from which it recovers easily." - Browned by winds, not by frost." " Our best plant of WcUrngtoma got
as brown as a fox during the past winter." » No doubt much of the browning we have to complain of
here is occasioned by the cold clay subsoil i" and so on.
Now it is rather remarkable that its antipathy to wind should be declared thus early in its life. A
fanciful person might say that nature, knowing that in veiy much exposed places it might from the fragility
of its timber be snapped across as soon as it had made any progress, and before the bark was sufficiently
thick to sustain it, thought it better to give it a constitution which would only allow it to grow in sheltered
places, where it might endure to a good old age. There would thus be no waste, a thing which nature
abhors as much as a vacuum.
Notwithstanding the evidence of its occasionally succumbing to extreme cold, the unwonted degree
of it which it stood uninjured, as well as the rapidity with which it recovered from the < M of it, and the
perfea success which has since attended it, sufficiently attest the suitableness of this tree to our climate.
Although introduced only about ti years, there are specimens in England which already exceed 20 feet
in height. We shall specify its size at a few of the localities where it has thriven best, and reached the
greatest size; and shall begin with the plants raise,1 from the seed introduced by Mr Matthew. We
might naturally expefl that these should be the largest, but this is not the case, a circumstance probably
due to their being all distributed in Scotland.
Of Mr Matthews consignment, then, there are two growing at Gourdiehill, near Errol, in a cold
situation, exposed to the north wind, and in a strong clayey soil; they measure about 8 feet each m height,
and 14 inches in circumference of stem at the ground; both were much retarded ,n their early growth from
having been kept too long in flower-pots.
There are two plants at Megginch Castle, by Errol. The one ,s now ,5 feel high, ,0 feet in diameter
of branches, and the stem is 10 inches in diameter at its base. The other is .0 feet high, 8 feet in the
diameter of its branches, and ,0 inches in that of its stem. This last is by much the handsomest specimen
the other being disfigured from growing too close to other plants.
There are two plants at Ballcndean, by Inchture. the first of which was planted out in 1859, in a
hard yellowish earth, and now measures 10 feet in height, 18 feet in the circumference of its branches,
and .8 inches in girth of stem at six inches from the ground. The other was planted in .860, in a damp
yellowish soil, and is growing faster, being now i j i feet high, 18 feet in circumference of branches,
and 15 inches in girth of stem.
There is one plant growing on a dry bank at Kinnoul Nursery, Perth, which has been frequently
transplanted, and now measures only 5 feet in height. Another single plant grows in the garden of Dr
John Lyall, Newburgh, who raised a third part of the seed for Mr Matthew. 'I his is a fine specimen, i3J
feet high; circumference of branches, 34 feet; and of the stem at the ground, 31 feet. It would have
been much taller if it had not lost its top thrice, once by accident and twice by insects.
Another of the plants raised from Mr Matthews seeds is at Balbirnie, Markinch, Fife. It was
about 8 feet high in autumn i860, with a stem 31 inches in girth at the ground, and about 32 feet in the
circumference of its branches; but having been planted in a moist hollow, very subject to hoar frost, it was
much cut down and injured in the succeeding winter, from which it has but recently commenced to
recover, and is now only 5! feet high.
Another at Inchry House, Fife, is 12 feet high, 23 inches in girth at the root, and about 23 feet in
circumference round the extreme points of its branches; and the last of which we have heard is at Eglinton
Castle, Ayrshire, but its dimensions we have not obtained.
It thus appears that the tallest plants, produced from the first arrival of seeds, are only 13J feet high ;
while we shall immediately see that some of those reared from subsequent consignments have reached
upwards of 20 feet.
The height of some of the best plants in England is as follows. They are chieHy taken
from a valuable return published in the " Transactions of the Scottish Arboricultural Society,"
vol. iii. p. 58 (1865) ; and some of them are taken from measurements made two or three years ago.
The most of the measurements were taken about 1864, but the supposed ages of the trees are given
so far as known; and as the earliest importations of seed have been above specified, there can be little
difficulty in fixing an approximate date to the measurements.
