufficient for ten
yards of a four-feet bed; but as the seeds often differ in
quality in different seasons, the sower should exercise his
judgment in trying the seeds by bruising a few of them, when
the fresh white appearance of the kernel readily indicates
their vitality. If the seeds are not sown until April, and the
weather be dry, they had better be moistened for a day before
sowing. Sow regularly on the surface of the ground ; after
which, rake the surface slightly and evenly, which is all that
is necessary for covering the seeds, unless the weather is dry,
when it is an advantage to roll the ground after sowing and
raking. The seeds being generally of little value, it is well
to sow thick, and thin out the young plants where they are
too close, in June or July. At the end of the first year’s
growth, the seedlings commonly range from four to eight
inches, according to the quality of the soil and the season.
These plants should be transplanted during the following
spring into lines a foot apart, and the plants three or four
inches asunder in the lines. They are of rapid growth
when young, and often attain the height of eighteen inches
at the end of the second year. They then require more
room, and should either be removed to their final destina-
tion, or thinned out, allowing them space in the nursery in
proportion to their height. Generally speaking, plants of
whatever age take most readily to the ground when finally
transplanted, if they have undergone that nursery operation
the year previously.

The alder is seldom a profitable plant to the nurseryman.
This arises partly from its being commonly sold at a lower
THE ALDER. 303

price than other forest trees, on account of being easily grown ;
partly from the want of a regular demand; but mainly on
account of its very rapid growth after being two or three
years old. The plants must then either be sold, or allowed
a space so large that it is unprofitable to keep them, and
their destination is, not unfrequently, the fuel-heap. When
dried, they become brittle, and rot rapidly, which renders
them unsuitable even for stakes or props to support other
plants. ;

Although the tree is often seen in an aquatic state, or in
very marshy ground, yet it luxuriates and becomes a large
tree in land that is well drained and has no superabundance
of mvisture. When a plant, it is tenacious of life, and from
its rapid growth it is well adapted for being interspersed as
nurses in plantations, in bleak and exposed situations, where
it readily makes an appearance, and serves as a protection in
establishing more valuable trees. It may afterwards be re-
moved in the early thinning of such plantations, but it is
for the most. part planted alone in marsh ground and along
the margins of streams. There it is particularly valuable
for binding and consolidating the banks by its close spread-
ing roots, which are rendered the more effective when the
tree is kept as coppice-wood, or cut at intervals of eight or
ten years, so that the trees do not get so tall that the roots
would become disturbed during rough weather.

Its uses, in a growing state, consist in its supplying fagot-
wood and hurdle-wood, and in reclaiming low meadow land,
either continually or partially flooded. This is best done by
ridging up part of the soil in summer time, and then plant-
ing the young trees on those midges in spring. In a few
years, by the fall of the leaves and the operation of the roots,
the soil becomes dry and firm. That it has the opposite
tendency, viz., to create moisture, is a vulgar error, current
in many books of Arboriculture. It is also highly to be
valued as a free grower for several years in exposed districts,
if the soil has been trenched ; and it is especially serviceable
in nursing more valuable trees planted by the sea-side. It
304 THE ALDER.

is particularly useful in some districts, such as the fens, as
a screen-plant, because it rises in particular spots, where
other trees refuse to grow. In addition to all these, its
services, in a growing state, are by no means inconsiderable
among dyers in country districts, and especially throughout
the Highlands of Scotland. If cut in spring, the shoots dye
a cinnamon colour, and the catkins produce a green.
XXXIII.

THE BIRCH.

THE Bircu.— Betula belongs to Monecia Polyandria in the
Linnean system, and to Betulacee in the natural order of
plants. The tree is indigenous throughout the north, and on
high situations in the south of Europe. It is extremely hardy,
and only one or two other species of trees approach so near
to the North Pole. There are two tree varieties natives of
Britain, Betula alba (L.), and B. a. pendula (Smith) ; the latter
is by far the more valuable and ornamental. When a plant,
it may readily be distinguished by the touch; its bark being
covered over with rough exudations, while that of the com-
mon tree is soft and velvety. Each variety is found exclu-
sively in some districts, but frequently they are interspersed.
Throughout the most remote parts of the Highlands of Scot-
land, the birch is often found in extensive coppice on rocky
elevations, where no other ligneous plant is to be met with.
It also stands in glens and ravines, adorning the margins of
lakes and rivers, where the silvery whiteness of its trunk, and
the light and airy habit of its spray, form scenes beautiful
and interesting, even in the absence of every other tree.

Though it is often found associated with the alder on
swampy ground, yet few trees more successfully resist drought.
Adapting itself to various soils and situations, it possesses a
wider range than any other plant. It is well suited to form
a cover on ground from which Scotch pine timber has been
recently removed ; the exuvie which always overspread such
places, though hostile to plants in general, are favourable to
the birch, which commonly springs up and becomes the suc-
cessor of the pine. The common tree, where it grows wild,

U
306 THE BIRCH.

attains a height of about thirty feet, and the weeping variety
about forty feet ; but both sorts rise to a much greater height
when formed into plantations, particularly when interspersed
with other trees. Some of the finest weeping birches in
Britain stand on the banks of the river Findhorn, near Forres,
in Morayshire ; these are sixty feet high, with trunks upwards
of two feet in diameter, and display pendant masses of spray
ten feet in length, adding a graceful variety of verdure to
scenes in themselves of great beauty. The soil is a surface
stratum of sandy peat earth, with gravel, incumbent on sand-
stone. In nurseries the weeping variety is the kind chiefly
cultivated, and notwithstanding the disposition of the plant
to grow wild, it is generally the most uncertain nursery crop
of any hardy tree.

The seeds are usually ripe in September, when they are
collected, and to prevent fermentation, should be thinly
exposed in an airy situation, until they become quite dry,
when they may be packed up until March ; they should then
be sown. Respecting the nursery treatment of this tree, it
is of importance to notice that a crop of seedlings will seldom
or never succeed on ground which has been much used in
raising nursery crops. All the best crops of the tree I have
ever seen have been produced on new ground. Failure is so
certain to follow the sowing of the seed on ordinary nursery
ground that of late I do not practise it unless I can obtain an
inch or two of fresh surface soil, clean and rich from some
adjoining field, such as that after a crop of potatoes or turnips,
or any other well-manured green crop. A friable sandy peat
soil is generally preferred for their growth, which should be
smoothly dug over, and beds formed four feet broad, with an
alley of one foot between each. The seeds are then spread
regularly on the surface, at the rate of one bushel of clean
seed to each bed of thirty lineal yards. In dry weather they
are closely pressed into the ground with the feet, and no other
covering is necessary ; if protracted drought ensue in May or
June, it is of advantage to shade the beds, which is usually
done with spruce or fir branches. Plants a year old, if well
of

THE BIRCH. 307

grown, are about six inches high, and usually sell at from
3s. to 4s. per 1000. They are transplanted, when one year
old, into lines one foot apart, and the plants three or four inches
asunder; when they remain two years in lines they are
generally from two to three feet high, and fit for the forest,
and then they usually sell at from 20s. to 25s. per 1000.
The tree is frequently grown as a nurse for other trees ; such
as the oak, the chestnut, etc. It is also used as underwood,
and for coppice-wood ; but of the two varieties the common
sort is best adapted for being planted for coppice-wood ; it
springs more readily from the root, and is not so apt to die off
as the weeping variety. The pruning and lopping of the
birch should be performed in autumn or early winter, to avoid
bleeding. For hoops it is commonly cut every five or six
years, and for bark every eighteen or twenty years.

The Weeping Birch differs from our other pendulous trees,
which are commonly grafted on the tops of tall stocks. It
commonly attains the age of fifteen or twenty years, and in a
cultivated state twenty or thirty feet in height, before it
assumes a pendulous form. The extremities of the more
vigorous lateral branches then begin to droop, while the top
shoots generally hold on in an upward direction until the
vigour of the tree subsides. The beauty of the tree, where
embellishment is the object, may generally be much enhanced
by a careful thinning out of the branches when they appear
in athicket inthe top. Immediately after the lateral branches
first begin to take a downward direction is the time for thin-
ning them, at same time giving the surface of the ground, for
a few yards in diameter around the trunk, a coating of two or
three inches deep of thoroughly dissolved byre manure and
decayed leaves, removing all surface vegetation on the ground
before applying it. This adds vigour to the descending spray,
the beauty of which, on well-grown specimens, is surpassed by
no other kind of pendulous vegetation.

Not long ago, in many parts of the Highlands, the birch
may be said to have been the universal wood, and used by
the Highlanders for every purpose. They made their beds,
308 THE BIRCH.

chairs, tables, dishes, and spoons of it, and even manufactured
ropes and horse harness by heating and twisting the spray.
The brushwood is used in forming wicker fences, to prevent
the inroads of cattle and sheep, in thatching cottages, and in
forming brooms or besoms. The tree attains maturity at
various ages, according to the description of soil and situation
which it occupies, but it seldom increases after seventy years
old.

The wood of both varieties is of a light colour, shaded with
red, and its grain is intermediate between coarse and fine, and
not of great durability, except when grown in a stunted form
at a great elevation. It is chiefly employed in the manufac-
ture of fish-casks, and commonly sells at from 6d. to 8d. per
cubical foot. When formed into stave-wood and delivered at
the shore, the common price is £3, 15s. per 1000 superficial
feet. As fuel, it occupies the twelfth place among twenty-one
different kinds. It is much esteemed in smoking hams and
herrings, in consequence of the fine flavour which it imparts.
The tree occasionally produces knots of timber, beautifully
marbled and veined, which are susceptible of a high polish,
and are valuable in veneering. In remote parts throughout
the Highlands of Scotland manufactories are in operation for
converting birch wood into bobbins, and in the absence of
roads these are carried to the nearest rail or water communi-
cation with manufacturing towns.

The bark of the birch is among the most incorruptible of
vegetable substances. It is in demand for tanning, and it is
preferred by fishermen to the bark of any other tree for pre-
serving nets and cordage ; it yields a softness and elasticity to
nets, which cause fish to enter the meshes more readily than
when they are preserved by any other material.

It commonly sells at from £5 to £6 per ton, according to
its quality, or the state in which it has been prepared.

Birch wine is produced by the tree being tapped, by boring
a hole in the trunk during warm weather, in the end of spring
or beginning of summer, when the sap runs most copiously.
It is recorded that during the siege of Hamburgh in 1814,
THE BIRCH. 309

many birch trees in that vicinity were destroyed in this
manner by the Russian soldiers.

Several kinds of the tree, with large leaves, and likely to
attain a greater size in this country than any ‘of the native
sorts, have been introduced into Britain ; among them Betula
lenta, or the cherry birch of Pennsylvania, appears to yield
the largest and most beautiful timber.

The cut-leaved weeping birch is one of the most elegant pen-
dulous trees in cultivation. It is propagated by being en-
grafted on the common sorts. Although it often produces
shoots of great vigour when placed on strong stocks, sometimes
three feet in one season, yet it only becomes a small tree,
seldom in the north of Scotland exceeding twenty feet in
height. It has the advantage of“at once assuming the pen-
dulous habit of growth ; but the tree, though of great elegance
in foliage and form, is not so robust and enduring as the native
weeping tree. It is cultivated purely for ornament.
XXXIV.

THE WILLOW.

Wittow.—The genus Salix belongs to Diacia Diandria of
Linneus, and it is the type of the natural order Salicacew. It
comprehends many species and varieties, natives of all quarters
of the world, very diversified in appearance, and ranging in
stature from a few inches to about eighty feet in height.

There is no genus of plants in general cultivation whose
species are more confused than that of the willow. This is
accounted for partly from the more prominent kinds having
hybridized and yielded intermediate varieties without number,
and partly from each species containing male and female
plants, and the same species differing to some extent in
appearance at certain seasons of the year; add to this the
circumstance of old trees assuming a very different appearance
from young ones, and that no tree is more apt to change its
appearance from a change of soil and climate, and it will not
be surprising that some confusion should exist in the genus,
and that the more prominent species only should be readily
recognised,

From twenty to thirty very distinct species are natives of
Britain, but these have been divided into a much greater
number.

His Grace the Duke of Bedford, in 1829, published his
Salictum Woburnense, in which 150 species of the tree were
figured and described. The interest of the publication was
greatly enhanced by the circumstance, that at the time all the
kinds existed in the Salictum at Woburn, where every oppor-
tunity was afforded for dispersing the most esteemed varieties
throughout the country. The kinds of British and foreign
willows enumerated in more recent publications amount to
THE WILLOW. 311

several hundred species or varieties. For our purpose it is
only necessary in this article to notice a few of the more pro-
minent kinds, best adapted for the purposes for which the
tree is useful.

For the produce of timber there are three species, which,
together with their allied varieties, are generally recognised,
and deserve notice. They attain the ordinary size of timber
trees, and being indigenous in this country, they are extremely
hardy, and grow to some size in soil of almost any descrip-
tion, viz, Salix caprea (L.), 8. alba (L.), and S. Russelliana
(Smith).

S.caprea,the Goat Willow, or Sallow, is a common tree,found
indigenous in waste ground, particularly in cold and marshy
situations. In rich wet ground, a two-year-old seedling plant
will sometimes produce several shoots three or four feet high ;
and under the most inhospitable circumstances it generally
ripens its growth to the uppermost bud.

This tree and its varieties are among the broadest-leaved of
the willow tribe. The vigorous young shoots have a dark-
brown glossy bark, which in spring time forms a fine contrast
with the buds, which are white and prominent ; this, together
with the profusion of catkins displayed by the male plant
during the opening up of the season, give the tree a gay
appearance, and render it one of the most ornamental of the
genus. The goat willow is a valuable tree for coppice, where
there is a demand for hoops, poles, rods for crates, sheep
fences, or for similar purposes, and where it may be cut down
every three or four. years; during a short period no other
tree will produce so great a bulk of fagot-wood. On a con-
genial soil, a healthy stock will sometimes in one season
produce a sheaf of straight clean shoots eight to twelve feet
long, and many of them an inch in diameter, at a yard from
the ground. ‘This species frequently attains the height of
forty or fifty feet, with a trunk one and a half to two feet
in diameter. It affords a valuable shelter in maritime situa-
tions, withstanding the influence of the sea better than
most plants, and its timber is reckoned the best of any of the
312 THE WILLOW.

willows. Like almost all the willows it is propagated by
cuttings; strong one-year shoots, formed fourteen to sixteen
inches long, and sunk ten or twelve inches in prepared ground,
are often attended with as much success as rooted plants ; but
where the ground is not of the best description and well pre-
pared, rooted plants should be used.

8. alba, the White or Huntingdon Willow, is a well-known
tree, and in favourable soil and situations it frequently ranges
from fifty to eighty feet in height, with a trunk two or three
feet in diameter. If we except the grey poplar, P. canescens,
perhaps there is no other tree, native or foreign, which, in this
country, attains to so great size during the first twenty or
thirty years of its growth. About that age it generally, in
favourable situations, reaches the height of from sixty to
seventy feet, when its trunk often yields one cubical foot for
every year of its growth. It is more frequently planted as
a timber tree than any other willow. It is a good coppice
willow, and often grown as a pollard tree. Its year-old shoots
are remarkably strong and tough, but being twiggy, or full
of laterals, it is rendered unsuitable for the finer purposes of
basket-making. At Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, this
tree is recorded to have attained the height of seventy feet,
with a trunk four feet and a half in diameter.

S. Russelliana, Russell’s, or the Bedford Willow, is one of
the best tree-willows in cultivation. It was brought into
notice about sixty years ago by His Grace Francis Duke of
Bedford, and ever since it has been honoured by the family
name. Johnson’s willow, at Lichfield, is of this species ; its
height is recorded to be forty-nine feet, with a trunk twelve
feet in circumference. One of the best English specimens of
this tree stands at Sion, eighty-nine feet high, with a trunk
upwards of four feet in diameter. In Banffshire, the banks of
the Deveron, at Duff House, are embellished with some fine
specimens of this tree, upwards of fifty feet high, with trunks
from eight to nine feet in circumference.

The bark and leaves of all the willows are astringent, and
the bark of most sorts is used for tanning leather.
THE WILLOW. 313

A deep rich soil, in the vicinity of water, is that which de-
velops the tree-willows in great perfection, but being extremely
hardy and tenacious of life when young, they will grow to
some extent in ground of almost any quality. In the driest
exposures, and at the highest altitudes, the willow is often
found among the few plants of ligneous form. In places
where a close cover of fir, larch, or other timber, has been
felled, which does not spring from the root, it is often found
difficult to form a cover of any kind of vegetation; for this
purpose willows are valuable, and are often indigenous to such
situations, where they are the means of sheltering and estab-
lishing more valuable trees, As a nurse, however, the tree-
willows require the attention and care of the forester, as they
are apt to confine and destroy the trees with which they are
associated. As a shade and nurse to the silver fir, the holly,
and the yew, the willow is of much advantage.

Willow timber is white, soft, and light, adapted to various
agricultural purposes, such as rake and scythe handles, sheep
flakes or hurdles; these are easily formed, and, from their
extreme lightness, are readily removed from place to place,
and not apt to be damaged by their own weight. When
sawn into boards, the timber is well suited for lining for carts
and barrows ; lightness for such purposes is a recommendation ;
but the chief advantage in this timber is that it is not apt to
splinter or receive damage from the fall or friction of hard
materials. It is much sought after of late, not only for the
construction of railway carriages, but for timber for brakes,
as it does not readily ignite when employed for that purpose.

The branches of the different species of the tree-willow are
useful, when cut between October and April, for being formed
into frames for embankments, to prevent the encroachments of
rivers and streams. These frames should extend from the
channel of the water to the top of the flow bank with a gentle
slope. The larger timbers being interwoven with the smaller
spray, and the whole being covered a few inches with sand,
gravel, or the common soil of the banks, the branches readily
push out numerous fibres, and create a surface vegetation in
314 THE WILLOW.

the proper form for resisting the influence of water. By
this means materials of a shifting character are consolidated,
and by being yearly lopped the willows establish a permanent
embankment.

Of the dwarf willows or osiers, adapted for basket-making,
the variety is very great. The most approved kinds are S.
viminalis (L.) 8. rubra (Hudson), S. Forbyana (Smith), and the
numerous varieties related to these species, among which the
pack-thread, whip-cord, and red Dutch are known in some
districts. The kinds are always propagated by cuttings, which
are planted on the ground where they are to remain. A
cutting is made of the strongest portion of a one-year shoot,
about fourteen inches long. About two-thirds of its length is
placed into the ground. They are formed into lines eighteen
inches to ‘three feet asunder, and the plants from one to two
feet apart, in proportion to the strength of the species. They
reach their full strength the third year, and endure yearly
lopping variously, according to the nature of the plant, the
soil, and climate. Some varieties are more tender and subject
to disease than others. Of late years an atmospheric blight has
been severely felt in some quarters. It has usually occurred
in the end of July or beginning of August; its influence is
known at the time by a faded curl on the foliage near the top
of the shoot, where a black spot is formed on the twig, and
marks the height of the growth at the time of the casualty.
Each spot covers a small portion of dead wood, which
occasions the rod to snap when bent at that point. Some
of the best varieties of viminalis have suffered by this influence,
particularly such as were old, and had outlived their most
vigorous period, while the young and vigorous plants of the
same species were almost exempt from injury.

Among ornamental willows the S. Babylonica forms a very
graceful and interesting tree. It is a native of Asia and of
the north of Africa. Being somewhat tender, it is only in the
best of soils and seasons, in this country, that it ripens its
young twigs at their extremities. Unlike most willows, it
does not grow freely from cuttings, and should therefore be
THE WILLOW. 315

propagated by layers. The male plant of the purple, the
black, the yellow, and many other osiers, form very ornamen-
tal small trees, which become particularly interesting from
the gaiety and richness of their early blossoms, forming the
harbingers of summer and the first food of the bee.

The new American weeping willow, recently introduced, is
spreading rapidly throughout Britain. Being a plant of very
feeble growth, to exhibit it in its most attractive form it
requires to be grafted on the top of a strong stem, such
as that of S. caprea. Its long slender twigs then droop down
with much elegance, and become agitated by the slightest
impulse of wind, like the spray of a playing fountain. The
value of this species is greatly enhanced by its being extremely
hardy. <A drooping variety of the S. caprea has lately been
discovered in the west of Scotland, and is now cultivated in
nurseries under the name of the Kilmarnock Weeping Willow.
XXXYV.

THE POPLAR,

PortaR (Populus)—The poplar tree belongs to Diacia
Octandria in the Linnean system, and to Salicaceew (Loudon)
in the natural system of botany, where the willow and poplar
form the order. All the poplars, like the willows, are uni-
sexual—either male or female plants. Any deviation from
this rule is very rare among poplars; and as all the species
abound in varieties, differing to some extent according to sex,
age, influence of soil and climate, some of the species, as
might be expected, are not easily recognised ; and botanists
differ in some instances as to what are species and what
varieties. The tree, in some species or other, is a native of
all quarters of the world.

All the poplars are remarkable for rapidity of growth,
therefore no tree is more frequently employed to furnish im-
mediate effect in a bare locality. Although many of the
species are short-lived, and destitute of that elegance of rami-
fication so desirable in trees, yet, interspersed with other
kinds, they furnish a shelter and embellishment until those
of a slower growth, possessed of a more elegant form, have
attained to a size adapted for the purpose for which they
were intended.

I may confine my remarks to the following species, with
their more prominent varieties, being the kinds best adapted
to our climate :—

P. alba (Linneus), the white poplar or abele tree; P. a.
canescens (Smith), the grey poplar; P. tremula (L.), the trem-
bling, or aspen; P. fastigiata (Desfont), the fastigiate, or Lom-
bardy ; P. monilifera (Aiton), the necklace-bearing or black
THE POPLAR. 317

Ttalian ; P. balsamifera (L.), the balsam ; P. candicans (Aiton),
the Ontario poplar.

The three species first-named are propagated by layers, as
they do not successfully strike root by slips or cuttings. The
last-named four species strike readily from cuttings.

Plants grown from layers are necessarily three or four
times the price of the kinds that grow from cuttings, and
plants in general raised from cuttings are dearer than those
produced from seed,

An idea is common that all plants that are produced from
layers or slips are apt to become dwarfed or stunted by this
mode of continuous propagation. However correct this theory
may be with regard to some plants that are apt to form tap-
roots, and derive their support from far underneath the sur-
face, I believe that respecting such trees as poplar, willow,
lime, etc, their vigour is reduced in no perceptible degree
by their propagation from layers or cuttings for any length
of time.

The mode of propagation by layers is very simple, and is
detailed under Limz-TrREE. The shoots on a young stool
commonly double in number every year till about four years
of age, when a vigorous stool should yield three or four dozen
plants yearly. After the young layers are removed, it is the
usual practice to prune and equalize their roots, and place
them in nursery lines two feet apart, and the plants one foot
distant, for one year at least, before inserting them into the
forest. As poplar plants are very apt to overgrow, they are un-
profitable for nurserymen when there is not a constant demand.

Poplar Cuitings——The kinds adapted for this mode of pro-
pagation strike very freely in any ordinary soil, but a sharp
sandy soil is that which yields the most fibrous roots. Strong
one-year shoots are commonly employed for cuttings when
they can be obtained, but two-year-old wood will suit. Cut-
tings are formed ten to twelve inches long, and are inserted
in winter or early in spring, about two-thirds into the ground,
in lines eighteen inches apart, and at the distance of six or
eight inches in the lines. In summer, when they have sprung
318 THE POPLAR.

a few inches, they should be dressed by rubbing off all the
young growths except the strongest on each plant, which
should be chosen for the stem of the future tree. One-year-
old plants are often about two feet high, and are sometimes
planted out at that age. After two years, in ground of ordi-
nary quality, plants range from three to five feet. This is
the ordinary age for transplanting into their final destination.
If required larger for hedgerows, or special purposes, they
should be replanted into greater space in the nursery.

