CUPRESSUS LUSITANICA

The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
Henry John Elwes, F.R.S. & Augustine Henry, M.A.
VOLUME V Edinburgh : Privately Printed MCMX (1910)

CUPRESSUS LUSITANICA, MEXICAN CYPRESS Cupressus lusitanien, Miller, Gard. Diet. No. 3 (1768); Lambert, Genus Pinus, i. 95, t. 65 (1803); Loudon, Are. et Fnit. Brit. iv. 2477 (1838); Forbes, Pin. Woburti. 187,1. 62 (1840); Carrière, Conif. ii. 153 (1867); Masters, in Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. xvii. i (1894), and Jour a. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxxi. 331 (1896); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 210 (1900). Cupressuspendula, L'Héritier, Stirp. 15, t. 8 (1784) (not Thunberg). Cupressus glauca, Lamarck, Encyd. ii. 243 (1786); Brotero, FI. Lusitanien, i. 216 (1804); End licher, Syn. Conif. 58 (1847); Dalzell and Gibson, Bombay flora, Suffi. 83 (1861); Hooker, Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 645 (1888); Masters, in Gard. Chron. x. 761, fig. no (1891); Cooke, Fl. Presid. Bombay, ii. 666 (1907). Cupressus Coulteri^ Forbes, Pin. IVoburn. 190 (1839). Cupressus Lindleyi, Klotzsch, in Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 59 (1847); Hemsley, in Biol. Cent. Amer. iii. 183 (1882). Cupressus Ehrenbergii, Kunze, in Linnœa, xx. 16 (1847). Cupressus Karwinskyana, Regel, in Gartenflora, vi. 346 (1857). Cupressus sinensis? Lee, ex Gordon, Pinetum, 63 (1858). Cupressus taexicana,3 Koch, Dendrologie, ii. pt. 2, 159 (1873). A tree, attaining in Mexico 100 ft. in height and 12 ft. in girth. Bark reddish brown, fissuring longitudinally into long thin brown strips. Branches widely spread ing with pendulous branchlets. Branchlet systems alternate, not distichous, spreading at varying angles, bi-pinnate, with the pinnae not disposed in one plane. Ultimate branchlets tetragonal, slightly compressed, -fa in. wide, ^]0 in. thick. Leaves nearly uniform in four ranks, ^ in. long, appressed, but slightly free at the tips, ovate-acuminate, often mucronate, convex from side to side, occasionally marked with a depressed circular pit. Staminate flowers yellowish, ^ in. long ; stamens about 20. Cones in the first year covered with a glaucous bloom, with the points of the scales spreading and reflexed ; in the second year ripening and letting out the seeds, and remaining on the branches for about a year afterwards, globose, about ^ in. in diameter, on straight long stalks, dark reddish brown, but covered with a glaucous bloom, whitish and thick in trees growing in Mexico, France, and Portugal, faint or absent in England and Ireland ; scales eight, each with a central, usually prominent, triangular and reflexed process. Seeds eight to ten on each scale, ^- in. long, brown, with conspicuous resin-vesicles ; wing narrow with a translucent border. 1 The plant described by Forbes in 1839 as C. Coulteri was raised from seeds taken from a cone, said to have been fifteen years old, in Coulter's herbarium. Loudon, Encyd. Trees, 1077 (1842) states that this plant was raised at Glasnevin in 1837 ; but as Coulter did not arrive in Mexico till 1834 there must be some error in the age ascribed to the seeds. A specimen in the Kew herbarium, dated 1878, from the tree at Glasnevin is C. lusitanien, and this tree is probably one of the rare Mexican cypresses which was destroyed by a storm in 1878, as Mr. F. W. Moore informs me. Further storms in 1883 and 1893 swept away the remaining Mexican trees at Glasnevin. Masters, in Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxxi. 348 (1896) is in error in identifying the specimen of C. Coulteri, preserved at Kew, with C. Macnabiana. 2 Specimens cultivated under this name at Tokai, near Cape Town, are C. lusitanien. 3 A tree cultivated under this name at Glasnevin, which was destroyed in 1878, is C. lusitanien, according to a branch preserved in the Kew herbarium. Cupressus 1177 VARIETIES A careful examination of all the native material in the Kew herbarium and in Lindley's collection at Cambridge, together with a study of the numerous examples in cultivation in England, Ireland, France, Italy, and Portugal, show that there is only one species of Cupressus in Mexico, comprising two main forms, distinguishable by their habit of growth, and resembling in this respect C. sempervirens and C. macrocarpa. Pringle writes to me as follows : " After a score of years of vain endeavour to distinguish several species of Cupressus on the mountains of Mexico, it is gratifying to learn that you think it possible that there exists only one variable species there. The Mexican cypress, so far as I have seen, varies no more in all its characters than any one of the admitted species of Mexican pines. Consider its dis tribution through sixteen degrees of latitude and from 4000 to 10,000 ft. altitude, and its growth in widely different soils, from the richest humus to the poorest volcanic soil, infinitely varying conditions which tell effectively on the character of the species." 