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We have, however, found several other old trees, none of which are fine specimens, and may have been planted later.
A tree at Bayfordbury, with a broken top, is about 20 feet high. At Brickendon Grange, Herts, there is a remarkable specimen, only a foot in height, with long branches spreading over the ground for about 12 feet. This curiosity is probably very old; and its peculiar form is possibly due to the leader having been repeatedly bitten by animals.
At Pencarrow, Cornwall, a tree is growing, which I made in 1905 47 feet high by 7 feet to inches in girth. Mr. Bartlett, in a letter dated February, 1906, gives the following interesting particulars concerning this tree:—"According to Sir W. Molesworth’s catalogue of the trees at Pencarrow, the Abies amabilis was planted in 1843. The soil is well-drained loam, and the tree stands in a sheltered position. For many years it was a strikingly beautiful specimen, quite symmetrical and feathered to the ground. A few years ago it was attacked by Chermes, and is now in a poor state and likely to be completely ruined by the disease in a few years. The tree bore a few cones near the top, four years ago; but these contained no good seeds. The cones were resinous, dark blue in colour when growing, fading to a dull brown towards autumn. The bark of the trunk and branches is covered with resin- blisters, which exude a liquid resembling golden syrup in colour and consistency. The buds are late in unfolding.” Mr. Bartlett states that there is, at Lamellan, in north Cornwall, a perfectly healthy but stunted example of Abies amabilis, growing on very poor soil on the edge of a quarry. This tree was probably raised from a cutting of the Pencarrow tree. At Menabilly, in the same county, there is another tree, the flowers of which have been figured.* In 1908 it measured 37 feet by 3 feet 7 inches.
At Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire, Henry measured in 1908 a tree, 50 feet by 4 feet, the date of planting of which is unknown. Though very healthy in general appearance, some of the lower branches are beginning to suffer from knotty disease. The bark is very smooth and covered with numerous resin blisters, differing markedly from the rough bark of an A. Nordmanniana, of the same size, growing beside it.
At Smeaton-Hepburn, in East Lothian, there is a tree,” which was planted in 1843; but its top was blown off in 1859, and it is now only 31 feet high, but has a girth of 8 feet 10 inches. It produced staminate flowers in 1886.
At Castle Kennedy, Abies amabilis takes on a low creeping bushy habit, possibly due to the plants being raised from cuttings, and I saw a similar dwarf stunted plant at Moncreiffe, which I believe to be A. amabilis.
On the whole this species appears to be a failure in cultivation, in Europe; and does not succeed any better in New England, where, according to Sargent,’ it has proved rather tender and grows very slowly. (H.J.E.)
1 Gard, Chron, iii. 755, f. 102 (1888).
2 Cf Sir Archibald Buchan-Hepburn’s account in Proc. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, xviii. 207, 210 (1904). It was 8 inches high at the time of planting, when it was supposed to be A. grandis.
3 Sargent, in The Pinetum at Wellesley in 1905, p. 12, mentions a small healthy specimen, which was raised in the Veitchian nurseries near London, from seeds collected in Oregon by C.S. Pringle in 1882.