1.
Westonbirt Arboretum
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Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is managed by the Forestry Commission. Westonbirt Arboretum is located near the market town of Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England. The arboretum is managed by the Forestry Commission, which also manages Bedgebury Pinetum, Westonbirt Arboretum is supported by the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum charity. There has been evidence of coppicing at the site from 1292, first use of the name Weston Birt was in 1309. This was taken from Weston, a settlement to the west of Bowldown Road, and Birt from then lords of the manor, the arboretum was established in 1829 by Robert Stayner Holford and was later extended by his son George Lindsay Holford. After the death of George in 1926, ownership of the passed to his nephew the fourth Earl of Morley. The Holford familys mansion Westonbirt House, became a boarding school in 1927 when it was separated from the arboretum. Westonbirt Arboretum backs onto the Highgrove Estate of Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, Westonbirt Arboretum comprises some 18,000 trees and shrubs, over an area of approximately 600 acres. Its 17 miles of marked paths are popular with visitors, there are two main areas to explore. The Old Arboretum is a designed landscape offering beautiful vistas, stately avenues. Silk Wood is a different experience. Although it also contains many exotic plantings, at its heart is a traditional working woodland, dogs are welcome in Silk Wood but not allowed in The Old Arboretum. Throughout the arboretum, each tree is labeled, either on the trunk or one of the low-hanging branches. Blue labels indicate Westonbirts champion trees, the tallest or largest of their kind in Britain, more locations and details can be found on the Westonbirt Interactive Map. Westonbirt Arboretum is situated in Gloucestershire on the A433 approximately 3 miles south west of Tetbury, from 2003-05 the arboretum hosted Britains first designer led garden festival, Westonbirt Festival of the Garden. Christmas and the spectacle of bare, sculpted trees in winter is celebrated at the Enchanted Christmas event, from the end of November and throughout December, an evening illuminated trail runs throughout the Old Arboretum, highlighting the beauty of Westonbirts trees in winter. Official website Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum The Westonbirt map - interactive map with ability to search for and highlight particular species Images and some highlights of Westonbirt Arboretum
2.
Gloucestershire
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Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the fertile valley of the River Severn. The county town is the city of Gloucester, and other towns include Cheltenham, Cirencester, Stroud. Gloucestershire is a historic county mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the 10th century, though the areas of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire originally included Bristol, then a small town. The local rural community moved to the city, and Bristols population growth accelerated during the industrial revolution. Bristol became a county in its own right, separate from Gloucestershire and it later became part of the administrative County of Avon from 1974 to 1996. Upon the abolition of Avon in 1996, the north of Bristol became a unitary authority area of South Gloucestershire and is now part of the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire. The official former postal county abbreviation was Glos, rather than the frequently used but erroneous Gloucs. or Glouc. In July 2007, Gloucestershire suffered the worst flooding in recorded British history, the RAF conducted the largest peace time domestic operation in its history to rescue over 120 residents from flood affected areas. The damage was estimated at over £2 billion, the county recovered rapidly from the disaster, investing in attracting tourists to visit the many sites and diverse range of shops in the area. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Gloucestershire at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. Gloucestershire has mainly comprehensive schools with seven schools, two are in Stroud, one in Cheltenham and four in Gloucester. There are 42 state secondary schools, not including sixth form colleges, all but about two schools in each district have a sixth form, but the Forest of Dean only has two schools with sixth forms. All schools in South Gloucestershire have sixth forms, each has campuses at multiple locations throughout the county. Most of the old market towns have parish churches, at Deerhurst near Tewkesbury, and Bishops Cleeve near Cheltenham, there are churches of special interest on account of the pre-Norman work they retain. These are, however, adjudged to be of English workmanship, other notable buildings include Calcot Barn in Calcot, a relic of Kingswood Abbey. Thornbury Castle is a Tudor country house, the pretensions of which evoked the jealousy of Cardinal Wolsey against its builder, Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, near Cheltenham is the 15th-century mansion of Southam de la Bere, of timber and stone. Memorials of the de la Bere family appear in the church at Cleeve, the mansion contains a tiled floor from Hailes Abbey
3.
Botanical garden
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A botanical garden or botanic garden is a garden dedicated to the collection, cultivation and display of a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names. Visitor services at a botanical garden might include tours, educational displays, art exhibitions, book rooms, open-air theatrical and musical performances, over the years, botanical gardens, as cultural and scientific organisations, have responded to the interests of botany and horticulture. The role of major botanical gardens worldwide has been considered so similar as to fall within textbook definitions. The following definition was produced by staff of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium of Cornell University in 1976, each botanical garden naturally develops its own special fields of interests depending on its personnel, location, extent, available funds, and the terms of its charter. It may include greenhouses, test grounds, an herbarium, an arboretum and it maintains a scientific as well as a plant-growing staff, and publication is one of its major modes of expression. This broad outline is then expanded, The botanic garden may be an independent institution, if a department of an educational institution, it may be related to a teaching program. In any case, it exists for scientific ends and is not to be restricted or diverted by other demands. It is not merely a landscaped or ornamental garden, although it may be artistic, the essential element is the intention of the enterprise, which is the acquisition and dissemination of botanical knowledge. Worldwide, there are now about 1800 botanical gardens and arboreta in about 150 countries of which about 550 are in Europe,200 in North America, and an increasing number in East Asia. These gardens attract about 150 million visitors a year, so it is surprising that many people gained their first exciting introduction to the wonders of the plant world in a botanical garden. Historically, botanical gardens exchanged plants through the publication of seed lists and this was a means of transferring both plants and information between botanical gardens. This system continues today, although the possibility of genetic piracy, the International Association of Botanic Gardens was formed in 1954 as a worldwide organisation affiliated to the International Union of Biological Sciences. In the United States, there is the American Public Gardens Association, the history of botanical gardens is closely linked to the history of botany itself. Then, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the trend was towards a combination of specialist, the idea of scientific gardens used specifically for the study of plants dates back to antiquity. In about 2800 BCE, the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung sent collectors to distant regions searching for plants with economic or medicinal value. Early medieval gardens in Islamic Spain resembled botanic gardens of the future and this was later taken over by garden chronicler Ibn Bassal until the Christian conquest in 1085 CE. Ibn Bassal then founded a garden in Seville, most of its plants being collected on an expedition that included Morocco, Persia, Sicily. The medical school of Montpelier was also founded by Spanish Arab physicians, and by 1250 CE, it included a physic garden, but the site was not given botanic garden status until 1593
4.
Conifer
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The Pinophyta, also known as Coniferophyta or Coniferae, or commonly as conifers, are a division of vascular land plants containing a single class, Pinopsida. They are gymnosperms, cone-bearing seed plants, all extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs, examples include cedars, Douglas firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews. As of 1998, the division Pinophyta was estimated to contain eight families,68 genera, although the total number of species is relatively small, conifers are ecologically important. They are the dominant plants over large areas of land, most notably the taiga of the Northern Hemisphere, boreal conifers have many wintertime adaptations. The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs, many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing. While tropical rainforests have more biodiversity and turnover, the conifer forests of the world represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink. Conifers are of economic value for softwood lumber and paper production. The earliest conifers in the record date to the late Carboniferous period, possibly arising from Cordaites. Pinophytes, Cycadophytes, and Ginkgophytes all developed at this time, an important adaptation of these gymnosperms was allowing plants to live without being so dependent on water. Other adaptations are pollen and the seed, which allows the embryo to be transported and developed elsewhere, Conifers appear to be one of the taxa that benefited from the Permian–Triassic extinction event, and were the dominant land plants of the Mesozoic. They were overtaken by the plants, which first appeared in the Cretaceous. They were the food of herbivorous dinosaurs, and their resins and poisons would have given protection against herbivores. Reproductive features of modern conifers had evolved by the end of the Mesozoic era, Conifer is a Latin word, a compound of conus and ferre, meaning the one that bears cone. A descriptive name in use for the conifers is Coniferae. Alternatively, descriptive botanical names may also be used at any rank above family and this means that if conifers are considered a division, they may be called Pinophyta or Coniferae. As a class they may be called Pinopsida or Coniferae, as an order they may be called Pinales or Coniferae or Coniferales. Conifers are the largest and economically most important component group of the gymnosperms, the division Pinophyta consists of just one class, Pinopsida, which includes both living and fossil taxa
5.
John Claudius Loudon
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John Claudius Loudon was a Scottish botanist, garden designer and cemetery designer, author and garden magazine editor. He was the first to use the term arboretum in writing to refer to a garden of plants, especially trees, Loudon was born in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland to a respectable farmer. Therefore as he was growing up, he developed a knowledge of plants. As a young man, Loudon studied biology, botany and agriculture at the University of Edinburgh, when working on the layout of farms in South Scotland, he described himself as a landscape planner. This was a time when open field land was being converted from run rig with ferm touns to the landscape of enclosure, Loudon developed a limp as a young man, and later became crippled with arthritis. He undertook a second Grand Tour of Europe and also visited the Near East, in 1826, crippled by rheumatism and arthritis, he had to endure an amputation at his right shoulder after a botched operation to correct a broken arm. He learnt to write and draw with his arm and hired a draughtsman to prepare his plans. At the same time he cured himself of a habit that had been keeping the pain at bay. In 1830 when Loudon was 47 years old, he asked a friend to invite the author of The Mummy, or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century to lunch. He had recently reviewed and admired the inventions in this novel in an article published in his Gardeners Magazine, set in 2126 AD, it is an early example of science fiction. England has become a monarchy and it features an early Internet, espresso machines. The author was Jane Webb who, having been left penniless at 17 by the death of her father, had turned to writing as a profession and she had published the book anonymously. They married seven months later and had a daughter Agnes, Design of the municipal cemetery at Southampton was Loudons final project. Despite advanced lung cancer, he corrected the proofs for his latest encyclopaedia. He traveled to Bath to inspect the site for another cemetery, on his return to London, his doctor told him that he was dying, he died, penniless, in the arms of his wife in December 1843. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, around 1803, Loudon published an article entitled Observations on Laying out the Public Spaces in London. It recommended the introduction of trees rather than those with dense canopies. Loudon was attacked by fever in 1806 which left him crippled
6.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
7.