1. The typical form, which has been described above, and which is identical in every particular with the "cedar of Goa," long cultivated in Spain and Portugal, is distinguished by its wide-spreading branches and pendulous branchlets, the ultimate ramifications of which arise at varying angles and are not disposed in one plane. The other form, usually cultivated as C. Knightiana, is distinguished as follows :— 2. Var. Benthami, Carrière, Conif. 155 (1867). Cupressus Benthami, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 59 (1847); Hemsley, in Biol. Cent. Amer. iii. 183 (1883); Masters, m Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxxi. 338 (1896); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 201 (1900). Cupressus thurifera, Schlechtendal, in Linnœa, xii. 493 (1838) (not Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth) ; Bentham, Plant. Hartweg. 57 (1840). Cupressus Knightiana, Knight and Perry, Syn. Conif. 20 (1850); Carrière, Conif. i. 158 (1867). Cupressus Uhdeana, Carrière, Conif. 129 (1855) (not Gordon). Cupressus elegans,1 Low, ex Koch, Dendrologie, ii. pt. 2, p. 156 (1873). This variety usually forms a narrow pyramidal tree, with very regular branches. Branchlet systems and their pinnae disposed in one plane. Ultimate branchlets more flattened and compressed than in the type, ?6 in. wide, •£% in. thick. Leaves, lateral pair narrow, conduplicate, with acuminate free mucronate tips ; facial pair flattened, ovate-acuminate; all usually marked with a central circular glandular depression. Bark, cones, and seeds, as in the type. This variety occurs in the wild state in Mexico, and is represented in the Kew herbarium by specimens collected by Hartweg at Banco, by Bourgeau at Orizaba, and by Parry and Palmer at 6000 to 8000 ft. near San Luis Potosi, and is doubtless sporadic throughout the whole range of the species. 3. Var. Skinneri. Cupressus Skinneri? Carrière, Conif. 128 (1855). Cupressusexcelsa, Scott, ex Carrière, Conif. 128 (1855). 1 This is referred to as a garden name for C. Knightiana, in Carrière, Conif. 127 (1855). 2 Skinner was one of the partners in the firm of Klee, Skinner, and Co., in Guatemala, and was much interested in natural history. Cf. Koch, Dendrologie, ii. pt. 2, 157 (1873). y 2 A 1178 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland This cypress which occurs in Guatemala, where it was collected l by Donnell- Smith at 5000 ft. altitude, does not differ from var. Benthami in botanical characters, but is perhaps more tender in cultivation. The late Lord Annesley raised some plants from seeds imported from Guatemala, one of which succumbed at Castle- wellan to the frost of April 1908. Another plant given to Canon Ellacombe in 1897, is, however, thriving at Bitten and has attained 14 ft. in height. 4. Var. glauca. Specimens with very bluish glaucous foliage from Monserrat in Portugal may provisionally be distinguished by this varietal name. The leaves show usually the dorsal resin-gland, which is characteristic of C. arisonica, and afford evidence that the latter species is only a geographical form of C. lusitanica. DISTRIBUTION This species is widely distributed in Mexico,2 and extends into the high mountains of Guatemala. According to Pringle it is found at altitudes between 4000 and 10,000 ft., usually growing in the neighbourhood of mountain streams, and on moist slopes. It rarely forms a forest to the exclusion of other species, and even when crowded generally branches from near the ground. Pringle speaks, however, of a small wood straggling along brooks for a mile or more on the mountains over looking the valley of Mexico on the south, the trees showing great variation in foliage and mode of branching. This species attains its largest size, 2 to 4 ft. in diameter, in damp volcanic soil on the plains at the base of the mountains, as near the city of Mexico. It is also generally planted in the towns of the southern table lands. (A. H.) The only place where I remember to have seen this beautiful tree in Mexico was in a grove of planted trees in the so-called " Sacro monte " at