TREES AT AUCIIENDRANE. AYR. 



265 



Dr. Christison writes, in the paper already quot«<J — " The 

 Auchendrane Birch is said to be only about seventy years old. 

 This will yield an annual girth-increase of r65 inch. The few 

 Birches I have observed do not grow nearly so fast as this, and 

 it is desirable that the alleged age of the Ayrshire tree should 

 be verified, if possible." Instead of seventy, the age was then 

 seventy-six years, which gives a rate of 1*52, and as Mr. Paxton's 

 " 5 feet " was evidently taken from the top of the mound, the 

 rate is the same as ours up to 1896. The average rate is, owing 

 to the slower growth since then, reduced to r43 inch at this 

 height, which is equal to 6J feet above the original surface of 

 the ground. 



No other Birch that we have measured had a girth exceeding 

 8 feet 8 J inches, the size of one near Jedburgh in July, 1891, 

 but in heiffht we have — 



With the disappearance of the Newton Don Birch, it is pro- 

 bable that the Auchendrane tree takes first place among Scottish 

 Birches. 



Dr. A. Henry, F.L.S., writes — " There are some big Birches at 

 Blair-Drummond, as : (a) girth, 13 ft. 10 in. ; height, 60 ft., in 

 1904; (b) girth, 10 ft. 8 in.; height, 70 ft., in 1904. Large 

 Birches are also growing in the South of England, but none so 

 big as the Auchendrane tree." 



In the avenue is a splendid row of six Silver Firs, called the 

 "Union Trees," from their having been planted in 1707, in 

 commemoration of tlie Union between England and Scotland. 

 They were planted by an ancestor of the Misses Cathcart, John 

 Muir, who was the first M.P. for the Ayr Burghs after the 



