PLANTING IN SCOTLAND. 31 



the strong westerly winds ill spring ; while at 300 feet altitude, in 

 the same district, it has outgrow^i or overcome this tendency. 

 Again, at Smeaton, Haddingtonshire, at an equally low altitude, 

 there are two very fine trees growing in fine loam soil upon 

 gravelly subsoil. Planted in April 1841, and then about a foot 

 in height, one is now 48 feet 5 inches in height, and girths at 1 

 foot from the ground 6 feet 7 inches, and at 3 feet, 5 feet 6 

 inches. This tree has several times lost its leader from the 

 attacks of the beetle, but forms another quite rapidly. The 

 other specimen is situated in a damper site adjoining the lake, 

 which is a picturesque feature in these beautiful grounds, and 

 the advantage of the greater moisture of the site is apparent in 

 the heavier bole and better development of wood within the 

 same space of time. Being planted at the same date as the 

 foregoing tree, it is now the same height, but girths 8 feet 6 

 inches at 1 foot, and 6 feet 3 inches at 3 feet from the ground. 

 In this case, however, it should be observed that the loamy soil 

 lies immediately over the cool subsoil of the trap-rock, which, for 

 the development and growth of the P. nobilis, is undoubtedly a 

 combination of the most favourable circumstances. There are 

 many other large and fine specimen trees of other species of the 

 coniferous family in the beauitful collection of Sir Thomas 

 Buchan Hepburn, Bart., at Smeaton. Young plants of P. nobilis 

 at Fordell, Fife, 260 feet altitude, are thriving well, and are quite 

 as hardy as the other coniferse in the fine collection of that 

 place. They are within the influence of the sea-air from the 

 Firtli of Forth, and easterly winds which prevail in spring. At 

 Oxeiiford, Mid-Lothian (450 feet altitude), in light soil on yellow 

 subsoil, conifers get covered with resinous blisters on the stems, 

 and are not so suitable as hard-wooded trees ; and P. nobilis is 

 affected there in the same way. At the Cairnies and Glenalmond, 

 Perthshire, there are fine specimens now thirty-fiv^e years old. 

 At an altitude of 520 feet, we find one has attained a height of 47 

 feet, and is 4 feet 9 inches in circumference, growing in a sharp 

 black soil, upon a gravel and sandy subsoil over dead sand; while 

 another, at 612 feet altitude, of the same age and in the same soil, 

 would now have been much taller, had it not unfortunately 

 repeatedly lost its leading shoot. It is, however, 36 feet high, 

 and is only 3 inches less in girth than the taller tree at the lower 

 elevation. In Aberdeenshire, this partiality for a high site is 

 apparent. We find plants of P. nobilis in that county at 600 feet 

 above sea-level, which have made, during the past four years, 10 

 feet of growth, in a soil composed of a mixture of peat and loam 

 on a loosened clay-pan subsoil, and fully exposed to the north 

 and west. In the same situation the average annual growth of the 

 glaucous (so-called) variety has been 2 feet during the past three 

 years. At Keithhall, Aberdeenshire, Mr Clark, the experienced 



