"The Press” In 1864

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30568, 10 October 1964, Page 12

"The Press” In 1864

October 11 LECTURE ON HORTICULTURE. Yesterday evening the usual monthly meeting of the Horticultural Society was held at the Town Hall, when a lecture on the horticulture of the province was given by Mr W. Wilson. The meeting was thinly attended, the wretched weather at the time probably preventing many from attending who would otherwise have wished to gain some knowledge of the progress that Canterbury has made in the acclimatisation of trees and plants since its colonisation. Mr Wilson, in the course of his lecture, gave a short history of the various European and Australian plants that had been introduced into the province, together with the names of those to whom

it was indebted for the various importations. Amongst others he mentioned the walnut tree, which had been introduced in the year 1840; vines, for the introduction of which credit was due to the early French settlers in Akaroa, who had brought specimens of the plants with them. The peach, oak and ash trees, had been introduced by Bishop Jackson and Mr Guise Brittan, in the year 1851. Strawberries had, in the first instance he believed, been brought to the province from Auckland by himself. The Rev. G. Cotterill had been the first to introduce pinus pinaster, in the same year. The first blue gum that had found its way into Canterbury was owing to an accident. Some seed of a different kind, which was sold in the province, was planted

and in due time sprang up, when a plant, which the owner of the garden imagined to be a honeysuckle, made its appearance amongst other plants and was carefully cherished. In a short time it had reached the height of four feet, and it became evident that it was not what it had been first supposed. An Australian settier happening to see it pronounced it at once to be the Van Dieman’s Land blue gum and intimated that, from its rapid growth, it would probably be a most useful and ornamental tree in New Zealand gardens; some short time after seeds of the plant had been obtained from Australia, which were eagerly sought for, the prices being as high as 20 guineas a pound: in one instance, that sum was paid for nine ounces. f