Height Yean of iidght Year.,
Windsor Castle there is a plant 21 O IO At Bownnoe, Cornwall, . 14 0 10
Do. one . '3 0 IO „ Denbigh, •4 0 IO
Bicton, Devonshire, . 19 9 9 „ Eggesford, Devon, 14 0
Do 18 0 9 .. Kew, Surrey. . '4 0 IO
Goodwood Park, Sussex, 18 0 11 „ Halston Hall, Salop, . 14 0 IO
18 0 7 „ Wellbeck Abbey, Nottingham, •4 0 -
Murthly Castle, Perthshire, . 18 0 — „ Ambleside, Westmoreland, . '4 0 8
Castle Martyr, Cork, . 18 0 7 „ Castle Ashby, Northampton, . '3 0 8
Bagshot (Mr Waterer's Nursery), . 18 6 10 „ Taymouth Castle, Perth, •3 0 11
Redleaf, Kent, 17 2 „ Glasslough, Co. Monaghan. . '3 '3
Elvaston, Derbyshire, 16 6 11 „ Borthwick Hall, Mid-Lothian, 14 4
Tortworth Court, Gloucester, 16 0 11 „ Dropmore, Buckingham. 12 0 8
Fairlawn Park, Kent, 16 0 8 „ Norclifie, Chester, 12 0 8
Rosehall, Stirling, . 16 0 11 „ Rolleston Hall, Stafford, 12 0 9
Singleton, Carmarthen, 15 6 8 „ Balgowan, Perth, 12 0 7
Bedgebury Park, Kent, '5 ' — „ Camperdown, Forfar, . 12 0 11
Highnam Court, Gloucester, . •5 0 11 „ Greenock Cemetery, Renfrew, 12 0 10
Bryanstone, Dorset, . '5 0 11 „ Castle Kennedy, Wigtown, 12 0 9
Fordell, Fife '5 0 — „ Somerville, Co. Meath, 12 0 1 1
Cecil, Co. Tyrone, . '5 0 10 ,. Charlesfort, Co. Meath, 12 0 5
Lambton Castle, Durham, . 14 6 9 „ Biddulph Grange, Stafford, . 11 0 8
Riccarton, Mid-Lothian, 14 0 11 „ Eastnor Castle, Hereford, 11 0 6
Basing Park, Hants, . 14 3 9 „ Osborne, Isle of Wight, 11 0 11
So far as we can learn from the success which has attended it in these and other counties, there does
not appear to be any great distinction in favour of one kind of district more than another. If we at times
seem to fall upon facts from which we might hope to draw some general conclusion, others directly
contradicting them presently warn us against hasty generalisation. For instance, Mr Rogers, writing
from Cornwall, says, " The plant does not like our moist climate, and I scarcely know one thoroughly
o-ood specimen in this county." But Mr Dorrien, writing from Ashdean, Sussex, says, " I have three
seedling plants now about 4 feet high, which have never suffered in the least from either cold or winds,
and I am much exposed to the sea-breezes'.' We have seen that it is apparently more susceptible to the
effect of winds than frost, or other trying influences; but Mr Blackie, the gardener at Revesby Abbey,
Lincolnshire, reports quite the reverse: " This does well everywhere," says he, " if exposed to all the
winds ; plants here do much better in open places than in sheltered. I am convinced that the reason
of pieces dying off arises simply from want of air, at least ours has not a dead leaf; formerly, when more
sheltered, pieces were often dying."
Notwithstanding this testimony we think the opposite opinions are better founded, as they are more
numerous ; and the two points which we recommend to be chiefly guarded against are, too great exposure,
and a cold wet soil. Mr Kirby Hedges (Wallingford Castle) mentions an instructive
illustration of the importance of a judicious location of this species. He says: " I recollect, in 1862,
seeing some plants of the Wellingtonia, about 7 or 8 feet high, at Beauport, the late Sir Charles
Lamb's place, near St Leonard's, which were so severely injured by the frost that there was little
hope of their recovering ; but they were growing, or rather existing, in low wet ground, and the wonder
to me was, that they could have borne any shock at all. One of the finest specimens I ever saw was
at this place ; and it was quite uninjured, growing, however, on the high ground'.'
The rapidity of the growth of these trees must not be passed over without notice, 2- and 3 feet
being common growths in a single year; but it sometimes happens that where the plant has escaped
apparently unhurt from the severity of the preceding winter, or other unfavourable circumstances, its
[ 20 ] l growth