Amecameca, a village on the lower slopes of the great volcano of Popocatepetl, at an elevation of nearly 8000 ft. Here it was a picturesque tree with buttressed trunks 5 or 6 feet in diameter, and clothed with pendulous branches, which in many places were covered with Tillandsia and other epiphytes. Many of the trees were dying at the tops and seemed of great age. A good illustration of these trees is given under the name C. Benthami by Rarsten and Schenck.3 The vegetation and climate of this region is subtropical, and, though very dry at the season when I was there, has a long rainy season, and, as far as I could learn, little frost or snow. HISTORY So far as I know, no account has been written in English of the forest of Bussaco, in Portugal, which is celebrated as the home of the tree called Cupressus lusitanica, Miller, by botanists, and popularly known as the cypress or cedar of Goa. An attempt to decide the origin of this tree was made by the late Dr. 1 Heyde and Lux also gathered specimens of C. lusitanica in the Santa Rosa department of Guatemala at 4000 feet altitude in 1892. 2 Hartweg collected both the typical form and var. Benthami in Mexico in 1839. 3 Vtgctationsbildtr, ii. t. 16 (1905). Cupressus T 179 Masters in the Journal of the Royal Horticîdtural Society, xvii. i-n (1894) ; but I cannot accept his conclusion that C. sempervirens, C. torulosa, and C. lusitanica may have all arisen from a common stock, and at a relatively not very remote period. All the trees that I have seen of C. sempervirens in England, Portugal, and other countries are of a very different habit, at all stages and under all conditions of growth. The same applies to C. torulosa. Dr. Goeze's statement in his letter to Dr. Masters that the old monks' chronicles gave the Azoresl as the native country of the tree is not supported by any historical or botanical evidence. I prefer to believe that it is of Mexican origin, as a careful comparison of numerous Portuguese and Irish specimens with native specimens of Cupressus Lindleyi from Mexico shows that Carrière and Koch " were correct in identifying C. lusitanica with that species. The tree may as easily have been intro duced by Spanish friars3 from Mexico as by Portuguese monks from Goa,4 though we cannot now discover by whom and when ; and as the real origin seems lost in antiquity, and the tree has for at least three centuries been naturalised in Portugal, the name of C. lusitanicafl is not inappropriate. I visited Portugal in April 1909, mainly with the object of studying on the spot the cypress and the oaks of Portugal, which are extremely variable and inter esting. Professor Henriques, of Coimbra, was good enough to accompany me to Bussaco, which is reached by a short railway journey from Coimbra to Luzo ; whence a drive of two miles brings one through the village to the entrance of the Royal domain, which was formerly the property of a Trappist monastery ; on the site of which a large and beautiful hotel has been erected. The forest is sur rounded by a wall about three miles long, and appears to be a virgin forest in which have been planted at various times, but mainly forty to fifty years ago by Rodrigo de Moraes Suares, an immense variety of exotic trees. The old monks appear to have planted the cypresses at first round the monastery, and later at many points 1 In the Azores large logs of a coniferous timber are frequently found deeply buried under volcanic debris. A block of this wood, presented to the Kew Museum by Dr. Goeze, and supposed by Dr. Masters to be Cupressus sempervirens or C. lusitanica, has recently been examined at the Jodrell laboratory by Mr. Boodle, and proves to be that of a juniper, and is probably Juniperus brevifolia, Parlatore, a tree still common on the Azores. There are not any grounds for supposing that C. lusitanica ever inhabited the Azores. Cf. Gard. Chrm. 1867, p. 929; Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 180(1900); and Trelease, Missouri Bot. Card. Rep. viii. 169 (1897).—(A. H.) 2 Koch, Dendrologie, ii. pt. 2, p. 155 (1873), vvno describes the Mexican native species under the name C. Coulteri, Forbes, and C. lusitanica under the name C. pendilla, L'Héritier, states that the former is probably the wild form of the latter, and adds that it is often impossible to distinguish one from the other.—(A. II.) 3 C. lusitanica is common in cultivation in southern Spain, and there is a specimen at Kew labelled Los Martyres Monastery, Granada City. According to Willkomm and Lange, Prod. Fl. Hispan. i. 21 (1861), Guira found it apparently wild in Torre de Guil, at the base of the Sierra de Carrascoy, in Murcia.