Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/272

 250 THE TREES IN KEW GAKDENS.

near the Palace gates which have probably attained 300 years. Of these

the top of that nearest the oates was blown oti' this winter and the stump

removed ; but the butt was too far tlecayed for its rings to be counted.

All the old Elms in the grounds and their outskirts are in rows, and were

either planted along former walks, or came up in hedgerows, and were

spared when the domain was enclosed and the hedges removed. Of Elms

under 200 years old there were innumeral)le examples throughout the

grounds ; these were for the most part suckers from the roots of older

Elms, which, coming up amongst the other and better trees, have done

irreparable damage to them ; the English Elm being of all plants the

most impoverishing in light soils. Of the old Hawthorns, the last fine

one perished during the summer's drought; they abounded at one time

on the gravelly parts, and appeared to be of the same age as the old

Eichmond Park Hawthorns. Beech, Oak, and Maple are the only other

trees that have sprung up spontaneously in the grounds, and all from

originally planted trees. The oldest Beeches were planted in George II. 's

reign, and are about 150 years old; but of these there are very few

indeed. The largest of them is a magnificent tree near the Brentford

gate, with a trunk 10|^ feet in girth at five feet above the ground; its

branches, which sweep and root in the ground, form a circle 116 paces in

circumference. It is showing signs of decay. The majority of the

Beeches, which formed eight-tenths of the arboreous vegetation of Kew,

are part of an extensive and dense plantation, made about 1750, but

which, having been wholly neglected during the succeeding hundred years,

have impoverished one another to such an extent that the majority are

already diseased and fungused. It is upon this Beech forest that the

winter gales and last summer's drought have told most heavily ; the

majority, having no root-hold, could not resist the blasts, and the losa of

one is immediately followed by that of its neighbours, both from the

admission of the wind and from the sun's rays drying and heating the

surface of the previously-shaded soil over their roots. Of other trees

there are several good Limes, Evergreen Oaks, Spanish and Horse-

Chestnuts, all from 150 to 200 years old ; these trees have thriven well,

and last long in the soil of Kew. The Ashes, Poplars, Acacias, and

Willows average only from 100 to 150 years, and the Birches 60 to 80

years. The only good Coniferous trees of any age at Kew are Cedars of

Lebanon and Larches: many of the former were planted about 1750,

but of these not a dozen remain, the largest having attained a girth

of eleven feet at five above the ground. The Spruces, Scotch Firs,

Pinasters, and Weymouth Pines, have all been ruined by being

crowded amongst forest trees. The Hemlock-Spruces, with which

the path by the Richmond Road was ornamentecl twenty years ago,

are every one dead ; the last, wdiich stood near the Pagoda, having

succumbed to the drought of the past summer. Of Planes there

never were many ; a few fine orientals, planted in 1740-50, remain in

the King of Hanover's grounrk, one near the old Palace, and one near the

Temple of the Sun. The above comprises all the trees of which there

were any quantity in the grounds previous to their being made over to

the public in 1845 ; since which time four-fifths have either died or have

been removed to make way for buildings, avenues, paths, etc. Between

1840 and 1865 many efforts were made by my predecessor to keep up

the sylvan scenery of the pleasure grouuds, by planting Conifers amongst

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