Siamese Twin Trees. — An example of this kind of abnormal growth may be 

 seen in Windsor Park, near the Bisbopsgate entrance lodge, Englefield Green, 

 very near the water tower in Baron Schroeder's grounds, on the outskirts of 

 the park. Two very large centenarian beech trees, springing apparently from 

 the same root, are united at about 14 feet up.— T. Smith, Glaniy House. 



I was induced this morning to make a sketch of two oak trees, standing about 

 five feet distant from one another, which had apparently started in life 

 independent of each other, but after growing in this unfriendly state for many 

 years, they must have determined to live together ; one, therefore, took a 

 " header " into the other, and this being received in a friendly spirit by his 

 neighbour, they have grown up as one tree some 35 feet or 40 feet high, quite 

 healthy and vigorous. The junction is made some 10 or 12 feet from the 

 ground, and makes a picturesque arch seen from a footpath close by. My 

 wood-ranger, who has been on the estate with me for many years, says he has 

 met with several instances of " Siamese twin trees," but they have generally 

 been higher up the trunk of the tree than in this instance. — H. M. Hawley, 

 Tumhy Laicn, Boston, in the "Field." 



The Walnut Tree. — History has no record of the introductioa of this tree 

 into Great Britain, but it has been long commonly cultivated in this country, 

 and in some parts it has attained to a goodly size and age. A walnut tree at 

 Gordon Castle, Banffshire, stands 66 feet high, and 11 feet in girth at 3 feet 

 from the ground ; and at Altyre, Morayshire, there is one 62 feet high, with a 

 trunk 4 feet in diameter. At Blair Drummond, Perthshire, there is one 75 feet 

 high, and 13 feet 7 inches in girth at 2 feet up ; and one of the finest in Scot- 

 land is at Eccles, Dumfriesshire, 63 feet high, girth at base 22 feet, and at 

 12 feet up 13 feet girth. In England there are many fine old walnut ti-ees of 

 which there is no record. There is a fine one at Rufford Abbey, Notts., the 

 butt of which, although only 4 feet long, girths 21 feet 10 inches at 2 feet up. 

 Another particularly remarkable tree, which grows at Downland, Hants, 

 measures 16 feet in girth, and contains 223 cubic feet of timber. The above 

 are but pigmies in comparison with the prodigious size and great age which 

 the walnut tree attains in Eastern Europe. In the Baidar Yalley, near Bala- 

 clava, in the Crimea, grows a walnut tree at least 1,000 years old, which yields 

 annually from 80,000 to 100,000 nuts, and belongs to five Tartar families, who 

 share its produce equally. Scamozzi, an Italian architect, mentions having 

 seen at St. Nicholas, in Lorraine, a single plank of the wood of the walnut, 

 25 feet wide, upon which the Emperor Frederick III. had given a sumptuous 

 banquet. 



Old Bird-ciierey Tree in South Yorkshire. — The following are the dimen- 

 sions of an old bird-cherry tree {Prunus padus) growing in Eccleshall church- 



