MAPLE TRIBE 153 



with which it abounds would, if extracted during winter, furnish a small 

 quantity of sugar. This juice renders the leaf obnoxious to insects ; and 

 Linnreus much recommended the growth of this tree, both on that account 

 and for its timber, adding that its iuice might also be rendered of use. The 

 timber forms an excellent fuel, gi\ uig great warmth as it slowly burns. The 

 musical instrument and cabinet makers make much use of it ; and good 

 wooden platters are still made of it, though not so frequently as they were 

 in days Avhen earthenware was litole used. One great charm of the tree in 

 the olden times has been lost bv the increase of knowledge. Our fathers 

 believed, as they sat beneath its shade, that they were looking up into the 

 boughs of the kind of tree in w .ich Zaccheus hid himself, to see our Saviour 

 pass by ; but it is now well n wn that the Sycamore of Scripture is a species 

 of fig-tree. Our tree often Y 3s from a hundred to a hundred and fifty 

 years, and even much older *■ es are on record. 



Some very large Sy es are described as having grown in various 



parts of this kingdom. Okj mentioned by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, at 

 Calder House, in the couiny of Edinburgh, measured in October, 1799, 

 seventeen feet seven inches in girth ; its trunk being about twelve feet high, 

 and its branches extendiu;';- to a distance of sixty feet in diameter. This tree 

 was known to have existed before the Reformation, and was therefore not 

 less than three hundred years old ; yet it had the appearance of being per- 

 fectly sound. This was the tree to which, in former years, the iron jugs, 

 a sjDecies of pillory, were fastened ; and as the tree gradually grew over 

 them, they became completely inclosed in its trunk, a large protuberance on 

 the surface marking the place at which they were embedded in the wood. 

 " But the most remaikable Sycamores in Scotland," says the Rev. C. A. 

 Johns, in his "Forest Trees of Britain," "are those which are called 'Dool 

 trees.' They were used by the most powerful barons in the west of Scotland 

 for hanging their enemies and refractory vassals on, and were for this reason 

 called dool, or grief -trees. Of these there are three yet standing ; the most 

 memorable being one near the fine old castle of Cassillis, one of the seats of 

 the Marquis of Ailsa, on the bank of the river Doon. It is not so remarkable 

 for its girth of stem, as for its wide-spreading branches and luxuriant foliage, 

 among which from twenty to thirty men could be easily concealed. It was 

 used by the family of Kennedy, who were the most powerful barons of the 

 west of Scotland, for the purpose above mentioned. The last occasion was 

 about two hundred years ago, when Sir John Fau of Dunbar was hanged upon 

 it, for having made an attempt, in the disguise of a gipsy, to carry off the 

 then Countess of Cassillis, who was the daughter of the Earl of Haddington, 

 and to whom he had been betrothed prior to his going abroad to travel. 

 Having been detained for some years a prisoner in Spain, he was supposed to 

 be dead, and in his absence the lady married John, Earl of Cassillis. It is 

 said that the lady witnessed the execution of her former lover from her bed- 

 room window." 



The leaves of the Sycamore are often rendered clammy to the touch by 

 the sweet substance called honey-dew, and plants growing beneath are 

 frequently much injured by the dropping of this sweet liquid. This honey- 

 dew has by many writers been believed to be caused by aphides, but others 



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