Vine
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A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine, but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent stems, lianas or runners. The word also can refer to such stems or runners themselves, in the United Kingdom, the term vine applies almost exclusively to the grapevine. The term climber is used for all climbing plants, certain plants always grow as vines, while a few grow as vines only part of the time. For instance, poison ivy and bittersweet can grow as low shrubs when support is not available, a vine displays a growth form based on long stems. This has been a successful growth form for plants such as kudzu and Japanese honeysuckle. There are some tropical vines that develop skototropism, and grow away from the light, growth away from light allows the vine to reach a tree trunk, which it can then climb to brighter regions. The vine growth form may also enable plants to large areas quickly. This is the case with periwinkle and ground ivy and it is also an adaptation to life in areas where small patches of fertile soil are adjacent to exposed areas with more sunlight but little or no soil. A vine can root in the soil but have most of its leaves in the brighter, exposed area, the evolution of a climbing habit has been implicated as a key innovation associated with the evolutionary success and diversification of a number of taxonomic groups of plants. It has evolved independently in several plant families, using many different climbing methods such as and it directs its stem into a crevice in the bark of fibrous barked trees where the stem adopts a flattened profile and grows up the tree underneath the host trees outer bark. The fetterbush then sends out branches that emerge near the top of the tree and these may be divided into woody vines or lianas, such as wisteria, kiwifruit, and common ivy, and herbaceous vines, such as morning glory. One odd group of vining plants is the fern genus Lygodium, the stem does not climb, but rather the fronds do. The fronds unroll from the tip, and theoretically never stop growing, they can form thickets as they unroll over other plants, rockfaces, gardeners can use the tendency of climbing plants to grow quickly. If a plant display is wanted quickly, a climber can achieve this, climbers can be trained over walls, pergolas, fences, etc. Climbers can be grown over other plants to provide additional attraction, artificial support can also be provided. Some climbers climb by themselves, others need work, such as tying them in, vines widely differ in size, form and evolutionary origin. Darwin classified climbing groups based on their climbing method and he classified five classes of vines including twining plants, leaf climbers, tendril bearers, root climbers and hook climbers. Vines are unique in that they have multiple origins and a wide range of phenotypic plasticity
8.
Trsteno Arboretum
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Trsteno Arboretum, located in Trsteno, Croatia, is the oldest arboretum in this part of the world. The arboretum was erected by the noble family Gozze in the late 15th century. The exact start date for the arboretum is unknown, but it was already in existence by 1492, when a 15 m span aqueduct to irrigate the arboretum was constructed, this aqueduct is still in use. It has been the property of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts since 1948, the Arboretum reserves a very special place among the old Ragusan, Dalmatian and Mediterranean parks. It includes a park surrounding the fifteenth century summer residence, which is a monument of architecture. The arboretum passed into Yugoslav state ownership in 1945, and was declared a natural rarity in 1948, since 1950 it has been managed by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 1962 the Arboretum Trsteno was registered in the list of protected natural monuments list as a monument of landscape architecture, the protected area covers around 255,000 square metres. The arboretum was further damaged in 2000 by a forest fire during a drought. The pride of the arboretum, two Oriental Planes located on the market place of Trsteno, survived both disasters undamaged. They are over 500 years old and are unique specimens of its kind in Europe, the ancient trees are both about 45/60 m tall and their trunks are 5 m in diameter. Within what was once the noble familys country house, there is the oldest Renaissance park in Croatia, designed in 1502, with numerous exotic plants. In the third season and fourth season of the television series Game of Thrones, Trsteno at the Academy web site Trsteno eGuide to Trsteno Arboretum
9.
Ebony
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Ebony is a dense black hardwood, most commonly yielded by several different species in the genus Diospyros, which also contains the persimmons. Ebony is dense enough to sink in water and it is finely-textured and has a very smooth finish when polished, making it valuable as an ornamental wood. The word ebony derives from the Ancient Egyptian hbny, via the Ancient Greek ἔβενος, by way of Latin, mauritius ebony, Diospyros tesselaria, was largely exploited by the Dutch in the 17th century. Some species in the genus Diospyros yield an ebony with similar physical properties, ebony has a long history of use, with carved pieces having been found in Ancient Egyptian tombs. By the end of the 16th century, fine cabinets for the trade were made of ebony in Antwerp. Within a short time, such cabinets were also being made in Paris, where their makers became known as ébénistes, many plectra, or guitar picks, are made from this black wood. Traditionally, the pieces in chess sets were made from ebony. Modern East Midlands-style lace-making bobbins, also being small, are made of ebony. Due to its strength, many handgun grips and rifle fore-end tips are made of ebony, as a result of unsustainable harvesting, many species yielding ebony are now considered threatened. Africa in particular has had most of its indigenous ebony cut down illegally, in some countries like Sri Lanka, ebony is a protected species and selling of ebony logs is illegal, due to the woods rarity and high price. In 2012, the Gibson Guitar company was raided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for violations of the Lacey Act of 1900, pete Lowry, ebony and rosewood expert at the Missouri Botanical Garden, calls the Madagascar wood trade the equivalent of Africas blood diamonds. Ebony, when ground into fine dust, results in a flammable, due to the high toxicity of ebony in powdered form, its use in construction work requires government certification in several South Asian countries. African Blackwood Calamander wood Ebonite Ebonol Illegal logging in Madagascar Red List—For recommendations found under the IUCN
10.
Hatshepsut
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Hatshepsut was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, the first being Sobekneferu, Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC. Officially, she ruled jointly with Thutmose III, who had ascended to the throne the year as a child of about two years old. Hatshepsut was the wife of Thutmose II, Thutmose III’s father. She is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful pharaohs, according to Egyptologist James Henry Breasted she is also known as the first great woman in history of whom we are informed. Hatshepsut was the daughter and only child of Thutmose I and his primary wife Ahmose and her husband Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose I and a secondary wife named Mutnofret, who carried the title Kings daughter and was probably a child of Ahmose I. Hatshepsut and Thutmose II had a daughter named Neferure, Thutmose II fathered Thutmose III with Iset, a secondary wife. Today Egyptologists generally agree that Hatshepsut assumed the position of pharaoh, Hatshepsut was described as having a reign of about 22 years by ancient authors. Josephus and Julius Africanus both quote Manethos king list, mentioning a woman called Amessis or Amensis who has identified as Hatshepsut. In Josephus work, her reign is described as lasting 21 years and nine months, dating the beginning of her reign is more difficult, however. Her fathers reign began in either 1526 or 1506 BC according to the high and low estimates of her reign, the length of the reigns of Tuthmosis I and Tuthmosis II, however, cannot be determined with absolute certainty. With short reigns, Hatshepsut would have ascended the throne 14 years after the coronation of Tuthmosis I, longer reigns would put her ascension 25 years after Tuthmosis Is coronation. Thus, Hatshepsut could have assumed power as early as 1512 BC, or, Hatshepsut established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the eighteenth dynasty. She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt and this trading expedition to Punt was roughly during Hatshepsuts ninth year of reign. It set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet long bearing several sails, many trade goods were bought in Punt, notably frankincense and myrrh. Hatshepsuts delegation returned from Punt bearing 31 live myrrh trees, the roots of which were kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees and it is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her mortuary temple complex. Egyptians also returned with a number of gifts from Punt
11.
Land of Punt
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The Land of Punt, also called Pwenet, or Pwene by the ancient Egyptians, was an ancient kingdom. A trading partner of Egypt, it was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory, the region is known from ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to it. Some biblical scholars have identified it with the land of Put. At times Punt is referred to as Ta netjer, the Land of the God, the exact location of Punt is still debated by historians. Most scholars today believe Punt was situated to the southeast of Egypt, most likely in the region of modern Djibouti, Eritrea, northeast Ethiopia, Somalia. However, some scholars point instead to a range of ancient inscriptions that locate Punt in the Arabian Peninsula and it is also possible that the territory covered both the Horn of Africa and Southern Arabia. Puntland, the Somali administrative region situated at the extremity of the Horn of Africa, is named in reference to the Land of Punt, the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty. However, gold from Punt is recorded as having been in Egypt as early as the time of Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty, subsequently, there were more expeditions to Punt in the Sixth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Eighteenth dynasties of Egypt. In the Twelfth Dynasty, trade with Punt was celebrated in literature in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor. In the reign of Mentuhotep III, an officer named Hannu organized one or more voyages to Punt, trading missions of the 12th dynasty pharaohs Senusret I, Amenemhat II and Amenemhat IV had also successfully navigated their way to and from the mysterious land of Punt. Hatshepsut personally made the most famous ancient Egyptian expedition that sailed to Punt, a report of that five-ship voyage survives on reliefs in Hatshepsuts mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. In reality, Nehsis expedition was a trading mission to a land, Punt. Moreover, Nehsis visit to Punt was not inordinately brave since he was accompanied by at least five shiploads of marines and greeted warmly by the chief of Punt and his immediate family. The Puntites traded not only in their own produce of incense, ebony and short-horned cattle and they will load their ships to the satisfaction of their hearts with trees of green incense, and all the good things of the land. Hatshepsuts 18th dynasty successors, such as Thutmose III and Amenhotep III also continued the Egyptian tradition of trading with Punt, the trade with Punt continued into the start of the 20th dynasty before terminating prior to the end of Egypts New Kingdom. They were loaded, in travelling overland, upon asses and upon men and they were sent forward downstream, arriving in festivity, bringing tribute into the royal presence. After the end of the New Kingdom period, Punt became an unreal and fabulous land of myths, at times, the ancient Egyptians called Punt Ta netjer, meaning Gods Land. This referred to the fact that it was among the regions of the Sun God, that is and these eastern regions resources included products used in temples, notably incense
12.
