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The finest trees in Britain are probably two, which I saw in 1906, growing in the grounds of Mr. Victor Marshall at Monk Coniston, the largest of which is now 69 feet high and 4 feet 9 inches in girth, The climate here is mild and damp, but the soil dry and slaty. Mr. S.A. Marshall wrote to Kew that one of these trees coned for the first time in 1902, and in 1904 produced many cones.’

There is a well-shaped tree at The Coppice, Henley, the seat of Sir Walter Phillimore, Bart. It came from Dropmore as a young plant in 1858, and grew very slowly at first, sustaining some damage from the frost of May 1867. It is now healthy and thriving, and measured, in 1907, 62 feet high by 3 feet 8 inches in girth. At Bury Hill, Dorking, the seat of R. Barclay, Esq., there is a well-grown specimen, which he informed me had been raised from a tree at Denbies in the same neighbourhood, and which in 1908 measured 58 feet by 3 feet 2 inches. It grows, like so many of the best conifers in this country, on greensand. At Dropmore, a tree 48 feet by 3 feet 10 inches in 1905, coned for the first time in 1907. At High Canons, Herts, Mr. H. Clinton Baker measured a tree, which was bearing cones in February 1908, as 48 feet high by 2 feet 8 inches in girth; and in a wood, on his own property at Bayfordbury, there is a thriving young tree, 32 feet high and 1 foot 5 inches in girth. At Cuffnells, near Lyndhurst, a good-sized but badly-grown tree was bearing cones in 1907. At Leighton Hall, near Welsh- pool, the seat of Mrs. Naylor, there are three, at a considerable elevation, the best of which in 1908 was about 50 feet high. In the pinetum at Lyndon Hall, Oakham, Rutland, Henry measured in 1908 a fine specimen, 58 feet by 3 feet 3 inches, which was planted, according to Mr. E.L.P. Conant, by his father in 1864.

In Scotland I measured a tree at Conon House in Ross-shire, in 1907, which was about 50 feet by only 3 feet 4 inches. At Smeaton-Hepburn, East Lothian, a tree planted in 1844, according to Sir Archibald Buchan-Hepburn, Bart., was, in 1908, 56 feet high by 4 feet 1 inch in girth. Seedlings have been raised from it. At Durris, Mr. Crozier says that it suffers from the same causes as A. Webbiana. In Wigtownshire, this species is tender, and a tree at Galloway House, 48 feet by 3 feet 10 inches, as measured by Henry in 1908, has been much injured by frost. Sir Herbert Maxwell reports a good specimen at Stonefield, Loch Fyne; and another, in the Quarry garden at Gordon Castle, which measures 69 feet by 4 feet 9 inches.

In Ireland, the tallest tree is at Charleville, Co. Wicklow, the seat of Viscount Monck. In 1904 it was 60 feet by 5 feet 1 inch. It produced cones in 1903, and since then has been in an unhealthy state. This tree has sent forth from the stem epicormic branches. At Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow, the seat of Mr. Thomas Acton, there is a healthy tree, which, in 1904, was 51 feet high by 5 feet 5 inches. At Powerscourt, there are two good trees, one 55 feet by 5 feet in 1904, which bore cones in 1902, 1903, and 1904; the other is 42 feet by 6 feet 3 inches in girth. At Brockley Park, Queen’s County, a tree, planted thirty-five years ago, measured in 1907, 51 feet by 5 feet 6 inches. (H.J.E.)

1 A tree at Kenfield Hall, near Canterbury, produced cones in 1886. Cf. Gard. Chron. xxvi. 85 (1886).