138 ON THE OLD AND REMARKABLE ASH TREES IN SCOTLAND. 



from the ground, and 16 feet 6 inches at 5 feet, and has a clean 

 hole of 30 feet, and lofty towering liead ahout 80 feet in height. 

 Two of the ash trees given in the tahle, from Kinnaird Castle, 

 Forfarsliire, — being No. 1 and No. 5 in the list from that station, 

 are not in full vigour, and are showing symptoms of declining 

 age. No. 5 is hollow and decayed about 6 feet up the stem in the 

 centre, and has been cleared out of its rotten timber and fitted 

 with a circular seat capable of holding four men. It is still, 

 however, covered with healthy and abundant foliage. The ash. 

 No. 1 in the Kinnaird return, has always been known by the 

 name of " Adam," and its neighbour, now gone, which grew about 

 100 3'ards from it, was called "Eve." Unfortunately Adam's 

 partner was broken across about 15 feet from the ground, a few 

 years ago, by a heavy gale of wind, and the stump, which had 

 bid defiance to the blast for generations, is now fast crumljling 

 to dust. At Scone Palace, and at Lord Mansfield's other estates 

 in Perthshire, there are some fine specimens of old ash trees, 

 though they are not so plentiful as the examples of some other 

 descriptions of forest trees. A magnificent tall specimen is given 

 in the returns, 115 feet in heiglit, with a clear bole of 40 feet, 

 and girthing 11 feet 2 inches at 5 feet above ground; while 

 another, also at Scone, is 85 feet high, and girths 13 feet 8 inches 

 at 5 feet above the ground. The Kincairney Ash, near Dunk eld, 

 Perthshire, which Loudon assigns to a distinct variety, and calls 

 Fraxinus excelsioi' Kincairnicc, from its peculiarity and distinct- 

 ness of habit in having its " spray alternately pendulous and 

 rigidly upright, thus forming a tree of fantastic shape," is 

 described in the return as 13 feet 9 inches in girth at 

 1 foot, and 12 feet 8 inches at 5 feet from the ground, with 

 a short bole of al)Out 8 feet, and 50 feet in height. It is, 

 independently of the peculiarity referred to, a very pictur- 

 esque tree, with most curiously twisted limbs. Unfortunately, 

 we have just learnt that its chief branch lias this year lieen 

 Ijroken off, from its having suffered last winter from the frost 

 and superincumbent weight of snow. A very veneral)le-looking 

 ash stands near the site of the Old House of Abercairny, 

 Perthshire. In 1863 it girthed 19 feet at 3 feet high, and is 

 now 19 feet 1 inch, having only grown 1 inch in bulk in sixteen 

 3'ears, a circumstance which, taken along with its gaunt and 

 naked appearance, shows that this grand old tree is evidently on 

 the wane. With commendable care and foresight, it is scrupu- 

 lously attended to and protected l)y its proprietor. Would that 

 many other landowners' would go and do likewise ! Were this 

 the case, many a noble old tree, — landmarks in the history of 

 the locality in which they have grown, and to wliose physical 

 features they have lent their cliarms, and amid whose associa- 

 tions they have declined, — would 1)e preserved for years to come 