P. alba: The White Poplar (synonymes: The abele tree ;
the downy poplar; the Dutch beech tree).—This tree is a
native of different countries in Europe. Although it grows
wild in many parts of Britain, yet my experience of it makes
me believe that this form of the tree is not a native, but
an imported species. It is indigenous to Palestine, and the
name Abele is supposed to be derived from the name of a
place where the tree abounds in the plains of Nineveh on
the banks of rivers; and the timber of this species. is said
to be the shittim-wood of Scripture. This tree has several
varieties, all remarkable for the striking contrast in colour
between the upper and under surface of their leaves; the
upper being of a dark-green, while the colour underneath is
pure white and very downy. The distinguishing points of
the varieties are size, vigour of growth, figure of foliage, dis-
tinctness in colour of foliage, and hardiness of constitution,
and generally the finer and the more beautiful the contrast
of colour in the leaves, the more weak and tender the variety.
That known under the name “ white Egyptian,” is particu-
larly fine in the colour of its foliage, but it is the most
tender; while the common white, and that known as aceri-
folia, with a deeply lobed leaf like a maple, are the strongest
growing of the species alba, Propagation by cuttings of the
branches is not successfully practised in this species; but as
it is apt to produce suckers from the root, they are some-
times resorted to, as well as cuttings of the root, as a
means of increasing the tree. Seeds of this species are
seldom to be obtained, and layers are found to make the best
THE POPLAR. 319

plants. It is important that the plants to be used as stools
be of the best varieties. From the remarkable contrast in
the colours of the leaves of this species, the tree has a very
ornamental effect when agitated by the wind; standing on
the margins of lakes, or on the outskirts of large plantations,
it appears to the greatest advantage. Though it is less hardy
and less vigorous, yet it is more ornamental than the kind
next noticed, which is considered by many a distinct species.

P. a. canescens: The Grey, or Hoary Poplar.—This tree is
a native of Scotland and of many parts throughout Britain.
It is often found on low and uncultivated soil having a
tendency to moisture, where it spreads from the root, yield-
ing suckers profusely. It blossoms in April, when the male
catkins appear very conspicuous on the tree, of a purple
colour, just before the expansion of the leaves. As the tree
does not readily strike by cuttings, the usual mode of propa-
gation is by layers, as already described. In soft alluvial soil,
somewhat moist, no tree will attain to a greater size in the
space of ten, twenty, or forty years. After the age of sixty
it commonly takes heart-rot, and is often at maturity at forty
or fifty years of age. It is found to luxuriate in very ex-
posed situations at a great elevation, and does not object to
a considerable mixture of bog or peat-earth in the absence of
stagnant moisture. Its rapid growth when young is not con-
fined to any particular description of soil, provided it is soft,
rich, and moist. The following is a statement of the compara-
tive growth of trees formed for a screen or shelter plantation,
twenty-eight years of age, on ground far too wet for growing
large timber of the ordinary kinds, as the surface is frequently
flooded for want of an exit at high tides, and where the sur-
face soil is seldom more than eighteen inches above the rise
of water :—

Average girth at three feet above the surface.

Poplar, Grey, : . : : 5 feet 2 inches.
Do. Black Italian, . ’ : 4,4 ,
Do. Lombardy, : . : Doge oy

Lime, ash, beech, and birch, . 7 2, 3

”
820 THE POPLAR.

Another small plantation adjoining the above, and similarly
situated, is thirty-two years planted :—

Girth at three feet from the ground.

Poplar, Grey, F i ‘ ‘ 6 feet 8 inches.
Do. Italian, . ‘ ‘ : Do 2 x

Birch, . : ; ‘ : ; Binge WD

Alder, . : 3 ; : : Deg Bs 4

Excess of moisture has here produced dead wood on every
kind of tree except the grey poplar, which is in a healthy and
vigorous state. Both species of poplar are about one-third
taller than the other trees, which range from twenty-eight to
thirty-two feet.

One of the finest P. canescens ever produced in Britain
grew on the lawn at Bicton Gardens, in Devonshire, and was
blown down by the memorable hurricane of the morning of
11th January 1866. Its dimensions were—girth, 14 feet 6
inches ; length of stock, 49 feet; height of the tree, 114
feet; and its age was between eighty and ninety years. It
grew on good soil, that formerly had been a kitchen garden,
and for many years turfed, and with a number of well-made
American-plant beds dotted about it. A beautifully clear
stream, about six feet wide, and four or five inches deep at
all seasons, with the bottom paved with pebbles, ran through
this ground. Under this stream the roots of the tree spread
in all directions, as well as under the turf into all the Ameri-
can beds, and often choked up drains in the vicinity. The
timber for the most part was sound, and beautifully white
and clean, but heart-rot had begun in the bottom of the
trunk. Seven years ago, in forming a pond to propel
machinery at a farm-steading situated in a very bleak ex-
posure, 650 feet above the level of the sea, for the sake of
economy and ornament, I formed the pond with a few
islands. On these, and on the margins, was deposited the
soil excavated during the progress of formation. These
islands and hills in the vicinity were then planted with a
variety of the common firs and broad-leaved plants usually
THE POPLAR. 321

grown in the country, to the extent of about fourteen or six-
teen sorts; and, after six years’ growth, this tree, the grey
poplar, is very far ahead of every other sort, both in height
and girth, and already assumes a timber-tree appearance ;
showing that a disturbed or loose surface soil in the vicinity
of water is an element favourable to the most rapid growth of
this tree, as it is to every other species of poplar.

P. Tremula, the Trembling-leaved Poplar, or Aspen, is
indigenous to Britain, and to mountainous situations through-
out Europe and Asia. Throughout the Highlands of Scotland
it is frequently associated with the natural birch. It is a
beautiful tree, of a stately and elegant appearance, round-
headed, and tall in proportion to its girth, of rapid growth, and
extremely hardy. It attains a considerable height in almost
any description of soil, growing luxuriantly when young in a
soil dry and sandy, as well as in that which is wet and strong.
The roots of the aspen spread over the surface of the ground,
and when the vigour of the young tree subsides, the greatest
objection to its cultivation in many situations is its propensity
to produce suckers from the roots, which, in neglected grounds,
form a jungle around the tree.

In the Highlands, the young shoots are greedily eaten by
sheep and cattle; and for this purpose, in Germany and
Sweden, the spray is frequently used both in a green and
dried state ; and, according to one writer, this is the most
valuable purpose to which it can be applied. The seeds of
the tree ripen in summer, and may be immediately sown ; but
propagation by layers, or suckers, is the more speedy method.
This species grows freely from cuttings of the roots, but not
from cuttings of the branches. Plants one or two years trans-
planted from layers are commonly from five to six feet high,
when they should be removed from the nursery. In soil of
ordinary quality, the average growth of the aspen for the first
ten years is not under three feet annually. One of the loftiest
trees of the species in Britain is reported to stand at Castle
Howard, in Yorkshire, 130 feet high, with a trunk three and
a half feet in diameter. Few trees are more ornamental or

x
322 THE POPLAR.

interesting in the landscape ; standing alone as a lawn tree, it
assumes a pendulous form. On the outskirts of plantations,
or when the species is grouped by itself, and seen either on
the hill top or on the sloping sides of the forest, it forms an
object of great interest. Its foliage forms a contrast with
most other trees throughout thé summer, being of a beautiful
glaucous green, which, after the first frosts of autumn, changes
into a fine mellow or ripened hue, and ultimately into a bright
yellow. The trunk of advanced growth is of an ash colour.
With tasteful arrangement, this tree, being perfectly hardy,
forms a valuable element in embellishment, at any altitude
adapted for arborescent vegetation. The trembling of the
leaves is far more conspicuous in this than in any other species
of the poplar, arising from the construction of the leaf and
petiole, or leaf-stalk. The leaves are round and smooth, and
stand on long slender foot-stalks, which cause them to become
agitated by the slightest impulse of the air, so that their
quivering is quite perceptible, and well heard, during weather
comparatively calm—

«When zephyrs wake,
The aspen’s trembling leaves must shake.”

In the English Flora, Sir J. E. Smith says,—* The colour
of the upper surface of the leaves is a fine dark glaucous
shining green, and that of the under surface of a paler shade.
The disk of the leaf has a small point, and three ribs. It is
somewhat wavy, and often shorter than the foot-stalk, which,
being vertically compressed in its upper part in relation to the
plane of the leaf, counteracts the ordinary waving motion of
the leaf in the wind, and causes it to quiver with the slightest
breeze.”

It is worthy of notice that no tree so interesting, ornamental,
and hardy, is so sparingly planted throughout Britain, so it is
not often to be seen in the nurseryman’s catalogue. The wood
is the strongest, hardest, and heaviest of the poplars; and the
bark is sometimes used in tanning leather.

P. Fastigiata, the Fastigiate or Lombardy Poplar, is a well-
known. tall tree, readily distinguished from every other species
THE POPLAR. 325

by its upright growth ; and having its lateral branches closely
gathered around the stem, it forms a taper shape; possessing
that habit of growth among deciduous trees which the upright
cypress has among evergreens. It is a native of Italy, par-
ticularly of the banks of the Po in Lombardy. It was intro-
duced into Britain about the middle of the eighteenth century,
and is propagated by cuttings as speedily as any description
of willow. Being easily increased to any extent, it soon
became common throughout Britain. Some other species of
the genus yield a greater bulk of timber in twenty years, but
no other tree will attain to a greater height in that period.
When young it grows vigorously in any soil, but to become of
a great size the ground should be rich and deep, with water
within reach of its roots. On the Continent it is usual to
form fences of the tree, by inserting two or three year old
plants, which commonly stand six or seven feet high, in
straight lines. The plants, about six inches apart, are con-
nected by a horizontal rod, placed at the height of three feet
from the ground, thus forming a fence in one season. The
plants are commonly lopped in course of a few years, and
sometimes are thinned out, which enables those remaining to
become of considerable girth, and useful astimber. Through-
out a great part of the Continent this is the only tree in the
divisions and along the margins of fields ; but the uniformity
of its growth, the straight lines, and the flatness of many
parts of the country, form. scenes mondétonous and wearisome.
In this country the principal use of the tree is embellishment
and shelter. It speedily rises to a great height, and forms a
screen of verdure during summer. In landscape-gardening it
forms a very striking object ; judiciously introduced into the
masses of round-headed forest trees, it changes and improves
the features of the scene. It has a commanding effect situated
at the end of buildings, or arising from the background,
diversifying the regularity of the sky-mark usually formed by
the tops of ordinary plantations. As an adjunct to an old
ruin, a group of this species often adds greatness and dignity to
the scene, when skilfully placed and viewed from a distance.
3824 THE POPLAR.

As a town tree it has no rival. It rises in a narrow space,
and endures the influence of smoke better than almost any
other; and its value is greatly enhanced by its springing
rapidly, and appearing in all its characteristic form in a very
few years. Dr. Walker records a tree, on the banks of a canal
near Brussels, which in fifteen years grew to the height of
eighty feet, with a trunk from seven to eight feet in circum-
ference. In France, on the banks of the Seine at Rouen,
trees of this species, bordering some of the public promenades,
stand 150 feet high. In England, some of the finest specimens
produced were planted by a cottager in the village of Great
Tew, in Oxfordshire, who lived to see them, at the age of fifty
years, 125 feet high. The finest tree in Scotland lately was
supposed to be one that was blown down on the lawn at
Darnaway Castle, in Morayshire, in a gale in 1860. At
Taymouth, in Perthshire, this tree stands upwards of 100 feet
in height.

The trunk, in an advanced state, is deeply furrowed, and
the tree is not apt to produce undergrowths. Unlike trees in
general, its whole top waves with the wind in one gentle
sweep, and its shade is very harmless to the crops in its
vicinity. The extensive use of this poplar in the division of
fields on the Continent suggests the practicability of employing
the living tree as a support for wire-fence along fields. Of all
others it grows most upright, and fresh posts of it inserted into
good soil take root and vegetate. In some parts of the east
of England it is grown on marshy ground in thickets, two and
three feet apart; and no tree admits of being grown more
closely. In five or six years the timber is serviceable for poles
in fences, and for hurdles for enclosing sheep, and similar
purposes. Although when exposed to the atmosphere it proves
less durable than many sorts of timber, it should be remem-
bered that its propagation is simple and cheap, its timber is
soon obtained, very easily worked, and handy from its light-
ness, and the ease with which it can be removed from place
to place. Although the tree cannot be recommended as
coppice-wood, yet when cut while it is young, and not very
THE POPLAR. 325

near to the ground, and trained to one stem, it furnishes a
good second or third crop of poles.

P. monilifera : The Necklace-bearing or Black Italian Poplar.
—This poplar is generally believed to be the same species as
P. nigra Canadensis of Micheux, or a variety of that tree. Its
name “ Necklace-bearing”’ is derived from the structure of the
female catkins, resembling strings of beads. This tree is re-
markable for its rapidity of growth. It comes into leaf in Scot-
land about the 1st of May—rather later than the Lombardy
poplar. The bark of its young shoots is of a darker hue than
that of that tree. The yearly lateral shoots take a more wide
and horizontal range, and instead of being round, as in the
Lombardy poplar, they are fluted or ribbed, particularly to-
wards the extremities. Its upward growth under similar cir-
cumstances is equal to that of the Lombardy poplar ; while, on
account of the strong side branches and larger leaves of the
black Italian poplar, its girth is greater, at once showing a
decided superiority even during the second year of growth
from cuttings, from which both grow readily.

The tree is a native of the continent of America, and some
are of opinion that it was introduced into Italy, and from thence
into Britain. Its first introduction into this country was in
1772, from Canada; but its second introduction appears to
have made it better known, and from which it is supposed to
have taken its popular name. Respecting this tree Loudon
says,—* The rate of growth in the climate of London, in good
soil, is between thirty and forty feet in seven years; and even
in Scotland it has attained the height of seventy feet in sixteen
years.” From strong cuttings, I have often seen plants six
feet high in two years, and the second year lateral shoots are
nearly equal in strength to the leader. Nevertheless pruning
is not necessary ; the vigour of the side-branches increases the
diameter of the bole, and the strong flow of sap naturally gives
the top an ascendency.

I am not aware of any distinguishing mark by which the
sex of the tree can be ascertained before it comes into flower ;
but in many situations the female tree of this species is objec-
326 THE POPLAR.

tionable on account of the profusion of seeds which it sheds.
It blossoms in spring, before the leaves are expanded, and the
seeds fall commonly early in June. I have seen the produce
of two or three trees in a clump alongside a turnpike road
drifted into the side-drains like wreaths of snow, and after a
few weeks of moist, warm weather, it sometimes becomes a
mass of vegetation obstructing the sewerage. Near well-kept
lawns and walks, etc., the male plants should therefore be
preferred. Notwithstanding the ease with which the tree
might be grown by the thousand, growth from seed is not
practised in nurseries, on account of the tree being seldom
required by the thousand, and a cutting being equal in strength
to a two-year seedling, while a two-year-old plant from a cut-
ting will furnish on an average upwards of a dozen of slips or
cuttings without injuring it. Although the sexes are seldom
kept distinct or separate in nurseries, propagation by the
branch is the sure method by which the sex of the young
plant can be known.

When the tree is to be grown from seed, the treatment
should be that afterwards described for all the poplars. In
ordinary arable land of a medium quality, the tree often yields
from twenty to thirty cubical feet of wood in mixed planta-
tions in little more than twenty years.

The following is a note of trees planted twenty-four years
since, on rather poor, sandy soil, about twenty feet above the
rise of water, and in a good climate, about forty feet above
the tide-mark, in a mixed plantation—the girths taken three
feet above the surface of the ground :—

Girth. Height.
Black Italian en : . 38 feet 6 in. 60 feet.
Larch, . : ; . 38, 4, 48 ,
Elm, Scotch, ‘ eo Bh gp Oe, 83
Beech, . ; ‘ : . 2, 6, 40 ,,
Sycamore, 2, 1, 34 ,

P. Balsamifera, the Balsam Poplar, is a ‘native of North
America, where it rises to the height of eighty feet. In
THE POPLAR. 327

Britain it is of much more humble stazare. and zr-w: vigorously
only for a few years when young. Ii is purely ornamental.
The bark of the young wood ‘s of a rich chesnut colour, and
the buds are large, and encased in a glutimou: balsam. The
trunk haz an ash-coloured bark. In the opening of the sprmg
it early discloses its leaves, of a pale yellow. possessed of a
rich balsamic fragrance, which it ditases throughout the
atmosphere. The leaves eventually become of a rich dark
green. There are many varieties of this tree, which differ in
the :iz=. saape, and the shade of the leaves. in the vigour of
growth, and in the time im which they expand their foliage.
The tree and its varieties are all readily propagated by cuttings,
or from suckers. which it is in the habit of producing. Ik
will grow when young im almost any des<ription of 3:2 with
considerable vigour, and smetimes It produces in one season
a sii four or five feet long; but its early vigour r-s<mbles
that of several species of willow, the laburnum, and locust
trees; Ié is of short duration, and im this countzy it only
atiaiz: the savure of a dwarf timber tree, seldom exceeding
thirty or forty feet im height.

P. Candicans : The Whitish-leaved Palsam-bearmg or
Ontario Poplar; syn. P. macrophylla (Lindlev;—This tree 15
a native of America, and is generally known m thi: country
as the Ontario Poplar. In appearance and fragrance it is
very like the balsam poplar, but it is a week or two later
in coming into leaf. Its leaves are larger and rounder, and
altogether the tree is of more robuzs: growth; bat in this
country it fails to attain great dimensions, usually getting
stunted or =<t in growth on reaching forty feet in height,
which it generally attains im twenty years; then ics branches
soon become so britile that they can scarcely support a crow.
Its vigorous growth, broad leaves, and pleasant fragrance
when young make it an interesting object in newly-formed
plantaticn: by the road-side ; and as it is readily grown from
cuttings, it is often employed for thickening up ornamental
plantations till slower-growing and more permanent trees get
established.
828 THE POPLAR.

There are other species of the poplar introduced, and some-
times cultivated in this country ; but they are less important
than those described, on account of their being either of small
stature or too tender for our climate.

The growth of the poplar from seed.—All the poplars blossom
early in spring, and the female plant usually ripens and sheds
the seed in the end of May or early in June. On account of
the facility with which young plants can be produced from
cuttings and layers, the growth of the tree by seed is seldom
practised. The following, however, is the mode of raising
the tree by that means :—

The seeds appear a white, cottony substance, and where the
ground is smooth, such as on short meadow grass, or along a
road-side, they sometimes can be readily swept up. On being
collected, they should be immediately sown on the surface of
smoothly-dug, friable ground, then raked in, and rolled with
a heavy roller, or smoothly tramped in with the feet. This
bed should then be shaded by being overspread with straight-
drawn straw, or with broom, or heath, or some such substance,
that will furnish shade and admit air. If the weather is not
very moist, watering all over the covering should be carefully
performed with rain or pond water, or that which has been
for some days kept stagnant in the sunshine. The plants will
spring in a week or two, according to the heat of the weather,
and the cover may then be removed. They will be a few
inches long before winter, and in spring should be transplanted
into nursery lines about fifteen inches apart, and the plants at
the distance of six or eight inches.

The soil most suitable for all the species is that which is rich,
loose, and moist, or in the vicinity of water. The cost of
trenching the ground is always well repaid by rapidity of
growth. When a poplar becomes stunted it rarely regains its
vigour. If it ceases to grow freely from any other cause than
unsuitable soil, it will generally show a tendency to spring
from the surface of the ground ; and if young, on being lopped
over at the surface, and confined to one shoot, it will become
vigorous.
THE POPLAR. 329

Pruning is not to be recommended for the poplar. The
species which ramify, :uch a: P. canescens and P. monilifera,
can be grown with clean trunks by being inserted <> that they
will gently press on one another, which will have the effect
of diminishing the vigour of the side-branch<:. and of pro-
ducing clean timber. In amputating a large branch, unless
skilfully performed = as that the wound will not lodge
water, the tree is apt to suffer. The wood being extremely
soft is apt to crack and admit moisture into the tree, which
becomes ruinous. For this reason none of the species can be
relied on a: coppice-wood for more than a crop or two.

Disease —The poplar furnishes food for the larvz of several
species of moth; but I have never found the tree assailed to
any serious extent by imsects, or any disease except the atmo-
stheric blight known as the potato disease, and its influence
was confined purely to the varieties of P. alba. The nearly-
related species, P. canescens, on the most trying visitations of
this influence, I have found always exempt from injury when
growing in the same quarter. It was noticed that the finer
the varieties of the tree, or those that produced the greatest
contrast in the colours of the leaf, were the sort: on which the
disease fell with the greatest severity. My experience of this
disease was not confined to one locality. I have seen the
influence most distinctly im various places, some of them 100
miles apart. About twenty year: ago my attention was first
directed <4 it early in August, one year when the potatoes in
the fields had flagged and fallen by the disease. I observed
in the stool ground, or propagating ground, in the nursery,
the drooping leaves of the white poplar to have fallen -
taneously with those of the potato. I found afterwards that
during a succession of bad years of the potato disease the
stools of this species of poplar died along with those of the
Svlanum variegatum, or shrubby potato, situated in the same
propagating ground. At the same time the trees of the white
poplar throughout the country became much enfeebled, and
showed quantities of dead branches, and in many districts the
tree is now :ldom met with where it formerly abounded.
330 THE POPLAR.

The deadly influence of the same malady was quite perceptible
on some of the more tender exotic willows, and on some other
kinds of vegetation.

Recorded opinions of the tree.—Hitherto the genus Populus
has been esteemed chiefly for its services in a living state, and
writers on this tree have differed greatly respecting its appear-
ance and worth. Gilpin says,—“ When the gentle breeze
pressing upon the quivering poplar bends it only in easy
motion, while a serene sky indicates the heavens to be at peace,
there is nothing to act in concert with the tree. It seems to
have taken its form from the influence of the sea-air, or some
other malign impression, and, contracting an unnatural appear-
ance, disgusts.” Muskau says, “ It is too fluttering.” Cobbett
represents it as “ a great, ugly tree.” Evelyn seems fully to
apprehend its value when he says, “It puts a guise of such
antiquity upon any new enclosure, that whilst a man is on a
voyage of no long continuance, his home and lands may be so
covered as to be hardly known by him at his return.” And
although some associate its appearance with the idea of an
upstart, and despise it for want of the elegance of ramification,
and the ancestral dignity of the British oak, yet in a good
specimen of two or three of the species, the massive bole, and
the magnitude of the branches, frequently command the respect
of the beholder ; and we have the high authority of one of the
first Greek writers in calling the tree beautiful—Homer—who
compares the fall of Simoisius by the hand of Ajax to a poplar
tree just cut down :—

“ So falls a poplar that in watery ground,
Raised high its head, with stately branches crowned ;

So down it lies, tall, smooth, and largely spread,
With all its beauteous honours on its head.”

