HORSE CHESTXUT TEEES IX SCOTLA^"D. 187 



Eushey Park near London, which, when in full flower, it is well 

 worth any lover of trees going a day's journey to see and admire ? 

 In our northern latitude, also, we find many umbrageous stately 

 avenues of this beautiful and graceful tree. For example, at 

 Drummond Castle, Perthshire, along the roadside towards 

 Crieff, one of the finest avenues is to be seen. It is perfectly 

 vigorous, and presents one continuous beautifully arched aisle 

 for several miles. For a considerable distance, well proportioned 

 beeches of majestic growth, guard, sentinel-like, the highway, 

 planted about 20 feet apart ; then for another stretch, tall 

 healthy overarching lime trees take up the line, till the horse 

 chestnuts prevail and continue the beauty of the scene, vying suc- 

 cessfully with the other lines in adding pleasing and picturesque 

 effect to the landscape, while their grateful shade is most re- 

 freshing to the pedestrian. These trees are all of large dimen- 

 sions; many of them girth from 11 to 13 feet at 5 feet from the 

 ground, and are from 60 to 70 feet in height. Another mixed 

 avenue of horse chestnuts and limes may be seen within the 

 Drummond Castle Park, and is of commanding growth and 

 beauty. The soil is a light loam upon the trap-rock formation, 

 which crops out in many places on the surface in the park. 



At Gilmerton, East Lothian, there is a fine avenue of horse 

 chestnuts, which average 72 feet in height, and present noble 

 boles from 18 to 25 feet in length, while their circumferences 

 vary from 10 feet 2 inches to 11 feet 5 inches at o feet from the 

 ground. The soil is a heavy clay loam upon a tilly clay 

 subsoil. Other avenues worthy of notice, in various districts, 

 might be named from the notes furnished by correspondents in 

 various parts of Scotland; but we need not lengthen out this 

 chapter with needless repetition of evidence to inculcate the fact 

 well known to every tree-lover, that in rich loamy free soil, in 

 sheltered situations, avenues formed of the horse chestnut will 

 amply repay their owners, in richness of shade, and gorgeous 

 effect when in flower, for their beautiful minaret-like spikelets 

 rising tier above tier of handsome blossom, form not the least 

 conspicuous features in a well-formed avenue of this very 

 suitable tree. The finest horse chestnuts in the southern counties 

 of England are said to be at Mount Edgecombe in Devonshire, but 

 details of the growth and dimensions of the individual trees com- 

 posing it have not yet been received. 



It would appear that if planted as an avenue tree, the horse 

 chestnut should be used alone in its formation, for it is impatient 

 of other species near to it ; and at the api)roach to the Wimborne 

 Cemetery, Dorsetshire, a striking instance of this occurred 

 lately. xVbout seventeen years ago, an avenue of horse chest- 

 nuts was planted. The trees were considered too wide apnrt (25 

 feet), and accordingly, about eight years afterwards, an English 

 yew was planted between each. The result of the appropriate 