—(A. H.) 4 The tree is unknown at Goa, and there is not a single specimen from any part of India in the Kew herbarium. Dalzcll and Gibson, Bombay Flora, Suppl. 83 (1861), say: "Now common in gardens, native and European, does not succeed below the Ghauts, and above only where the soil is deep and rich. The healthiest appears to be those planted in front of Sir Jamsetjee's bungalow in Poona, but they are young and have their trials to go through." Gammie wrote from Foona, 17th July 1903 : " Said never to fruit in the Bombay Presidency. This is the result of repeated inquiries on my part. It is by no means common in Poona now, as many plants were killed in the drought of 1899-1900." Brandis, Forest Flora, 534, and Hooker, Fl. Brit. India, v. 645, are apparently in error in stating that the tree is extensively cultivated in the western Ghats. No one, in any case, has ever seen old trees in India. Hutchins, in Card. Chron. xxxvi. 275 (1904) and xxxvii. 219 (1905), reports that he cultivated C. lusitanica, C. sinensis, and C. torulosa, so-called, at Tokai, near Cape Town, and concluded that the two former were cultivated varieties of C. torulosa. Hutchins kindly sent us copious specimens of the three forms, which he had in cultivation, and they are all C. lusitanica. He had not obtained true plants of C. torulosa.—(A. II.) 6 C. lusitanica is the oldest name of the species, and is adopted by us on that account.—(A. H.) ii8o The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland along the roads and paths which lead to the nine entrances to the forest, but always singly or in lines, apparently for ornament alone. The oldest of these trees are still, with one or two exceptions, quite sound, and although difficult to measure on account of their being crowded by other trees, I was able to make the following measurements :— 1. A tree near the hotel, just below the road leading to the Coimbra gate, about i io ft. by ii ft. 2 in., with a clean bole about 40 ft. high. 2. A tree which M. Lacerda, the director of the domain, considers the largest of all, is 85 to 90 ft. high, with a bole of 30 ft., 15 ft. io in. in girth, and situated just below the small chapel of San José. 3. A little above this is a tree, perhaps 100 ft. high or possibly more, with a straight clean bole 66 ft. by 12 ft. 8 in. 4. Above the avenue of Mosteiro a very tall fine tree, possibly taller than No. i, but I could not measure it. 5. A little way down towards the water-staircase a very large hollow tree, the only one which seems to be decayed, measured 15 ft. io in. in girth. There is much variation in the form and habit of this cypress according to the situation ; it seems capable of growing in fairly dense shade, and when crowded by other trees cleans its trunk well. Some fine young trees, said to be about fifty years old, in the deep moist hollow called the Valle dos Abietos, measured about 90 ft. high by 4 to 5 ft. in girth, and were clean to half their height. I have no doubt that these, in the course of another fifty years or so, will attain a greater height than any of the old ones, and may eventually equal, if not surpass, the splendid young silver firs which are growing in the same valley ; whose seedlings come up as thickly and evenly as I have ever seen them do in their native country. The cypress, though it sows itself freely, requires more light when young, and reproduces best where a shallow bed of leaf-mould is partially exposed to the sun. In such places I found plenty of seedlings which seemed to have an excellent root system, and I was able to transplant some of them to the garden of Baron Soutelinho (Mr. A. Tait), of Oporto, and to send some small ones home by post. Owing to the kindness of Senhor Lacerda I have received a fine plank and section of the wood, cut from a tree which shows 160 annual rings on a radius of 18 in.; it appears to be very similar to the wood of Cupressus sempervirens. This account1 has been read by Prof. Henriques, who informs me that the mountain of Bussaco is on the inferior Silurian formation. With regard to the date of its introduction, he says that it must certainly have existed before 1634, when it was mentioned in a poem called Soledades de Bussaco. When the mountain was acquired by the Trappists from the monks of Vacarica in 1626, there was already a great variety of trees, forming a dense forest. The chapel of San José, near which the largest tree grows, was founded in 