Poplar Timber.—There is a great similarity in the timber
of all the different species and varieties of the tree ; indeed, the
difference in soil sometimes changes the appearance of the
timber of the same species as much as the difference between
one species and another. The appearance of the wood of all
the species is white, with a yellowish tinge sometimes near
THE POPLAR. 331

the centre when it becomes old. The centre timber very
soon becomes short, and decays in most of the kinds). The
timber is remarkable for its lightness and softness; that of
tremula is the hardest and heaviest of any species when grown
in firm soil The softest and lightest wood is that which is
fast grown, on rich, soft, mossy ground. In remote districts
throughout the country, where its uses were unknown till
lately, 1 have known it to be sometimes sold at sixpence per
cubical foot, and cheaper than any other wood ; but since its
uses are become better known, it often fetches the usual prices
of the different kinds of hardwood. The wood of all the
species contracts very much on being seasoned. It suits all
the purposes of willow timber. It is esteemed for cladding
for carts, waggons, barrows, railway-trucks, and the like. Em-
ployed as such it does not splinter like most kinds of deal,
nor crack in the driving of nails When struck, the blow
only indents the soft wood, without piercing or cracking
it. Its lightness recommends it for many purposes, such as
doors and gates, more especially such as are of great dimen-
sions and in frequent use, where heavier wood is apt to strain
the hinges. It is also esteemed for kitchen furniture, dishes,
rollers for silk, carver and cooper work, butchers’ and bakers’
trays, and all purposes where a clean appearance and lightness
are a recommendation: On the Continent it is the common
wood for clogs, and various small wares; of late it is much
sought after, on account of its softness, for railway brakes, it
being difficult to ignite by friction.
XXXVI.

THE ELM.

THE Eto (Ulmus).—This genus is the type of the natural
order Ulmacee, and occupies a very important place among our
British timber trees. Two species deserve particular notice,
U. campestris and U. montana.

U. campestris (L.), or English elm, is a tall, elegant tree, of
rapid growth ; and although it is not famous for its ramifica-
tions, yet from the density of its foliage and its clustering
habit of growth, in bright weather it displays a variety of light
and shade such as painters appreciate in such objects. It is
of erect growth, and yields a tall bole, remarkable for the
uniformity of its diameter throughout ; and few trees produce
the same quantity of valuable timber in so short a period. If
we except the oak, it is more common than any other timber
tree in England, where it is said that upwards of forty places
take their names from that of elm, such as Nine Elms, Barn

. Elms, etc. Around the palaces, castles, cathedrals, old halls,
ete., it is commonly met with of large dimensions and vener-
able character ; but as it rarely produces seed in England, it is
questionable whether it is a native of that country. If not
truly indigenous, it must have been introduced at a very early
period, and propagated by art. It is a native of the south
and middle of Europe, and the west of Asia, and there it yields
seed abundantly. In France, plants are raised from seed in
immense numbers. The tree is remarkable for its propensity
to produce seedling varieties ; many of these imported, of very
feeble growth, have spread throughout this country, and are of
no value as timber trees. The aptitude of the tree to vary
THE ELM. 333

from seed has rendered the genus very confused. About
twenty sorts of U. campestris are cultivated in nurseries, and
botanists are unable to determine which are species and which
are varieties. It is therefore of importance that the planter
of timber should know that he is possessed of a kind of the
tree adapted to the purposes intended.

In England, the tree is chiefly propagated by layers from
stools, or from suckers from old trees. The former is the
better mode. A stool is formed by lopping over a plant which
has become established in the ground. During the ensuing
summer, the root or stool produces a number of young shoots ;
when these have completed their growth for the season, they
are bent down to the depth of five or six inches into the
ground, and fixed with the earth, having their extremities
clear above ground, and in an erect position. During the suc-
ceeding summer these layers become rooted, and another crop
of young shoots are produced by the stool The layers should
be removed any time in open weather during winter or early
in spring, which will make way for the next crop of young
shoots being laid down as already described. Thus, a stool
yields a crop of plants yearly ; and that they may become well
rooted, the soil should be rich, friable, and sandy.

Unless the ground into which the young plants (layers) are
to be planted is clean and of the best quality, they should be
inserted into nursery lines for two years previously to their
’ being finally planted out. The plants should be a foot apart,
and the lines two feet distant. Ifthey are intended to remain
for a longer period, a greater space should be allowed to them
in the nursery.

The tree grows freely in soils of very opposite qualities ; it
may be seen in dry sandy soil, and in the most unctuous clay,
and in both it grows better than most trees ; but that of an
intermediate description, rich, soft, and open underneath, is
best adapted to its development. The young tree forms a
root more fibrous and bushy than most plants, which adapts
it for being transplanted when of a size and age beyond that
which is common. In ordinary soils, the tree usually attains
334 THE ELM.

the height of twenty-five feet im ten years. It naturally rises
into a straight form, and seldom requires pruning. _ Its fibrous
roots, upright and rapid growth, recommend it for a hedgerow
tree, and as such it is capable of being transplanted of a size
almost sufficient to resist injury from cattle.

Of the recorded trees of the species in England, one of the
most remarkable is the Crawley Elm, which stands on the
high road from London to Brighton. It measures sixty-one
feet in circumference at the ground, and is seventy feet high.
Its trunk is perforated to the top, and it measures thirty-five
feet round the inside at two feet from the base. At Hatfield,
in Hertfordshire, there is one which measures forty-eight feet
in girth, and contains 493 cubical feet of timber. In Warwick-
shire, at Croombe Abbey, a tree 200 years old measured in
the diameter of its trunk nine feet six inches; diameter of its
head, seventy-four feet ; and is said to have stood 150 feet
high. This is perhaps the loftiest tree of the species produced
in England. One at Milbury Park, Dorsetshire, 200 years old,
is 125 feet high. One at Strathfieldsaye is 130 feet high.

Of this species of elm, Scotland possesses comparatively few
specimens, and these do not seem remarkable for old age; but
generally, they rise to a greater height than the native tree of
the genus. The best specimens are found at Bothwell Castle,
Barnton House, and Cullen House, where they range from
eighty to a hundred feet in height.

The wood is brown, hard, and of a fine grain; and as it is
not apt to crack, it is adapted for the manufacture of articles
that require lateral adhesion, such as the wooden furniture in
the rigging of ships; and its quality, as well as its figure of
growth, render it very suitable for ship keels. It is also em-
ployed by the block and pump maker, the cart-wright, and
cabinet-maker ; and in London it is the. common wood used
in making coffins. Its value varies much in different districts,
and is regulated by its quality and adaptation for particular
purposes; generally ranging from Is. to 1s. 8d. per cubical
foot. The tree generally attains maturity in seventy or
eighty years ; after which it has a tendency to become hollow
THE ELM. 335

in the centre, a casualty from which young trees are not
exempt.

The elm, particularly the English elm, is subject to the
tavages of several insects. The most fatal of these is the
scolytus destructor, a small beetle, only about a fourth of an inch
in length, which perforates the bark of large trees during the
heat of summer, commonly about the month of July. It
forms a channel, generally upwards, between the inner bark and
the wood, into which the female insect deposits her eggs to
the extent of from twenty to fifty. About the month of Sep-
tember the larve are hatched ; these ramify, forming horizon-
tal channels on each side of the original perforation, which is
commonly an inch or two in length. The caterpillars feed on
the inner bark, rendered congenial by the descending sap in
autumn. When the insect finishes its course of feeding, it
stops in its progress and turns to a pupa, then to a beetle. It
then gnaws its way straight through the bark, and emerges
early in summer. The bark of the tree presents the appear-
ance of being pierced by shot. The circulation of the sap is
interrupted ; the foliage becomes scanty, and of a sickly hue,
which is followed by numerous dead branches, and sometimes
by the death of the whole tree. No practical cure has been dis-
covered. In Scotland, the effects of the scolytus are seldom
observed, but in England and on the Continent, and most
frequently where trees ornament populous towns and frequented
promenades, the ravages of the insect are most fatal, and very
likely owing to the absence of the numerous birds which in
forests and rural districts are sustained by such insects.

U. montana (Bauhin) : The Mountain, Scotch, or Wych Elm.
—This species is a native of Scotland, and very valuable as a
timber tree. It grows to a less height than the English elm.
Compared with the best varieties of that tree, it is of slower
growth, yields a much shorter bole, but is far more spreading
in its habit, more bold in its ramification, and more picturesque
in figure, more hardy in constitution, and better adapted to
adorn the glens and mountain sides which it is destined to
occupy. It usually attains to the height.of about fifty feet,
336 THE ELM.

but it is often found much higher when interspersed with
taller-growing trees. It does not produce suckers like the
English elm, but it yields seed freely. Its propagation from
seed has given rise to several fine kinds, which are propagated
for their various peculiarities. In Britain none of this species
have, as in the case of U. campestris, degenerated so far as to be
unfit for cultivation as timber trees.

The blossoms of the U. montana appear in April, just before
the leaves expand, and the seeds are usually ripe about the
middle of June, when they should be gathered and immediately
sown in rich, clean, friable soil. The beds should be four feet
broad, and a bushel of seeds is commonly sufficient for twelve
lineal yards of a bed; but as the seeds are very often so un-
equal in quality that one half are not possessed of the power
of germinating, the quantity on a given space must be regulated
by the judgment of the individual who conducts the work,
who should try what proportion of seeds are well filled, and
aim at raising the plants about two inches apart. The cover
on the seeds should be about half an inch deep, and in dry
weather the beds should be watered and shaded. The plants
often appear in a week after sowing, and then the shading is
discontinued ; they require no further care but to be kept
clear of weeds during the summer.

In the following winter, or early in spring, they may be
removed into nursery lines; but when they do not stand too
close in the seed-bed, they are frequently allowed to remain
for two summers before being removed. The distance between
the plants in the lines should be six inches, and that between
the lines eighteen inches. Two years is the usual time that
the plants remain in the lines; if allowed to stand much
longer without being disturbed, the roots of this species are
apt to get bare, after which the plant becomes stunted on
being transplanted. The tree will grow rapidly, and yield
heavy timber in a rich deep soil only, and it prefers an open
subsoil. Where water stagnates near the surface, its growth
becomes feeble, and lichen overspreads its bark.

The period at which pruning is most frequently of advan-
THE ELM. 337

tage is that when the tree is from eight to fourteen years
of age. It is then apt to ramify near to the ground, and to
form a very short trunk. By shortening the competing shoots
and diminishing the strongest of the lateral branches with the
pruning-knife, the bole may thus be lengthened into a more
useful figure than that to which the tree is naturally inclined,
particularly in open situations.

Few trees are more difficult to uproot than the Scotch elm:
it is a rare occurrence indeed to see a tree of this species thrown
over by the influence of the wind; it also resists the influence
of water better than most trees. During the great flood of
August 1829 in Morayshire, the river Findhorn formed a new
channel through a mixed plantation, and changed its course ;
the only Scotch elm known of in the space continued to
stand for a few years in the river, and hold its own, formmg
a small island, till a winter flood accompanied with ice re-
moved it.

The timber is much in request for agricultural purposes,
such as naves, shafts, rails, and frames for carts and barrows,
handles for spades, forks, and other implements where strength
and elasticity are required. It is also extensively used in ship
and boat building. For naves, it is generally preferred in
Scotland to any other wood; and when the tree is of the size
adapted to that purpose, namely, from twelve to fifteen inches
in diameter, it usually sells at about 2s. 6d. to 3s. per cubic
foot, which is about one-fourth higher than its usual price for
general purposes, and occasions the tree to be felled more fre-
quently at the diameter stated than at any other size. The
tree often yields large protuberances of gnarled wood, finely
knotted by an accumulation of growth, and richly veined,—
these are much esteemed for veneering, and are often very
valuable.

U. m. glabra (Miller) : The Smooth-leaved Wych Elm.—This
is one of the fastest growing trees of the genus, and valuable for
timber. It appeared about the middle of last century, and is
known in some districts under the name of the Huntingdon
elm. The plant is propagated by layers, but more frequently

Y
338 THE ELM.

by grafting, using the Scotch elm as the stock. There are
several varieties of cork-barked elm (U. suberosa), also of Ameri-
can elm, variegated elm, and curled-leaved elm.

The most ornamental and picturesque tree of the genus is U.
pendula (Loudon), weeping elm, of which there are also several
varieties. This is a tree of very peculiar character. It seeds
freely, and from that circumstance, as well as from its large
leaves and habit of growth, it is believed to have sprung from
U. montana, the Scotch elm. It began to be cultivated in
nurseries about the close of the last century. Plants raised
from seeds are apt to lose the peculiarities of the species. It
is therefore propagated by being grafted on the tops of the
stems of any of the common elms. In this way it grows freely,
and soon forms a head of considerable magnitude, and of the
most wild, diversified, and rugged form. In the vigour of
youth it shoots forth in a frond-like manner, often directing
its branches horizontally, some downwards, some upwards,
and some obliquely, displaying a majesty and grandeur in its
ramifications which are never seen in any other young tree.
As an object for the lawn, the park, or the pleasure-ground,
it has no equal among fast-growing plants. Its picturesque
effect resembles that of the cedar. Some of the finest weep-
ing elm trees in England are at the Fulham and Hammersmith
nurseries, near London. The best specimen of the tree in
Scotland stands in Blackfriar’s Haugh, Morayshire, about
thirty feet in height, with a trunk four feet six inches in girth
at a foot above the surface, and the spread of its branches
measures 108 feet in diameter.
XXXVIL

THE WALNUT.

Watnut.—The Juglans or walnut tree belongs to Monecia
polyandria in the Linnezan system, and to Juglandacee in the
natural order of plants. The flowers of the genus are uni-
sexual, and both sexes are produced by one plant. Several
species are cultivated in the British nurseries. They are deci-
duous trees, of large growth, yielding valuable timber, and the
common species is much esteemed on account of its fruit.

J. Regia (L.), the Royal or Common Walnut, is a native of
Persia, and one of our earliest introduced fruit trees, having
been in cultivation in England since the middle of the six-
teenth century. It forms a large spreading tree, which
blossoms in May, and ripens its fruit during the following
autumn.

It is propagated from the nuts or seed, which usually part
with their outer husks on becoming ripe and falling from the
tree. They vegetate during the first season, and may be sown
in winter or early in spring; they should be planted a few
inches apart in drills, with a cover about two inches deep.

As the crop is very apt to be injured by any degree of frost
after the plants appear above the surface, the drills should be
protected by twigs of spruce or silver fir, or some other cover.
It is necessary to raise the seedling plants in a dry early soil,
otherwise they will not mature their shoots sufficiently to
endure frost. Dry sandy soil, although poor, is preferable for

" young plants to soil of a more fertile description. In the latter
the largest plants are produced, but unless the climate or the
season is very superior the first winter deprives them of their
tops. The seedling plants form strong tap-roots ; therefore, to
340 THE WALNUT.

adapt them for removal it is necessary to transplant them
when one, or at most when two years old, pruning off the
extremities of their tap-roots, in order to promote that bushi-
ness of fibre so necessary to the safe removal of plants. The
same mode of transplanting should be practised every second
or third year, allowing the plants additional space, according
to their size, till they are placed into their final situations.

In a deep, dry soil, with a good climate, the tree in early life
grows rapidly. Where it is not retarded in its progress by
being removed, it usually attains the height of twenty feet in
twelve years; at that age it generally begins to yield fruit,
when its upward progress becomes more slow and the figure
of the tree more ramified.

The vigorous tap-root which the tree naturally strikes into
the ground renders it particularly suitable for some situations;
wherever the surface is bad and the subsoil of good quality,
the walnut is more likely to suit than almost any other tree.
Its propensity to form a vigorous tap-root exceeds even that
of the oak. It sometimes occurs, through the influence of
wind or the sudden overflow of rivers, that spots of rich
ground are rendered barren by a deposit of sand-drift or of
débris. These may be turned to good account by the walnut
raised from seed on the ground, and by such other trees as
draw their support from a great depth. In the roughest
situation the common walnut maintains a well-balanced head,
and when it is raised from seed, and not transplanted, it is
less likely to be uprooted by wind than almost any other tree.
Striking deep into the ground, its roots do not obstruct the
cultivation of the fields, and it is perhaps the most common
hedgerow fruit-tree throughout the Continent. Cultivated,
however, for the sake of its fruit, in most situations it is all
the better of being transplanted. Trees that have never been
removed seldom ripen their fruit so early in the season as
those that have at some period undergone the check of trans-
plantation. Frequent removal has also the effect not only of
making the trees bear sooner, but it improves the quantity
and the quality of the fruit. This is on account of the roots
THE WALNUT. 341

of transplanted trees ranging nearer the surface of the ground,
and more under the influence of sunshine. Trees that are of
a great age are also found, in a late climate, to ripen their
fruit better than young trees in the same locality, unless the
latter have been frequently transplanted, which has the effect
of occasioning their sap to flow less copiously, and imparts a
ripening tendency.

Large quantities of fruit are yearly imported into Britain
from France and Spain, to an extent varying according to the
crops in the respective countries. It is recorded in the history
of this tree that the winter of 1709 was very fatal to the
walnut throughout Europe, and occasioned so great a scarcity
of its timber that in 1720 an Act was passed in France to
prevent its exportation, and the extensive propagation of the
tree was encouraged by the French Government.

Throughout Britain the walnut attains to the size of a large
timber tree. It is of great duration, and, when grown in
sufficient space, in old age it presents a picturesque and
elegant form, with ramifications resembling that of the oak.
Many fine specimens of the tree are to be found throughout
Britain. In. the north of Scotland it attains a greater size
than any other fruit-tree. At Gordon Castle, Banffshire, it
stands sixty-six feet high, with a trunk eleven feet in circum-
ference at three feet from the ground, and yields fruit abun-
dantly. At Altyre House, Morayshire, a tree has attained
the height of sixty-two feet, with a trunk four feet in diameter,
and contains about 200 cubical feet of timber. The soil is a
deep sandy loam incumbent on gravel. It yields large crops
of fruit, which ripen almost every year. There are other trees
in Morayshire of nearly similar dimensions, but on account of
the soil and situation which they occupy being somewhat
later, it is only in very favourable seasons that their fruit
becomes fit for dessert.

The timber of the common walnut, when young, is white
and soft, but as it advances in age it gets more dark and
solid, and ultimately it becomes shaded and veined, of a light
brown and black ; and generally the pieces most ornamental
342 THE WALNUT.

are found in the vicinity of the root. It soon becomes sea-
soned, when it neither cracks nor warps, and it is reckoned
the most ornamental of European timber, and much esteemed
for cabinet-work, gun-stocks, etc.

The fruit yields a valuable oil, which, in the south of
Europe, is much used in culinary preparations and at table, in
medicine, and for burning in lamps. It is also used to im-
part a polish and lustre to timber, and by artists in fixing
white and delicate colours. The mass of husks which remain
after the oil is expressed is used as food for swine, sheep, and
poultry. The fruit in a green state is frequently pickled and
preserved.

The roots of the tree, by boiling, yield a valuable dark-
brown dye, which becomes fixed in wood, wool, or hair,
without the aid of alum. There are several varieties of this
species of walnut, which are cultivated chiefly on account of
the size, early maturity, thinness of shell, or some other estim-
able property of their fruit. They are increased by grafting,
budding, or inarching on the common tree.

J. nigra (L.), the Black Walnut of America, was intro-
duced into Britain about the middle of the seventeenth
century. Its leaves are about twice as long as those of the
common walnut, and are composed of six or eight pairs of
opposite leaflets, with a single or terminal leaflet ; and, as in
the common species, the leaves emit a strong aromatic odour.
In its native country this tree attains a great size, being some-
times found 100 feet high, and of proportionate diameter. It
is readily raised from seed, which is commonly imported. The
mode of cultivation is the same as that detailed for the common
species. In England it advances with all the vigour which
characterizes the tree in its native country; but as a fruit-
tree it is inferior to the common species, and being later in
ripening, it is only suitable for being grown as a timber tree,
or in an isolated situation on the lawn, where, in good soil,
it becomes a large spreading tree of great beauty. The timber
is of a dark colour, finely grained, susceptible of a high polish,
THE WALNCT. 343

and in great reputation in the manufacture of the finer articles
of furniture.

J. cinerea (L.)—The grey walnut tree is a native of America.
It is propagated like the other species, and in appearance bears
a striking resemblance to J. nigra. It is less common than
that tree.

All the species of American hickory are related to the
walnut, and comprehended in the same natural order. They
are of no value in the climate of Britain.
XXXVIII
THE MAPLE.

Tur MAPLE (Acer).—This genus composes almost entirely
the natural order Aceracee, and comprehends upwards of twenty
hardy species which are cultivated in Britain (natives of
Europe, America, and of India), besides a great number of
kinds which are too tender to endure the climate of Britain.
It is believed that there are many valuable hardy kinds of the
maple, which flourish on the lofty mountains of India, in
Japan, and China, which have not yet been introduced into
this country. Some of our cultivated species consist of dis-
tinct and interesting varieties. Two or three of the species
attain the full size of timber trees, and the growth of the
others ranges from that of trees of a medium size down to the
stature of shrubs. The whole genus is remarkably handsome.
Some of the species grow rapidly at an early age in almost
any soil, yielding fine green smooth shoots. Many kinds are
interesting on account of their flowering early at the time of
the expansion of the foliage ; and from their elegantly-lobed
leaves, of the finest texture, which in autumn furnish the most
exquisite tints of every shade of yellow and scarlet, they are
much esteemed in ornamental plantations.

A. pseudo-Platanus (L.): The Mock Plane-tree, or Sycamore.
—tThis tree is the largest and most common, although certainly
not the most ornamental, species. It is a native of Switzer-
land, Germany, Austria, and Italy, where it is found associ-
ated with other trees in hilly situations. It was introduced
into Britain about 300 years ago, and it appears to have been
one of our first cultivated timber trees. In Scotland, it gene-
rally marks the first spots of reclaimed land throughout the
THE MAPLE. 345

country. Up to the present time, few deciduous trees are
found better adapted for standing singly in a rough and ex-
posed situation. Regardless of the prevailing winds, it gene-
rally rises with a large and well-balanced head, valuable in
affording shelter for cattle; and, from its yielding a deep
shade, it has been recommended as suitable for being planted
on the south side of the dairy, in order to equalize the tem-
perature during the heat of summer. It is also well adapted
to withstand the injurious effects of the sea spray.

This species is easily propagated by seeds. It blossoms
in spring, and the seeds become ripe early in the following
autumn, when they should be collected and mixed up in a pit
of dry earth or sand, and sown during the succeeding spring.
When sown in autumn, immediately on being gathered, the
young plants generally appear too early in the season io
escape the influence of frost, and are consequently destroyed.
The ground for seed should be dry and weil pulverized, and
only moderately rich. Very fertile, moist soil creates an
excess of growth, so that the seedling plants do not mature
their wood to resist the effects of frost,—a circumstance which
is only likely to occur to plants of one year’s growth. One
bushel of seed is sufficient to sow a bed four feet broad and
twenty-four yards in length. The covering of the seeds
should be half an inch deep.

Seedlings of one year’s growth should be transplanted into
nursery lines two feet apart, and the plants six or eight
inches asunder in the line:, where, in two years, they are
generally from three to four feet high, and suitable for forest
planting. Although the sycamore will grow im soil of very
opposite qualities, yet a deep, soft, dry soil is that most con-
genial to its development, and in such it is generally twenty
feet high at the age of ten years; but instances are known of
the tree attaining the height of forty feet in less than twenty
years.

It comes into leaf early in the season, when its foliage pre-
sents a lively green, particularly attractive in the month of
May; but from the circumstance of the leaves exuding a
346 THE MAPLE.

glutinous or clammy substance, which retains dust and every
impurity of the atmosphere, the foliage soon becomes dingy,
and the tree loses half its charms. One of the finest trees
of this species stands at Burgie Castle, Morayshire, with a
trunk upwards of thirteen feet in circumference, and the
diameter of its top, or spread of its boughs, measures ninety
feet.

Not only was the sycamore well suited to the soil and
climate of Scotland, but its timber, which is white and closely
grained, was well adapted for the manufacture of household
vessels, such as bowls, cups, and other articles of turnery in
general use during a bygone age, but now superseded by
earthenware. The timber is susceptible of a fine polish, is
not apt to warp, and is employed as moulds and pattern-
blocks in manufactories, stair rails, and like purposes, and
commonly sells at very various prices in different districts.

