

REPORTS ON EXCURSIONS. 279 
Cadzow Forest [Pl. VIII. ] contains the most interesting remnant 
of the old forest-lands now to be seen in Scotland. All the trees 
show signs of decay, and the visitor, when he first sees them, 
cannot fail to be greatly impressed with the appearance of 
decrepitude everywhere visible. But the blasted appearance of 
these sylvan giants is not incompatible with a vigorous old age. 
Naismith of Drumloch wrote of them more than a century since 
that they were very much decayed, and no more can be said about 
them to-day. The language employed by Lockhart to describe 
them in “ Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolk” in 1819, is still strictly 
applicable to them :—‘‘ The most venerable trees, without question, 
that can be imagined—hoary and crumbling, and shattered every- 
where with the winds and storms of centuries, rifted and blasted 
in their main boughs, but still projecting here and there some 
little tufts of faint verdure, and still making a gallant show 
together where their grey brotherhood crowns the whole summit 
of the hill—these are 
‘the huge oaks of Evandale, 
Whose limbs a thousand years have worn.’” 
A glance at the accompanying plate will give a fair idea of the 
size which these trees attain, and the portion of the forest repre- 
sented may be reasonably considered typical of the whole. 
Probably none of the trees much exceeds in size one measured on 
the occasion of the Society’s visit. The tree referred to was 
21 feet 84 inches in girth of trunk at 5 feet, with a bole of 
25 feet, and a spread of branches the diameter of which was 
89 feet. 
In the Bull Park, Lathyrus macrorrhizus, Wimm., was fairly 
plentiful. After a leisurely inspection of the remarkable Oaks 
and the Cattle, the party proceeded to the ruins of Cadzow Castle, 
where a Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus, Linn.) was seen, and Fzbes 
alpinum, Linn., was found in its old station. The Avon was 
afterwards crossed and Chatelherault visited. On the walls 
here, and on the banks beneath them, some naturalized plants 
and others uncommon in this district may be seen, including 
Anchusa sempervirens, Linn., Linaria Cymbalaria, Mill, 
—Lamium maculatum, Linn., Cystopteris fragilis, Bernh., 
Asplenium Ruta-muraria, Linn. Within the walls are the 
formal gardens, containing many plants worthy of attention and 
