2012

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART 111.

bed for two years; after which they may be planted into nursery lines, andundergo the usual routine treatment. The varieties are usually propagatedby layers; and, according to Sang, the species was formerly propagated in thismanner in large quantities; but, the plants so raised never arriving at greatstature as timber trees, the hornbeam came to be considered more as a shrubthan as a forest tree, and its planting was neglected, except for hedges. It isnow, however, never propagated otherwise than by seeds.

Accidents, Diseases, Insects, and parasitic Plants. The hornbeam, from thetoughness of its branches, and the tenacity with which its roots take hold ofthe soil, is scarcely ever injured by high winds; it is, however, very liable to bebarked, and sometimes entirely destroyed, by mice, when the seedling plantsfirst appear above the ground ; and afterwards, till the tree is five or six yearsold, by hares and rabbits, neither of which will touch any other kind of treein the same plantation, till they have stripped the hornbeam of every particleof its bark within their reach. It is liable to few diseases; but, when prunedor otherwise wounded in spring, it bleeds freely ; sometimes, also, a kind ofgum, in filaments, oozes out of the fissures of the bark. This genus is red-dish, easily dissolved in spirits of wine, and analogous to lac. (See Diet, desFaux et Forets, 8cc.) The hornbeam does not appear to be much subject tothe attacks of insects. *tlybernia prosapiaria, *Hlrnera pennaria, j-Geometracarpiniaria, *Campae v a margaritata, Clorissa putataria, are lepidopterous in-sects, which, in the larva state, either entirely or partially subsist upon theleaves. Cicones carpini is a small beetle found under the bark; Coccus car-pini is found upon the stems, with the ordinary habits of the scale insects; andone of the saw-flies, Tfenthredo carpini, is thus named from its feeding uponthis tree. The fungi that are found on the hornbeam are : Polyporus adustusWilld. var. carpineus; Sphas'riadecipiens Deer, and Stilbospora magna Berk.,syn. S. Carpini Sow., t. 376., and fig. 16613. in the Encyclopaedia of Plants ,singular for the large tendrils which are formed by the oozing sporidia.Sphae'ria fimbriata Pers. and Sphae'ria carplnea Fr. on the leaves, and S.Carpini Pers. on the twigs, have not yet been observed in this country; butthere is little doubt that they will reward the research of some botanist, incountries where the hornbeam is prevalent.

Statistics: Recorded Trees. Miller speaks of some hornbeams that he had seen in woods, 70 ft.high ; but he does not give their circumference. Marsham mentions a hornbeam in Lord]Petre’s parkatWrittle, in Essex, which, in 1764, measured, at5ft. from the ground, above 12 ft. in circumference.(Bath Soc. Pap., i. p. 66 .) Evelyn mentions the hedges at Hampton Court as being from 35ft. toSOft. high. Dr. Walker, in his Essays, &c., mentions a hornbeam at Bargally (see p. 95.) which mea-sured, in 1780, 6 ft. 2 in. in circumference, had 20 ft. of clear trunk, and was 70 ft. high. In France ,the hornbeam is so generally used for garden hedges, that there does not appear to be any large oldtrees 5 but Evelyn informs us thpt, in Germany , it was formerly the custom to plant a clump of thesetrees “ before the entries of most of the great towns; to which they apply timber frames for thepeople to sit and solace in. Scamozzi, the architect , says that in his time he found one whosebranches extended 70 ft. in breadth : this was at Vuimfen, near the Necker, belonging to the Dukeof Wirtemberg .” (Hunt. Evel., i. p. 144.)

Existing Trees ofCarpinus BtUulus. South of London : in Devonshire, at Endsleigh Cottage, 12years planted, it is 30 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1 ft., and of the head 10ft.; in Dorsetshire ,at Melbury Park, 60 years planted, it is 72 ft. high, girt of trunk 7 ft., and diameter of the head 60 ft.;in Hampshire , at Alresford, 81 years planted, it is 66 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft., and ofthe head 31 ft. North of London : in Denbighshire, at Llanbede Hall, 50 years planted, it is 56 ft.high, girt of the trunk 8 ft. 4 in., and diameter of the head 36 ft.; in Lancashire , at Latham House,60 years planted, it is 48 ft. high, diameter of trunk 2 ft. 6 in., and that of the space covered by thebranches 51ft.; in Northamptonshire , at Wakefield Lodge, 15 years planted, it is 22 ft. high, thediameter of the trunk 5 in,, and of the head 8 ft.; in Oxfordshire , in the Oxford Botanic Garden,40 years planted, it is 25 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 1 fr., and of the head 20 ft.; in Pem-brokeshire, at Stackpole Court, 50 years planted, it is 53 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2 ft. 6 in.,and of the head 50 ft.; in Shropshire , at Willy Park, 9 years planted, it is 25 ft. high ; in Suffolk, atFinborough Hall, 60 years planted, it is 80 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 2ft. 3in., and of thehead 40 ft.; in Warwickshire , at Combe Abbey, 60 years planted, it is 42ft. high, the diameter ofthe trunk 2ft., and of the head 42ft. : in Worcestershire , at Hadzor House, it is 33ft. high, with atrunk 5 ft. 4 in. in girt; at Croome, 20 years planted, it is 30 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 10_in.,and of the head 15 ft. : in Yorkshire , in Studley Park, there are several trees from 50 ft. to 60 ft. high,three of which have been already figured.—In Scotland, near Edinburgh , at Hopetoun House, it is40 ft. high, the diameter of trunk 1 ft. 10in.,and of the head 35 ft. South of Edinburgh : in theStewartry of Kirkcudbright, at St. Mary’s Isle, it is 48 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3 ft, and ofthe head 47 ft.; in Haddingtonshire , at Tynningham, diameter of the trunk 1 ft. 10 in., and that ofthe head 36 ft. North of Edinburgh : in Argyllshire, at Toward Castle, 15 years planted, it is 20 ft.high, diameter of trunk 6 in.; in Banffshire , at Gordon Castle, it is 54 ft. high, diameter of trunk2 ft. 9 in., and of the head 30 ft.; in Clackmannanshire, in the garden of the Dollar Institution,12 years planted, it_is 30 ft high ; in Perthshire, at Taymouth, 40 years planted, it is 60 ft. high, dia-meter of trunk 8 in., and of head 30 ft.; in Renfrewshire, at Polloc, it was in 1836 6 ft. 6 in. in circum-