Norway Maple—A. Platanoides (L.)—This species is quite
hardy, and when young its rapidity of growth exceeds that
of the sycamore, although ultimately it does not attain the
dimensions of that tree. Its foliage is of a fine form and
texture, of a glossy polish, which retains a lively green
throughout the summer. In autumn the leaves assume
various tints, in which yellow prevails. It luxuriates in a
deep, well-drained soil, and its mode of propagation and sub-
sequent treatment should be the same as that recommended
for the sycamore. This species includes several distinct
varieties, conspicuous among which is the cut-leaved or
eagle’s-claw maple, a very ornamental tree, which is readily
propagated by grafts or buds, using the common sycamore as
the stock.

The Striped-Barked—A. striatum (L.)—or snake-barked maple
is very ornamental at all seasons. The bark is longitudinally
marked with black and white stripes. It is indigenous to
North America, and generally attains a height of from twenty
to thirty feet. It is sometimes propagated from imported
seeds, but more frequently by being grafted on the common
sycamore. Its wood is white, and esteemed in cabinet-work.
THE MAPLE. 347

The Sugar Maple—A. saccharinum (L.)—This tree forms
extensive native forests in North America, throughout Canada,
New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The tree has been known
in Britain for upwards of 100 years, where it seldom attains
a height beyond forty feet. In its native districts it fre-
quently reaches the height of from sixty to seventy feet ; but
the diameter of its trunk is commonly small, generally rang-
ing from twelve to eighteen inches. In appearance the tree
1s very ornamental ; it resembles the Norway maple, but its
leaves are more glaucous, or white, underneath, and in
autumn they assume a rosy tint, which adds richness to the
variety of foliage peculiar to that season. In Britain the tree
is propagated from imported seeds, which are treated like
those of the sycamore, but asthe sugar maple is more tender,
it requires a dry and sheltered situation.

In its native country, during the opening of the season, the
tree, when pierced, yields a copious flow of sap, which is
readily converted into sugar. The flow of sap is said to be
more abundant during a hot sunshine which has been pre-
ceded by a frosty night, and particularly if the surface of
the ground is covered with snow. The sap richest in sac-
charine matter is that extracted from trees which occupy
isolated situations, or are somewhat detached from the density
of the forest, where they enjoy the full influence of sunshine
and air.

In Britain, sugar has been extracted from this and several
other species of the maple ; but it is not believed that in this
country it can be cultivated profitably. Numerous samples
of maple sugar were produced at the Great Exhibition of
1851, and several prizes were awarded for this article; but
valuable as it is to the settlers in a district where the tree is
indigenous, it is not expected that, as an article of commerce,
it will extend far beyond the locality in which it is manu-
factured.

The wood of this maple is esteemed in cabinet-making ; it
assumes a rosy tinge, takes a fine polish, and has a silken
lustre, but it is not durable if exposed to moisture. In old
348 THE MAPLE.

trees, it sometimes displays rich undulations of fibre, and
yields gnarled and spotted timber, much esteemed as veneers,
etc.; and known, together with the knotted timber of the
common field maple, 4. campestris, under the popular name of
Bird’s-eye maple. Its timber is esteemed as fuel. Its char-
coal has the highest reputation; and its ashes, abounding in
alkaline principles, are said to furnish more of the potash of
commerce than any other American tree.

The large-leaved maple—A. macrophyllum (Pursh)—is a native
of North America; hardy, and of rapid growth, it attains to
a great size. It is very ornamental, and yields timber beau-
tifully veined and valuable. It was introduced into Britain
in 1812, and is not yet in general cultivation; it is readily
propagated by layers.

The red or scarlet maple—A. rubrum (L.),—a native of North
America, is a low-growing tree, ornamental in its develop-
ment of red blossom, late in spring or early in summer. It
luxuriates in a rich soil, and endures moisture better than
any other species. When old, it sometimes produces timber
very valuable, owing to its curled and undulating fibre yield-
ing a display of light and shade rarely surpassed by any
other wood. It is difficult to raise this species from seed,
therefore it is commonly propagated by layers.

A. circinatum (Pursh).—This is a recently introduced hardy
tree of the Oregon, where it forms impenetrable thickets,
rising to the height of from twenty to forty feet, with pendu-
lous branches, yielding leaves which, in autumn, surpass the
brilliancy of the finest scarlet oaks.

A. villosum (Wallich).—This is a hardy maple, recently
introduced by Osborne and Co., of the Fulham nursery, from
the Himalayas, where it is said to attain a great size, and to
possess an appearance much superior to the sycamore. Speak-
ing of it in its native country, Dr. Royle says, it is only
seen with pines and birches on the loftiest mountains, which
are for many months covered with snow.

The other species of this genus, although very ornamental,
are of smaller growth.
THE MAPLE. 349

A. Negundo (.), or Ash-leaved Negundo, is a native of the
United States and of Canada. Although it has been intro-
duced and cultivated in Britain for nearly two centuries, it is
a rare tree in Scotland. It grows very fast when young, but
it seldom exceeds thirty or forty feet in height, and in late
seasons its vigorous shoots are apt to be killed back by frost.
It has lately given rise to a new variety, 4A. N. variegata,
which on account of its bright white foliage is very attrac-
tive, and is much sought after. It is readily propagated by
grafting on any common maple. It is purely an ornamental
tree.
XXXIX.
THE LIME TREE

Lime Tree.—The Linden, or Teil-tree, is the Tilia of
botanists. It belongs to Polyandria monogynia of the Lin-
nan system, and it is the type of the natural order Tiliacew.
Some botanists have divided the genus into two species,
which embrace a number of distinct varieties, while others
consider these possessed of characteristics sufficiently distinct
to constitute species.

Tilia Europea (L.), or common Lime, is the principal tree
belonging to the genus. It is a native of the north of
Germany, Russia, and Sweden. It is also found wild on the
Alps of Switzerland, and in the north of Italy, in Spain, in
Portugal, and in Greece—varying considerably according to
the soil and climate which it occupies. It is stated to be
indigenous to England, and found wild in some parts of
the counties of Kent and Essex. But whether a native or
foreign tree, it does not shed its seeds and spring up in
uncultivated ground as indigenous plants generally do, which
has occasioned some doubt as to its being really a native of
Britain.

It affects a good climate and a rich alluvial or loamy soil,
and the extended cultivation of the districts congenial to its
support may counteract the natural growth or spread of the
plant. It is found, however, that seeds are only ripened in
the best seasons, and on trees most favourably situated. It
is unsuitable for bleak situations or dry poor soils. Its chief
use is to form an embowering shade along the avenue, and as
a park tree or lawn ornament; and in towns throughout the
Continent of Europe the tree is planted in lines along the
THE LIME TREE, 351

streets and public promenades. Its blossoms expand in July,
and are fragrant, particularly in hot weather. Where heat is
reflected by pavements and buildings, its odour is strengthened
and its shade is rendered exceedingly desirable. It attains
to a great size-in a short period.

Though destitute of the wild ramifications and picturesque
character of the oak or Scotch elm, it forms a vigorous,
pliant, well-balanced tree, with a great number of lateral
branches of an easy and graceful habit, and generally accords
well with the meadows and cultivated grounds with which it
is frequently associated.

In favourable seasons the seeds are ripe in autumn, and
may be sown in winter or early in spring. The plants come
up in the ensuing summer. Where several kinds of lime
trees stand together, and blossom at the same time, the
seeds readily become hybridized, and produce various sorts,
although they are gathered from one tree. The growth of
plants from seeds, however, is seldom practised; even when
the seeds can be had fully ripe, their progress is slow com-
pared with that of layers, which always perpetuate the exact
variety of the parent tree.

The method of raising plants from layers is therefore gene-
rally practised by nurserymen. When topped over at the
surface of the ground, the plant readily produces a number of
young shoots, and is easily formed into a stool. The young
shoots are bent down into the earth to the depth of three or
four inches, with their extremities placed in an upright posi-
tion, which form the young plant. The laying of these
shoots may be performed in winter, or early in spring, and
the plants will become rooted and ready for removal by
November following, when the young shoots, the produce of
the preceding summer, should be inserted into the ground
into the same position as described, to form another crop of
young plants, and so on, removing a crop and laying down
another yearly. It is often necessary to manure the stools
by adding a few inches in depth of rich compost or vegetable
mould, and in some soils, destitute of a considerable propor-
352 THE LIME TREE.

tion of silex, it is of advantage to mix a quantity of sharp
sand with the soil. After the third year’s produce a healthy
stool will furnish from sixty to seventy plants yearly. The
plants on their removal are generally about two feet high ;
they should be transplanted into nursery lines about two and
a half feet apart, and the plants about fifteen inches asunder.
Having stood two years in lines, they are usually six feet
high, and fit for being finally planted out. But the lime
admits of being grown in the nursery to a much greater size,
and transplanted in safety, provided it is removed every
second year, which has the effect of preserving its roots in a
fibrous or bushy state; as it advances in size the space in the
nursery lines should be increased, in order to preserve the
proportion of the plant, and when such are finally removed
they command an immediate effect.

Not only is the tree adapted for the avenue, the lawn, or
park scenery, but it forms a thicket in the belt or screen fence,
where it is frequently serviceable to an agriculturist. It admits
of being frequently pruned, and although destitute of foliage
in winter, it becomes close and twiggy. The ordinary progress
of the tree in rich, sheltered soil is about two feet yearly in
height for the first fifteen or twenty years, after which its
progress is greatest, where it has space, in adding diameter to
the trunk, and expanse to the lateral branches. The British
specimens of the tree seldom exceed the height of eighty feet,
and in open situations it maintains nearly the same diameter
in the spread of its branches, from the surface upwards to a
great height.

Of the recorded trees of this species, perhaps the largest is
that which has been beautifully portrayed by Mr. Strutt.
It stands at Moorpark, in Hertfordshire. Nineteen large
branches, six or eight feet in girth, strike out horizontally
from sixty-five to seventy feet in length, and these support
three or four upright limbs. The tree is in full vigour, and
its branches droop down and root on the ground. The trunk
girths upwards of twenty-three feet ; the head is 122 feet in
diameter, and nearly 100 feet high; and the tree contains
THE LIME TREE, 353

875 cubical feet of timber. At Cobham Hall in Kenta tree
stands ninety-seven feet high, and nine feet in diameter.

One of the largest and handsomest trees of the species to be
met with in Scotland stands on the lawn at Gordon Castle,
with a head of nearly 100 feet in diameter. Happily situated
in a congenial soil, it has become a lofty tree, with branches
depending to the surface of the ground. It displays a moun-
tain of foliage of the finest form and texture, with a trunk
upwards of sixteen feet in circumference ; and the magnitude
and beauty of the tree harmonize with the scenes by which it
is surrounded, and recall to memory the passage in Landor’s
Conversations, —“ Old trees in their living state are the only
things that money cannot command. Rivers leave their beds,
run into cities, and traverse mountains for it; obelisks and
arches, palaces and temples, amphitheatres and pyramids, rise
up like exhalations at its bidding ; even the free spirit of man,
the only thing great on earth, crouches and cowers in its pres-
ence. It passes away and vanishes before venerable trees.
What a sweet odour is there! Whence comes it /—sweeter
it appears to me, and stronger than the pine itself.” “I ima-
gine,” said he, “from the linden.” “Yes, certainly.” “Oh; Don
Pepino,” cried I; “the French, who abhor whatever is old,
and whatever is great, have spared it. The Austrians, who
sell their fortresses and their armies, nay sometimes their
daughters, have not sold it. Must it fall? Oh, who upon
earth could ever cut down a linden 2”

The wood of the lime tree is very soft, of a pale yellow or
white colour, very light, and not apt to be attacked by insects.
It is esteemed in preference to any other kind for carving,
and shoemakers, glovers, and saddlers prefer it to every other
kind for cutting leather upon ; and for this purpose it is fre-
quently retailed in planks by leather-merchants throughout
the country. It is used at foundries in forming moulds, and
is appreciated on account of being easily worked, and for pro-
ducing a fine surface, and it is not subject to warp. In the
manufacture of gunpowder its charcoal is said to be inferior
only to that of the hazel. It is also used by architects in

Z
354 THE LIME TREE.

forming models of buildings. The demand for these purposes
being irregular throughout the country, the price of the timber
varies exceedingly.

The inner bark of the lime furnishes material for the manu-
facture of mats, which forms an important article of com-
merce, and is extensively used in gardening, and in the cover-
ing of packages in general. The manufacture is chiefly con-
fined to Russia and Sweden. The tree is cut immediately
after the ascent of the sap, when the bark is readily removed.
It is then macerated in water till it divides freely into layers
or strands. These are then formed into mats, ropes, nets,
and coarse cloth; and in Russia the outside bark of the tree
is frequently employed as tiles for covering the roofs of
houses.

Loudon states that the honey produced by the lime-tree
blossoms is considered superior to all other kinds for its
delicacy. It sells at three or four times the price of common
honey, and is used exclusively for medicine, and in the manu-
facture of liqueurs. It is procurable only at the little town
of Kowno, on the river Niemen, in Lithuania, which is sur-
rounded by extensive forests of the tree.

T. E. microphylla, the Small-leaved European Lime, is very
distinct from the common tree, and easily recognised when in
leaf. Its foliage is much smaller, and at first sight it has a
striking resemblance to that of the Populus tremula, or trem-
bling poplar. Its blossoms, although smaller, are more abun-
dant, and have a stronger perfume than those of the common
species. The tree, though very rare in this country, abounds
in the Duchy of Nassau in Germany, and is perfectly hardy.
It forms the principal tree embellishment in the avenues at
Schwalbach. It is of dwarf habit, and does not appear to
attain a height beyond that of thirty feet. Its profusion of
blossom when I saw it obscured its foliage, and presented
one mass of cream-coloured inflorescence, which continued un-
fading for a month, accompanied with a constant hum of bees.
In the Continental nurseries it is trained with clean stems to
the height of six, eight, or ten feet, and the tree naturally
THE LIME TREE. 355

forms a round, bushy head. It is of little value as a timber
tree, but seldom equalled for embellishment.

T. Americana (L.), the American Lime tree, is of a more
robust habit than the European tree. Its leaves are larger,
of a dark-green colour, cordate, acutely-pointed, and generally
smooth and shining. In Britain it is a month later than the
common tree in expanding its blossoms. Its twigs are of a
dark-brown colour, and the branches of the young trees
generally take a wide range. In its native country the tree
commonly attains the height of eighty feet. It has never
become very common throughout Britain. Like the European
species, it affects a rich, loose, deep soil ; on such it flourishes
on the borders of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The species
contains several varieties, and their mode of propagation and
treatment is the same as that stated for the common tree.
The timber of both species is very similar; and the images
affixed to the prows of American vessels are often carved on
the timber of the Tilia Americana.
XL.
THE ASH TREE.

Asu TREE: Fraxinus excelsior (L.)—The tall or common ash
belongs to the natural order Oleacee, and some species of the
tree is to be found in all quarters of the world. The common
ash is a native of Britain, and is one of the most important
timber trees adapted to the climate of this country. It
attains to a great size, reaching in fine specimens to about
100 feet, with a trunk four to five feet in diameter of sound
timber. It luxuriates in rich deep soil of various qualities,
inclining to moisture rather than drought. The best speci-
mens are commonly met with in glens and valleys, but some-
times at considerable elevations where the soil is rich. The
tree is very hardy, breaking into leaf late in the season, and
shedding its leaves earlier than most other trees. Although it
often possesses a very elegant figure, and forms during sum-
mer a desirable object in lawn or park scenery, yet for the
greater part of the year its want of foliage renders it less
ornamental than many other trees. The ash-blossoms appear
in April, a few weeks before the development of the leaves ;
and the seeds have often a prominent but not ornamental
appearance for months after the leaves are shed. In growing
the tree from seed it is apt to sport, that is, to produce
varieties ; sometimes the tree yields male blossoms only, other
trees produce only female blossoms, but for the most part
both sexes or hermaphrodite blossoms are produced. The
male trees are the handsomest, and are generally recognised
in autumn by the absence of seed, the profusion of which
gives the other variety a faded appearance at that season of
the year. The foliage of the male tree is commonly most
THE ASH TREE. 357

abundant and glossy, and is often retained to a later period
in the autumn. These qualities render the male tree the
most suitable for embellishment as a park or lawn tree, but
the variety can only be produced with certainty by engrafting.

Viewed as a landscape decoration in summer, the ash is
nearly perfect. Its whole outline is easy, and, in a good
specimen, we look in vain for anything lumpish or rigid. It
may sometimes be deficient in grandeur, but this is amply
counterbalanced by its gracefulness. We are wont to dwell
with pride on the stubborn massiveness of some trees; but
an attentive observer of nature will have noticed that there
are times when this unbending framework has its disadvan-
tages. When the wind is up, the ash acquits itself much
better than the oak. The one frets and flutters, the other
sways itself easily about, and appears to have really a rejoicing
tone with it.

In Scotland perhaps no tree is more frequently employed
as hedgerow timber ; this may be attributed to the important
purposes for which the timber is adapted in agriculture ; but
it certainly is employed at a great sacrifice: its roots spread
near the surface and impoverish the soil to a great extent,
and its top ramifies where it has space into an unprofitable
shape, unless early and frequently attended to by pruning,
which is very seldom the case ; for although the tree is often
seen of a great size, it is rarely met with to a great extent
possessed of a profitable figure in any other than close planta-
tions.

The tree is propagated by seed, which becomes ripe in October
or November, and is generally yielded in great abundance.
Care should be taken to make choice of seed from trees free
from canker, with a clean bark, vigorous and freely grown.
When gathered they should be laid in a pit made in a light
friable or sandy soil; with this soil they should be intimately
mixed up, at least equal to the bulk of the seed, and allowed
to remain in this state, like haws, for fifteen or eighteen
months, with no further care than that of turning them over
every three or four months; this brings them forward to the end
358 THE ASH TREE.

of February, when they should be sown in open dry weather,
then, or early in March. If sown a month or two earlier the
tender plants would appear too soon, and be apt to suffer from
frosts ; if sown a little later, the seeds are apt to vegetate in
the pit, which occasions the production of crooked-rooted,
plants.

Jn the second February or March, then (about fifteen months
after the seeds are gathered), the seeds should be taken from
the pit and sown in good loamy friable soil, into beds four feet

‘wide. It will suit if they are made to follow turnips, potatoes,
carrots, or any crop which had a fair quantity of manure applied
to it. The beds should be opened up by a deep cufting, and the
seeds should be spread with a spade, and afterwards regulated
with a rake, so that on the average each seed may occupy
about two square inches of surface space, thus allowing from
eight to nine hundred plants to occupy the lineal yard of the
bed. After the seeds are sown the ground should be either
rolled or beat with the back of a spade, after which the
cuffing should be drawn on covering the seed fully half an
inch deep.

Another mode of laying down an ash crop sometimes
practised, which may be most convenient to those who grow
it on a small scale, is to sow the seeds at the time they are
collected, or the spring thereafter, allowing the beds to remain
the first summer either vacant, or growing any light vegetable
crop, such as garden-turnips, radishes, cabbage-plants, ete.
In this case the young ash plants are apt to appear before the

1 It may be proper to notice here a great mistake, very common in books
giving directions on the growth of the ash from seed, which is calculated to
mislead the inexperienced cultivator. Thus Loudon (Arboretum Britannicum,
page 1224) directs that the seeds, which are ripe in October, should be taken
to the rotting heap, where they should be turned over several times in course of
the winter, and in February they may be removed, freed from the sand by sift-
ing, and sown in beds of any middling soil. ‘‘The plants,” he continues,
“may be taken up at the end of the year, and planted in nursery lines.” This
mistake appears to have been copied by subsequent writers on the ash tree.
Now to an experienced grower this error is harmless, because he knows
that at the end of the year the plants will not be in existence ; but any other,

expecting a crop as stated, concludes that the seeds are lost, and crops the
ground with something else.
THE ASH TREE. 359

frosts of the succeeding spring are over, when they require to
be protected by any light covering, such as that of straw, fern,
or the twigs of firs or other evergreens. When the seeds are
rotted in the pit for fifteen months, and sown about the last
week of February or early in March, they are later in appear-
ing above ground, and are generally exempt from injury by
frost. If the ground is rich the plants will be six or seven
inches high the first year, and may then be transplanted ;
when of a less size, and thin enough, they had better be allowed
two years in the seed-bed, after which they should be trans-
planted into lines eighteen inches apart, and the plants six
inches distant. When they have been two years in this situa-
tion they generally stand about three feet high, and are fit for
ordinary forest planting, but when required of greater strength
they should be again transplanted in the nursery, with space
allowed in proportion to the height desired.

The most approved method of growing ash timber is to
plant the tree by itself in a congenial soil. It being naturally a
loose-headed open object, and inclined to ramify, it is then apt
to form straight clean timber, and to require less pruning than
when it is interspersed among other trees. The soil it delights
in most is a sweet hazelly loam of considerable depth, and the
situation it prefers is the bottom of a hill or slope near to a
river, where, without being saturated with water, its roots may
yet have access to moisture in the heat of summer. In the
case of some trees we look for an advantage after slow growth
in having hard and durable timber. Not so with the ash ; its
growth should be hastened by good soil and a somewhat
sheltered situation ; for it is always found that when stopped
midway in its career, either by its roots reaching a sour and
wet subsoil, or by the poorness of the land, the wood becomes
brittle and shaky. In the case of large plantations, therefore,
where a variety of soils exists, it is always well to remember
that the properties of the ash in perfection—strength, tough-
ness, and elasticity—are the result of a free and unimpeded
growth.

The final situation of the ash should therefore be carefully
360 THE ASH TREE.

chosen; and nothing gives the plant a more rapid start than
trenched soil. In firm or hard soil, however, large pits are
made ; the roots on reaching the undisturbed ground make
little progress compared to their vigour in land trenched two
feet deep. In cases where the soil is wet it must be drained,
for although the tree is partial to moisture, no plant is more
readily injured by stagnant water. In mossy soil it does not
attain to a great size; but on such it grows and forms valuable
coppice-wood. The time for planting is from October to the
middle of April. In ordinary sheltered ground the ash should
be inserted in holes in the trenched land, about five or six
feet apart. Early thinnings are more valuable than that of
most other trees. Where the ground is high and exposed,
nurses may be introduced, either as a mixture, or along the mar-
gins of the most exposed parts. The nurses may be the pines,
larch, or alder, etc.—these to be thinned out as circumstances
require, giving the trees uninterrupted possession of the ground
after they have become established, which is usually ten or
twelve years after being planted. At this period, pruning, so
far as to prevent a plurality of leading shoots, is of much
advantage, and is generally but little required in a healthy
plantation of this tree at any other time. The ash was planted
extensively by the late Earl of Leicester at Holkham. It
there occupies various soils and situations, and the result
illustrates in a striking manner how much judgment is neces-
sary in fixing for it a permanent site. Some of the trees when
fifty years old contained only thirty cubic feet, whilst others
are said to have contained seventy-six.

Important uses belong to ash timber. The manufacturer of
agricultural implements employs it in the construction of carts,
waggons, carriages of all sorts, ploughs, harrows; and it is
specially adapted for the handles of rakes, forks, spades, shovels,
mattocks, and the construction of dairy utensils. It is used for
important purposes by the millwright, and it is the chief wood
of the coachmaker and wheelwright. The cooper makes his
hoops of it, and the fisherman his oars, and it is unrivalled in
all purposes where strength and elasticity are required. As it
THE ASH TREE. 361

springs readily from the root, it is an excellent tree for yielding
coppice-wood, which is adapted for various important purposes
at various ages, such as hoops, crate-work, hop-poles, and tool-
handles.