Frankincense
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The English word is derived from Old French franc encens. There are four species of Boswellia that produce true frankincense. Resin from each of the four is available in various grades, the grades depend on the time of harvesting, the resin is hand-sorted for quality. Frankincense is tapped from the scraggy but hardy trees by slashing the bark, which is called striping and these hardened resins are called tears. There are several species and varieties of trees, each producing a slightly different type of resin. Differences in soil and climate create even more diversity of the resin, Boswellia sacra trees are considered unusual for their ability to grow in environments so unforgiving that they sometimes grow out of solid rock. The initial means of attachment to the rock is unknown, but is accomplished by a bulbous swelling of the trunk. This growth prevents it from being ripped from the rock during violent storms and this feature is slight or absent in trees grown in rocky soil or gravel. The trees start producing resin when they are eight to 10 years old. Tapping is done two to three times a year with the final taps producing the best tears due to their higher aromatic terpene, sesquiterpene and diterpene content, generally speaking, the more opaque resins are the best quality. Fine resin is produced in Somalia, from which the Roman Catholic Church purchases most of its stock, recent studies have indicated that frankincense tree populations are declining, partly due to over-exploitation. Heavily tapped trees produce seeds that germinate at only 16% while seeds of trees that had not been tapped germinate at more than 80%, in addition, burning, grazing, and attacks by the longhorn beetle have reduced the tree population. Conversion of frankincense woodlands to agriculture is also a major threat, Frankincense has been traded on the Arabian Peninsula, in North Africa, and Somalia for more than 5000 years. A mural depicting sacks of frankincense traded from the Land of Punt adorns the walls of the temple of ancient Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut, who died circa 1458 BC. Frankincense was one of the consecrated incenses described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud used in Ketoret ceremonies and it was offered on a specialized incense altar in the time when the Tabernacle was located in the First and Second Temples. It is mentioned in the Book of Exodus 30,34 and it was one of the ingredients in the perfume of the sanctuary, and was used as an accompaniment of the meal-offering. It was also mentioned as a commodity in trade from Sheba, when burnt it emitted a fragrant odor, and the incense was a symbol of the Divine name and an emblem of prayer. It was often associated with myrrh, a specially pure kind, lebhonah zakkah, was presented with the showbread
13.
Tree
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In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. Trees are not a group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a woody trunk. In looser senses, the palms, the tree ferns, bananas. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old, the tallest known tree, a coast redwood named Hyperion, stands 115.6 m high. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years and it is estimated that there are just over 3 trillion mature trees in the world. A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk and this trunk typically contains woody tissue for strength, and vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark which serves as a protective barrier, below the ground, the roots branch and spread out widely, they serve to anchor the tree and extract moisture and nutrients from the soil. Above ground, the divide into smaller branches and shoots. The shoots typically bear leaves, which light energy and convert it into sugars by photosynthesis, providing the food for the trees growth. Flowers and fruit may also be present, but some trees, such as conifers, instead have pollen cones and seed cones, others, such as tree ferns, trees play a significant role in reducing erosion and moderating the climate. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their tissues, trees and forests provide a habitat for many species of animals and plants. Tropical rainforests are one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world, trees provide shade and shelter, timber for construction, fuel for cooking and heating, and fruit for food as well as having many other uses. In parts of the world, forests are shrinking as trees are cleared to increase the amount of available for agriculture. Because of their longevity and usefulness, trees have always revered, with sacred groves in various cultures. Although tree is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition of what a tree is, either botanically or in common language. In its broadest sense, a tree is any plant with the form of an elongated stem, or trunk. Trees are also defined by height, with smaller plants from 0.5 to 10 m being called shrubs
14.
Deir el-Bahari
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Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of the Theban Necropolis, the first monument built at the site was the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II of the Eleventh dynasty. It was constructed during the 15th century BC, during the Eighteenth dynasty, Amenhotep I and Hatshepsut also built extensively at the site. Mentuhotep II, Eleventh Dynasty king who reunited Egypt at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom and his mortuary temple was built on several levels in the great bay at Deir el-Bahari. It was approached by a 16-metre-wide causeway leading from a temple which no longer exists. As the temple faces east, the structure is likely to be connected with the sun cult of Rê and the resurrection of the king. From the eastern part of the forecourt, a called the Bab el-Hosan leads to an underground passage. On the western side, tamarisk and sycamore trees were planted beside the ramp leading up to the terrace, at the back of the forecourt and terrace are colonnades decorated in relief with boat processions, hunts, and scenes showing the kings military achievements. Statues of the Twelfth Dynasty king Senusret III were found here too, the inner part of the temple was actually cut into the cliff and consists of a peristyle court, a hypostyle hall and an underground passage leading into the tomb itself. The cult of the dead king centred on the small shrine cut into the rear of the Hypostyle Hall, the mastaba-like structure on the terrace is surrounded by a pillared ambulatory along the west wall, where the statue shrines and tombs of several royal wives and daughters were found. These royal princesses were the priestesses of Hathor, one of the main ancient Egyptian funerary deities, although little remained of the kings own burial, six sarcophagi were retrieved from the tombs of the royal ladies. Each was formed of six slabs, held together at the corners by metal braces, the sarcophagus of Queen Kawit, now in the Cairo Museum, is particularly fine. The burial shaft and subsequent tunnel descend for 150 meters and end in a burial chamber 45 meters below the court, the chamber held a shrine, which once held the wooden coffin of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep. A great tree-lined court was reached by means of the processional causeway, beneath the court, a deep shaft was cut which led to unfinished rooms believed to have been intended originally as the king’s tomb. A wrapped image of the pharaoh was discovered in area by Howard Carter. The temple complex also held six mortuary chapels and shaft tombs built for the pharaohs wives, the focal point of the Deir el-Bahari complex is the Djeser-Djeseru meaning the Holy of Holies, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. It is a structure, which was designed and implemented by Senenmut, royal steward and architect of Hatshepsut, to serve for her posthumous worship. Djeser-Djeseru sits atop a series of colonnaded terraces, reached by ramps that once were graced with gardens
15.
Loddiges
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The founder of the nursery was Joachim Conrad Loddiges. He was born in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, his father Casper Lochlies was a gardener to a nobleman in Wrisbergholzen, near Hannover. Conrad trained in The Netherlands and emigrated to Britain at the age of 19 during the Seven Years War to take up employment as gardener for Dr J. B, Silvester in the suburban village of Hackney, north of London. It was then that the name was anglicised. Herbarium specimens of Eucalyptus pulverulenta from Loddiges are in the Charterhouse School Herbarium dating from 1820, seed packets were received from all over the world, sometimes from well-known botanical explorers such as John Bartram and William Bartram in North America, and sometimes from ordinary travelers. One of the first plant species to be introduced into cultivation in Britain by Conrad Loddiges was the Common Mauve Rhododendron, Rhododendron ponticum. He introduced this into England in the early 1760s while working as a gardener for Dr Silvester of Hackney, prior to setting up his own seed, the young plants were supplied to the Marquis of Rockingham whose interest led to great enthusiasm for growing the species in British gardens. Conrads son George Loddiges is generally credited with raising the profile of the exotic Hackney nursery at least as greatly, if not more so, for example, the term arboretum was first used in an English publication by J. C. Loudon in 1833 in The Gardeners Magazine when commenting on George Loddiges famous Hackney Botanic Garden arboretum, begun in 1816, loudon wrote, The arboretum looks better this season than it has ever done since it was planted. The more lofty trees suffered from the high winds. We walked round the two spirals of this coil of trees and shrubs, viz. from Acer to Quercus. There is no garden scene about London so interesting, another notable visitor was Charles Darwin who in September 1838 wrote Saw in Loddiges garden 1279 varieties of roses. There is quite a forest of them, his hot-houses are, perhaps, a few years later, in 1829, Jacob Rinz commented, never shall I forget the sensation produced by this establishment. I cannot describe the raptures I experienced on seeing that immense palm house, all that I had seen before of the kind appeared nothing to me compared with this. I fancied myself in the Brazils, and especially at that moment when Mr Loddiges had the kindness to produce, in my presence, such conditions were ideal for tropical orchids, several of which were named in honour of George Loddiges, including Loddiges dendrobium. Entitled The Botanical Cabinet it ran to twenty volumes and 2,000 plates, facing each plant portrait, George Loddiges added a few lines of text outlining the source of the seeds and invariably adding a religious perspective. In the late 1830s, George Loddiges became involved in the design and landscaping of one of the Magnificent Seven London garden cemeteries associated with burial reform, close to the Abney Park Chapel he also laid out a rosarium to complement the chapels botanical rose windows. Similarly, the part of the nursery that was owned by the Loddiges family in freehold, was becoming more valuable as building land, Conrad was involved with the display of ferns and terrariums for the Great Exhibition
16.
