REPORTS ON EXCURSIONS. 279 



Cadzow Forest [PL VIII.] contains the most interesting remnant 

 of the old forest-lands now to be seen in Scotland. All the trees 

 show signs of decay, and the visitor, when he first sees them, 

 cannot fail to be greatly impressed with the appearance of 

 decrepitude everywhere visible. But the blasted appearance of 

 these sylvan giants is not incompatible with a vigorous old age. 

 Naismith of Drumloch wrote of them more than a century since 

 that they were very much decayed, and no more can be said about 

 them to-day. The language employed by Lockhart to describe 

 them in "Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk" in 1819, is still strictly 

 applicable to them : — " The most venerable trees, without question, 

 that can be imagined — hoary and crumbling, and shattered every- 

 where with the winds and storms of centuries, rifted and blasted 

 in their main boughs, but still, projecting here and there some 

 little tufts of faint verdure, and still making a gallant show 

 together where their grey brotherhood crowns the whole summit 

 of the hill — these are 



* the huge oaks of Evandale, 

 Whose limbs a thousand years have worn.'" 



A glance at the accompanying plate will give a fair idea of the 

 size which these trees attain, and the portion of the forest repre- 

 sented may be reasonably considered typical of the whole. 

 Probably none of the trees much exceeds in size one measured on 

 the occasion of the Society's visit. The tree referred to was 

 21 feet 8 J inches in girth of trunk at 5 feet, with a bole of 

 25 feet, and a spread of branches the diameter of which was 

 89 feet. 



In the Bull Park, Lathyrus macrorrhizus, Wimm., was fairly 

 plentiful. After a leisurely inspection of the remarkable Oaks 

 and the Cattle, the party proceeded to the ruins of Cadzow Castle, 

 where a Kestrel [Falco tinnunculus, Linn.) was seen, and Bibes 

 alpinum^ Linn., was found in its old station. The Avon was 

 afterwards crossed and Chatelherault visited. On the walls 

 here, and on the banks beneath them, some naturalized plants 

 and others uncommon in this district may be seen, including 

 Anchusa sempervirenSj Linn., Linaria ' Cymhalaria^ Mill., 

 Lamium maadatum, Linn., Cystopteris fo'agilis, Bernh., 

 Asplenium Euta-muraria, Linn. Within the walls are the 

 formal gardens, containing many plants worthy of attention and 