The ash rarely attains to the height of 100 feet! Some of
the best specimens of the tree in this country stand on the
western extremity of the county of Moray, at Earlsmill, near
Darnaway Castle, at Brodie Castle, and at other places, ranging
from sixty to eighty feet high, and at three feet above the
surface in girth from fourteen to seventeen feet. One of the
largest ash trees in the county of Moray was lately blown down
in the parish of Duthil. It measured upwards of twenty feet
in circumference—a great girth for a hardwood tree in the
Highlands. Throughout Scotland ash has been planted only
to a very limited extent of late years, compared with what it
was in the early part of the present century. In some districts
ash timber is becoming scarce, and for many purposes larch is
employed as a substitute. The price of ash timber varies
much in different localities, according to the quality and dis-
tance from market. It arrives at maturity at various ages in
different soils, and seldom improves after seventy or eighty
years, when it generally becomes short in the grain, or brittle.
The usual price ranges from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per cubic foot.
That which is rapidly grown in close woods, clean, and free of
knots, is always the most valuable.

1 The lately published statistics of old and remarkable trees throughout the
country give a startling account of the incredible height attained by ash
trees in several counties : some are stated from 100 to 110, and even up to 140
and 160 feet high! It is to be regretted that these measurements were not
taken with greater exactness, as it renders of no value the report, which
would otherwise have been useful and interesting.
XLI.

THE PLANE TREE.

Tue PLane TreE.—Platanus belongs to the natural order
Platanacee, and to Monecia polyandria of the Linnean system.
The genus comprehends only two species, the Eastern and
Western Plane, which are cultivated in Britain chiefly as
ornamental trees. This tree is quite different from the Acer
pseudo-platanus, the great maple or sycamore, which in Scot-
land is popularly termed plane tree (for a description of which
see MAPLE).

Of all the broad-leaved deciduous trees which grow in the
climate of Britain, there is perhaps none which yields foliage
more beautiful than the plane.

The seeds are formed in round balls, and are suspended
from the branches by slender thread-like stalks, which form
a singular but graceful feature in the tree at all seasons of the
year. Both species attain to a very great height in their
native countries ; and some of the more favoured spots through-
out Britain contain samples of both kinds, which in magnitude
and beauty are not surpassed by the best specimens of our
timber trees.

The great objection to their general cultivation is the change
of weather, which, frequently occurring at the opening of the
season, is apt to destroy the leaves immediately after the
expansion of the buds; and unless the soil is early and the
situation warm ,our summers are hardly sufficient to mature
the young wood so as to endure the frosts of winter.

P. Orientalis (L.\—This species is a native of the east of
Europe and the west of Asia. It abounds on the banks of
the Grecian rivulets, on the coast of Asia Minor, and, accord-
THE PLANE TREE. 363

ing to Royle, it extends southward as far as Cashmere. It
was introduced into Britain about the middle of the sixteenth
century. The branches of the tree are wide-spreading. The
leaves are five-lobed, palmate, with the divisions lanceolate.
On young, vigorous shoots they are frequently upwards of a
foot broad, and ten inches long; but in old trees of less vigour
they are not much beyond half of these dimensions. The tree
blossoms in May, and in favourable seasons ripens its seeds in
October. The beauty of the tree is celebrated in the earliest
records of Grecian history. Herodotus and Elian tell us that
when Xerxes invaded Greece, he was so enchanted with a
beautiful plane tree in Lycia, that he encircled it with a collar
of gold, adorned it with jewels, necklaces, scarfs, and infinite
riches ; confided the charge of it to one of the ten thousand,
caused a figure of it to be stamped on a medal of gold; and,
by compelling his whole army to encamp in its neighourhood
for days, occasioned a delay which was the cause of his defeat.
The embowering shades which were formed around the schools
of Athens, the groves of Epicurus, the shady walks planted
near the Gymnasium and other public buildings, the groves of
Academus, in which Plato delivered his celebrated discourses,
were all formed of the plane tree ; and the enthusiasm of the
Greeks and Romans is said to have been more extravagant in
the cultivation of this than of any other tree. All travellers
in the East have been enchanted by its grandeur and graceful-
ness. Lamartine says that near Constantinople three-decked
vessels are constructed and launched into the sea under the very
shadow of the plane. It is the most gigantic vegetable produc-
tion on the banks of the Bosporus, embellishing the beautiful
meadow of Buyukdere with trees of immense size, “one of
which would overshadow a regiment.” A distinguished tree
at this place is recorded by many writers, the trunk of which
presents the appearance of seven or eight trees, having a com-
mon origin, like that of shoots from a stool. Some of the
trunks proceed from the surface, others as high as seven or
eight feet; the circumference at the base is 141 feet, and its
branches extend over a space of 130 feet in diameter, which,
364 THE PLANE TREE.

if it can be considered a single tree, is probably the largest in
the world; and it possesses additional interest, from the cir-
cumstance that, as De Candolle conjectures, it must be upwards
of two thousand years old.

In Britain the tree is sometimes grown from seeds, that are
produced in round balls, which should be broken and the seeds
sifted, to separate them from the cottony substance with which
they are mixed. They should be sown in March. They
require scarcely any cover of soil, but should be pressed into
the surface of the ground, and kept moist by being covered
with leaves or spray of trees. But the most speedy method
of propagation is to grow the plants by layers, in a similar
manner to that recommended for the Lime TREE.

The plane is of rapid growth, and young plants are fre-
quently four feet high when only one year transplanted from
layers, when they may either be planted out or nursed another
year or two, and then removed.

It requires a deep, rich, soft soil; and it is generally found
that in all places where the tree has become of a remarkable
size, its roots have had access to water. The tree also requires
shelter, without being crushed or confined. It will not
luxuriate at a great altitude; but in alluvial soil, along the
valleys, and near the banks of streams, the beauty and stateli-
ness of the tree are worthy of every care.

As a tree for bordering and shading public walks, streets, or
promenades, where the soil and climate are favourable, it has
no equal. Its branches range horizontally, and contain im-
bricated masses of large foliage, which, from their construction,
are favourable to the admission of air, and exclude both sun-
shine and rain ; its canopy of foliage is of a finer green than
the foliage of any other large tree; and from the motion of
its large leaves, which are easily moved by the passing breeze,
it often displays during sunshine what are called “flickering
lights” throughout its excursive top. In Britain, the tree
attains the height of from seventy to ninety feet, and generally
is of rapid growth, according to the soil and climate.

At Mount Grove, Hampstead, a plane about 100 years old
THE PLANE TREE. 369

is upwards of seventy feet high, with a trunk from four feet
four inches, and a head upwards of ninety feet in diameter.
Its timber, when young, is of a yellowish white; in an old
tree it assumes a brownish gloss, of a fine grain; it takes a
high polish, and is esteemed in cabinet-making.

Several specimens of this tree are found in Morayshire
associated with other trees in hedgerows standing on soil of
ordinary quality ; compared with the Scotch elm, ash, and
sycamore, they are about one-fourth less in height and in
cubical contents, which appears to arise from the plane failing
in late seasons to ripen the extremities of its young shoots,
which, to some extent, are killed back in the succeeding winter.
At Gordon Castle the tree has attained the height of sixty-
eight feet, with a trunk three feet in diameter.

P. Occidentalis (L.), the Western Plane, is a native of North
America, abounding in the fertile valleys on the banks of the
Ohio and its tributaries, and along the great rivers of Pennsy]-
vania and Virginia. It was introduced into Britain about
1630. Its appearance is very like that of the Oriental species;
the leaves are large, thin, angled, lobed, soft to the touch, and
somewhat downy underneath, with the fruit-balls much
smoother than in the other species. The bark scales off in
longer pieces than in the Oriental tree. In common with the
other species, its young shoots proceed in a zig-zag direction,
and in cold weather in May it assumes a scorched appearance ;
but as soon as steady summer weather comes on, it gradually
furnishes itself with the rich garb of green for which it is so
celebrated as a park ornament or embowering shade. It grows
from cuttings, but it is more frequently propagated by layers.
The treatment suitable for this is similar to that recommended
for the other species. This is a more rapidly growing, but a
less hardy tree ; its vigorous shoots seldom become matured
to the extremity, and consequently they die back to some ex-
tent from the effects of frost. Yet the best specimens of plane
throughout Britain are of this species. At Croome, in War-
wickshire, it attained in seventy-five years to the height of
100 feet, with a trunk three and a half feet in diameter in
366 THE PLANE TREE.

that time; and it frequently attains the height of thirty feet
in fifteen or eighteen years. A tree of this species in the
palace garden at Lambeth is recorded to have grown, near a
pond, to the height of eighty feet in twenty years. Perhaps
the tallest tree of the species in Britain is one at Chelsea
Hospital Gardens, where it extends its roots towards the
Thames; it is 115 feet high, with a trunk five feet in dia-
meter at a foot above the ground.
XLIL

THE HORSE-CHESTNUT.

THE Horse-CHEstnut (4isculus) is the type of the natural
order Aisculacee, and it belongs to Heptandria monogynia in
the Linnean system.

44. Hippocastanum (L.): The Common Horse-Chestnut.—The
native habitat of this tree remains very uncertain, but it is
believed to have been introduced into this country from the
Levant, about the middle of the sixteenth century. It is most
esteemed in a living state, and chiefly for embellishment. We
have no other ornamental tree which attains to such dimen-
sions, with blossoms so rich and beautiful. It is therefore
much employed in avenues and hedgerows, and frequently in
conspicuous parts along the margins of plantations. Happily
situated in a congenial soil, it forms a beautiful object as a
lawn tree, particularly when standing full grown on grounds
of a corresponding magnitude. It rises with a straight trunk,
and produces a large umbrageous head of a pyramidal form,
closely clad with opposite digitated leaves of a deep green,
After the foliage begins to expand, the tree is remarkable for
its rapidity in forming the whole season’s growth, which is
usually completed in three, or at most four weeks. The flower-
stalks emerge above the leaves, and the blossoms are generally
expanded by the end of May. The association of flowers of
such beauty and delicacy with one of the loftiest of timber
trees have caused the sportive imagination of some authors to
compare the tree to many extravagant figures. It has been
likened to an immense lustre or chandelier, from the structure
of its blossoms tapering above its foliage like lights. Others
have termed it the giant’s nosegay, a gigantic hyacinth, the
368 THE HORSE-CHESTNUT.

lupine tree, etc. ; and, alluding to the gaiety of its blossoms, and
the manner in which it scatters them on the grass, with the
comparative worthlessness of its fruit and timber, it has been
considered an excellent emblem of ostentation. The young
wood being matured early in the season renders the tree
adapted to endure cold and unfavourable situations. It is
only, however, in warm and sheltered places that it yields
blossoms abundantly, and a high degree of temperature is
necessary to expand them, and exhibit the tree in its most
attractive form.

In favourable seasons the tree generally yields a heavy crop
of nuts, from which young plants are readily propagated.
The nuts become ripe about the end of October, and may be
sown any time during the winter. The seedlings will grow in
almost any description of soil, but a rich, deep, free loam pro-
duces them in greatest vigour. The size of the seedlings, how-
ever, is regulated considerably by the size and soundness‘ of
the nuts. A bushel of nuts is sufficient for a bed four feet
wide and twenty yards long. They should be either rolled or
beaten down with the back of a spade to fix them in their
places previously to the spreading of the covering, which
should be from one to one and a half inch deep.

The seedlings may be transplanted into nursery lines either
at the age of one or two years, allowing a space of from eight
to twelve inches between the plants, and about two feet be-
tween.the lines. The plants should be removed every third
year thereafter, increasing the space as they advance until they
are finally situated. The fibrous nature of the roots of this
tree, particularly after being frequently transplanted, prepares
it for being removed in safety at a size greater than that at
which trees in general admit of being transplanted. This
valuable property fits it, when properly nursed, for immediate
effect in forming lines and avenues of verdure, and in decorat-
ing park or lawn scenery, when of a size sufficient to withstand
the bad effects of cattle or sheep.

The most celebrated avenue of this tree in England is that
at Bushypark, near London, and one of the loftiest trees of
THE HORSE-CHESTNUT. 369

the species stands at Enfield, where it measures 100 feet high.
But the largest in Britain is supposed to be one at Nocton
in Lincolnshire. Its height is about seventy feet, and the
space occupied by the spread of its foliage measures upwards
of 100 yards in circumference, its immense branches being
supported by props give it the appearance of the banyan tree
of the East. The horse-chestnut is never planted for the sake
of its timber, but sometimes for its nuts, which are eaten by
deer. The timber is suitable for the purpose of common
deal; when dry it only weighs from 35 to 37 Ibs. per cubical
foot; being lighter than many kinds of wood, it is commonly
cut into boards for packing-cases, for lining to carts and
barrows, and being easily worked it is sometimes used by
carvers and pattern-makers.

4h. H. rubicunda (Lois).—The red flowering horse-chestnut
is a very showy dwarf tree, and flowers at an earlier age than
the common tree; also all the yellow flowering and smooth-
fruited kinds known as the genus PAVIA are of dwarf growth,
and are readily propagated by being engrafted or budded on
the common horse-chestnut.

bo
>
XLITI.

THE COMMON OR WILD PEAR TREE.

THE Common Pear Tree: Pyrus communis (L.)—This tree
belongs to Icosandria Di-Pentagynia of the Linnean system,
and to the natural order Rosacee. It is a native of many
parts throughout Britain. Nurserymen grow not only the
seeds of the wild tree for stocks on which to engraft the
various kinds of valuable pears, but the seeds of the culti-
vated garden varieties are also employed for the same pur-
pose. This has given rise to an endless number of varieties,
none of which ultimately attain to the size of very large timber
trees; but their rapid growth when young is seldom sur-
passed by any other forest tree, and the varieties are all quite
hardy.

Mode of Propagation—The seeds of the common or wild
tree, and that of all cultivated pears, if picked out of ripe
fruit and immediately sown, will come up during the first
spring ; but if the seeds are allowed to become quite dry,
and are kept till spring and then sown, a great proportion of
the crop frequently lies dormant, and only appears above
ground in the following spring.

The soil should be a deep rich loam. Manure has a power-
ful influence in advancing the growth of the plants. A pound
weight of fresh clean seed is sufficient for fifteen lineal yards
of a bed four feet wide, and the cover should be about half
an inch deep. One-year seedlings are often upwards of a foot
high, and proportionally stout.
THE CRAB-APPLE TREE. 371

At this age the plants should be inserted into nursery lines,
fifteen inches apart, and the plants six inches asunder. After
being two years transplanted they are fit for being put into
lines for stocks, or for being planted into good clean prepared
ground in the forest; but if they are required larger, they
should be again transplanted into nursery lines and allowed
additional space. At the age of five, plants established in
the ground often yield shoots three feet long in one season in
ordinary rich soil.

As a fence plant it grows far more vigorously than haw-
thorn, but none of the varieties make so close a hedge, or
present so even a surface as that plant. Many of the varie-
ties raised from the seeds of grafted fruit have few or no
spines, yet as a rough fence and shelter forming a thicket
on the outside of an exposed plantation, or belting on dry
ground, such as that along a sunk fence, it readily springs
up, and is a useful tree.

The figure of the wild tree is generally pyramidal, and to
that shape the varieties commonly incline, although some are
very dissimilar in figure. All yield white blossoms, and in
good soil the ordinary rate of growth is about twenty feet in
ten years, or about forty-five to fifty feet in thirty years, with
a trunk from one to one and a half feet in diameter, which is
the ordinary size of the tree in this country. #

It is of great duration, not subject to disease, and has been
known to live for several centuries.

The wood is much valued by artisans. When well dried
it is not apt to crack or warp; it takes a fine polish, and is
esteemed as the most suitable timber for being died black,
in imitation of ebony, as is the wood of all the allied species.

P. Malus (L.), the Wild or Crab-Apple Tree. Syn. Malus
communis (De Candolle.)\—This tree is a native of Britain,
and is also found wild throughout Europe. It is the
parent of the innumerable varieties of fine apples in culti-
vation in our gardens and orchards. The tree is grown
extensively in nurseries for the supply of stocks, on which
372 THE MOUNTAIN ASH.

the cultivated sorts are engrafted ; and supplies of seeds are
readily obtained from the cider manufactories throughout
England.

In every respect the mode of treatment detailed for the
raising of the pear is adapted to the apple. The seeds of the
numerous kinds of cultivated apples yield a great variety of
the plant, and generally, for timber trees, they are fully as
vigorous in growth, and attain to greater dimensions than
the common crab apple; but at best, in point of size they
are inferior to the pear tree. The apple is quite hardy, and
endures a cold and bleak exposure, although it only attains
to a timber size in good soil, well drained and moderately
sheltered.

It forms a gaudy ornament while in flower in April and
May, and presents a great variety in the colour of its blos-
soms, from a delicate pink to a deep red. It is to be met
with in the Highlands of Scotland in an indigenous state,
associated with the sallow, the birch, and hazel, and some of
the varieties retain the leaves and fruit far into winter.

The tree is subject to disease, the chief of which is the
insect known as the “American bug” or “apple aphis,”
which appears like a woolly substance on the branches, and
sometimes under the surface, on the roots. It eats into
the bark, impedes the circulation of the sap, disfigures the
branches, and retards their growth. With some trouble it
can be cured on a garden tree by train-oil, alkaline, or
urinal wash of any kind. The best mode of applying the
liquid is by heating and brushing it into the crevices of the
bark on every branch and twig, with a painter’s brush. In
the orchard and forest this is impracticable, and there is no
cure.

The wood of the apple varies in quality, according to the
soil and the variety of the tree. All are hard, fine grained, of
a brown colour, and sought after for articles of turnery.

The Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree—P. aucuparia—(Gaertner).
—This tree is indigenous to the mountainous situations
» THE MOUNTAIN ASH. 373

throughout Europe. It is a well-known, beautiful, deciduous
tree, with smooth branches, and the leaves pinnate, with
uniform, serrate, smooth leaflets. In the months of May and
June it produces numerous panicles of white blossoms, highly
fragrant. They are generally followed by a profusion of
scarlet berries, which become ripe in October.

In Britain the tree attains to its greatest perfection in rich
soil throughout the Highlands of Scotland, where it rises in
a wild state, frequently associated with the birch, the alder,
and the poplar (P. tremula); and in the rocky recesses of
some upland districts, away from cultivation, it may be seen
in autumn with its terminal shoots bending under the weight
of scarlet berries, which sparkle amongst the varied tints of
foliage peculiar to that season. But although the beauty of
its foliage and fruit is hardly surpassed by any other decidu-
ous tree adapted to our climate, yet it is possessed of other
more valuable, though less conspicuous qualities.

From its being extremely hardy it luxuriates in a cool soil
at a great altitude, where many other trees perish from ex-
posure. Although it never attains to a great size, yet it
advances rapidly during the first eight or ten years of its
growth. It is therefore suitable for rearing plantations of
trees of slower growth, and in establishing a shelter round
buildings and reclaimed land, in bleak and inhospitable situa-
tions. Several instances could be referred to where, on
exposed ground in the north of Scotland, of an altitude
about 1200 feet, the mountain ash and other hardy trees of
this genus have readily established a shelter, where, without
protection, many sorts cannot live. The tree admits of being
planted at the height of about four feet even in a bare situa-
tion; it generally readily takes to the ground; and although
deciduous, it soon affords shelter, from the number and close-
ness of its branches. As a hedgerow tree in the worst expo-
sures, it has no superior. It rises in an upright form when
young; afterwards it forms a shapely head, which stands
unaffected by the prevailing winds ; and whether in the wild
acclivity of the Highlands, or in the low and cultivated
374 THE MOUNTAIN ASH.

avenue, its appearance and habits of growth remain more
fixed and unchangeable than that of most other trees.

The mountain ash is raised from the berries, which ripen in
autumn, when they should be collected and mixed up with
sand or light sandy earth in a pit, where they should be turned
over every second or third month, in order that the berries
may become regularly decomposed. They should be sown
during the second winter, or early in the second spring, after
they are collected. The soil should be rich and friable, and
the seeds should be spread on the beds and regulated with a
rake, with the view of the plants arising about two or three
inches asunder. At the age of two years the plants should be
removed from the beds into nursery lines, after pruning off the
extremities of their straggling roots ; the lines should be two
feet distant, and the plants six inches apart. After remaining
two years in nursery lines, the plants are commonly from four
to five feet high, when they may either be planted out per-
manently or transplanted into greater space, to adapt them to
situations where, on being planted, they will form an imme-
diate effect.

Some of the finest trees of the species in the north are pro-
duced in Badenoch, Inverness-shire. The best of these, and
perhaps the finest tree of the species in Britain, stands at
the west entrance gate on the estate of Belleville. It is fully
forty feet high, with a very large well-balanced head, and a
handsome trunk from eight to nine feet in circumference.
The tree is indigenous on the estate, but very likely it had
been placed in its present situation by Macpherson, celebrated
for his translation of the “Ossian” and other Gaelic poems, who
purchased and improved the estate towards the end of last
century. The tree affects a cool'soil and a moist atmosphere.
It attains to the age of many centuries, and in open situations
it is seldom attacked by disease. Few trees are superior to it
in an ornamental point of view; and its berries are the choice
food of our singing birds, particularly the thrush and the
blackbird.

The tree forms an excellent coppice, and as such furnishes
THE SERVICE TREE. 375

valuable shoots for hoops, crates, and similar purposes, and the
bark is possessed of a valuable tanning principle. The timber
is strong and elastic ; and, like that of all the species of the
genus, it is closely grained, susceptible of a fine polish, and
being well adapted for being stained of any colour, it is
valued by the wheelwright, and for articles of turnery, tool-
handles, etc.

The species consists of many cultivated varieties, all of which
are very ornamental, particularly the weeping mountain ash,
which, when grafted on the top of the common mountain ash,
or on that of the service tree, forms one of the most elegant
pendant trees in cultivation.

The yellow-berried variety is also very conspicuous. The
others differ from the common tree chiefly in yielding both
larger foliage and fruit, but none of the kinds attain the
ordinary size of timber trees. All of the sorts yield seeds,
but their peculiarities are only accurately multiplied by
layers or by budding or grafting, and the common tree is
generally used as the stock.

All the kinds of pears in cultivation will grow on the moun-
tain ash, but grafted on this stock, though they readily bear
fruit for a few years, yet they become very stunted ; the stock
seldom swells in growth equal to the graft, and the union is
neither perfect nor permanent.

Service Tree—Pyrus Aria (Ehrhart), or White Bean Tree.
—tThis species, which comprehends a great many varieties, is
found indigenous on the hilly districts throughout Europe.
Its stature is very diversified, according to the soil and situa-
tion which it occupies, and, cultivated under the most favour-
able circumstances, it seldom attains to the height of forty feet.
It grows with great rapidity for the first six or eight years of
its age, frequently attaining the height of twelve or sixteen
feet in that time, after which it becomes bushy, when the pro-
gress of its upward growth becomes very slow. It is a hardy
tree, of great duration, and in every respect resembles the
mountain ash, except that its leaves are entire, light green
376 THE SERVICE TREE.

above, and downy underneath, which causes it to present a
striking and varied appearance when ruffled by the wind. It
is late in coming into leaf; it grows on soil of very opposite
qualities ; it forms a shapely round-headed tree, unaffected by
the wind, and establishes a shelter where many kinds of trees
fail to exist. The mode of propagation and treatment suitable
for the mountain ash is adapted to this tree, and the timber of
both species is very similar. The varieties are propagated by
being engrafted, using the common tree or the mountain ash
as the stock,
XLIV.
THE CHERRY TREE.

THE CHERRY (Cerasus) belongs to the section Amygdalee of
the natural order Rosacew (Loudon), and to Icosandria monogynia
in the Linnean system. The cherry tree comprehends all the
wild or common varieties of the tree which in Scotland are com-
monly termed geans, all the engrafted kinds cultivated for
their fruit, the various kinds of bird cherry commonly named
after the different countries to which they belong. The Portu-
gal and common laurel belong to the same family.