1644, and the Chronicles of the Carmelite (cap. xx. p. no), published in 1721, speaking of this chapel, says that near it is found the first cypress, progenitor of all the others in the forest. In 1689 Tourne - 1 M. Jacques L. de Vilmorin, in Bull. Soc. Dead. France, 1907, p. 49, gives an interesting account of the forest of Bussaco, which he visited in 1906. Cupressus 1181 fort, in the original manuscript of his Voyage en Portugal, which is now in Prof. Henriques' possession, describes the species as follows : Cupressus lusitanica, patula, fructu minori. I saw this cypress growing at many other places in Portugal, but nowhere very large, except in the beautiful garden of Monserrat, formerly the property of Mr. Beckford, but purchased in 1855 by Sir Francis Cook, whose son, the present Sir Frederick Cook (Viscount Monserrate in Portugal), keeps up this unique place with the greatest care. The oldest cypresses here seem to have been planted something like a century ago, and are extremely varied in habit, as well as in the size, shape, and colour of their fruit. The tallest, in a low sheltered valley north of the house, was blown down a year ago, and measured 3 ft. 5 in. in diameter on the stump. It is said to have been taller than two trees still standing in the same place, one of which is from 105 to no ft. high by io ft. 5 in. in girth, the other being about 90 ft. by \z\ ft. In the Mexican garden there is an old tree about 70 ft. high, with a flat umbrella-shaped top and a trunk clean to about 50 ft. ; several others on the slope just below the house are extremely unlike this in habit, having spreading branches down to the ground profusely covered with old cones, some of which were persistent on branches twenty to thirty years old. Some of these trees were very glaucous in colour, and had longer fruit with larger protuberances. The fruit was much more abundant on these comparatively young and spreading trees than on the tall old ones, and seed was escaping from the cones in the middle of April. Some trees were so covered with male flowers as to give them a yellow appearance, and these bore comparatively few cones. INTRODUCTION This tree was in cultivation1 in 1682 in the Chelsea and Fulham gardens and at Badminton, and was probably introduced from Portugal a short time previously. Miller, writing2 in 1768, says that it was then rare in English gardens, and mentions large trees that had been killed by the frost of 1740 and 1762. It was probably re- introduced during the Peninsular War, when many officers must have seen this species at Bussaco ; and Loudon3 states as a fact that Lord Ferrard brought seeds to Ireland in 1809, which produced many plants. Plants were raised4 at Glasnevin in 1837 from seeds obtained from Coulter's Mexican specimens ; and in all prob ability Hartweg sent seeds from Mexico in 1840 to 1843. Var. Benthami was introduced, according to Loudon,6 under the name C. thurifera, in 1838, when there was a plant a few inches high in the Horticultural Society's garden at Chiswick. In 1843, a plant6 7 ft. high was growing in Lucombe, Pince, and Co.'s nursery at Exeter. Uhde,7 who was Prussian Consul at Matamoras, in Mexico, also sent seeds soon afterwards to Berlin, the plants from which were known as C. Uhdeana. This variety was sent out under the name C. Knightiana 1 Cf. Masters, injburn. Roy. Horl.Soc. xvii. 5 (1894). It is mentioned by Ray, Hist. Plant, ii. 1414, 1798, 1916(1688). * Diet. ed. 8, No. 3 (1768). 3 Art. et Frut. Brit. i. 109 (1838). 4 Loudon, Trees and Shrubs, 1077 (1842). 6 Loudon, Arb. et Fmt. Brit. iv. 2480 (1838). 6 Gard. Mag. xix. 36 (1843). 1 Cf. Koch, Dendrologie, ii. pt. 2, p. 154 (1873). n8a The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland by Knight and Perry, who stated1 their ignorance of its origin in 1850; but in all probability their plants were raised from seed sent by Hartweg. REMARKABLE TREES In England2 we know of no trees which can be certainly distinguished as of Portuguese origin. There is a fine one at Hemsted Park, Cranbrook, which measured 50 ft. by lo ft. in 1905, and seems to be a very old tree (Plate 300). At Westonbirt there are two good trees, about 50 ft. high, somewhat differing in habit, one with rather wide-spreading branches, which was bearing cones in 1909; the other, a narrow pyramidal tree, was without fruit in that year. At Luscombe Castle, Dawlish, a tree, which I saw in 1908, was about 50 ft. by 5 ft. There are several trees in Cornwall, which Mr. A. B. Jackson measured in 1909; at Heligan, a good specimen, 