Dubrovnik
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Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea, in the region of Dalmatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, a seaport, in 1979, the city of Dubrovnik joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. After repair and restoration works in the 1990s and early 2000s, the names Dubrovnik and Ragusa co-existed for several centuries. The name Dubrovnik of the Adriatic city is first recorded in the Charter of Ban Kulin. It is mostly explained as a Slavic name of the type, referring to an oak grove or oak forest. The historical name Ragusa is recorded in the Greek form Ῥαούσιν in the 10th century and it was recorded in various forms in the medieval period, Rausia, Lavusa, Labusa, Raugia, Rachusa. Various attempts have been made to etymologize the name, a connection to the name of Sicilian Ragusa has also been proposed. The classical explanation of the name is due to Constantine Porphyrogenituss De Administrando Imperio, the name is explained as a corruption of Lausa, the name of the rocky island on which the city was built. Excavations in 2007 revealed a Byzantine basilica from the 8th century, the size of the old basilica clearly indicates that there was quite a large settlement at the time. There is also evidence for the presence of a settlement in the pre-Christian era, after the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, the town came under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. Dubrovnik in those medieval centuries had a Roman population, after the Crusades, Dubrovnik came under the sovereignty of Venice, which would give its institutions to the Dalmatian city. After a fire destroyed almost the whole city in the night of August 16,1296, by the Peace Treaty of Zadar in 1358, Dubrovnik achieved relative independence as a vassal-state of the Kingdom of Hungary. Between the 14th century and 1808, Dubrovnik ruled itself as a state, although it was a vassal from 1382 to 1804 of the Ottoman Empire. The Republic reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, for centuries, Dubrovnik was an ally of Ancona, the other Adriatic maritime republic rival of Venice, which was the Ottoman Empires chief rival for control of the Adriatic. Ancona and Dubrovnik developed a trade route to the Venetian, starting in Dubrovnik it went on to Ancona, through Florence. The Republic of Ragusa received its own Statutes as early as 1272, statutes which, among other things, codified Roman practice, the Statutes included prescriptions for town planning and the regulation of quarantine. An almshouse was opened in 1347, and the first quarantine hospital was established in 1377, slave trading was abolished in 1418, and an orphanage opened in 1432. A20 km water supply system, instead of a cistern, was constructed in 1438 by the Neapolitan architect and he completed the aqueduct with two public fountains
17.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period
18.
Aqueduct (bridge)
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Bridges for conveying water, called aqueducts or water bridges are constructed to convey watercourses across gaps such as valleys or ravines. The term aqueduct may also be used to refer to the entire watercourse, large navigable aqueducts are used as transport links for boats or ships. Aqueducts must span a crossing at the level as the watercourses on each end. The word is derived from the Latin aqua and ducere, a modern version of an aqueduct is a pipeline bridge. Although particularly associated with the Romans, aqueducts were likely first used by the Minoans around 2000 BCE, the Minoans had developed what was then an extremely advanced irrigation system, including several aqueducts. In the seventh century BCE, the Assyrians built an 80 km long limestone aqueduct, roman aqueducts set a standard of engineering that was not surpassed for more than a thousand years. Navigable aqueducts, also called water bridges, are water-filled bridges to allow vessels on a waterway to cross ravines or valleys, during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, navigable aqueducts were constructed as part of the boom in canal-building. A notable revolving aqueduct has been made on the Bridgewater Canal and this allowed vessels to cross at high and low levels while conserving water.3 km long and featuring 74 arches Aqueduct of Zacatecas, Zacatecas. F
19.
Platanus orientalis
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Platanus orientalis, or oriental plane, is a large, deciduous tree of the Platanaceae family, growing to 30 m or more, and known for its longevity and spreading crown. The eastern planes original distribution was eastward from the Balkans, the tree was called platane in ancient Greek history and literature and by related names in continental Europe. Equally well known in Asia and from Anatolia to India and usually called chinar or chenar, in the Kashmir Valley region, the native Kashmiri word for the tree is boonyi. The native range is Eurasia from the Balkans to at least as far east as Iran, some accounts extend its native range to Iberia in the west, and to the Himalayas in the east. As it has known in cultivation from early times in much of this region it can be difficult to determine if it is truly indigenous in peripheral areas. The oriental plane is found naturally in riverine settings, together with trees as alder, willow. However, it is capable of survival and success in dry soils once it is established. Like other plane trees, its leaves are borne alternately on the stem, deeply lobed and it usually has flaking bark, occasionally not flaking and becoming thick and rugged. Flowers and fruit are round and burr-like, borne in clusters of between 2 and 6 on a stem, considerable variation exists among trees in the wild, and this may be complicated by crossbreeding with planted London planes, the hybrid of P. orientalis with the American sycamore. The tree is capable of being grown in most temperate latitudes, as a very large and wide tree with broad, thick leaves that tend to orient horizontally, it is especially prized for the shade and coolness it provides during the hot season. The leaves and bark have been used medicinally, a fabric dye has been made from the twigs and roots. The timber, often called lacewood, is figured and valuable for indoor furniture, the leaves are also often used by artists for leaf carving. From earliest days, P. orientalis has been an important tree in Persian gardens, there it is known as the chenar. The Tree of Hippocrates, under which Hippocrates — the Father of Medicine — taught at Kos, is reputed to have been an oriental plane, a 500-year-old tree presently there may be on the same site and may have been planted from a succession of cuttings from the original. The Athenian Academy, outside Athens, featured a sacred grove of planes where the students listened to the masters and he had plane-trees conveyed to the city of Rhegium, where they were looked upon as the great marvel of his palace, according to Plinys sources. From there it spread by the first century CE as far as the lands of the Morini in Belgic Gaul, regardless of why it may have been introduced, the tree had medicinal uses from early times. Pliny details 25 remedies using preparation from the bark, leaves and excrescences of plane, pliny prescribes it for burns, bites, stings, frostbite and infections. Pliny goes on to some legendary plane-trees
20.
Ooty
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Udhagamandalam and abbreviated as Udhagai and Ooty is a town and municipality in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located 80 km north of Coimbatore and is the capital of the Nilgiris district and it is a popular hill station located in the Nilgiri Hills. Originally occupied by the Toda, the area came under the rule of the East India Company at the end of the 18th century, the economy is based on tourism and agriculture, along with the manufacture of medicines and photographic film. The town is connected by the Nilgiri ghat roads and Nilgiri Mountain Railway and its natural beauty attracts tourists and it is a popular summer destination. As of 2011, the town had a population of 88,430, the origin of the name Udhagamandalam is obscure. The first known mention of the place is given as Wotokymund in a letter of March 1821 to the Madras Gazette from an unknown correspondent. In early times it was called OttakalMandu, Mund is the Anglicised form of the Toda word for a village Mandu. The first part of the name is probably a corruption of the name for the central region of the Nilgiri Plateau. The stem of the name comes from the language in which Otha-Cal literally means Single Stone. This is perhaps a reference to a sacred stone revered by the local Toda people, the name probably changed under British rule from Udhagamandalam to Ootacamund, and later was shortened to Ooty. Ooty is situated in the Nilgiri hills, because of the beautiful mountains and green valleys, Ooty became known as the Queen of Hill Stations. Udhagamandalam was originally a land occupied by the Toda along with other hill tribes who coexisted through specialisation. The major tribes of Nilgiris area are the Toda, Kota, Irula, the Toda in the Nilgiris are first referenced in a record belonging to Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana and his general Punisa, dated 1117 CE. The Toda people were known for raising water buffalo, the Tamil and Badaga people known for farming activities. Nilgiris was ruled by various dynasties like Satavahanas, Cheras, Gangas, Kadambas, Rashtrakutas, Cholas, Hoysalas, the Vijayanagara empire, Tipu Sultan captured Nilgiris in the eighteenth century and extended the border by constructing a hideout cave like structure. The Nilgiris came into possession of British East India Company as part of the lands, held by Tipu Sultan. Whish and N. W. Kindersley, assistants to John Sullivan, then Collector of Coimbatore, visited Ooty, Sullivan camped at Dimbhatti, north of Kotagiri in January 1819 and was enthralled by the beauty of the place. It resembles Switzerland, more than any country of Europe, the hills beautifully wooded and fine strong spring with running water in every valley
21.
Government Botanical Gardens, Ooty
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The Government Botanical Garden is a botanical garden in Udhagamandalam, near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu state, India laid out in 1848. The Gardens, divided into sections, cover an area of around 22 hectares. The garden has a terraced layout and it is maintained by the Tamil Nadu Horticulture Department. It ascends the slopes of the hill at an elevation of 2250–2500 metres above Mean Sea Level, the garden enjoys a temperate climate, with an average rainfall of 140 cm, the most of which is received during south-west monsoon, with frosty nights from November to February. The maximum and minimum temperatures are 28 °C and 0 °C respectively, the Government Botanical Garden, Udhagamandalm was established in 1848. Its architect was William Graham McIvor, the Marquis of Tweedale prepared the initial layout during the late 1840s. The gardens were established by a subscription of Rs 3 per month amongst the European residents for the purpose of supplying vegetables at a reasonable cost. During the time that Ootacamund was under British control, considerable cultivation of vegetables for the market was carried on by the European settlers and others, captain Molyneux of the 2nd European Regiment managed the vegetable cultivation. The subscribers received vegetables free of cost, but this arrangement did not work out and in early 1847, a fund was raised by means of donations and subscriptions with a view to forming a horticultural society and a public garden. There were very few horticulturists at that time, seeds and saplings were not available locally, but were available in nearby jungles. It was proposed to establish a public garden, for this purpose, a wood was selected between Lushington Hall and General Sewell’s Property. Shortly after the formation of the society, the requested state aid for providing a scientific and practical gardener. This suggestion was accepted and Mr. W. G. McIvor from the Royal Botanic Gardens and he arrived in March 1848, converted the upper portion, which was a forest, and the lower portion, which was a swamp, into a beautiful garden. He submitted a report at the end of 1848 to the East India Company in London and he took ten years to complete the layout of the Garden. The Gardens have around a thousand species, both exotic and indigenous, of plants, shrubs, ferns, trees, herbal and bonsai plants, in the centre of the Gardens lie a fossilized tree trunk estimated to be 20 million years old. The present Botanical Gardens are divided into 6 sections namely Lower Garden, New Garden, Italian Garden, Conservatory, Fountain Terrace, the lower garden comprises the entrance and the lower lawns. The entrance of the leads into an extensive lush green lawn of Kikiyu grass which is known for its springy vigour. A fern house with 127 species of ferns is situated on the left along the leading to Raj Bhavan amidst another expanse of lawns
22.