The numerous kinds of which this genus is composed are
all very ornamental, but none of them can be classed among
our timber trees except the wild cherry or gean—C. sylvestris
(Ray). It is indigenous throughout Europe, and consists of
very numerous varieties, which differ considerably in the size
and shape of their leaves, the size and quality of their fruit,
in their rapidity of growth and ultimate bulk. These last-
mentioned differences are of great importance in an arboricul-
tural point of view ; indeed, as much so as usually exists in a
difference of species among other tribes. In the Highland
glens of Scotland the best timber varieties usually attain the
height of from forty to fifty feet, with trunks two feet in
diameter ; and under favourable circumstances they seldom
fail to attain these dimensions. The tree will grow in any
description of soil, provided it is dry, and not a pure clay ;
that most congenial to its development is a sandy loam on an
open subsoil. Very few trees will thrive so well on chalky
or rocky situations where there is only a scanty layer of soil.
It is very hardy, and grows at considerable elevations, but it
attains a large size only on low sheltered ground. It springs
378 THE CHERRY TREE.

wild in the north of Scotland, along the cliffs of the Findhorn,
and other romantic rivers and streams of the same character,
and often shoots from the crevices of rocks in a picturesque
figure. Nothing can be more beautiful than the purity and
richness of its blossoms in spring, or more brilliant than the
gorgeous hue of its foliage in autumn.

Some fine specimens of this tree are to be seen in Ross-
shire. On the approach to Rosehaugh House, the seat of James
Fletcher, Esq., in a mixed plantation of magnificent timber,
stand some of the largest cherry trees of various species that
are to be found in the north of Scotland. Here the common
wild cherry ranges from fifty to sixty feet in height, and some
are upwards of eight feet in girth, and quite vigorous. One
of these trees forms a very conspicuous object, by extending a
comparatively small branch, suspending over the roadway a
large bunch or cluster apparently four or five feet long, and a
yard in diameter, of close twiggy vegetation, of quite a differ-
ent character from that of the common tree, the twigs and
leaves being less than half the size of the species, and all of
spontaneous growth. Instances of this sort are frequently
observable in the growth of the birch, the purple laburnum,
etc., but such rarely occur with the cherry.

The tree is raised from the stones of the fruit, which are
the seeds; the stones also of all the cultivated or garden
cherries produce the wild tree. When collected, they should
be mixed up with double their bulk of sand or dry earth, and
may be sown any time from November to February. ‘The
cover should be one inch deep. Some of the plants commonly
appear in the end of the ensuing spring; but it not unfre-
quently happens, that owing to the stones not becoming suffi-
ciently decomposed, many of the seeds lie dormant until the
second spring, when the principal crop appears. The plants
should, at the end of their first year’s growth, be lifted from
the seed-bed and transplanted in nursery lines two feet apart,
and the plants six or eight inches asunder in the lines. When
two years transplanted, they are commonly about four or five
feet high, and are fit for being transplanted into the forest.
THE CHERRY TREE. 379

When young, the plants are remarkable for their rapid growth,
and are not particular as to the quality of the soil, provided it
is dry.

In pruning this tree, the operation should be performed
early in autumn; at any other season the wound is apt to
gum, and continue open, while in the end of August or begin-
ning of September the descending sap forms a cicatrix, and
the wound immediately closes. The tree generally attains its
full size in sixty years.

The wood is valuable ; it is of a reddish colour, close-grained,
and takes a fine polish, When steeped in lime-water it
assumes a deeper and prettier shade; the process prevents the
colour from fading when exposed to the influence of sunshine.
It bears a strong resemblance to the common kinds of maho-
gany, and is much sought after by cabinet-makers, turners,
etc., and is commonly used in the manufacture of tables, bed-
posts, and other articles of furniture. It sells at from 2s. 6d.
to 3s. 6d. per cubical foot, and is profitably grown as a tim-
ber tree. The plant is the most common stock on which
nurserymen bud and engraft the varieties of double-blossomed
cherries, and all the kinds cultivated for their fruit.

C. Mahaleb (Miller), or Perfumed Cherry, is indigenous to
France and the south of Germany. In Britain it rises to the
height of about twenty feet, and is grown as an ornamental
shrub or low tree. Its wood is hard, brown, susceptible of a
high polish, and emits a pleasant fragrance. It is sought after
by cabinet-makers. The kernel of the fruit is employed by
perfumers to scent soap; and in France, the branches,
both in a green and dried state, are prized as fuel for their
fragrance while burning. The plant is quite hardy, and
grows either in a bleak exposure or as an underwood in any
soil, however poor, if dry. Of the tree there are many seed-
ling varieties.

C. Padus (Dec.) : The Bird Cherry; C. Virginiana (Michaux),
the Virginian Bird Cherry ; and C. V. serotina (Lois), the late
flowering, or American Bird Cherry, are kinds which grow
from twenty to thirty feet in height; they are adapted to
380 THE COMMON LAUREL.

form an underwood, and yield a good shelter for game; they
thrive best on dry ground. The wood of all these kinds
possesses a richness of colour and veining that recommends it
for the purposes of the cabinet-maker and turner.

As plants, they are all very ornamental in the season both
of their flower and fruit ; and no tribe of plants yields a more
abundant supply of food for singing birds, particularly for the
blackbird and thrush. The plants grow freely either from
seed or layers. The seeds should he sown, when thoroughly
ripe, a few inches apart; they all spring the first season, and
should be placed in nursery rows when one year old.

The Laurel Cherry—Cerasus Lauwrocerasus (Lois),—or Com-
mon Laurel, is a native of the west of Asia, and grows wild in
woody and sub-Alpine regions in Caucasus and in the moun-
tains of Persia. It was introduced into Britain in the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century. Parkinson in his Para-
disus, published in 1629, is the first who records it, under the
name of the Bay Cherry, growing at Highgate, at the country
house of Mr. Cole, a merchant of London, where it had
“flowered divers times, and yielded ripe fruit also.” The
plant, in a healthy state, is one of our finest evergreens ; its
leaves are large and massive, with a shining polish. It not
unfrequently produces shoots from two to three feet in length
yearly, and when young is of far more rapid growth than
most evergreens in the climate of Britain; but as the plant
fails to yield a thickness proportional with its length of
growth, it spreads out to a large bush, and assumes the
character of a shrub rather than that of a timber tree. The
chief use of the plant is embellishment, but it is only in a
soil thoroughly suitable that it is adapted for that purpose ;
in a wet, hard, or retentive soil it is affected by frost, when it
becomes unsightly, yielding only a scanty foliage of a yellowish
green, and a number of dead twigs. It should therefore be
planted in a rich, deep, free soil, and in a sheltered situation.
It affects the shade, and forms a highly ornamental under-
wood. It is propagated by seed, by cuttings, and by layers.

The berries become ripe in autumn, when they should be
THE PORTUGAL LAUREL. 381

washed, to relieve them of the pulp, and immediately sown ;
but it is more readily increased by cuttings, which should
be planted in September, in sandy soil partially shaded ;
the cuttings should be twigs twelve inches long, of the
same season’s growth, with an inch of wood of the previous
year’s formation, from which the roots will spring to form
the plant; cuttings should be inserted half their length
into the ground. During the following summer the cuttings
will form roots, and shoot out to some extent. When the
plants become close on one another, they should be trans-
planted into nursery lines, at distances sufficient to enable
them to become bushy, which in a year or two will adapt
them for the shrubbery, or underwood in beltings, or along
the drives throughout the forest, where it is an excellent cover
for game, and its berries form a favourite food for pheasants,
etc. In sheltered situations it forms a very ornamental hedge
or screen-fence. Its green leaves, in consequence of their
flavour, are frequently used in small quantities for culinary
and confectionary purposes,.to impart the flavour peculiar to
bitter almonds, and to the kernels of the other amygdales.

The distilled water from the leaves of the plant is a deadly
poison. The principal varieties of this plant are the variegated
and the narrow-leaved.

The Portugal Laurel Cherry—C. Lusitanica (Lois),—or com-
mon Portugal Laurel, isa native of Portugal and Madeira. It
was introduced into Britain about the year 1648, where it at-
tains the size of a dwarf tree. It is one of the best evergreens
adapted to our climate. It does not grow so rapidly as the
common laurel, but is more hardy and luxuriant on soils of
very opposite qualities. Its leaves stand so close on the plant
as to display only the recently formed wood, of a dark purple
colour, emerging from a dense mass of lucid green foliage.
The flower spikes appear early in June ; and the blossoms are
followed by oval:shaped berries, which change from a green to
a deep purple by the end of autumn.

The berries should be collected and dried in a mixture of
sawdust or dry sand, and kept spread on a floor till March,
382 THE CHERRY TREE.

when they should be sown. If the seeds are committed to the
ground at the time of their becoming ripe, they generally
spring during March, when the young plants require protec-
tion, as they are apt to suffer by late frosts. If the crop of
seedlings is close, they should be transplanted at the end of
the first season’s growth ; but if they have sufficient room in
the seed-bed, they may be safely left till they complete their
second year’s shoots, and then transplanted into nursery lines,
where they should stand so far apart as to prevent the foliage
of one plant pressing on another. After remaining two years
in lines, they are fit to be permanently placed.

Of all the seasons recommended for transplanting laurels,
and evergreen shrubs in general, September is the best. The
Portugal laurel is frequently grown from cuttings, treated as
recommended for the common laurel, but those produced from
seeds form the handsomest plants. The Portugal laurel
forms a very compact and ornamental evergreen hedge, well
adapted for breaking the influence of wind. It admits of
being pruned into shape, and forms a suitable boundary to
the garden or parterre.

Early in the present century the north of Scotland possessed
many fine specimens of the Portugal laurel. One of the largest
stood on the lawn of Gordon Castle. It had a trunk eleven
feet in circumference ; it was nearly thirty feet high, and the
diameter of its head was fifty-four feet. In favourable seasons
these trees ripened their seeds abundantly ; and it is worthy of
remark that the plants raised from them have proved far
hardier than imported seedling plants, or those plants grown
from imported seed: thus trees grown from Scotch seed con-
tinue to give the clearest evidence, during our severest
winters, of the great importance of acclimatation.
XLV.
THE THORN.

THE THORN (Crategus).—This genus belongs to Icosandria
Di-Pentagynia in the Linnean system, and to Rosacee in the
natural order of plants.

The species are all small-growing ornamental trees, quite
hardy, and remarkable for their number, profusion of blossom,
fragrance, and display of fruit, of the various shades of scarlet,
red, purple, yellow, and green, ranging from the size of a pea
up to that of a small apple.

The species are chiefly natives of America and Europe, but
some are to be found in all quarters of the world. Respect-
ing this genus Loudon says, “If a man were to be exiled to
an estate without a single tree or shrub on it, with permission
to choose only one genus of ligneous plants to form all his
plantations, shrubberies, orchards, and flower gardens, where
would he find a genus that would afford him so many resources
as that of the Crategus?” This genus of dwarf ornamental
trees adapted for the decoration of gardens and pleasure-
grounds, even of those of limited extent, became popular by
the numerous rare and interesting specimens brought under
the notice of the British public, at an early period in the
present century, in the arboretum of the Horticultural Society
at Chiswick, and in that at Hackney, where the numerous
species of the rarer sorts were brought to a fruit-bearing state.

Crategus Oxyacantha (L.): The Common Hawthorn. (Syn.
Hedge-thorn, Maybush, White Thorn, Quick, Quickset.)—This
is the most common and useful species of the genus. It is
met with in many parts throughout Europe, and appreciated
384 THE THORN.

everywhere in Great Britain as the best plant for forming
hedges,

The many hundred thousands of this useful plant which are
yearly formed into hedges throughout the country, are all
produced from seeds, which are well known under the name
of haws. When these become thoroughly ripe, which is gene-
rally the case in the end of October or November, they should
be collected. As the seeds do not vegetate the succeeding
season, they should be placed in a pit, and mixed up with as
much sand or light sandy soil as will prevent fermentation,
where they should be turned over every two months or so, to
induce decomposition equally throughout the mass. They
should be removed and sown after undergoing this treatment
in the pit or rot heap for twelve or fourteen months. Dry
open weather in winter is the best sowing time.

Another mode of treatment is to sow the seeds immediately
after they are collected, covering them about two inches, and
sowing any light annual crop on the surface of the same ground,
such as onions, radishes, or cabbage plants, which should be
carefully removed, after which the surface of the beds should be
regularly dressed and raked, leaving half an inch cover on the
seeds, with the edges of the beds and alleys well defined.

Ihave practised both these modes successfully with the seeds
of hawthorn, holly, and the like, which do not vegetate the
first year, and while I have found the latter method—that of
immediate sowing when the seeds are quite ripe—to be the
most convenient and sure when the quantity is small and apt to
be overlooked, I adopt the process of pitting and rotting for a
year in all cases where they are to be grown on a large scale.

The soil most suitable for seedlings is that which is free or
easily pulverized, rather dry than otherwise,—such as a sandy
loam, and very rich. The thorn does not object to any quantity
of manure, and if the soil is not very rich, well-made manure
may be applied in digging for the seed-beds.

A bushel of haws newly gathered, or that quantity dissolved
with the mixture of earth employed, is generally sufficient for
about twenty lineal yards of a bed four feet broad. After being
Y

THE THORN. 385

sown the seeds should be rolled in or beat: down with the back
of a spade. The cover on seeds that are kept a year should
be about half an inch deep, and in March, just before the young
plants break through, the surface of the beds should undergo
a slight polish with a rake to remove all clods, and adapt the
ground for the rising crop.

Hard frost during spring is often fatal to the plants on their
appearance ; it is therefore well to take the precaution of
giving a slight covering of straw, fern, dry leaves, twigs of fir,
or other evergreens, till the end of May.

When the plants have completed their first year’s growth,
they generally stand very unequal, ranging from four to nine
inches, and sometimes a foot in height, according to the rich-
ness of the soil and the nature of the season. At this age
they should be loosened in the ground with a nursery fork and
lifted, except the very small ones, which should be left for
another year, when it is usual for a second crop to arise from
a proportion of seeds that remain dormant in the ground
during the first summer and appear during the second spring,
when they are sheltered to some extent by the plants that
are left in the beds of the first year’s growth.

The transplanting should be performed in winter or early
in spring, for few plants appear earlier in leaf, or suffer more
if their roots are exposed to the droughts of spring. In trans-
planting the plants for the first time, the lines should be ten
or twelve inches asunder, and the plants three or four inches
apart in the lines, in ground clean and in rich condition, or
made so by manure.

After the vigorous growth of two years in lines the plants
should be removed. Hedges are frequently formed of plants of
this description, but they are far inferior for that purpose to
strong plants which have undergone the process of transplanta-
tion two or three times. At their first removal from the lines,
plants that are intended for trees, or for stocks for the propa-
gation of rare and ornamental sorts by grafting and budding,
should be selected, choosing the tallest and handsomest.
These should have their straggling roots pruned, and be trans-

2B
386 THE THORN.

planted into ample space—say, eighteen inches between the
lines, and six or eight inches plant from plant in the lines.

Those intended for hedges should have their roots pruned
where they are long, and their tops beyond ten or twelve
inches high cut off ; also, in order to induce a stout and bushy
habit, they should be replanted into greater space than for-
merly, according to their size.

Plants twice or thrice transplanted, stout in the stem, and
well furnished with bushy roots, are of many times the value
of those that have been only once transplanted, whatever their
height may be. In forming a hedge with strong well-nursed
plants, fewer are required for a given space; they are more
easily kept clean, less subject to casualties, and they become a
fence sooner by a few years than younger plants. The haw-
thorn cultivated for hedges forms a leading article in all the
small country nurseries throughout Britain ; a great advantage
it possesses over many other plants is, that it never overgrows ;
by topping and replanting it is increased in value, and can
always be kept in a fit state for fences, for which it is gene-
rally preferred to any other plant.

Dr. Walker tells us that the first hawthorn hedges planted
in Scotland were on the road along Inch Buckling Brae, in
East-Lothian, and at Finlarig at the head of the Tay in Perth-
shire. They were planted at both places by Cromwell’s
soldiers.— Essays, p. 53.

The hawthorn affects a rich loamy soil or clayey gravel,
rather dry than otherwise. As an ornamental dwarf tree it
has no superior among deciduous plants. Trained to a single
stem it possesses a neat and elegant appearance in figure and
foliage. In a wild state it becomes a large spreading bush.
The profusion and beauty of its flowers, and the sweetness of
their fragrance, enlist the favour of the beholder, and few
trees hold a more prominent place in poetical or legendary
lore. Nevertheless, Gilpin views this tree in a different
aspect. He says, “Its shape is bad; it does not taper and
point like the holly, but is rather a matted, round, heavy
bush. Its fragrance indeed is great; but its bloom, which is
THE THORN. 387

the source of that fragrance, is spread over it in too much
profusion: it becomes a mere white sheet, a bright spot, which
is seldom found in harmony with the objects around it. In
autumn the hawthorn makes its best appearance. The glow-
ing berries produce a rich tint, which often adds great beauty
to the corner of a wood or the side of some crowded clump.”
On this passage Sir Thomas Dick Lauder observes: “We
think Mr. Gilpin is peculiarly hard on the hawthorn. Even
in a picturesque point of view, which is the point of view in
which he always looks at nature, the hawthorn is not only an
interesting object by itself, but produces a most interesting
combination or contrast, as things may be, when grouped with
other trees. We have seen it hanging over rocks with deep
shadows under its foliage, or shooting from their sides in the
most fantastic forms, as if to gaze at its image in the deep
pool below. We have seen it contrasting its tender green
and its delicate leaves with the brighter and deeper masses of
the holly and the alder. We have seen it growing under the
shelter, though not under the shade, of some stately oak;
embodying the idea of beauty protected by strength. Our
eyes have often caught the motion of the busy mill-wheel over
which its blossoms were clustering. We have seen it growing
grandly on the green of the village school, the great object of
general attraction to the young urchins who played in idle
groups about its roots, and perhaps the only thing remaining
to be recognised when the schoolboy returns as the man. We
have seen its aged boughs overshadowing one half of some
peaceful woodland cottage, its foliage half concealing the
window, whence the sounds of happy content and cheerful
mirth came forth. We know that lively season—

‘When the milkmaid singeth blythe,
And the mower whets his scythe,
And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale ;’

and with these, and a thousand such associations as these, we

cannot but feel emotions of no ordinary nature when we

behold this beautiful tree.”—Lauder’s Gilpin, vol. i. p. 195.
Of the British trees of this species recorded by Loudon
388 THE THORN.

when he wrote thirty years ago, the two largest belong to
Scotland. At that time he records one 110 years old at
Tyningham in Haddingtonshire, forty-six feet high, with a
trunk three feet in diameter, and a head forty-seven feet,
standing on light loam or clay. Another is recorded to stand
at Duddingstone near Edinburgh, of similar dimensions.

The tree also attains an unusual height farther north. At
Gordon Castle in Banffshire, in Morayshire, and on the shel-
tered slopes of Badenoch in Inverness-shire, instances are found
of its approaching the height of forty feet, and yet in full vigour.

The hawthorn is a tree of great duration, and has been
known to exist for several centuries.

The timber of the tree is very hard, and of a creamy-white
colour. It is not much used in the arts, owing to the difficulty
of getting it of a large size. It takes a very fine polish, and
is esteemed in turnery for knobs and handles to small imple-
ments, for mallets, teeth to rakes, and all purposes where
hardness and durability are required.

The following are the leading varieties of the hawthorn,
and are propagated by grafting or budding, using the common
tree as the stock :—Double blossom white, a well-known tree,
the fading flowers of which change to a delicate pink. Double
red. Single and double scarlet—all the blossoms of these are
of great beauty.

C. 0. aurea is a variety which yields yellow haws, not com-
mon, but very ornamental.

C. 0. precow, the early flowering or Glastonbury thorn, is
remarkable for coming into leaf in winter, and in favourable
weather instances are recorded of its having blossomed freely
in England at Christmas. In the north of Scotland I have
seen it covered with foliage in the end of January and early
in February, but the severe frosts every year rendered the
tree very unhealthy. I have not known it to be tried on the
west coast of Scotland, but I believe that under the influence
of the Gulf-stream, where the winters are mild, the tree would
find a congenial atmosphere.

Of the genus there are upwards of thirty species found in
the collections of this very ornamental dwarf tree.
XLVI.
THE ELDER TREE,

THE ELDER TREE (Sambucus) belongs to the natural order
Caprifoliacee, and to Pentandria trigynia of the Linnean
system. It comprehends several species, intermediate between
shrubs and low trees, deciduous and hardy, some of which are
found indigenous to every quarter of the world. All the
kinds are readily grown from slips or cuttings, and generally
they are remarkable for their rapidity of growth previously to
their yielding berries.

S. nigra (L.), the common black-berried elder, or bourtree,
is a native of Europe, the north of Africa, and the colder
parts of Asia. In Britain it usually attains the height of
about twenty feet; but in rich sheltered situations, when
associated with other trees, it frequently rises much higher.
In open sunny situations it yields a profusion of creamy-white
blossoms, which in June have a conspicuous appearance ; they
are produced on widespread terminal cymes, and are generally
succeeded by a heavy crop of black berries, which become ripe
by the first of winter. The tree is frequently met with in the
neighbourhood of houses and gardens, and is seldom observable
in more remote and unfrequented spots; yet it is by no
means a desirable object. Its blossoms and foliage when
grown extensively emit a faintish sickening odour, which is
believed to be unwholesome, and during hot weather is said
to produce narcotic stupor in those who sleep under its shade.
Evelyn mentions a tradition of a certain family in Spain who
became enervated and died in consequence of their house being
seated among elder trees, and he adds, that when at last the
trees were rooted out it became a healthy abode. Although
390 THE ELDER TREE.

there is a species of aphis that feeds on the elder, yet an
infusion of the leaves proves fatal to various insects which
infest blighted or delicate plants.

Medicinally, the plant has been known throughout Europe
from the earliest periods of our medicinal history. In this
respect it occupies a conspicuous place in the works of Theo-
phrastus. The inner bark of the tree is an active cathartic.
The flowers serve for fomentations and cooling ointments ;
when dried they make a fragrant but debilitating tea, useful
in acute inflammation from the copious perspiration which it is
sure to excite. A wine is also made from the flowers, which,
in scent and flavour, resembles that produced by the Frontignac
grapes. Elder-flower water is also employed to impart a
flavour to some articles of confectionary, and it is esteemed as
a cooling and refreshing lotion for the skin. The berries
yield a very large quantity of spirit, and it is said their juice
is employed to adulterate port wine. Loudon states that in
different parts of the county of Kent there are fields or
orchards planted with the elder entirely for the sake of its
berries, which are brought regularly to market, and sold in
immense quantities at from 4s. to 6s. per bushel, for the pur-
pose of making wine, which is much drunk in cold weather in
London in the houses of the lower classes, mulled as a cordial.

As a screen-fence in bleak exposures and maritime situa-
tions the tree is of great value; when the young plant has
just become established in a deep fertile soil it will often pro-
duce shoots five and six feet long in one summer, but in in-
hospitable exposures the points of the shoots become weather-
beaten ; the tree readily makes new efforts of growth, and
thus becomes twiggy at the extremities, affording shelter to its
entire height. It generally rises, under the niost adverse cir-
cumstances, with a vigour hardly equalled by any other plant.
In wet situations the success of the tree, for shelter, is much
assisted by thorough drainage, without which the late-formed
growths fail to become matured, and consequently suffer from
the influence of frost. As a nurse for other trees, particularly
when interspersed throughout the outskirts of plantations in
THE ELDER TREE. 391

rough exposures, it is very valuable, but only as a shelter.
As a fence, apart from shelter, it is objectionable in many
situations : not only is it apt to get bare near the surface of the
ground, but its roots take a wide range, and have a powerful
influence in subduing the crops in their vicinity. For this
purpose it is far inferior to the hawthorn, beech, and many
other hedge plants. But as a screen-fence or shelter on poor
dry soil where there is difficulty in growing the ordinary sorts
of hedge plants, it is very useful, provided it is frequently
pruned, say twice or three times a year, which renders it
compact and good-looking.