40 ft. by 6 ft. 8 in. ; and at Glendurgan, two trees, the larger, 40 ft. by 4 ft. ii in. There are smaller ones at Liphook, and at Grayswood, Haslemere. This species is not hardy at Barton,3 Suffolk, where all the specimens were killed in the winter of 1860-61. In Ireland this species thrives at several places. The finest,4 perhaps, is at Woodstock, and in 1909 measured about 57 ft. by loj ft., dividing low down into six large stems, and bearing many new and old cones. The forester informed me that 23° of frost had been registered here. Loudon records a tree at Oriel Temple, Co. Louth, now the seat of Lord Masserene, which was 32 ft. high in 1834, and had been raised, as stated above, from seed brought from Portugal by Lord Ferrard in 1809. I visited this place in July 1908, and found no less than three large trees, which may be of the same age. The first is a stunted tree, with a wide-spreading crown 19 yards in diameter, and a short trunk only 4 ft. high and 7 ft. 7 in. in girth. It was covered with new fruit, while those of the preceding year remained, and contained plenty of ripe seed. The second is a much finer tree (Plate 301), about 40 ft. high, with spreading branches and a straight trunk 8 ft. i in. in girth and about 20 ft. high. The third is forked near the ground, where it is 7 ft. 9 in. in girth, and it is about 40 ft. high, with wide-spreading branches. A tree at Kilmacurragh, which is probably of the same age and origin, is 48 ft. by 8 ft., with a bole of 10 ft. high. From it a cutting was struck many years ago (as I was informed by Mr. Moore, of Glasnevin) which has now grown into a fine tree, and had abundance of new and old fruit containing ripe seeds. There is a tree8 at Rostrevor House probably of the same origin as those at Oriel Temple. At Fota there is a fine specimen, cultivated under the name 1 Syn. Conif. 19 (1850). 2 We have seen no trees in Scotland. The specimen at Rossdhu, Dumbartonshire, reported mjourn. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiv. 507 (1892), was incorrectly named, and is C. Lawsoniana. Cf. Masters, mjfcurji. Roy. Hort. Soc. xvii. I, note (1894). 3 Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 155. 4 This tree measured at 2 ft. from the ground 3 ft. 9 in. in 1825, 4 ft. 8 in. in 1834, 6 ft. 8 in. in 1854, and 6 ft 8J in. in 1860. 6 A much larger tree than the one now standing at Rostrevor was blown down in 1903. Cupressus 1183 C. Macnabiana, which was 55 ft. by 6 ft. 3 in. in 1907. There is also a fine tree in the old deer park, Castlemartyr, about 60 ft. high, which Henry saw in 1907. At Birr Castle, King's County, the Earl of Rosse informs us that there is an old tree, 8 ft. in girth at 2 ft. from the ground, and dividing above this into many stems. In England we have distinguished as belonging to var. Benthami a tree at Lamorran, Cornwall, which Mr. A. B. Jackson measured as 49 ft. high in 1909. At Culver, Exeter, a tree, raised from seed brought by Mr. Byrom from the south of France in 1879, measured, in 1909, 35 ft. high, and 7 ft. in girth close to the ground. In a sheltered dell at Bicton, there is a tree—No. 286 in the Bicton MS. catalogue—of var. Benthami, which, though the main stem is broken off some distance from the ground, measured, in 1906, 56 ft. in height, and 12^ ft. in girth at the base. There are two tall trees, close to it, of which No. 290 is typical C. lusitanica, and No. 274 is C. torulosa. No. 283 in the same dell, a tall narrow tree, labelled C. religiosa, and 55 ft. by 7 ft. in 1909, is C. hisitanica, var. Benthami. There was formerly a tree of var. Benthami growing near the Rhododendron dell at Kew, which was cut down about twelve years ago. A specimen preserved in the Arboretum herbarium shows that it produced fruit freely. In Ireland the largest tree of this variety grows on Fota Island (Plate 302), and measured no less than 75 ft. high by 7 ft. 4 in. in girth in 1908. Lord Barrymore informs us that his beautiful specimens of Abies religiosa and Pinus patula were sent by J. Knight in 1844, and planted in 1847. He suspects that this tree, long known under the name C. Lindleyana? was of the same origin. There is another of similar habit at Woodstock which in 1909 was 57 ft. by 6 ft. 3 in. In the nursery of Rovelli Frères at Pallanza, there is a fine specimen of typical C. lusitanica, 50 ft. by 6 ft. 8 in. in 1909, which is erroneously labelled Cupressus sp., Hills of India.2 Var. Benthami is represented by several large trees, which are named incorrectly C. elegans and C. Huge Hi. (H. J. E.)