Eastwoodhill Arboretum
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Eastwoodhill is the national arboretum of New Zealand. It covers 131 hectares and is located 35 km northwest of Gisborne and it was founded in 1910 by William Douglas Cook. When his health deteriorated in the 1960s, he sold his property to H. B, Williams, who established the Eastwoodhill Trust Board in 1975 as a charitable trust, donating the arboretum to the trust to safeguard it for future generations. Of all the arboreta of the Southern Hemisphere, Eastwoodhill Arboretum is said to have the largest collection of trees of the climate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. It includes some 4,000 different trees, shrubs and climbers, the history of Eastwoodhill Arboretum will remain permanently connected with the life of William Douglas Cook. Douglas Cook, Cookie to his friends, was born 28 October 1884 at New Plymouth. In 1910, he established a farm of 250 hectares in the Ngatapa settlement, calling the property Eastwoodhill, the first foundations for the present arboretum were laid then. Douglas Cook started creating a garden immediately and he planted trees, but also roses, flowers, shrubs and vegetables. During the first World War, Cook volunteered to serve in the army, in France, he lost the sight of his right eye and subsequently stayed in Scotland with his family to recover. He was inspired by the gardens and parks of England and also came in contact with Sir Arthur William Hill, in 1918, back at Eastwoodhill, Douglas Cook started planting thousands of Pinus radiata for wood production and for fire-wood. He also planted Eucalyptus viminalis and E. macarthurii and he also started creating parkland with, amongst others, Platanus orientalis, different kinds of Ulmus, Acer pseudoplatanus and A. platanoides. In this year the lombardy poplars were planted alongside Poplar Avenue up the later Main Entrance Drive. In 1919 he ordered 1,996 trees and shrubs and in 1920 a total of 3,387, the plantings included Cabbage Tree Avenue. Planting was interrupted for journeys to England in 1922 and 1924 but in 1926 the garden was extended with thousands of tulips, hyacinths, then he got serious, said his biographer and former curator Garry Clapperton in an interview with John Mortimer. He started designing Corner Park, and continued with Cabin Park, the Long Road to Poland, Douglas Park, in 1927, Bill Crooks started working at Eastwoodhill, eventually staying on for 47 years. He did most of the farming, so Cook had more time for his beloved trees, the planting of the parks started around 1927. Around this time, the collecting of different tree species also began for Cook, through the years the number of plant specimen collected reached immense proportions, with about 5,000 different taxa at the maximum point, at large costs. Cook continued to spend up large on plants in the 1930s, in 1936, he spent £85 at one New Plymouth nursery alone and, by the end of his life, he had spent on average £1000 annually on plants from overseas and New Zealand
23.
Gisborne, New Zealand
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Gisborne is a city in northeastern New Zealand and the largest settlement in the Gisborne District. It has a population of 36,100, the district council has its headquarters in Whataupoko, in the central city. The settlement was known as Turanga and renamed Gisborne in 1870 in honour of New Zealand Colonial Secretary William Gisborne. The Gisborne region has been settled for over 700 years, for centuries the region has been inhabited by the tribes of Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri and Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti. Their people descend from the voyagers of the Te Ikaroa-a-Rauru, Horouta, East Coast oral traditions offer differing versions of Gisbornes establishment by Māori. According to one legend, Kiwa waited so long for the Horouta canoe to arrive that he called its final landing place Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, however, a more popular version of events is that Horouta preceded Takitimu. In 1931, Sir Āpirana Ngata stated that Horouta was the canoe that brought the people to the East Coast. Māori historian Rongowhakaata Halbert affirmed this account, stating that Paoas crew on the Horouta were the first inhabitants of the East Coast after migrating from Ahuahu or Great Mercury Island, paoa gave his name to various places across the region, most notably the Waipāoa River. During the 14th century, Māori tribes built fishing villages close to the sea, Gisbornes Kaiti Beach is the place where British navigator Captain James Cook made his first landing in New Zealand upon the Endeavour. Cook had earlier set off from Plymouth, England in August 1768 on a bound for Tahiti. Once he had concluded his duties in Tahiti, Cook continued south to look for a large landmass or continent. Young Nicks Head was thought to be the first piece of New Zealand land sighted by Cooks party, on 9 October, Cook came ashore on the eastern bank of the Tūranganui River, accompanied by a party of men. Their arrival was marred by misunderstanding and resulted in the death and it was also on the banks of the Tūranganui River that first the township of Tūranga, then the city of Gisborne, grew as European traders and whalers began to settle in the river and port area. The landing site was commemorated by a monument in 1906, on the 137th anniversary of Cooks arrival. Starting in the early 1830s, traders such as Captain John Harris, over the next 30 years, many more European traders and missionaries migrated to the region. In 1868 the government bought 300 hectares of land for a town site, the town was laid out in 1870 and the name changed from Tūranga to Gisborne, after the then colonial secretary, and to avoid confusion with Tauranga. In 1872, Gisbornes first public school was opened and its first newspaper, a town council was formed in 1877. Gisborne is a city located on the east cape of New Zealands North Island
24.
New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
25.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
26.
The Tasmanian Arboretum
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The Tasmanian Arboretum is a botanical tree park near Devonport, Tasmania, Australia. The arboretum was incorporated on the 16th of May 1984, the site originally consisted of 47ha of farmland and remnant forest which was purchased with Australian Bicentennial Grant funding. The first plantings of woody plants to add to the trees was in 1986. 11ha adjoining the main Eugenana site was given in 1996 by the then North Forest Products to help protect the values of the sites location. In 2009 a further 7. 9ha, consisting of a disused quarry floor, total area of the main site is 66ha with some 40ha for the collection and 22 of local natural vegetation. The balance is either quarry floor or infrastructure, there are over 4100 plants in the geographic and thematic collections, besides the indigenous species. Collections are mainly of plants and include the Tasmanian, the Southern Hemisphere conifers, leatherwood Eucryphia lucida. Broadly, this represents a collection of the descendant of the flora of Gondwana, about 80 species of birds have been recorded from the site including the swift parrot and the grey goshawk. The arboretum is open daily from 9 am to sunset and requests a donation from visitors so it may continue its work, activities include walking the tracks in a peaceful setting to view the plants, the wildlife, the art, the landscape and the limestone heritage. Platypus may be seen on Founders Lake during windless periods or late in the afternoon, Tasmanian nativehens abound, and other birds may be observed. The picnic area contains shelters with coin-operated barbecues and outdoor wood-fired ones, exhibitions and other activities are listed on the website. The organization, The Tasmanian Arboretum Inc. is a not for profit organization dedicated to operating a botanical institution for education, enjoyment of nature. It has a membership and is governed by a committee of up to 14. Maintenance of the collections is largely by the volunteers, development has been funded by a range of donors. The Devonport City Council currently grants $21,000 per annum to assist with operations of the cultural attraction
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Devonport, Tasmania
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Devonport is a city in northern Tasmania, Australia. It is situated at the mouth of the Mersey River, Devonport had an estimated urban population of 30,497 at June 2015. Along with the smaller city of Burnie, Devonport is the major regional centre of the north-western part of the state. During the 1850s the twin settlements of Formby and Torquay were established on opposite banks at the mouth of the Mersey River, Torquay on the eastern shore was the larger community with police, post, magistrate, at least three hotels, shipyards and stores. A river ferry service connected the two communities, between 1870 and 1880 the shipping industry grew and work was undertaken to deepen the mouth of the river. When the mouth of the river could support an industry the first regular steamer services commenced. In 1882 the Marine Board building was built and remains the oldest standing building in Devonport, in 1889 the Bluff lighthouse was completed and the turn of the century saw the railway make a significant difference to the Formby community. It combined a railhead and port facilities in the one place, a wharf was created on the west bank, close to the railway and warehouses. The railway brought a boom to Formby. In 1890 a public vote united Torquay and Formby, and the became the town of Devonport. The Victoria bridge was opened in 1902 which enabled a land link between Devonport and East Devonport. Devonport was proclaimed a city by Prince Charles of Wales on 21 April 1981 in a ceremony conducted on the Devonport Oval, the cross river ferry service was discontinued in 2014 after 160 years of continuous service when the vessel the Torquay was taken out of service. List of suburbs The main CBD is on the west side of the Mersey River and includes a mall, cinema, speciality stores, chain stores such as IGA. There are several restaurants and cafes. Local theatre and Conventions are held at the Devonport Entertainment and Convention Centre in the citys CBD, the Devonport Regional Gallery evolved from the inception of The Little Gallery, which was founded by Jean Thomas as a private enterprise in 1966. The Gallery presents a program of exhibitions, education and public programs including events. Another smaller gallery is the Blue Apple Gift Store & Gallery, tiagarra Aboriginal Culture Centre and Museum displays petroglyphs, designs in rock and exhibits that depict the traditional lifestyle of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The Bass Strait Maritime Centre housed in the former Harbour Masters House has objects, models and photographs that tells the stories of Bass Strait, a Railway Museum is situated at Don a suburb of Devonport called the Don River Railway
28.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
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Liriodendron chinense
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Liriodendron chinense, the Chinese tulip poplar or Chinese tulip tree, is Asias native species in the Liriodendron genus. Protected populations occur in the Tianmushan National Reserve, Huangshan, Wuyi Shan, the Chinese tulip tree reaches about 40 metres tall. It is not as hardy as the American species, but is cultivated on other continents as an ornamental tree and it is grown in England, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. In North America, it grows as far north as Boston, Massachusetts in the east and it is a street tree at the University of Victoria and along the Veterans Memorial Parkway in Langford, British Columbia. In cultivation it grows as fast as the American tulip tree, a cultivar with leaves larger and darker than typical has been developed in North Carolina. International Dendrology Society & Magnolia Society
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National Arboretum Canberra
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In 2004, the Government of the Australian Capital Territory held a nationwide competition for an arboretum, which was to be part of the recovery from the 2003 bushfires. The site has been planted since 2005, and includes ceremonial trees planted by visiting heads of government and it was officially opened in February 2013. The established areas include existing forests of Himalayan cedar and cork oak planted under the guidance of early town planners under general direction from the citys planner, Walter Burley Griffin. The arboretum is generally in keeping with Griffins plan for such an arboretum, a forest of Turkish Pine Pinus brutia, a species native to the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, has been planted to commemorate Australian service personnel killed in all conflicts. In addition, a number of ceremonial Aleppo Pines have been planted on the summit of Dairy Farmers Hill and these complement a number of mature specimens of this species already existing on the hill. The National Bonsai and Penjing Collection of Australia, previously in Commonwealth Park, has relocated to the arboretum. It includes 16 eucalypt species from various habitats and a diversity of under-storey shrubs, grasses, ground covers, flowers. The arboretum has some outstanding views and a stage and amphetheatre. The stonework in the center is sourced from the town of Wee Jasper on the outskirts of Canberra. The arboretum features several pieces of public art. It is approximately 35m in length and 9. 5m tall, on another hill is a found objects artwork depicting an eagle on a nest. Official website Friends of the National Arboretum Canberra Southern Tablelands Ecosystems Park website Wee Japer Stone Lindsay Pryor National Arboretum – nearby Arboretum Norr
31.
