the trees of great britain & ireland - Facsimile Books & other digitally ...

70 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
Mr. Bullen says that it grows well in heavy clay in the damp and smoky
climate of Glasgow, and a tree is mentioned at the Grove, Stanmore, on damp,
gravelly clay, which in 1879 was 77 feet high by 9^ in girth.
The tulip tree has been much recommended for planting in towns, and
specimens may be seen in London at Victoria Park, Manor House Gardens,
Lincoln's Inn Fields, Waterloo Park, Clissold Park, etc.
Mr. Hovey says that in America it is not so much planted for ornament as it
deserves to be, presumably because American planters desire a quick effect, and that
it does not transplant well after it is 4-6 feet high ; but that it grows on gravel, sand,
peat, or clay, and is not very particular in that climate as to soil. He has known it
grow 30 feet high and more in 20 years.
It is very liable to be attacked by rabbits, which eat the bark even of large
trees, and I have seen several which have been killed or much injured in this way.
REMARKABLE TREES
Though this tree is one of the handsomest when in flower, stateliest in habit,
and most beautiful in the autumn tints of its leaves, it is not now planted in
England nearly as much as it was a hundred years and more ago, having, like so
many other fine hard-wooded trees, been supplanted by conifers and flowering shrubs,
which are easier to raise and more profitable to the nurserymen, who now appear to
cater rather for the requirements of owners of villas and small gardens than for those
of larger places. But though the tulip tree loves a hot summer, it endures the
most severe winter frosts of our climate without injury, and in a suitable soil
grows in some parts of the southern counties, after it is once established, to a great
size.
The largest living specimen I know of in England is at Woolbeding, in Sussex,
the seat of Colonel Lascelles, and measures 105 feet by 17. Though not so perfect in
shape as some others, it is a very beautiful tree, and seemed, when I saw it in 1903,
to be in good health. It grows on a deep, alluvial, sandy soil, which suits plane
trees and rhododendrons very well (Plate 25).
There was even a larger one at Stowe near Buckingham, which when I saw
it in 1905 was dead, apparently barked at the base by rabbits. It was at least 107
feet high, with a bole of about 30 feet, and a girth of 13 feet at 5 feet, and 21 feet
4 inches at the ground.
Another very fine tree is at Leonardslee, near Horsham, the seat of Sir Edmund
Loder, Bart., also in Sussex, and is growing at an elevation of 400-500 feet on soil
which, though very favourable to rhododendrons, is too poor to grow either oak,
birch, or larch to the same size in the same time. Sir E. Loder tells me that
the tree cannot be more than 90 years old, and it is now 97 feet high, with a
perfectly clean, straight trunk 25-30 feet high, which towers above all the native
trees of the district (Plate 27).
At Horsham Park, the residence of R. H. Hurst, Esq., is a very fine and sym
metrical tree which I measured rather hastily, as over 100 feet in height by 15 in girth.
Liriodendron 71
Another very remarkable tree (Plate 26) is the one at Killerton, in Devon
shire, which I am sorry to hear has suffered severely in the gale of September 1903.
This tree must be one of the oldest now living, as Sir C. T. D. Acland tells me
that in a picture of his house, taken early in the last century, it seems nearly as
tall as at present, and it is mentioned by Loudon as being 63 feet high in 1843.
When I measured it in 1902 it was 80 by 15 feet, with a bole about 18 feet
long, and must have contained nearly 300 feet of timber.
A very fine tulip tree, on heavier, damper soil at Strathfieldsaye, Berk
shire, the seat of the Duke of Wellington, measures 105 feet by 12 ; and though not
such a well-shaped tree as the one at Leonardslee is of the same type.
The tree which Loudon refers to as being the tallest known to him at Syon,
was, in 1844, 76 feet high, at about 76 years of age, but this is now dead, as is the old
tree at Fulham Palace mentioned by Loudon, which he estimated at 150 years of age.
At Bury House, Lower Edmonton, there is a magnificent tree which John W.
Ford, Esq., informs us is thoroughly sound and in perfect health. He estimates it to
be 70 to 75 feet in height, the girth 5 feet from the ground being 17 feet 4 inches.
The bole at 13 feet divides into five limbs, of which the biggest are 5 feet round.
The soil is splendid, being brick earth.
At Deepdene, Dorking, there is a fine tree on the lawn, which in February 1904
was 83 feet high by 14 feet in girth.
At Petworth, the seat of Lord Leconfield, there is a curious old tree which has
an immense burry trunk 17 feet in girth.
A tree was recorded at Longleat in 1877 as being 106 feet high and 10 feet in
girth, but this, as I learn from the Marquess of Bath, is now dead, though one or two
other large specimens remain.
There is a very fine tree at Margam, in Pembrokeshire, which, as measured
in 1904, is 92 feet high by 13 feet 6 inches at 6 feet from the ground, with a spread
of branches 57 feet in diameter.
An immense tree at Esher Place, Surrey, is mentioned by Mr. Goldring
as having a girth of 22 feet.
At Barton, Suffolk, two trees 1 were planted in 1832. They first flowered in
1843. In the year following the severe winter of 1860 no flowers were produced,
but the foliage was as good as usual. In 1904 these two trees had both attained
the same height 79 feet; one having a girth of 7 feet 2 inches at 5 feet above the
ground; the other divided into two stems at a point 2 feet from the ground where
the girth was 10 feet 4 inches. The soil at Barton is good, consisting of 2 or 3 feet
of loam resting on boulder clay.
At Ashby St. Ledgers, Rugby, the seat of the Hon. Ivor Guest, there is a
good tree 2 which measured 80 feet in height by 16^ feet in girth in 1900. This
tree breaks into three stems at a little above 4 feet from the ground, and the girth is
taken below this point.
At Hampton Court, Herefordshire, a tree 8 on the lawn in 1879 was 80 feet
' Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 60. ~ Letter to Curator at Kew.
3 Ga>den, 1 890, xxxviii. 178. The measurements refer to 1879, according to a note in Woods and Forests, April 23, 1884.