The elder is readily propagated from young shoots ; the buds
or joints of these are commonly from six to ten inches apart.
Each cutting or slip should be formed with a joint close to its
lower extremity, from which the roots will spring; another
joint should exist near to the top of the slip, the buds of which
will form the branches of the plant. The slips should be from
eight to twelve inches long, and inserted about half their length
into the ground, any time from the beginning of November
till the first of March. They readily take root, and frequently
grow several feet in height during the first summer. Their
distance should be a foot apart in the lines, and the lines nearly
two feet asunder. The plants are usually fit for removal at
the age of one year, and never improve in nursery lines after
being two years old.

The wood of the young tree is brittle, and contains a large
pith. When old, it is hard, of a glossy yellow, and susceptible
of a high polish. It is employed in forming articles of turnery,
in the manufacture of mathematical instruments, combs, shoe-
makers’ pegs, and generally for the same purposes as box-
wood.

8. n. virescens (Dec.) differs from S. nigra only in its bark
being whiter, and in its berries being of a green colour. Its
growth is equally vigorous. The other leading sorts connected
with the common elder are the gold and silver blotched, and
the parsley-leaved, all of which are of comparatively stunted
growth, and only cultivated as ornamental varieties.
392 THE ELDER TREE.

S. racemosa (L.)\—The racemose-flowered Elder is pretty
generally known as the scarlet-berried elder, and is by far the
most ornamental plant of the genus. It is a native of the
south and middle of Europe, and of the mountains of Siberia,
where it forms a low tree from twelve to fifteen feet high. In
Britain it attains a greater height, and it possesses all the
vigour in growth of the common species, and is equally hardy.
In its deciduous state, the chestnut-coloured bark and the
prominent buds of its young shoots are very ornamental. The
young wood yields racemes of flowers, which open with the
expanding leaf in spring. Its foliage is of a bright green,
pinnate, deeply serrated, and extremely handsome. Its panicles
of fruit resemble miniature clusters of grapes of a bright scarlet,
which attain their brilliancy early in autumn, and long before
the leaves are shed. When in full fruit, in point of beauty
it has no rival among deciduous plants. But it is shy in
yielding fruit ; even in situations possessed of a good climate,
the plant, though constant in blossom, unlike the common
elder, often fails to produce fruit. I have seldom seen this
species yield fruit abundantly in any part of Scotland, except
in late districts, in the Highlands of Moray, Inverness, and Ross.
In earlier situations the plant generally blossoms about the
first of April, while frosts prevail; and its success in the
Highlands is attributed to the influence of a late climate, which
retards the expansion of the blossoms until a period when they
are exempt from injury.
XLVII.

THE LABURNUM.

THIs tree is the largest species of the very ornamental genus
Cytisus of the natural order Leguminacee. It belongs to
Monadelphia Decandria in the Linnean system. Two kinds
are common throughout Britain, Cytisus Laburnum (L.), and
C. L. alpinus (Miller), the Alpine or Scotch Laburnum. The
latter yields the finest timber ; in other respects the kinds are
so similar that they may be treated as one.

The laburnum is a native of the mountains of France, Ger-
many, Switzerland, and Italy, and is not indigenous to any
part of Britain. It was introduced into this country at the
close of the sixteenth century. It is a low deciduous tree,
with trifoliate leaves, and seldom exceeds the height of twenty
feet, except when situated on rich soil, and sheltered and
nursed among trees of taller growth, where it often attains
a height of from thirty to forty feet. Like many of our low
trees, it grows vigorously during the first few years of its age.
It is perfectly hardy, and luxuriates for some years in almost
any description of ground, and in a moderately dry soil it is
certainly one of the best ornamental trees adapted for bleak
and inhospitable situations, where its value is enhanced by
being rarely subject to disease. The early rapidity of its
growth renders it suitable for being interspersed as a shelter
to many kinds of young ornamental trees, which ultimately
take its place and attain a greater size. It will be always
highly esteemed as an embellishment along the margin of
plantations, roads, and avenues, and it is used as the stock
on which the beautiful pendulous kinds of the genus are
engrafted.
394 THE LABURNUM.

The laburnum blossoms in May and June, with all the
richness and profusion peculiar to its tribe. The seeds are
poisonous, and are yielded in pods, which become ripe in the
beginning of winter.

In spring the seeds should be sown on light, friable ground,
and placed two or three inches apart, and covered nearly an
inch deep. One-year-old plants are generally about a foot high,
when they should be transplanted into lines two feet asunder,
and the plants one foot distant in the lines. During their
second year’s growth in the lines, the plants often make an
average advance of three feet. After having been two years
in the lines, or at most three, they should be removed either
into their permanent situations or into additional space in the
nursery lines. By frequent removal plants may be grown to
a large size and still kept in a suitable state for being safely
transplanted into situations where their ornamental effect is
immediately required. As the bark and young shoots of
laburnum are preferred by hares and rabbits to those of any
other tree, young plants, which can be raised in great numbers
at a few shillings per 1000, are frequently interspersed through-
out young plantations as food for these animals, and as a means
of preventing their ravages on other plants. Notwithstanding
the rapid growth of the young tree, it soon forms a beautiful
heartwood, varying from a brown to a dark-green, and some-
times a black colour, which contrasts remarkably with the pale
yellow of the more recently formed layers of sapwood. It is
valued and in request by cabinet-makers, and for articles of
turnery, such as cups and ladles, and for flutes and other
musical instruments. It is frequently used for pegs, wedges,
pulleys and blocks, and also for those instruments in which
strength and elasticity are required. A cubical foot of timber
in a dry state weighs from fifty-two to fifty-three pounds. It
is seldom produced beyond a foot in diameter, and its value
has considerably decreased since the art of staining wood has
become so perfect. The soil and climate of Scotland are very
congenial to the growth of the tree. At Sauchie, in Stirling-
shire, a tree stands forty feet high, with a trunk six feet in
THE LABURNUM. 395

circumference ; but the largest laburnum of British growth
lately stood at Castle Leod, in Ross-shire, of the English
variety, the trunk of which measured nine feet in circumfer-
ence—a size very remarkable for a tree of the species.

C. Laburnum purpureum (Hort.), the purple-flowering Labur-
num, or C. Adami (Poiret), originated in France. It forms
a hybrid between the common laburnum (Alpina) and the
Cytisus purpureus, a dwarf, spreading shrub. The purple
blossoms of the hybrid are tinged with buff, and of the size
and shape of those of the common laburnum, and its habit of
growth is vigorous and erect. The tree is in the habit of pro-
ducing blossoms of both the parents, and of the variety, all
three at the same time; and in cool situations, at a great
altitude, it has been known to throw off the small twigs of C.
purpureus, and the shoots of the hybrid variety in the form of
dead-wood, and to appear entire a tree of C. Laburnum Alpina.
This and several other kinds of laburnum are propagated by
being engrafted on the common kinds.
XLVIIIL

THE LOCUST TREE.

Locust TREE—Robinia or Pseud-Acacia (L.)\—The common
Robinia, or False Acacia, is a leguminous tree, and belongs
to Diadelphia Decandria in the Linnean system. It is a
native of North America, where, in rich, dry, well-sheltered
soil, it grows rapidly, and becomes a tree of considerable
height. According to Loudon, the first plant of the species
that was brought to Europe was planted in the Jardin des
Plantes, Paris, in 1635, and in 1835 it still existed, and
stood seventy-eight feet high. In the climate of Britain the
tree requires the earliest and best-sheltered situations, and in
such its chief use is ornament. Like many trees of small
stature, such as laburnum, elder, cherry, plum, and sallow, it
produces shoots of great vigour during the first few years
of its growth; but being far more tender than the kinds
referred to, it is only in the best situations, and during the
most favourable seasons, that its luxuriant growths become
sufficiently matured to resist the influence of frost; and from
a third to a half of the extremities of the branches of young
trees are commonly cut off, which reduces the progress of the
tree, in many situations, to that of very ordinary growth.
Notwithstanding this circumstance, the plant, though ren-
dered branchy, has a natural tendency to grow erect. In
after life the tree assumes a more spreading habit, with
growths less vigorous and better fitted to endure the winter,
but it is seldom found to girth in proportion to its height.

It is after the tree has attained the age of ten or twelve
years that it appears in its most captivating form, and pro-
THE LOCUST TREE. 397

duces white and yellowish racemes of great beauty and fra-
grance. As an ornament, however, it is very precarious; it
is much influenced by the seasons, and seldom blooms abun-
dantly for a few years in succession. It is generally late in
coming into leaf, and unless the opening up of the summer
is mild and genial, it retains a bare and uninteresting appear-
ance after trees in general are arrayed in their summer dress.
As it continues to grow to a late period in the year, to ripen
the more vigorous shoots requires a summer possessed of a
temperature warm and more protracted than that enjoyed by
most situations in this country. This is particularly the case
in soils moist and rich, and where shoots are produced from
trees after being broken or lopped.

The tree is sometimes raised from cuttings of the roots,
but it is more frequently produced from seeds, which gene-
rally ripen by the end of October. The best seeds are im-
ported from America. They should be sown early in spring,
after being soaked in water. The soil should be well drained,
light, and friable, and where the plants will have full advan-
tage of sunshine. It is only where the climate is of the best
description that the soil should be made rich for seedling
plants.

The seeds should be sown about two inches apart, and
covered half an inch. The plants will appear early in
summer ; and during the first season they commonly grow
from one and a half to two feet in height, and seldom ripen
their tops sufficiently when of a much greater size. The
plants should be transplanted, when one year old, into nur-
sery lines two feet apart, and the plants ten or twelve inches
asunder, where they may remain one or two years, when
they are commonly from five to eight feet high, and suitable
for being removed to their final destination. One-year seed-
ling plants are sometimes thinned out, and a proportion of
them left, six or eight inches apart, in the seed-beds, when
they become two years old. When treated in this way, they
are often from five to six feet high, and fit for being perma-
nently planted out. Thus in early life the locust is apt to
398 THE LOCUST TREE,

excite the belief that as a timber tree it would outgrow every
sort.

Perhaps there is no other foreign tree that has had its pro-
perties and uses so enthusiastically recommended to the
notice of planters. It is one of the first introduced American
trees into Britain, and it has been eulogized in various coun-
tries and at different periods; in this country, under the dif-
ferent names of “ Robinia,” “ Acacia,’ “the Locust Tree.”
But by far the greatest impulse was given to its cultivation
by Cobbett, who, between the years 1820 and 1825, imported
large quantities of seeds, and grew immense numbers of
plants, which he sold under the name of locust-tree, the
popular name in its native districts in America, but then
hardly known in this country to be the Robinia, or pseud-Acacia.
Many therefore believed the locust to be a newly-introduced
tree, while Cobbett, in his Woodlands, and other publications,
extolled it as far superior to any other, both for rapidity of
growth and durability of timber. Of its timber he says, “ it
is absolutely indestructible by the power of earth, air, and
water.” He also states that “the time will come, and it will
not be very distant, when the locust-tree will be more common
in England than the oak; when a man would be thought
mad if he used anything but locust in the making of sills,
posts, gates, joists, feet for rick-stands, stocks and axle-trees
for wheels, hop-poles, pails, and for anything where there is
liability to rot. This time will not be distant, seeing that the
locust grows so fast. The next race of children but one, that
is to say, those who will be born sixty years hence, will think
the locust trees have always been the most numerous trees in
England, and some curious writer of a century or two hence
will tell his readers that, wonderful as it may seem, the locust
was hardly known in England until about the year 1823,
when the nation was introduced to a knowledge of it by
William Cobbett.” These and similar statements of this
writer created a sensation throughout the country, and
for a few years the tree was planted to an unprecedented
extent ; but at the present time we do not know any district
THE LOCUST TREK, 399

in which the locust continues to be planted for the sake of its
timber. Yet in favourable situations it very quickly produces
small timber, suitable for props for flowers, stakes for peas,
and such purposes, preferable to almost any other tree. As
a coppice it becomes feeble after being frequently lopped, and
it does not thrive as an underwood ; neither is it adapted for
a situation of great exposure, as its branches are remarkably
brittle, and more apt to be broken by wind than any other tree.
Like many other timber trees which spread their roots near
the surface of the ground, the trunk has a tendency to become
hollow in the centre before it attains a great age. One of the
finest recorded specimens of the tree in South Britain has been
grown at Claremont. It stood about seventy feet high, with
a trunk four feet in diameter, and fifty feet diameter of top.
In North Britain the best specimen stands at Beaufort Castle,
about forty feet high, with a trunk upwards of two feet in
diameter at three feet from the surface.

As a post its timber is remarkably durable, even when
young, and in some districts in France it is cultivated in cop-
pice and in pollards, and cut every four years for vine-props ;
and the leaves and young shoots are sometimes used in feed-
ing cattle.

In the native districts of the tree, even where it grows best,
only a small proportion of timber is produced of sufficient size
for shipbuilding, the trees generally not exceeding one foot
in diameter. The timber has a high reputation for strength
and durability, and its lateral strength in resisting fracture is
greater than that of the best oak. In America it is more
extensively manufactured into tree-nails, used in ship-build-
ing, than any other timber. It is also esteemed by the
cabinet-maker, and in articles of turnery it is often substituted

for box-wood.
XLIX.
THE HOLLY.

THe Hotiy.—Ilez belongs to the natural order Agui-
foliaceee and to Triandria tetragynia in the Linnean system.

LT. aquifoliwm (L.)\—The prickly leaved, or common Holly, is
an evergreen tree, usually attaining a height of from twenty
to thirty feet in a wild state, but a much greater height when
cultivated. It is found indigenous throughout Britain, on
dry ground of various qualities, and most frequently asso-
ciated with other trees. Its services in a living state are
particularly valuable. When partially shaded, in a congenial
soil it presents a dark glossy polish on its foliage, of the
richest description; and as an ornamental tree it has no
rival, The closeness of its evergreen leaves yields a shelter
and seclusion at all seasons of the year, very great in propor-
tion to the space occupied by the tree. It is quite hardy in
ground moderately elevated, although it does not luxuriate at
a great altitude.

As a hedge plant it is much esteemed, particularly when
grown in the vicinity of a residence, as a boundary to the
flower-garden, lawn, or pleasure-ground ; it is also esteemed
as a hedge plant for the protection and division of fields ;
but in some parts it is unsuitable, from the circumstance of
its under branches being subject to injury from sheep and
vermin, which eat them during protracted snow-storms, and
unless the hedge is young and luxuriant, the plants do not
readily protrude young shoots at this point to fill up the
deficiencies, which are commonly rendered the more unsightly
and conspicuous from the closeness and polish which gene-
rally prevail throughout the other parts of the fences. Apart.
THE HOLLY. 401

from casualties, the plant forms a strong and durable hedge,
almost, if not altogether, exempt from disease.

We have found the method of mixing-holly with hawthorn
to suit remarkably well in forming hedges on dry soil of
various descriptions. Some writers on this subject have
doubted the eligibility of the practice, and have stated that
they could not recommend it, believing that the hollies, with-
out relief, would become overpowered by the hawthorn.
Experience, however, shows that this is not the case, and that
the contrary is the more likely occurrence. Hollies inserted .
of the same size as the hawthorn, and placed a few paces
apart, although they almost disappeared for a few years after
being planted, have come up, and spread so extensively as to
give the hedges during the months of winter the appearance
of being almost entirely evergreen, which adds greatly to its
shelter and beauty. The progress of the holly thus situated
is just what might be expected from the nature of the tree.
It advances fastest when partially shaded, while the opposite
is the case with the hawthorn, which, at the opening up of
the season, has the disadvantage of being to some extent con-
fined by the evergreen.

Being possessed of the rare qualification of growing vigor-
ously under the shade or drip of other trees, the holly affords
a rich verdure and seclusion when interspersed between the
pare stems of lofty timber trees. For this purpose, with the
exception of the yew, it has no equal among evergreen trees.
It generally rises in a handsome conical form, and during
autumn and winter the brilliancy of its scarlet berries, con-
trasted with its deep green foliage, and these associated with
the fading leaves of deciduous trees, render it a most desirable
object.

The holly is commonly propagated by seed. The berries are
ripe, and should be collected during winter ; each contains
several seeds ; they should be mixed up with about double
their bulk of sand or dry earth, and turned over once every
month or six weeks. Frequent turnings serve to decompose
the berries more equally than is the case when they are

2c
402 THE HOLLY.

allowed to remain undisturbed. In open weather during the
following winter, the seeds should be sown into rich, dry soil,
of an open quality, partially shaded. Such a situation as
admits either the morning or the evening sunshine is suitable.
The beds should be four feet wide, and the cover about half
an inch deep. In sowing it is not necessary to separate the
seeds from the mixture of sand. One bushel, half seed half
sand, is usually allowed to eight or ten lineal yards of a bed.
A proportion of the plants will break through the ground in
the month of May ensuing, but it frequently happens that a
portion which has not become sufficiently decomposed will
remain in the ground dormant until the end of the second
spring after sowing, which frequently forms the principal
crop, the success of which depends greatly on the openness of
the ground. In this case the springing of the seeds is sixteen
or eighteen months after the time of sowing; and as the
ground is not disturbed during that period, where it is of a
clayey nature it is apt to become so consolidated that the
young plants perish from being unable to penetrate it with
their roots, hence the necessity of the soil being naturally free
and soft. Another mode of growing the holly, which I have
found very simple and successful, is to sow the seeds in the
usual way as soon as they are gathered from the tree, cropping
the ground at same time, or in spring, with any annual crop
of plants or vegetables, till the holly begins to vegetate ; but
even then the holly seeds do not vegetate equally,—some will
remain in the ground dormant for two, and often, to some
extent, for three summers. After two summers’ -growth the
young plants should be transplanted into nursery lines.

The best time for transplanting hollies is September, and
moist weather should be preferred, particularly for their being
removed for the first time; the lines should be about one
foot apart, and the plants a few inches asunder in the lines.
They should afterwards be transplanted every second or third
year, which serves to keep their roots in a proper state, and
to afford the plants sufficient space as they advance in size.
It is common to recommend their removal every other year,
THE HOLLY. 403

but it frequently happens that the plants lose their leaves,
and are so severely interrupted in their progress, by being
transplanted, that they require more than two years to recover.
This casualty never occurs when the roots of the plants are in
a proper or fibrous state. The frequency of their removal
should be regulated by the health or growth of the plants.
It seldom happens, however, that the plants sustain much
injury by being transplanted, provided they have not grown
many years in one place, that the proper season for trans-
planting them has been adopted, and that care has been
taken in preserving their roots from exposure to drought.
The plants in the nursery lines should be kept clear of weeds,
and the space between the lines should be dug over every
September. The opening up of the soil, and disturbing the
roots at this season, has a wonderful effect in causing the
roots to form numerous spongioles, which adapt the plant for
removal, even when of a large size.

In Scotland, the holly abounds in the natural woods on the
banks of the Dee, the Spey, and the Findhorn. At Gordon
Castle, and Orton on the Spey, and at Darnaway Castle, on the
Findhorn, the best specimens of the tree measure about fifty feet
high, with boles from two to two feet six inches in diameter.

The bark of the tree appears to be an indispensable article
in the manufacture of birdlime. The timber is white and
hard, and susceptible of a fine polish. It is therefore much
esteemed in cabinet-making, turnery, and wood-engraving.
When dyed black it is a substitute for ebony.

The number of the cultivated varieties of the tree is very
great, particularly of the gold and silver variegated sorts.
These differ in their shade of colouring, and in the breadth
of the margin and structure of their leaves and prickles.
They are cultivated in nurseries by budding and grafting on
the common holly, and are known under the popular name of
gold-edged, silver-edged, gold-blotched, silver-blotched, hedge-
hog, laurel-leaved, etc. The last named, and all its varieties
yield smooth, massive foliage of a dark glossy green, and are
exceedingly beautiful.
L.
THE YEW TREE.

Yew Tree.—The genus Tazus belongs to Diecia Monadelphia
of Linnzus, and it forms the type of the natural order Taxacee.
The blossoms of the tree are unisexual, and generally the
sexes are placed on distinct plants ; instances, however, some-
times occur of a tree yielding both male and female flowers.
The genus may be divided into two distinct species, the
common or English yew, and the upright or Irish yew, each
of which has given rise to a few varieties.

Taaus baccata (L.), the English or common Yew, is found
indigenous throughout Britain and in most parts of Europe.
It is also a native of North America. In a wild state it is
found in solitary trees, and very seldom in close woods of the
genus. It is partial to a north or shaded locality, where it can
only enjoy a soil cool and moist; and it luxuriates, though
considerably confined, among tall deciduous trees. It is there-
fore valuable as an underwood, in forming a shelter and seclu-
sion, where trees in general are apt to become feeble, and
yield only a scanty foliage. This species becomes a timber
tree, and generally attains to the height of forty or fifty feet.

It is propagated from seed. The berries become ripe in
autumn, when they should be collected and cleared from
the pulp by washing. The stones or seeds should then
be mixed up with twice their bulk of sand, and placed
into a pit for twelve or fourteen months; they may be
sown in open weather, either in winter or early in spring.
The soil should be rich and loamy, but such as is not apt to
become stiff or hard on the surface. The seeds should be
sown into beds, as regularly as possible, with the view of the
THE YEW TREE, 405

seedling plants standing about two inches apart, and the cover
of soil on them should be about half an inch deep. The
seeds, however, under any treatment, are apt to spring irregu-
larly, and frequently only a part of the crop comes up the
first season after sowing, and the remainder the following
spring. As the young seedlings, on the appearance above
ground, are aptto suffer from frost, a light cover of straw, fir,
twigs, or some other herbage, should be placed as a protection
on the surface of the beds.

At the age of two or three years the seedling plants should
be removed into nursery lines, and transplanted every third
year, affording the plants sufficient space to keep them in full
foliage till they are finally transplanted. September is the
best month for planting, and moist weather should be pre-
ferred; nursery ground partially shaded with standard trees,
thus rendered unsuitable for plants in general, is adapted for
the yew ; in such, its progress is fastest, and the colour of its
foliage of the deepest green. The plant is remarkable for its
slow growth. Plants five years old from seed, once trans-
planted, do not average more than one foot in height, and at
the age of ten years, with nursery treatment, they are seldom
more than three feet high.

The yew is sometimes affected by frost in the early part of
the season, during the formation of its growth; but in winter it
is quite hardy, resisting the severest weather without injury to a
leaf. As it is in situations cool and moist, and to some extent
darkened by the presence of taller trees, that it grows best, it
is frequently employed in forming a cover for game among the
stems of tall trees—for as a shelter and thicket in confined
situations, it yields a foliage and growth more rich and com-
pact than any other tree, not excepting the holly. From its
naturally fibrous roots the yew may be transplanted of a large
size. In nurseries, plants a yard in height are often placed at
that distance asunder, and clipped into the form of a hedge,
which, by occasional removals in September, form a mass of
fibrous roots, adapting the plants for removal at any time. In
the formation of pleasure ground, boundary, or screen-fences,
406 THE YEW TREE.

such plants furnish an immediate and ornamental effect.
When dressed for a few years the yew forms a hedge of close
growth, so compact that small birds cannot readily pass
through it.

As an ornamental tree for the lawn or pleasure ground, in a
cold climate, the yew possesses some good qualities. In early
life it forms a conical bush, and never receives injury from
the influence of wind, nor the intensity of frost in winter.
The richness of its deep green foliage forms a good contrast
with deciduous trees, particularly during the snows of winter.
Its berries are the choice food of singing birds, and the density
of its foliage forms their best shelter.