Tuggeranong Parkway
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The Tuggeranong Parkway is an 11-kilometre-long major highway in Canberra, Australia. It also links to the Glenloch Interchange, where such as Caswell Drive connect to Belconnen. The Tuggeranong Parkway starts at Glenloch Interchange, continuing southwest from the roadway that forms Caswell Drive, after a short distance the parkway encounters its first interchange, which crosses over a spur of Lady Denman Drive. This spur provides access to the National Arboretum, following this interchange the parkway begins to climb Oakey Hill, crossing over Heysen Street during the ascent. After peaking high on the hill, it begins to descend toward the Hindmarsh Drive interchange. The parkway then continues a slow descent toward the its terminus at the Sulwood Drive intersection, the roadway itself continues southwards as Drakeford Drive. The Tuggeranong Parkway is 4 lanes wide, has a limit of 100 kilometres per hour and is divided variously by a concrete wall or large median strip planted with trees. Four speed cameras were installed on the road in July 2007 to enforce the 100 kilometres per hour speed limit and they are at the Cotter Road and Hindmarsh Drive interchanges, monitoring both directions of traffic. The road was involved in the Canberra bushfires of 2003 in which the fires came up to the edge of the road, in parts, space has been set aside for duplication of the road if future needs require it. An example can be seen in the road cuttings behind the suburb of Weston. The Tuggeranong Parkway also connects to the Gungahlin Drive Extension, which connects to Belconnen, in the south, it runs onto Drakeford Drive as it enters Kambah. Original plans for the Parkway had it continuing down the route of Kambah Pool Road and crossing the Murrumbidgee River over Red Rocks Gorge, to connect suburbs on the west side of the River. Due to the sensitivity of the Murrumbidgee River corridor, especially the Red Rocks Gorge. Freeways in Australia Freeways in Canberra
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Lake Burley Griffin
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Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial lake in the centre of Canberra, the capital of Australia. It was completed in 1963 after the Molonglo River—which ran between the city centre and Parliamentary Triangle—was dammed and it is named after Walter Burley Griffin, the American architect who won the competition to design the city of Canberra. Griffin designed the lake with many geometric motifs, so that the axes of his design lined up with natural geographical landmarks in the area, however, government authorities changed his original plans and no substantial work was completed before he left Australia in 1920. His scheme remained unfulfilled as the Great Depression and World War II intervened, after much political dispute over several proposed variations, excavation work began in 1960 with the energetic backing of Prime Minister Robert Menzies. After the completion of the bridges and dams, the dams were locked in September 1963, however, a drought meant that the target water level was not reached until April 1964. It was formally inaugurated on 17 October 1964, the lake is located in the approximate geographic centre of the city, and is the centrepiece of the capital in accordance with Griffins original designs. Its surrounds, consisting mainly of parklands, are popular with recreational users, though swimming in the lake is uncommon, it is used for a wide variety of other activities, such as rowing, fishing, and sailing. The lake is a body with a length of 11 kilometres, at its widest. It has a depth of 4 metres and a maximum depth of about 18 metres near the Scrivener Dam. Its flow is regulated by the 33-metre-tall Scrivener Dam, designed to handle floods that once in 5,000 years. In times of drought, water levels can be maintained through the release of water from Googong Dam, Charles Robert Scrivener recommended the site for Canberra in 1909, which was to be a planned capital city for the country. In 1911, a competition for the design of Canberra was launched, most of the proposals took the hint and included artificial bodies of water. Griffins proposal, which had an abundance of geometric patterns, incorporated concentric hexagonal and octagonal streets emanating from several radii, the East Lake was supposed to be 6 metres higher than the remaining components. Griffins proposal was the grandest scheme submitted, yet it had a simplicity and clarity. The lakes were designed so that their orientation was related to various topographical landmarks in Canberra. This was designed so that looking from Capital Hill, the War Memorial stood directly at the foot of Mount Ainslie, at the southwestern end of the land axis was Bimberi Peak. The straight edge of the segment that formed the central basin was designated the water axis, and it extended northwest towards Black Mountain. A line parallel to the axis, on the northern side of the city, was designated the municipal axis
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Canberra
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Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of 381,488, it is Australias largest inland city, the city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory,280 km south-west of Sydney, and 660 km north-east of Melbourne. A resident of Canberra is known as a Canberran, the site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nations capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australias two largest cities. It is unusual among Australian cities, being a planned city outside of any state, similar to Washington, D. C. in the United States. Following an international contest for the design, a blueprint by American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin was selected. The Griffins plan featured geometric motifs such as circles, hexagons and triangles, the citys design was influenced by the garden city movement and incorporates significant areas of natural vegetation that have earned Canberra the title of the bush capital. Although the Australian Capital Territory is now self-governing, the Commonwealth Government retains some influence through the National Capital Authority, the Australian Armys officer corps is trained at the Royal Military College, Duntroon and the Australian Defence Force Academy is also located in the capital. The ACT is independent of any state to prevent any one state from gaining an advantage by hosting the seat of Commonwealth power, the ACT has voting representation in the Commonwealth Parliament, and has its own independent Legislative Assembly and government, similar to the states. Compared to the averages, the unemployment rate is lower. Property prices are high, in part due to comparatively restrictive development regulations. An 1830s map of the region by Major Mitchell indeed does mark the Sullivans Creek floodplain between two mountains as Nganbra. Nganbra or Nganbira could readily have been anglicised to the name Canberry, survey plans of the district dated 1837 refer to the area as the Canberry Plain. Although popularly pronounced /ˈkænbərə/ or /ˈkænbɛrə/, the pronunciation at its official naming in 1913 was /ˈkæn. brə/. Before white settlement, the area in which Canberra would eventually be constructed was seasonally inhabited by Indigenous Australians, archaeological evidence of settlement in the region includes inhabited rock shelters, rock paintings and engravings, burial places, camps and quarry sites, and stone tools and arrangements. Artefacts suggests early human activity occurred at some point in the area 21,000 years previously, European exploration and settlement started in the Canberra area as early as the 1820s. There were four expeditions between 1820 and 1824, white settlement of the area probably dates from 1823, when a homestead or station was built on what is now the Acton peninsula by stockmen employed by Joshua John Moore. He formally applied to purchase the site on 16 December 1826, on 30 April 1827, Moore was told by letter that he could retain possession of 1,000 acres at Canberry. The European population in the Canberra area continued to grow throughout the 19th century
34.
