1884.] FOBESTAL NOTES. 189 



near Towyn, another for a windmill axle in Anglesea, and another 

 for the same purpose at Merthyr Tydvil. In the hall at Hengwrt, 

 formerly belonging to the old county family of the Vaughans, there 

 is a table made from the tree., inscribed ' Brenhinbren-y-Ganllwyd.' 

 The age of the tree depends on too uncertain a tradition to enable 

 nie to refer lo it with any reasonable confidence. 



The Welsh are very fond of apostrophizing any such national 

 object in verse. It has been immortalized in the Principality by 

 Lewis Morris, the lUack Bard of Anglesea, in a poem written in the 

 Welsh language, a portion of which I venture to translate in prose, as 

 follows : — ' Thou are a wonder unto me — thy circumference and thy 

 immense size. The King of Trees in Ganllwyd has been cut down. A 

 straight handsome tree thou wast, sixty yards, the tower of Gan- 

 llwyd : it was barbarously thrown from the hearth where it stood. It 

 grew to be a captain : the acorn failed not ; all men praised it, and 

 the old pious ancestors, who were extremely wise, nourished it and 

 kept it alive ; ' and much more to the same effect. The tree stood 

 on my own property. 



C. K. W. 



FORESTAL NOTES. 



LTHOUGH a subscriber to 'Forestry,' I had not seen the number 

 for July last, which may perhaps have been mislaid, unti' 

 you kindly forwarded it the other day to my partner, Mr. 

 Brace, whose article on the ' Weights of Forest Seeds ' it contained. 

 I had thus missed the connecting link of an interesting discussion — 

 continued in 'Forestry' from May to September — on the value of the 

 Scotch Pine as an absorbent of moisture in wet soils. 



i\Ir. Webster's high estimate of this quality of the tree in question 

 is completely borne out by my thirteen years of experience and 

 observation of Pine-planting and management in this district of 

 Central France — the Sologne — a triangle of large extent, contained 

 between the historical towns of Orleans, Blois, and Bourges. Its 

 soil is generally composed of a sandy surface and a retentive clay 

 bottom ; so that a great portion of its surface, dry and hot in summer, 

 wet and cold in winter, is unlit for agriculture, and either has been, 

 or ought to be, utilised and improved by planting. 



The trees generally planted are Pines, and for three reasons : they 

 drain and sweeten the soil; their cover keeps down heather and 



