M l '
Mi'l^-oilii
SCOTLAND.
Moray
Caithnefs
(allkilleJbtit )
ihofe covered >
with fnovv). I
it thus appears that the trees in the weft, fouth, and fouth-weft of England and Ireland have
efeaped with little injury, while the great majority of trees in the inland counties have been deftroyed.
Another remarkable feature is that Scotland feems to have fuffered lefs than the inland counties.
That may be due to one of two very different caufes: either to there having been a greater amount
of fnow in Scotland, or to the comparative nearnefs to the fea of all the places reixirted on having fecurcd
a lefs fevere degree of cold. It may be faid that, as we have not given the degrees of cold which each
l>lacc was fubjected to, the tables are of little value; but the reader must remeinber that, tkirmg the
winter in queflion, the whole countr>-, England, Scotland, and Irelantl, experienced a long continuous tract
of fevere cold. Mr Palmer, indeed, gives the lowed degree of cold in every inftance where it was known ;
but it is impoITible to embody that in an abftracT It will be fufficient to fey that, with a few exceptions,
the temperature ever\-where reached below zero. The exceptions arc, of course, in t!ie maritime counties;
but there, even, there arc only r i inftances, out of the 109 quoted, where the gi eated cold was less than 10
above zero, and none less than 1'. The comparative advantage which places expofed to fea-air, and the
climate that accompanies it, have over inland diftricls in the above tables, will appear more clearly if
we pick out the places which are within the influence of fea-breezes, and contrail the refults at them
with the refidts at thofe which are not; thus—
Ji-weft c
J, South coan, do
3. Soulh-eaH coast, do, ,.
4. Weft coaft
5. Eaftcoall
6. Inland and northern cc
t. Ireland,..
1
1 ' 1
6
3 , 4
i i
" 11
69 90
Thefe figures give an average of only one in five, as the proportion killed in trees growing within
the influence of the fea-breezes ; and the very- revcrfe, or almoft the fame pro])ortlon, as the average
of thofe not killed in trees growing beyond the influence of the fea-breezes.
Within moderate bounds the amount of altitude above the fea does not feem to aiTedl the tree mjurioully
Longleat, in Wiltfliire, 460-700 feet above the fea ; Watcombe, in Devonlhire, 400 feet; liallnor
Caflle, in Ilercfordlhirc, 520 feet; Kmo Park, in Queen's County, 506 feet; and Cecil, in Tyrone, 300
feet above the fea,—arc all places where P . in/tgnis has efraped the winter of i860, and is doing well.
Neither the quality of the foil nor the nature of the geok)gica! formations on which the trees are
grown feem to have much effecl upon its conititution, Mr Palmer's tables Ihew the followmg proportions
of
of thofe growing under dilTereat conditions in thefe refpeds, which fuccumbed to the winter of i860,
''-wJ'uiSir
It appears, from the only data in the above table where the inftanccs are fufficiently numerous to
generalife from, that the trees in fandy light loam efeaped better than thofe in heavy loam ; but it is only
in a very minor degree that we can trull to feeing the effcds of the foil exhibited in the hardinefs of the
tree; and the above refult is the lefs to be looked at, feeing the number of other caufes which might
affect its fate, fucii as the degree of cold each might have been fubjedcd lo, the nature of its expofure, the
quality ofthe plant, &c.
Had we been able to give a comparifon of the growth of trees of the fame age in the different foils
in the fame diflrici, that would have been intercfting; but for that, unfortunately, we have no fufficient
materials, ^\'e might confaft the growth of a few trees <;f the fame ages in cliffe.rent countics; but as the
foil in mod inltances of which we have notes feems to have been fimilar, the refult muft go to climate and
fituati(ni rather than to foil. Thus three trees, each 21 years of age, antl growing in a loamy foil, have
attained the following heights: at Osborne, 50 feet; at Redleaf (Kent), 40 feet; and at (ilafllough
(Monaghan), 43 feet. Two of 30 yeai-s of age, and alfo growing in loam, have attained refpcctively 46
feet and 65 feet; the fonner at E;iftnor Caltle (,1 Icrefordriiire) and the other at Bicton (Devonfliire). A
ftill more remarkable contraft appears to exilt between trees of nearly the fame age, at Watcombe (Dev<.nfhirei
and Longleat . Wiltlhire), but it is fo great that we fufpect fome error as to the age. and have indicated
our doubts by the ufiial mark in the table in the next page.
The reader knows that Mr Palmer's tables are not lo be taken as reprefenting the ftatiftics of a
general cenfus of all the trees iu the kingdom ; or of the refults at all places in the king<lom. They are
merely of \-alue as the refults of an Impartial fearch after information, wherex er it could be procure<l. A
1..-I nf ;,.r;H>.ntal information relating to other points was obtained by him at the fame time, and rethe
.,;ood deal of Incidental information relating to other points was obtained 1.
corded in his remarks on eaeh cafe. From thefe we learn that the older a
better it withftood
the cold. The more expofed trees alfo feem to have efeaped fully better than thofe in low damp groimds ;
•md many trees that wore thought at the time to be irretrievably injured, fiihfe(|uently recovered. Among
diofe dial were llain were many fine trees, 20, 30, and 40 feet high. At lllgbnam Court in Gloucefter-
Park and Rolldlon Hall in Stalford, a tree of 30 feet high was lolt at cach of thefe
fhirc, at Decklello
places; while two others
remain, the talleft which we know of are, one al Bicton in Devonfliire, and one at .Mount Shann,
I imerick both when meafared in 1862, being 63 feet high. There is one at Porthquedden, near Truro
in Cornwall wliicii mult now be upwards of 60 feet in height, growing about .00 yards from the fea It
was - 3 feet in .S60, The tree at Osborne portrayed In our plate Is 50 feet high. In ,860. one at Nettlecimbe
od in Clouceltern-iire, one 45 and another 35 feet high. Of thofe which ,
in Somerfetfliire, was 48 feet high: another at Caftlehill, in Devonflnre, ^
1 Park, in Kent, was then
.rood tree at Mr Hlandy's, near Reading, about 30 feet m height. One at Linlot
s 50 feel. There is a
f t hi.rh .and ^^ feel In the diameter ofthe fpread of the branches ; another 29 feet high and 24 feet