Cedrus deodara
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Cedrus deodara is a species of cedar native to the western Himalayas in eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and India, southwesternmost Tibet and western Nepal, occurring at 1, 500–3,200 m altitude. It is an evergreen coniferous tree reaching 40–50 m tall. It has a crown with level branches and drooping branchlets. The female cones are barrel-shaped, 7–13 cm long and 5–9 cm broad, the male cones are 4–6 cm long, and shed their pollen in autumn. The botanical name, which is also the English common name, derives from the Sanskrit term devadāru, which means wood of the gods, among Hindus, as the etymology of deodar suggests, it is worshiped as a divine tree. Deva, the first half of the Sanskrit term, means divine, deity, dāru, the second part, is cognate with the words durum, druid, tree, and true. Several Hindu legends refer to this tree, ” Forests full of Deodar or Devadāru trees were the favorite living place of ancient Indian sages and their families who were devoted to the Hindu god Shiva. To please Lord Shiva, the used to perform very difficult tapasya practices in deodar forests. Also the ancient Hindu epics and Shaivite texts regularly mention Darukavana, meaning a forest of deodars, the deodar is the national tree of Pakistan. It is widely grown as a tree, often planted in parks. General cultivation is limited to areas with mild winters, with trees frequently killed by temperatures below about −25 °C, limiting it to USDA zone 7 and it can succeed in rather cool-summer climates, as in Stateline, Nevada, and Ushuaia, Argentina. The most cold-tolerant trees originate in the northwest of the range in Kashmir and Paktia Province. Selected cultivars from this region are hardy to USDA zone 7 or even zone 6, named cultivars from this region include Eisregen, Eiswinter, Karl Fuchs, Kashmir, Polar Winter, and Shalimar. This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, Deodar is in great demand as building material because of its durability, rot-resistant character and fine, close grain, which is capable of taking a high polish. Its historical use to construct temples and in landscaping around temples is well recorded. Its rot-resistant character also makes it an ideal wood for constructing the well-known houseboats of Srinagar, in Pakistan and India, during the British colonial period, deodar wood was used extensively for construction of barracks, public buildings, bridges, canals and railway cars. Despite its durability, it is not a strong timber, and its nature makes it unsuitable for delicate work where strength is required. The use of C. deodara in Ayurvedic medicines is well recorded, the inner wood is aromatic and used to make incense
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Quercus suber
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Quercus suber, commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. It is the source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa and it grows to up to 20 m, although it is typically more stunted in its native environment. The leaves are 4 to 7 cm long, weakly lobed or coarsely toothed, dark green above, the acorns are 2 to 3 cm long, in a deep cup fringed with elongated scales. Natural stands of oak can support diverse ecosystems. In Western Europe, namely in Portugal and Spain, the oak forests are home to endangered species such as the Iberian lynx. The tree has a thick, insulating bark that may have been the cork oaks evolutionary answer to forest fires, the quick regeneration of the pyrophyte tree seems to be an advantage compared to other species that, after a fire, return to an initial stage of development. The tree forms a thick, rugged bark containing high levels of suberin, over time the cork cambium layer of bark can develop considerable thickness and can be harvested every 7 to ten years to produce cork. The harvesting of cork does not harm the tree, in fact, only the bark is extracted, and a new layer of cork regrows, making it a renewable resource. The tree is cultivated in Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Morocco, France, Italy, Cork oaks are considered to be soil builders and their fruits have been shown to have useful insecticidal properties. Cork oak forests cover approximately 25,000 square kilometres in those countries, Portugal accounts for around 50% of the world cork harvest. Q. suber is commonly grown in agroforestry systems, known as montado in Portugal and these are open woods with low tree density. In these systems, forage species are grown under the trees. Cork oaks live about 150 to 250 years, virgin cork is the first cork cut from generally 25-year-old trees. Another 9 to 12 years is required for the second harvest, Cork harvesting is done entirely without machinery, being dependent solely on human labor. Usually five people are required to harvest the bark, using a small axe. The process requires training due to the required to harvest bark without harming the tree. The European cork industry produces 300,000 tonnes of cork a year, with a value of €1.5 billion, wine corks represent 15% of cork usage by weight but 66% of revenues
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2003 Canberra bushfires
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The 2003 Canberra bushfires involved several deaths, over 490 injured, and caused severe damage to the suburbs and outer areas of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, during 18–22 January 2003. Almost 70% of the Australian Capital Territorys pastures, forests, and nature parks were severely damaged, after burning for a week around the edges of the ACT, the fires entered the suburbs of Canberra on 18 January 2003. Over the next ten hours, four died and more than 500 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, requiring a significant relief. On 8 January 2003, lightning strikes started four fires in NSW, over the border, despite their proximity and very small initial sizes, low intensity, and low rate of spread, these fires were not extinguished or contained by NSW emergency services personnel. On 13 January, a helicopter that had been waterbombing the fires in the forests west of Canberra crashed into Bendora Dam with one person, ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and Chief Fire Officer Peter Lucas-Smith were reviewing the fires nearby in the Snowy Hydro SouthCare helicopter. The pilot of the Southcare chopper cautiously positioned his aircraft to allow Stanhope, Lucas-Smith, all three who rescued the injured pilot and the helicopter pilot later received awards for their bravery. On 17 January, the Emergency Services Bureau released its final release prior to 18 January at 8,50 pm. This media release differed to any one in format and content. It also provided clues that were overlooked in the assessment of the risk Canberra faced. The morning of Saturday 18 January 2003 was hot, windy, temperatures as high as 40 °C and winds exceeding 80 kilometres per hour, plus a very low relative humidity, were the main weather features of the day. Two fires continued to out of control in the Namadgi National Park, with the entire park, along with the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. A second fire, in the Brindabella Ranges, was threatening to break containment lines, by 9 am on the morning of Saturday 18 January, burned leaves appeared on lawns in houses in the Weston Creek, Kambah, and Tuggeranong suburbs bordering the western extremity of Canberra. By 10 am, news helicopters were overflying Duffy and reporting news of the interstate and internationally. Throughout the day, the fires burned closer to the fringes of Canberras suburbs, at around 2 pm, police evacuated the township of Tharwa to the south of Canberra. A state of emergency was declared at 2.45 pm by the ACTs Chief Minister, the fires reached the urban area at 3 pm. The first emergency warning advisories were broadcast shortly after, on radio and television and these advisories, accompanied by the Emergency Warning Signal stated that a significant deterioration of the fire situation in the ACT had occurred and placed several suburbs on alert to evacuate. As the day continued, these advisories advised the evacuation of several suburbs, by now, the fire had reached the fringes of many suburbs, was surrounding Tharwa, and threatened the historic Lanyon Homestead, which was hosting a wedding and protected by only a single fire truck. By 3.50 pm, some houses were alight in the suburbs of Duffy and Chapman, an ACT Fire Brigade unit, perceiving the fire from a vantage point in Fyshwick, overrode instructions by the radio controller to ignore the signs and remain where they were
37.
Wollemia
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Wollemia is a genus of coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae. The genus is named for the National Park, the oldest fossil of the Wollemi tree has been dated to 200 million years ago. The Wollemi pine is classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCNs Red List, a Recovery Plan has been drawn up, outlining strategies for the management of this fragile population, the overall objective is to ensure that this species remains viable in the long-term. Wollemia nobilis is a tree reaching 25–40 m tall. The bark is distinctive, dark brown and knobbly, quoted as resembling Coco Pops breakfast cereal. The tree coppices readily, and most specimens are multiple-trunked or appear as clumps of trunks thought to derive from old growth, with some consisting of up to 100 stems of differing sizes. The branching is unique in that all the side branches never have further branching. After a few years, each branch either terminates in a cone or ceases growth, after this, or when the cone becomes mature, the branch dies. New branches then arise from dormant buds on the main trunk, rarely, a side branch will turn erect and develop into a secondary trunk, which then bears a new set of side branches. The leaves are linear, 3–8 cm long and 2–5 mm broad. They are arranged spirally on the shoot but twisted at the base to appear in two or four flattened ranks, as the leaves mature, they develop from bright lime-green to a more yellowish-green. The seed cones are green, 6–12 cm long and 5–10 cm in diameter and they disintegrate at maturity to release the seeds which are small and brown, thin and papery with a wing around the edge to aid wind-dispersal. The male cones are conic, 5–11 cm long and 1–2 cm broad. Seedlings appear to be slow-growing and mature trees are extremely long-lived, Noble had good botanical knowledge, and quickly recognised the trees as unusual and worthy of further investigation. Returning with specimens, and expecting someone to be able to identify the plants, the species was subsequently named after him. Further study would be needed to establish its relationship to other conifers, the initial suspicion was that it had certain characteristics of the 200-million-year-old family Araucariaceae, but was not similar to any living species in the family. Comparison with living and fossilised Araucariaceae proved that it was a member of that family and these trees remained common throughout eastern Australia until around 40 million years ago but then gradually declined in range and abundance. Prior to the discovery of the population in Wollemi National Park
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Australian Capital Territory
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The Australian Capital Territory is the federal district in the south east of Australia, enclaved within New South Wales. Its only city is Canberra, the city of Australia. The ACT also has a strip of territory around the southern end of the Beecroft Peninsula. The need for a territory was flagged by colonial delegates during the Federation conventions of the late 19th century. Section 125 of the Australian Constitution provided that, following Federation in 1901, the territory was transferred to the Commonwealth by the state of New South Wales in 1911, two years prior to the naming of Canberra as the national capital in 1913. The floral emblem of the ACT is the royal bluebell and the emblem is the gang-gang cockatoo. The economic activity of the Australian Capital Territory is heavily concentrated around Canberra and this trend continued into 2016, when the territory was ranked the third best performing out of all of Australias states and territories. There is a proportion of young adults in the region compared with other Australian states or territories. Approximately one-fifth of ACT residents were born outside of Australia, mainly in the United Kingdom, almost one-fifth speak a language other than English at home, the most common being Chinese. The ACT also has a strip of territory around the southern end of the Beecroft Peninsula. Apart from the city of Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory also contains agricultural land, small townships and communities located within the ACT include Williamsdale, Naas, Uriarra, Tharwa and Hall. There are a range of mountains, rivers and creeks in the Namadgi National Park. These include the Naas and Murrumbidgee Rivers, Canberra is noted for its warm to hot, dry summers, and cold winters with occasional fog and frequent frosts. Many of the mountains in the territorys south-west are snow-covered for at least part of the winter. Thunderstorms can occur between October and March, and annual rainfall is 623 mm, with rainfall highest in spring and summer, the highest maximum temperature recorded in the ACT was 42.8 °C at Acton on 11 January 1939. The lowest minimum temperature was −14.6 °C at Gudgenby on 11 July 1971, notable geological formations in the Australian Capital Territory include the Canberra Formation, the Pittman Formation, Black Mountain Sandstone and State Circle Shale. In the 1840s fossils of brachiopods and trilobites from the Silurian period were discovered at Woolshed Creek near Duntroon, at the time, these were the oldest fossils discovered in Australia, though this record has now been far surpassed. Other specific geological places of interest include the State Circle cutting, the oldest rocks in the ACT date from the Ordovician around 480 million years ago
39.
