232 TRANSACTION'S, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OP GLASGOW. 



Britain and Ireland, by H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., and A. Henry, 

 F.L.S., the former writes (p. 194), " Thuya occidentalis never 

 attains to a considerable size when planted in this country. 

 There is a specimen at White Knights, near Reading, of great 

 age. which is now dying at the top. According to the gardener 

 there, it has not made any growth for the last thirty-five years. 

 It measured in 1904, 41 feet in height by 4 feet in girth. At 

 Stratton Strawless, Norfolk, there is also a specimen of consider- 

 able age, remarkable for the pendulous habit of the branches, 

 which is 35 feet in height. There are more large specimens at 

 Belton Park than at any other place I know in England, the 

 largest I have measured being 41 feet by 3 feet 9 inches. Henry, 

 however, in 1904 measured one at Arley Castle as tall, which 

 divides into three stems near the ground, where it measures 

 7 feet 6 inches in girth At Auchendrane, Ayrshire, Renwick 

 measured a tree in 1902, — which, according to a specimen 

 procured by him in 1906, was Thuya occidentalism — as 42 feet high, 

 by 6 feet 8 inches in girth, with a bole of 12 feet." 



Another remarkable tree is the True Service-tree, or Sorb, Pyrus 

 Sorbus, Gaertn., or P. domestica, Ehr. It has a height of 

 57 ft., a girth of 5 ft. 7 ins., with a bole of 9 ft. The forester 

 has not observed it in fruit. Unfortunately the description of 

 this species by Messrs. Elwes and Henry was printed before I sent 

 a specimen. They give no measurements for Scotland, but it is 

 likely that the Auchendrane tree is equal to any in this country. 

 They say that the largest now living in the United Kingdom 

 seems to be one in Co. Kilkenny, 77 ft. high by 10 ft. 8 in. in 

 girth ; that Loudon mentions a tree in Dorsetshire 82 ft. high, 

 diameter 3 ft. 4 in. ( = girth 10 ft. 6 in.), which, if a true Sorb, 

 must have been the largest on record, but it has long been dead. 

 They record several in England, such as one at Wetherby 65 ft. 

 high by 9 ft. girth, and one at Arley Castle 55 ft. high by 7 ft. 

 4 in. girth. The tree at Arley Castle was a seedling from the single 

 specimen which grew in a remote part of Wyre Forest in Worcester- 

 shire, on whose existence as a native the species was admitted to 

 the British Flora. This tree in Wyre Forest was mentioned in the 

 Philosophical Transactions as far back as 1678. It was burnt down 

 in 1862 by a fire kindled at its base by a vagrant. The species is 

 not now considered as a native. (Elwes and Henry, Vol. I. p. 147.) 



