150 ON THE OLD AND REMARKABLE 



ON THE OLD AND REMARKABLE SYCAMORES IN 



SCOTLAND. 

 By Robert Hutchison of Ctirlowrie. 



[^Premium — TJie Gold Mcdal^ 



Thls tree, wliicli is also styled by some botanical authorities 

 The Great Mafplc, must not, from the vulgar error of its being 

 generally called " The Plane" be confounded with the true plane 

 (Platanvs). Even Dr Walker appears to have fallen into this 

 mistake of calhng the sycamore " The Plane" and so styles it 

 in every instance in his " Catalogue of Eemarkal)le Trees in 

 Scotland," written about 1790 or 1798, and published in 1812. 

 Considerable doubt appears to have prevailed amongst our earlier 

 botanists as to whether the sycamore is one of the truly indigenous 

 trees to Scotland. In the edition of Miller's " Dictionary," 

 edited by Martyn in 1749, the author remarks that if it were 

 really an indigenous timber tree the whole country would have 

 been overrun by it, from its wonderful fecundity and vitality, 

 and from the exceeding proneness it possesses to propagate 

 itself from the seed-keys. This argument, however, will hardly 

 prove its foreign origin, but rather tends to foster the opposite 

 proposition, for the fact that a tree presents so much capacity 

 in every season of ripening its seeds, and of " self-sowing " its 

 seedlings in any co^^ntry, points rather to its indigenous charac- 

 teristics to that soil and climate. But, independently of this 

 argument, there exist suificient reasons to come to the conclusion 

 that the sycamore is not indigenous either to Scotland or Eng- 

 land, Ijut is an introduction from the continent of Europe, and 

 was probably first planted in this country shortly before the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century, or, at all events, not before 

 the middle of the fifteenth. Gerrard, an author of no mean reli- 

 ance, who wrote in 1596, calls the sycamore "a stranger in Eng- 

 land, found only in the park, and places of pleasure of the 

 nobility." Other contemporary writers aljout that date also refer 

 to it as peculiar to churchyards, courtyards of manor places, and 

 noblemen's grounds. Dr Walker, reasoning from the measure- 

 ments of old specimens he had himself taken during his long 

 experience and observation, considered it to be one of the earliest 

 introductions of the " exotic " trees into Scotland. He says in 

 the concluding paragraph of his notice of old sycamores, or 

 " Planes," as he calls them (several of which we have lieen able 

 to identify, and append their dimensions at the present day to 

 this report), — " the first barren trees planted in Scotland were 

 those of exotic growth. These, at the time, were j)lanted in 

 gardens, rather from curiosity or for ornament than for use. 



