TREES AT AUCUENDRANE, AYR. 263 



years preceding 1902 it was TOT inch a year, while for nine 

 years from 187G to 1885 it was, according to Miss Cathcart's 

 records, I'll inch yearly. It would thus appear to be past its 

 stage of rapid increase in girth, which is stated to be readied 

 in this species between the fortieth and the eightieth year, and 

 it is said seldom to reach much over 100 years. Let us hope 

 that this beautiful tree will long grace the lawn of Auchendrane. 



The only Birch which I have measured that exceeded it was 

 one at Newton Don, near Kelso, which in 1893 had a girth of 

 13 feet at 1 foot 7 inches; but it had a shorter bole — barely 

 3 feet. It had a height of 80 feet and a spread of branches of 

 70 feet. Another Birch at Newton Don had a girth of 10 feet 

 3 inches at 2 feet 3 inches. 



But these trees no longer exist. Mr. C. B. Balfour, of Newton 

 Don, in reply to our inquiry, writes — " The big Birch and its 

 companion have, I am sorry to say, both gone. The smaller 

 Birch went first . . . probably about 1896. The big Birch 

 lost a limb in a gale, probably the one of Christmas, 1900. . . . 

 It was rotten and very unsafe, and we took it down in, I think, 

 the winter of 1901-02. The tree was very probably planted at 

 the end of the eighteenth or early in the nineteenth century, 

 when a good deal of planting and laying out was done." It was 

 thus about a hundred years old. 



The late Mr. George Paxton, for some time a member of our 

 Society, presented, in 1894, to the library of the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Edinburgh, a book of photographs and measurements 

 of thirty remarkable Ayrshire trees. Dr. D. Christison drew up a 

 brief review of the general results of his labours, which appeared 

 in the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 

 (Vol. XX., p. 384). In it he said that, although we must admit 

 the deficiency among some of the larger species, such as the 

 Horse Chestnut, Sycamore, Willow, and Oak, " the county [of 

 Ayr] can boast of some of the best Scottish examples of two of 

 the smaller species.* The old Auchendrane Birch is, indeed. 



* The other species is the HoU)- (Ilex Aquifolium), the specimen of 

 which "at Fullarton House appears also to be one of the finest Scottish 

 examples of its kind." Dr. Christison, loc. cit. In July, 1903, it girthed 

 11 ft. 2 in. at 1 ft., II ft. 6 in. at 5 ft., bole 6 ft. The deficiency among 



