S'6 • ON THE OLD AND EEMARKABLE 



from the base. Its height is 75 feet. Another fine Spanish 

 chestnut exists at Dunbarney, near Perth. It is now (October 

 1878) 20 feet 5 inclies in girth, at 1 foot from the ground, 

 and 16 feet at 5 feet from base. It is 40 feet high, and has 

 a spread of branches 55 feet in diameter. It appears to be 

 in perfect vigour, and to be still forming wood. Measured in 

 1862, when it was stated to be " recovering its vigour," it 

 girthed at 5 feet only 14 feet. The soil is blackish loam with 

 a clay subsoil, and a southern exposure. It has thus grown 

 2 feet in girth in 16 years, or an average of 1| inch per 

 annum. 



A very fine group of Spanish chestnuts may be seen at 

 Strathallan. The large tree in the foreground of the group, 

 and which is the most important, measures as follows :— At 

 1 foot from the ground, 15 feet 6 inches in circumference; 

 and at five feet, it is 14 feet 6 inches in girth, with a bole 

 of nearly 40 feet, and a total height of 70 feet. The ground 

 on which this beautiful grotip is growing forms a triangle, 

 the sides of which are 107 feet, 43 feet, and 99 feet long respec- 

 tively. The site is level, the soil a dark loam, about 2 feet 

 in depth, and the subsoil is a very hard and retentive till. The 

 altitude is about 150 feet above sea-level. Whether the triangu- 

 lar form in which the group had been originally planted has any 

 meaning or not, does not now appear ; but it is a remarkable 

 circumstance, and one corroborated by similar arrangements of 

 groups of trees in other localities, and in the southern counties of 

 England, so that from whatever point of view one looks at 

 the group or its individual members in walking round it, a 

 triangle is presented. The accompanying diagram of the ground 



and relative positions of the trees is instructive, and may be full 

 of]interest and inquiry for the arch£eologist. It will be observed 



