Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/271

 THE TREES IN KEW GARDENS. 249

Stems of Pallurus and Anagyris, from Mentoiie ; presented by M. Moggridg-e, Esq.

III. — To the Fossil Series.

82 Preparations of Palaeozoic and Secondary Plants, prepared by Mr. Norman.

An important series of Devonian Plants, from Canada, illustrating the published Memoirs of Principal Dawson ; presented by Prin- cipal Dawson, of Montreal.

A fine slab of a species of Lepidodendron ; presented by J. Water- house, Esq.

A specimen of Sigillaria ocnlata, Lindl. ; presented by Henry Wool- burn, Esq.

Specimens of Carboniferous Plants from Burntisland ; colkcted and presented by George Grieve, Esq.

Caudex of a Fern from the Eocene beds of Heme Bay ; presented by George Dowker, Esq.

Specimens of Cyclopteris hiberuicus, Forbes, in fruit, and stem of Sigil- laria dichotoma, Haught., from Kiltorcan, Ireland.

The number of visits paid during the year to the Herbarium fur the purpose of scientific research was 1041.

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��THE TREES IN KEW GARDENS.

The following valuable notes are from Dr. Hooker's ' Report on the Pro- gress and Condition of the Royal Gardens at Kew during the year 1870 :' — " The effects of the long and severe summer's drought on the old trees have been disastrous; they have perished by hundreds — Elms, Ashes, Beeches, and Sycamores especially ; many, no doubt, from having ap- jjroached the limits of the age which such trees attain on so excessively poor a soil as that of Kew, but more, perhaps, through having been drawn up in thick plantations, and thus starved from the first. In ])ursuance of the Board's directions, active steps have been taken to clear large areas of dying and dead trees, to trench the ground and clear it of old roots, and plant closely a mixture of young trees of all sorts, which will be thinned out as they grow. This operation has enabled me to arrive at an approximate estimate of the ages of some of the more common trees in these grounds, and of the average duration which the several sorts have attained. The oldest trees in the grounds are undoubiediy Oaks, English Elms, and perhaps Hawthorns, of which some of the first and last may be relics of the al)original forests that covered this part of England; whilst the oldest of the Elms were undoubtedly all planted. No data have been obtained for ascertaining the age of the Oaks, but probably none exceed 300 years, and the majority date from the reign of George the Second. The only large ones that remain are several near the Brentford Gate, one near the upper end of the lake, and several near the Queen's Cottage grounds. The largest Englisii Elms of which the rings have been counted are about 250 years old, but there are a few

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