Abney Park Cemetery
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Abney Park cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London, England. In 1840 it became a garden cemetery, a semi-public park arboretum, and an educational institute. A total of 196,843 burials had taken place there up to the year 2000 and it is a Local Nature Reserve. The official address of Abney Park is Stoke Newington High Street, the main gate is at the junction of this street and Rectory Road, with a smaller gate on Stoke Newington Church Street. The park lies within the London Borough of Hackney, the cemetery is named after Sir Thomas Abney, who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1700–01. The manor of Stoke Newington belonged to him in the early 18th century and his house, built in 1676. Details of the Abney Park Cemetery Company can be found in the diaries of William Copeland Astbury, in 1840, Abney Park opened as a model garden cemetery, a pioneering non-denominational place of rest. Its approach was based on the Congregational churchs role in the London Missionary Society and it also drew on American burial ideas, specifically Mount Auburn in Massachusetts. The trustees would be appointed by the members, under the trust deed, the founders sought to preserve the park in perpetuity. The weakness of the lay in the detail however. In consequence, company income could not be held in trust for the park, from then onwards standardised park-like landscaping principles came to be applied at Abney Park, replacing much of the unique arboretum planting. Air pollution also took its toll, affecting the conifer walks, after the First World War, path infill began to be practised, a situation that became severe in the 1950s and was continued into the 1970s, when the commercial cemetery company went into liquidation. In 1978, apart from one building, the park passed to the local council as a burial ground. Abney Park was included on the Heritage at Risk Register in 2009, as one of Britains historic parks and gardens at risk from neglect and decay. Similarly, from time to time, some sections of boundary wall become too weak due to people climbing over them, and decay has set in. However these matters could be put right and the park is a place to visit, with a range of educational, training and cultural events. It is a designated Local Nature Reserve and Conservation Area, apart from the South Lodge extension on the forecourt, Abney Parks freehold is owned by the London Borough of Hackney. The park is situated near Stoke Newington High Street, London N16 and it occupies 12.53 hectares, which includes a nature reserve, a classroom, a visitors centre and a central chapel which is disused
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Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
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Derby Arboretum
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Derby Arboretum is a public park and arboretum in the city of Derby, England, located about 1 mile south of the city centre in the Rose Hill area. It was opened in 1840, following the donation of the land by local philanthropist Joseph Strutt and it was the first publicly owned, landscaped, urban, recreational park in England. After many years of neglect, the Arboretum was extensively refurbished in the early 21st century with the aid of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of almost £5 million and it is listed as Grade II* on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. Derby Arboretum opened in 1840 and is described as Britains first public park. The Arboretum was donated to the town in 1840 by Joseph Strutt, work on the Arboretum commenced in July 1839, and was completed in time for the grand opening which took place on 16 September 1840. The occasion was marked by a parade from the Market Place in the centre of Derby to the new park, the park initially charged for admission, in order to pay for its upkeep. However, admission was free on Sundays and on Wednesdays, free admission times continued to be extended until charging was finally abolished in 1882. A scene from Ken Russells 1969 Oscar-winning film Women in Love was shot at the Arboretum, the scene had the Aslin designed band stand with a brass band playing whilst Oliver Reed, Alan Bates and Glenda Jackson spoke. The Easter Pavilion had received a coat of paint for the occasion, over the years the Arboretum has incorporated a variety of buildings, statues and ornaments. Perhaps the best known locally is the Florentine Boar statue, which was placed on the site in 1806. Strutt had commissioned William John Coffee, a Crown Derby sculptor, the earthenware boar remained in place after the creation of the Arboretum until it was damaged during a German air raid on Derby on 15 January 1941. However, a claim was reported in January 2002 that a Derby resident had, as a child, the current statue is a bronze replacement dedicated in 2005. Other past and present features of the Arboretum include, The original Grand Entrance from Grove Street, an elaborate entrance from Arboretum Square, incorporating a statue of Joseph Strutt, completed in 1852. An entrance lodge on the Rose Hill Street side, a Victorian bandstand, destroyed along with the Boar in 1941. An iron and glass building designed by Henry Duesbury was erected at the Rose Hill Street end of the 1845 extension and this was demolished in the 1890s. The fountain, originally built in 1846 and recently restored, two bowling greens, home of the Arboretum and Joseph Strutt Bowls Clubs. Arboretum Field, an extension to the area of the park added in 1845. At one time major football matches were played here, notably Derby Junctions victory over Blackburn Rovers in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1888, there are still football pitches here today
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Stoke Newington
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Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney. The historic core on Church Street was the site of the hamlet of Stoke Newington which in turn gave its name to the Ancient Parish of Stoke Newington. Church Street retains the distinct London village character which led Nikolaus Pevsner to write that he found it hard to see the district as being in London at all, Stoke Newington is nicknamed Stokey by many residents. The modern London Borough of Hackney was formed by the merger of three former Metropolitan Boroughs, Hackney and the considerably smaller authorities of Stoke Newington and Shoreditch. These Metropolitan Boroughs had been in existence since 1899 but their names and boundaries were very closely based on much older ancient parishes dating back to the medieval period. As described the Metropolitan Borough largely adopted the Ancient Parishes boundaries, there were minor rationalisations but the major change to the area covered was the transfer of part of Hornsey. Stoke Newington northern and western boundaries have become the north-west borders of the modern London Borough, the eastern boundary was formed primarily by the A10 road where it goes by the name Stoke Newington High St and Stoke Newington Road, further south. -– Where that part of AP\MB of Hackney known as Dalston extends a short way over the A10 to meet Stoke Newington on a line along a road called ‘The Crossway’. The growth means that Stoke Newington is often associated with the N16 postcode, Stoke Newington is part of the Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency which has been represented by Labour MP Diane Abbott since 1987. For a small district, Stoke Newington is endowed with an amount of open space. It was designed, by William Chadwell Mylne, to look like a towering Scottish castle and it is now a nature reserve, a role that it was in many ways intended for, as it was set up as an arboretum. Abney Park became scheduled in 2009 as one of Britains historic parks and gardens at risk from neglect, finally, across the high street to the east is the fragmented Stoke Newington Common, which has had an extensive and diverse programme of tree planting. From the 16th century onwards, Stoke Newington has played a prominent role in assuring a supply to sustain Londons rapid growth. Hugh Myddletons New River runs through the area and still makes a contribution to Londons water and it used to terminate at the New River Head in Finsbury, but since 1946 its main flow has ended at Stoke Newington reservoirs. The river bank, the New River Path, can be walked for some distance to the north through Haringey and on to its source near Hertford, Stoke Newington East and West Reservoirs, to the north of Clissold Park, are quite substantial for urban facilities. Stoke Newington Reservoirs were constructed in 1833 to purify the New River water, the West Reservoir is now a leisure facility, offering sailing, canoeing and other water sports, plus Royal Yachting Association-approved sailing courses. On its western edge stands the former house, now set out as a visitor centre with a café. Besides the water facilities and the New River, Clissold Park contains two large ornamental lakes, a home to many water birds and a population of terrapins
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Mount Auburn Cemetery
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Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge and Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts,4 miles west of Boston. With classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain, it marked a break with Colonial-era burying grounds. The appearance of this type of landscape coincides with the popularity of the term cemetery. This language and outlook eclipsed the previous view of death. The 174-acre cemetery is important both for its historical aspects and for its role as an arboretum and it is Watertown’s largest contiguous open space and extends into Cambridge to the east, adjacent to the Cambridge City Cemetery and Sand Banks Cemetery. It was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 2003 for its role in 19th-century cemetery development. The land that became Mount Auburn Cemetery was originally named Stones Farm, Mount Auburn Cemetery was inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and was itself an inspiration to cemetery designers, most notably at Abney Park in London. Mount Auburn Cemetery was designed largely by Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn with assistance from Jacob Bigelow, Bigelow came up with the idea for Mount Auburn as early as 1825, though a site was not acquired until five years later. Bigelow, a doctor, was concerned about the unhealthiness of burials under churches as well as the possibility of running out of space. With help from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded on 70 acres of land authorized by the Massachusetts Legislature for use as a garden or rural cemetery, the original land cost $6,000, it later extended to 170 acres. The main gate was built in the Egyptian Revival style and cost $10,000, the first president of the Mount Auburn Association, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, dedicated the cemetery in 1831. Storys dedication address, delivered on September 24,1831, set the model for many more addresses in the three decades. Garry Wills focuses on it as an important precursor to President Lincolns Gettysburg Address, the cemetery is credited as the beginning of the American public parks and gardens movement. It can be considered the link between Capability Browns English landscape gardens and Frederick Law Olmsteds Central Park in New York, Mount Auburn was established at a time when Americans had a sentimental interest in rural cemeteries. It is still known for its tranquil atmosphere and accepting attitude toward death. Many of the more traditional monuments feature poppy flowers, symbols of blissful sleep, in the late 1830s, its first unofficial guide, Picturesque Pocket Companion and Visitors Guide Through Mt. In the 1840s, Mount Auburn was considered one of the most popular tourist destinations in the nation, along with Niagara Falls, a 16-year-old Emily Dickinson wrote about her visit to Mount Auburn in a letter in 1846. 60,000 people visited the cemetery in 1848 alone, the cemetery has three notable buildings on its grounds
