REPORTS ON EXCURSIONS. 91 



Woods, by the Messrs. Paxton, Kilmarnock ; by W. M'Cutcheon 

 (on hazel). Clavens Hill. Dundonald ; and at Clench Glen, 

 Sorn, by myself." This discovery at Doonholm, Ayr Parish, 

 appears, therefore, to be a new parish record for the 

 count v. 



Proceeding up the bank of the Doon we come to Auchendrane 

 Estate, which here marches with Doonholm, but is mainly 

 situated on the other side of the river. Miss Cathcart, of 

 Auchendrane, who is a member of the Society, having observed 

 in the billet calling the March meeting that we were to 

 make an excursion to Ayr, wrote saying that if we were in 

 Carrick we should be welcome to visit her grounds, although 

 she regretted she would be unable, from failing health, to 

 entertain us. We accordingly passed through the grounds, 

 and saw the very fine Birch which grows on the lawn in 

 front of the house ; the Union Trees, a row of six Silver 

 Firs, planted in 1707 in commemoration of the Union between 

 England and Scotland; other Silver Firs, one planted in 1757; two 

 Scots Firs, the one planted in 1707, the date of the other not 

 exactly known, but the tree is notable as the " Wishing Tree." 

 In March last year I gave some notes on the Trees in this 

 estate. In speaking of the Birch, I stated that the only Birch we 

 knew which could be said to exceed it was one at Newton Don, in 

 Berwickshire. But having heard from Dr. A. Henry that this 

 tree no longer existed, I wrote to Mr. C. B. Balfour, of Newton 

 Don, who kindly replied on 20th November, 1905 — "The big 

 Birch at Newton Don and its companion have, I am sorry to say, 

 both gone. The smaller Birch went first — I am afraid I do not 

 know when — but probably about 1896. The big Birch lost a 

 limb in a gale, probably the one of Christmas, 1900, which did a 

 lot of damage. I was abroad at the time, and on my return 

 I decided to take the remains of the tree down. It was rotten, 

 and very unsafe. I think, therefore, we took it down in the 

 winter of 1901-2. . . The tree was planted in the time when 

 the Don family owned the place, and very probably was planted 

 in the end of the eighteenth or early in the nineteenth century, 

 when a good deal of planting and laying-out was done." 



The tree was thus about a hundred vears old. 



With the disappearance of the Newton Don Birch, it is 



