praying you to see them safely delivered and divided between my said Lord and Mr. Secretary, directing that they may be planted near some ponds or with a great deal of black moory earth, which kind of soil I take will best like them, for that they grow best in Munster about loughs and prove to the bigness of cherry trees or more and continue long." (A.H.)
Cultivation
Though the Arbutus can hardly be called a tree in most parts of England, because it is rarely planted in situations which will enable it to assume a tree-like habit, yet it is so beautiful as a shrub, that no garden should be without it in districts which are warm enough in winter and damp enough in summer to allow it to thrive. It is easily raised from seed, and I have found little difference between the growth of seedlings raised from English and from French seed. Both suffer severely from frosts exceeding about twenty degrees, and from cold dry winds, and should therefore be kept under glass in winter till they are 2 or 3 feet high, when they should be planted out in a well-drained but not dry or heavy soil, in a place well sheltered from the north-east, but not overhung by other trees. Severe winters injure and often kill Arbutus in the eastern and midland counties, and large specimens are rarely seen except on the west and south-west coasts. Even there I have never seen one rivalling what Henry describes in Ireland, and it does not seem to be a long-lived tree in England. The best I have seen, perhaps, is on Sir E. Loder's beautiful grounds at Leonardslee, which is about 30 feet high, with a clean stem 8 or 10 feet high and 3 feet 4 inches in girth, The largest tree on record[1] was one growing at Mount Kennedy, Wicklow, which in 1773 was 13 feet 9 inches in girth. It was supposed then to be somewhat more than 100 years old. In 1794 it was still living, though it had been split by the wind, and torn up by the roots; and fresh healthy shoots were springing up from some branches which had layered.
The wood, which is of a reddish-brown colour, is hard and takes a good polish, but is very liable to split in drying, and so far as I know is not used for anything but small ornamental work, though it seems very suitable for inlaying or parquet. (H.J.E.)
ARBUTUS HYBRIDA[2]
- Arbutus hybrida, Ker-Gawler, Bot. Reg. t. 619 (182 2); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. 1119 (1838); Gard. Chron. ix. 211, f. 37 (1878).
- Arbutus andrachnoides, Link, Enum. Hort. Berol. i. 395 (1821).
- Arbutus serratifolia, Loddiges, Bot. Cab. t. 580 (1821).
- Arbutus intermedia, Heldreich, Flora, 1844, p. 14.
- Arbutus Unedo-Andrachne, Boissier, Fl. Orient. iii. 966 (1875).
Arbutus hybrida, being a cross between A. Unedo and A. Andrachne, is variable in the wild state, sometimes being exactly intermediate between the two
