BEECHES IN SCOTLAND. 183 



The principal variety of the Fagus sylvatica or common beech, 

 is the purple or copper-leaved variety, as it is frequently termed. 

 Of this we have given several fine examples in the appended 

 returns, as for example, at Gordon Castle, Morayshire, where it 

 has reached a height of 65 feet, and girths 11 feet 8 inches at 

 1 foot, and 8 feet 10 inches at 5 feet from the ground ; at 

 Dunkeld House, where there is a very handsome specimen, now 

 53 feet in height, and 10 feet 7 inches in circumference at 3 feet 

 from the base ; at Moncreiffe House, Perth, where it is 62 feet 

 in height, and girths 9 feet at 1 foot from the ground, and 7 feet 

 8 inches at 5 feet up ; at Dollarfield, wdiere it is 63 feet high, 

 with a bole 40 feet long, and girthing 8 feet 4 inches and 7 feet 

 4 inches at 1 and 5 feet from ground respectively, and with a 

 spread of branches of 70 feet diameter ; at Caiiowrie, Linlith- 

 gow, where it is now, with a wide flat-spreading head, 65 feet 

 in height, bole 18 feet in length, 8 feet 9 inches in girth at 1 foot, 

 and 7 feet 6 inches at 5 feet from the ground ; and at Biel, East 

 Lothian there is a fine specimen 60 feet high, 12 feet of bole, 

 and 9 feet in girth at 1 foot, and 8 feet at 5 feet from the ground. 

 The purple beech is a native of Germany, where it was acci- 

 dentally discovered in a wood, between the middle and end of 

 last century ; and the original parent tree, from which all the 

 purple beeches in the country have been produced, is said to be 

 still standini][. 



From the foregoing report, and further reference to the 

 appended returns, it will be observed that the beech, which 

 cannot be said to be indigenous to Scotland, — although it is said 

 to be so in some of the midland and southern counties of England, 

 and old authors quote it as one of the four aboriginal hard- wood 

 trees of the country, — thrives best and attains its largest dimen- 

 sions more rapidly in soils that are thin and light, or in the 

 calcareous loams of the chalk formation. It thrives also, as 

 many of our statistics show, on sandy and clayey loams at great 

 altitudes, and grows indeed more freely in such soils and situa- 

 tions than most other hard-wood trees. In some of the central 

 parts of England, wliere tliat great ridge of chalk liills, which 

 occupies a large portion of several midland counties, exists, the 

 beech occurs as a natural forest, to the exclusion of all other 

 varieties of trees, by its far stretching roots, and deptli of shade, 

 whicli effectually kills them oil". As shelter on high-lying or 

 bare and exposed fields, whether under crop or in pasture, it is 

 invaluable when planted in stri})S, or as a hedge, and as a park 

 tree planted for ornament, the references we have endeavoured 

 to give in this report will show that the beech has few equals 

 among forest trees in Scotland, and lias been ap])ro])riately styled 

 by an eminent writer on arboriculture, " at once the Hercules 

 and Adonis of our Sylva." 



