250 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
and shows few signs of decay; fungi, however, are growing on the 
trunk. 
In 1890 the Society visited Strathleven estate, near Dumbarton, 
and The Lee, near Lanark, and saw on the former an Oak witha 
circumference of fully 23 feet, and at the latter the well-known 
Pease Tree,” which measured 23 feet 74 inches in girth at 3 to 4 
feet from the ground, None of the Oaks seen at the excursions 
during the last two years equal these, but three of them are 
interesting :— 
“The Covenanters’ Oak,” at Dalziel House, Lanarkshire, the 
residence of Lord Hamilton, is the largest of the three, girthing 
19 feet 2 inches at 2 feet 3 inches. 
At Bargaran, in Renfrewshire, is the ‘‘ Witches’ Oak,” decaying 
at top. It measures 18 feet 9 inches at 1 foot 3 inches, and 
divides at 1 foot 6 inches into 6 stems, one of them sub-dividing 
into two, thus making 7 stems, inside or around which, according 
to the legend, the witches used to dance. In the old farm-house of 
Bargaran, now demolished, occurred the alleged ‘‘ manifestations ” 
which resulted in one of the last trials for witchcraft in Scotland, 
in 1697. 
At Blairquhosh, about three miles north-west of the village of 
Strathblane, in Stirlingshire, is “The Meikle Tree” (Plate II.), 
visited by the Society in 1893. Four hundred years previously 
this Oak is mentioned in a notarial instrument, dated 17th 
February, 1493, narrating the division of the lands of Blairquhosh. 
The late Mr. John Guthrie Smith, in his book, The Parish of 
Strathblane, says: “ Blairquhosh then was divided into three 
parts in a formal and legal manner in 1493, and the deed 
narrates—‘ That the said Archibald Edmonstone, and his heirs 
for ever, shall have that east third part near the lands of Dun- 
treath, beginning from the burn of Croftfelan, descending to the 
water of Blane by the ridge where the oak grows,’ &c. This 
easter third part afterwards came to be called ‘Blairquhosh 
Edmonstone,’ and it has continued to be part of Duntreath estate 
down to the present day, and the same oak which was growing on 
the ‘march’ in 1493 is still growing on, in green and vigorous 
old age, in 1886.” Further on he says—-“ ‘The Meikle Tree,’ the 
splendid oak which stands by the roadside at Blairquhosh, was a 
favourite trysting-place, both for the peaceful purposes of making 