The practice of planting the yew in churchyards is of very
great antiquity, and commenced at a time when the choice of
trees was comparatively limited. It bears a resemblance to
the cypress, the chief cemetery tree of many countries, and
its being indigenous, quite hardy, yielding a persistent, dark,
and sombre foliage, and being possessed of greater longevity
than perhaps any other tree, render it a fit substitute for
the cypress, the emblem of immortality. With roots small
and fibrous, calculated to fix the soil, and easily cut through
in excavating graves, the yew, even now, with the increased
’ choice of plants in the present age, appears more in harmony
with the scenes with which it is associated than any other tree.

In growing the yew for timber it should be closely planted,
and interspersed with faster-growing trees. By this means
its upward growth is more rapid than when allowed to branch
in its ordinary form, and through confinement in a suitable
soil its timber is clean and free of knots. Every agriculturist
should be aware of the poisonous nature of the tree. No
doubt numerous instances occur of horses and cattle eating the
spray of the yew with impunity. This may arise from habit,
after small beginnings, or from its being associated with their
food, or from some other cause ; but cases are too numerous
where the fresh twigs, or half-dried twigs, have proved fatal,
and it is more frequently so when the animal receives them
to a considerable extent into an empty stomach.
THE YEW TREE. 407

Many yew trees throughout the country are celebrated for
extreme old age. The lapse of a century generally makes no
great change on a yew of considerable size——much less indeed
than on any other tree. Of all the old trees we have seen of
this species, perhaps that at Fountain Abbey, in Yorkshire, is
the most remarkable. Tradition reports it to have been an
old spreading tree, under the shadow of which the monks
encamped before the foundation of the abbey in 1132, the
widespread ruins of which now occupy many acres. Many of
the boughs of the tree are still covered with luxuriant foliage ;
the trunk presents a gnarled and knotty appearance, grooved
and wrinkled by time, overcome and bent down by the weight
of years ; it ranges in circumference from twenty to twenty-
eight feet, indicating an existence at a very remote period.

In Scotland, the Fortingal yew stands in a churchyard in
the vicinity of a small Roman camp, in a romantic district at
the entrance to Glen-Lyon, in Perthshire. Various writers of
the last century have described the trunk of this tree at
different dimensions, all recording it upwards of fifty feet.
The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for 1833 states that “the
side of the trunk now existing gives a diameter of more than
fifteen feet, so that it is easy to conceive that the circumfer-
ence of the trunk, when entire, should have exceeded fifty
feet. Happily, further depredations have been prevented by
means of an iron rail, which now surrounds the sacred spot ;
and the venerable tree, which in all probability was a flourish-
ing tree at the commencement of the Christian era, may yet
survive for centuries to come.”

The timber of the yew is celebrated for its strength and
elasticity ; it is more enduring than any other wood indi-
genous to Europe. When employed as a post in the open
ground, it has been known to last for ages, with very little
decay, even at that most trying and corruptible point, the
surface of the ground. The heart-wood is of a rich brown
colour, and contrasts with the sap-wood, which is white. It
is finely grained, capable of a high polish, retains dye, and
forms a good representation of ebony. It is esteemed by the
408 THE YEW TREE.

cabinet-maker and turner in the manufacture of ornamental
wares. In ancient times, previously to'the introduction of
gunpowder, the tree was carefully cultivated for the manu-
facture of bows, then the principal implement of war—an
instrument fatal to some of the ancient British kings, among
whom were Harold and William Rufus. It was to the skill
of the English with the long-bow that the conquest of Ireland
by Henry 11, in 1172, was attributed, and many subsequent
victories; and some of the ancient statutes of British sove-
reigns prohibited the exportation of yew-tree timber. In
course of time, however, the reliance of our country descended
from the English yew to the British oak.

T. fastigiata (Lindley), the Upright or Irish Yew, is a well-
known plant, of a shrubby habit of growth, and does not
attain to the size of a timber tree. It is propagated by seed,
or more frequently by cuttings, inserted in sand or sharp soil,
in August or September, and covered with a hand-glass, and
shaded. From a single stem at the surface of the ground, it
sends out numerous tapering branches, richly foliated, of the
deepest green ; forming an object always narrow at the sur-
face of the ground, and broad at top, like the inverted figure
of the common species. The peculiarity in the shape of the
plant renders it conspicuous, and it is generally esteemed as
one of the handsomest and hardiest of evergreens. Several
varieties of variegated yews are cultivated as ornamental
trees.
LI.
THE USUAL PRICES OF NURSERY PLANTS.

ComparinG the prices of nursery plants one year with
another, they are frequently found to vary to some extent.
This often arises from the casualties of seasons, and most fre-
quently on account of late spring or early summer frosts,
which destroy the blossom, and consequently the seed crop.
The following are the usual prices for the leading kinds in
ordinary demand noticed in this work :—

Pine, Scotch, native Highland, 1 year seedling, 1s. to 1s. 3d. per 1000.
50 a », 2 year seedling, 2s. per 1000.
or 95 y» 1 year seedling, 1 year transplanted, 3s. 6d. per 1000.
i. Be » 1 year seedling, 2 years transplanted, 6s. to 8s. per 1000.
33 55 », 2 year seedling, 1 year transplanted, 4s. 6d. to 5s. 6d.
per 1000.
ss a5 » 2 year seedling, 2 years transplanted, twelve to eigh-
teen inches high, 10s. to 15s. per 1000.
Older plants should be at least twice transplanted..
Pine, Corsican, or Laricio, 1 year seedling, 6s. per 1000.
‘3 a3 os 2 year seedling, 8s. to 10s. per 1000.
1 year seedling, 1 year transplanted, 10s. to
12s. per 1000.
2 year seedling, 1 year transplanted, 12s. to
14s. per 1000.
2 year transplanted, 15s. to 25s. per 1000.
Bing, Maayan, 1 peat seedling, 2s. 6d. per 1000.
2 year seedling, 4s. per 1000.
2 year seedling, 1 year transplanted, 8s. to 10s, per 1000.
$5 3 2 year seedling, 2 years transplanted, 12s. to 15s. per 1000.
Pine, pineaster sorts, 1 year seedling, 2s. 6d. per 1000.
1 year seedling, 1 year transplanted, 8s. per 1000.
1 year seedling, twice transplanted, 12s. to 15s.
per 1000.

a ” ”

” a:

” ”

” ”

oad ”
410 THE USUAL PRICES OF NURSERY PLANTS.

Spruce Fir, Norway, 2 and 3 years’ seedling, 2s. to 3s. per 1000.

1 year transplanted, 4s. to 6s. per 1000.

2 years transplanted, 8s. to 10s. per 1000.

3 years transplanted, twelve to eighteen inches,
12s, to 15s. per 1000.

Twice transplanted, fifteen to eighteen inches, 20s.
per 1000.

Spruce Fir, Douglas’s.—This useful tree, about a foot high, sells at

about 30s. per 100, but it gets cheaper and more plentiful every

” 2”? ”

year.
Silver Fir, 2 year seedling, 5s. to 6s. per 1000.
» 9, 2 year seedling, 2 years transplanted, 15s. to 18s. per 1000.

» 9 98 years transplanted, 18s. to 20s. per 1000.
» 99 Twice transplanted, eighteen to twenty-four inches, 40s. per

1000.
Larch from Scotch seed, 1 year seedling, 1s. 6d. to 2s. per 1000.
” ” 2 year seedling, 3s. to 4s. per 1000.
” 9 1 year, 1 year transplanted, 5s. to 6s. per 1000.
” ” 2 year, 1 year transplanted, 8s. to 9s. per 1000.
” s 2 years transplanted, one and a half to three

feet high, 10s. to 12s. per 1000.
Cedar of Lebanon, often transplanted, one to two feet, 80s. to 100s.
per 100.
» Deodar, 2 year seedling, 40s. per 100. ®
ee ek 2 years transplanted, 60s. per 100.
‘g 3 Often transplanted, one to three feet, 100s. to 200s. per

100.
Wellingtonia gigantea, 1 year seedling, 40s. per 100.
3 rr 1 year, 1 year transplanted, 60s. per 100.
<9 Transplanted, one to three feet, 1s. to 3s. each,

Oak, British, 1 and 2 year seedling, 3s. to 6s. per 1000.
3 » Transplanted 1 year, 10s. to 12s. per 1000.
e a Transplanted 2 years, one and a half to two feet, 18s. to
20s. per 1000.
»» Transplanted twice, two to three feet, 25s. to 30s. per 1000.
Beodh, 1 and 2 years seedling, 3s. to 5s. per 1000.
», 2 years transplanted, one to two feet, 15s. to 20s. per 1000.
» Twice transplanted, two feet, 25s. per 1000.
Chestnut, Spanish, 2 years transplanted, two feet, 35s. per 1000.
” * Twice transplanted, two, three, and four feet, 40s.
to 50s. per 1000.
Alder, 2 year seedling, 4s. per 1000.
» 1 year transplanted, 8s. per 1000.
» 2 years transplanted, 10s. to 15s. per 1000.
THE USUAL PRICES OF NURSERY PLANTS. 411

Birch, common and weeping, 1 and 2 years seedling, 3s. to 4s. per 1000.
” 2 33 1 and 2 years transplanted, 103. to 20s.
per 1000.
Willow sorts, 1 year from cnttings, 3s. per 100.
» 2 year from cnttings, 5s. per 100.
Poplar, sorts raised by cuttings, 1 year, 3s. per 100.
39 ” a 2 years, 3s. to 5s. per 100.
2 ee From layers 2 years transplanted, three to five
feet, 10s. to 15s. per 100.
Elm, Scotch or Wych, 2 year seedling, 4s. to 5s. per 1000.

” ” 1 year transplanted, 8s. to 10s. per 1000.

” 5 2 years transplanted, three feet, 20s. per 1000.

9 + Twice transplanted, three to five feet, 253. per
1000.

Maple, Norway, 1 and 2 year seedling, 6s. to 10s. per 1000.
6 5s 1 and 2 years transplanted, two to four feet, 25s. to
40s. per 1000.
” Sycamore, 1 and 2 years’ seedling, 3s. to 5s. per 1000.
33 5 1 year transplanted, 10s. per 1000.
93 ae 2 years transplanted, three feet, 15s. to 20s. per 1000.
f Twice transplanted, four to six feet, 25s. to 35s.
per 1000.
Lime, common, 2 year transplanted, three to five feet, 20s. per 100.
is es Twice transplanted, five to seven feet, 30s. per 100.
Ash, 2 years transplanted, two to three feet, 20s. per 1000.
+ Twice transplanted, three to five feet, 25s. to 30s. per 1000.
Horse-chestnut, 2 years transplanted, three to four feet, 5s. per 100.
i Twice transplanted, four to eight feet, 10s. to 30s. per
100.
Mountain Ash, 2 years transplanted, three to four feet, 303. per 1000.
35 », Twice transplanted, four to eight feet, 4s. to Ss. per 100.
Service Tree, transplanted, four to six feet, 16s. per 100.
Thorn or Quick, 2 year seedling, 4s. to 5s. per 1000.

Me » 2 years transplanted, 8s. to 10s. per 1000.
3 x Strong, twice and thrice transplanted, 12s. to 20s.
per 1000.

Holly, 2 year seedling, 2 years transplanted, 30s. per 1000.
> Twice transplanted, twelve inches, 60s. per 1000.
Yew Tree, English, transplanted, twelve inches, 20s. per 100.
3 Often transplanted, two to four feet, 50s. to 100s. per 100.
INDEX.

ABELE-TREE, or white poplar, 318.

Acclimatation, Sir Joseph Banks and Dr.
Macculloch in favour of, 24.

—— Dr Lindley’s views of, 25.

—— its effects on biennials, 27.

—— on purple laburnum, 27.

~— on the Scotch pine, 28.

—— on the larch, 30, 33.

—— on the Portugal laurel, 33.

—— Leopold 1. of Belgium on, 32.

Mr. T. Rivers’ experience of, 32.

—— its supposed influence on field crops, 34.

Acorns, collect and select, 51, 264.

Alder, fine specimens in the north, 300.

—— its propagation, 301.

—— its uses in a growing state, 303.

Apple, crab, 371.

Araucaria imbricata, 259.

Ash-tree, 356.

— landscape decoration—propagation, 357.

—— mistake by writers on, 358, 361.

Aspen, or trembling poplar, 321.

 

Ballindalloch, successful planting at, 56.

Balm of Gilead Fir, 201.

Bark, mode of harvesting, 129.

Beech, its propagation, 280.

— an ornament, 282.

—— its timber, 283.

—— fine specimens of, 284.

—— for hedges or screen-fences, 147.

—— preparation of plants, planting, etc.,
148.

— purple, 284.

— weeping, 287.

Birch, its kinds, propagation, etc., 305.

— bark, 308.

Burning the surface where fir timber stood,

73.

Calendar of operations, 1.
Cedar, its modern history,on Lebanon, 284.

 

 

Cedar, its introduction, 236.
—— growth in Scotland, 237.
—— its propagation, 238.
—— soil and situation, 239.
~— deodara, 241,

— Red American, 250.
Cherry-tree, 377.

—— at Rosehaugh, 378.

—— the Virginian, 379.
Chestnut-tree, 288.

—— great size at Tortworth, 289.
—— its propagation, etc., 291.
Coppice, 123.

—— on the formation: of, 128.
mode of cutting, 127.
Cork tree, 278.

Crab-apple, 149, 371.
Cryptomeria Japonica, 243.
Culbin plantations—on sand, 97.
Cypress sempervirens, 245.
—— Lawsoniana, 247.

—— other sorts, 248.

 

Darnaway forest, manufacture of bark at,
132,

Deodar cedar, 241.

Ditching for hedges, 151.

Drains for nursery ground, 37.

—— for plantations, 41, 42,

—— in bog, 77.

Elder-tree, 389.

~——— for hedges, 149.

——- green and scarlet, 391, 392.

Elm, the English, 332.

—— the Scotch or Wych, 335.

—— smooth-leaved or Huntingdon, 837.
—— weeping, 338.

Evergreens, times for transplanting, 14.

Fatal effects. of crowding the larch and the
pine, 84.
414

Fences to protect young hedges, 152.
—— for plantations, 43.

Fir, silver, 196.

—— spruce, 187.

Fulham Oak, 274.

Furze or whin, its use as a hedge, 151.

Goat-willow, large specimen, 95.

Grafting in plantations for embellishment,
141.

Grass on sand apt to kill young plants, 105.

Grassy herbage, planting on, 71.

Hand-iron or planting spade, 54.

— not well known in England, 55.

Hawthorn, 383.

Hazel, 293.

Hedges, 148.

— mode of formation, 144.

—— how to renovate old thorn, 154.

—— plants mixed, 147.

Hedgerow timber, its uses, 117.

—— frequent cause of failure, 118.

—— kinds for rough exposure, 120.

— for ornament, 120.

— mode of planting, 121.

—— necessity of pruning, 121.

—— evil effects of nails in trees, 122.

Highland Society—efforts to improve Scotch
fir plantations, 160.

Holly, 147, 400.

—— times of removal, 149.

—— affects the shade, propagation, etc., 401.

—— its native habitat in the north, 403.

Hornbeam, 148, 297.

Horse-chestunut, 367.

—— celebrated trees of, 368.

Trish yew, 408.

Juniper, common, 249.
—— Virginian, or red cedar, 250.
—— Spanish and Bermudas cedar, 251.

Kincorth plantations, 99.
—— mode of thinning, profit, etc., 100.

Laburnum, common sorts, 393.

—— purple flowering, 395.

Larch, its introduction into England, 206.

—— in Scotland during the seventeenth cen-
tury, 207.

-——— imported plants of little value, 209.

 

INDEX.

Larch, British-grown first planted at Atholl,
209,

—— extent of Atholl larch forests, 210.

—— from foreign seed, 211.

—— mode of extracting seed, 213.

—— time of sowing, 214.

—— soil and situation congenial for, 217.

—— its growth in Morayshire, 57, 219.

—— at Brahan and Ballindalloch, 220.

—— at Monymusk, 221.

—— favourite tree with King Leopold 1. of
Belgium, 223.

—— common cause of failure, 225.

—— subject to the attack of insects and
disease, 50, 87, 214, 226, 228, 231.

—— timber, uses of, 282.

progress of one-year plants in moors, 59.

plantation thirty-two years old, cost,
growth, value, 85.

—— liable to be blown over, 87.

—— adapted to subdue furze, 79.

—— fertilizing effect of the leaves of, 233.

 

 

Laurel, common, 380.

—— Portugal, 381.

—— hardy through acclimatation, 382.
Lime-tree,‘common, 350.

~—— mode of laying and propagating, 351.
remarkable specimens of, 352.

—— its bark and wood, 354.

—— small-leaved, 354.

—— American, 355.

 

Locust-tree, 396.
—— Cobbett’s report respecting, 398.

Maple, common, or sycamore, 344.

—— Norway, 346.

——. other sorts, 347, 348.

Mode of preparing oaks, and bare-rooted
plants for being transplanted, 4, 5, 265.

Modes of forest-planting, 53, 65, 71. ..

Moorland to be disturbed before planting, 10.

Moorland plantations, number of plants em-
ployed per acre, 60.

—— the usual mixture, 61.

Mountain ash, 372.

propagation—fine specimens, 374.

 

Natural provisions in indigenous forests, 83.
Norway maple, 346.
Norway spruce, 187,
Notch-planting, 54, 59.
°
INDEX.

Nursery ground, exposure, soil, 36.
drains, fences, 37.

—— manures, 3, 38, 39.

— plants, selecting of, 47.

 

Oak, British, 262.

its propagation, 16, 51, 264.

—— remarkable specimens of, 267.

—— in Scotland, 270.

—— bark, its preparation, 129.

—— its advantages planted in fir woods, 76.
— mode of preparing plants of, 4, 5, 265.
—— galls, 272.

—— American, 275.

— common evergreen, 276.

— cork-tree, 278.

— Fulham, Lucombe, and Turner's, 274.

 

Pine-tree, Scotch, 156. rm

—— of thirty-five years’ growth, 57.

—— not apt to die after rooting, 103.

—— first notice of its varieties, 158.

— march boundaries sometimes divide the
sorts of, 159.

—— Loudon on varieties: apt to degenerate,
159.

—— imported seed yield tender plants, 161.

— mode of extracting seed from cones, 163.

— time of sowing, 164.

—— plants suitable for bare exposed ground,
165. .

—— picturesque effect of, 166.

—— a favourite tree with Wordsworth, 167.

— remarkable root of, at Blackfriars
Haugh, 167.

—— fine specimens of, 166, 168, 170.

—— large plank of, at Gordon Castle, 169.

—— native forest vegetation, 170.

—— forest of Abernethy, 171.

—— difference in appearance of kinds, 174.

—— native wood very durable, 175.

—— native tested with Riga fir, 176.

—— subject to the attack of insects, 176.

—— Sylvestris Haguenensis, 178.

—— pumilio mughus, and montana, 178.

— sorts adapted to intercept snow-drift,
179.

—— Lander's advice respecting the tree, 161.

—— Excelsa, and Lambertiana, 185.

— Laricio or Corsican, and Austrian, 180.

—— pinaster adapted to seaside planting, 181.

—— —— extensive woods of, in Norfolk,
182.

 

415

Pine-tree, Ponderoso, Cambra, 183.

— Strobus, 184.

Pear-tree, wild, its-uses, 370.

Peat-soil, pure, unfavourable to growth, 59.

Pit-planting, 65.

Plane-tree, oriental, 362.

occidental, 365.

Plantations, rise and progress of, in Britain,
19.

—— extensive, by the Earl of Seafield, 23.

—— on moorland, 54.

—— cheap and successful, 56.

—— of rapid growth and value in thirty-five
years, 57.

—— on prepared or trenched ground, 66.

—— kind most profitable in remote districts,
68.

—— on a surface of grassy vegetation, 71.

—— on ground where timber has stood, 72.

~—— on hog or peat soil, 77. ;

—— on ground overspread with furze, 78.

—— on ground at a great altitude, 79.

— of larch thirty-two years old, and value
of, 85.

of hardwood generally permanent, 92.

— sea-side, 93.

Poplar, the best kinds, 316.

—— propagation, 317.

—— white and grey, 319.

trembling, 321.

—— Lombardy, 322.

—— uses of the tree in a living state, 324.

—— black Italian, 325.

—— balsam, 326.

—— Ontario, 327.

—— pruning not recommended—disease, 329.

~— recorded opinions of the tree, 330.

—— timber, 330. ;

Prices, usual, for nursery plants, 409.

Privet for hedges, 150.

Propagation by laying stools, 351. f

Protection of seedlings against frost, 8.

Pruning forest trees, its use denied by
theorists, 134.

—— coniferous trees seldom necessary, 82-
134.

—— knife the only necessary implement,
135.

—— where of greatest value, 137.

—— evil results of injudicious, 138.

—— oak for shipbuilding, 139.

—— trees for picturesque effect, 140.

—— hedge tops, 11.

 

 

 
416

Rivers, Mr., on acclimatation, 32.

Roads in plantations, 45.

Robinia, or locust-tree, 396.

Rocky ground, mode of planting, 59.»

Roots, the necessity of their being fibrous,
51, 68, 113.

—— injured by drought, 6, 146.

—— larch, when to avoid pruning them, 75.

—— spread of, in pure sand, 103.

Scotch Fir (sce Pine-tree), 156.

Sea-side planting, 93.

—— in Norfolk, reported by Mr. Grigor of
Norwich, 94.

—— in Morayshire, at Culbin, 97.

— loss sustained by sand-drift, 98.

—— on sand-drift at Kincorth, 99.

— —— on Moy estate, 101.

— cost of formation, 102.

value after twenty-four years, 106.

—— on the coast of France, 107.

—— on the west coast of Scotland, 108.

—— pines adapted to adverse circumstances,
110.

—— on the configuration of the ground, 111.

—— the preparation of soil for, 111. :

——time of planting, and screen-fences,
plants, etc,-112.

—— shrubs for underwood in, 116.

Selecting nursery plants, 47.

Service-tree, 375.

Silver fir, common, propagation, 196.

— its adaptation as underwood when
young, 199.

—— fine trees of, 200.

——- curious formation on old roots of, 201.

— Balm of Gilead, 201.

—— other species, 204, 205.

—— Gilpin on its appearance, 114,

Soil, congenial, continues so for timber, 75.

 

 

Spruce fir, 50, 187.

INDEX.

Spruce-fir, mode of growing the tree, 188.
—— celébrated trees of, 189.

—— rate of growth at Monymusk, 189.
—— black and white American, 191, 192.
—— Douglas’s, 193.

—— hemlock, and Himalayan, 194, 195.
Sycamore, or mock plane-tree, 344.

Table showing the number of plants required
to plant an acre from 1 to 30 feet apart, 47,

Thinning, in nursery lines, 2.

—— plantations, 81.

—— examples of unskilful, 88.

—— hardwood, 90, 91.

Time to begin forest-planting, 15, 76.

—— to plant wet, mossy, or peat land, 6.

to plant evergreens, 13, 14.

Thorn, the common hawthorn, 145, 383.

—— its propagation and appearance, 384, 386.

its varieties, 388.

Trees which spring up after the fir is re-
moved, 73.

 

 

Walnut, common, 339.

—— fine specimens in Morayshire, 341.

black American, 342,

Weak seeds produce weak plants, 83, 84,

Wellingtonia gigantea, 252.

—— in scenes of California, 252.

—— ordinary growth of, in Scotland, 255.

——— growth at Theydon Grove, 257.

Wild plants that first appear in woods on
sand, 104.

Willow, best tree kinds, 115, 310,

—— timber, 126, 313.

—— dwarf and weeping sorts, 314.

 

Yew-tree English, 150, 404.

—— remarkable treeat Fountain Abbey, etc.,
407.

—— Irish, 408.

EDINBURGH : T. CONSTABLE,
PRINTER TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.
Eeere

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