CHAP. CXIU. 



CONl I'KR.E. LK RIX. 



2355 



2259 



I then desired it migiit be cut down, but not sold. My carpenter cut it 

 into deals that measured 10 ft. in length, and 1 ft. 10 in. in breadth, and made 

 out of it a dining-table large enough for fourteen people, and two very good 

 breakfast-tables. It is very little inferior in appearance to mahogany. The 

 silver fir measured at 18 in. from the root, is 7 ft. 10 in. in circumference, 

 and its height is 65 ft. The platanus, at the same distance from the root, 

 measures 7 ft. Sin. in circumference, and at 6 ft, above, 6 ft. 5 in. Its height 

 is 33 ft." {Trans. Soc. Arts, vol. xxi. p. 102.) 



The finest Larches in the neighbourhood of London 

 are at Kenwood and Syon ; at both which places they 

 are upwards of 90 ft. in height ; but the largest in 

 Britain are supposed to be those at Dunkeld and 

 Monzie, planted in 1738. The largest larch at Ken- 

 wood is drawn up among other trees, as will be seen 

 by the portrait of it. in our last Volume ; but those at 

 Syon preserve the drooping character of the trees, as 

 will be seen by fig. 2239. (to a scale of 1 in. to 30 ft.), 

 taken from one of those trees, by Mr. Le Jeune, in 

 the summer of 1837. The largest of the larches at 

 Dimkeld was accurately measured by Mr. Blackadder, 

 in 1831, when the tree had been 93 years planted, 

 and found to be 100 ft. high, the circumference of the 

 trunk 10 ft. 6\ in. at 3 ft. from the ground, and the 

 cubic contents 368 ft. Fig. 2260. is a [)ortrait of this 

 tree, to a scale of 1 in. to 30 ft. The same jear (1831), Mr. Blackadder 

 saw the larches at Monzie ; and the tallest o^ these he considered to be 

 about 90 ft. high, and to contain about 230 cul)ic feet of timber. According 

 to a statement in a newspaper, the tallest of these trees is now (1837) 

 102 ft. high ; and its branches cover a space 

 of above 100 ft. in diameter. A larch cut 

 down at Blair, from which the coffin was 

 made of that celebrated Duke of Athol who 

 planted the larch so extensively at Dunkeld 

 and Blair, measured 106ft. in length. (See 

 Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 176.) One cut 

 down near the cathedral of Dunkeld, about 

 the year 1810, after it had been 60 years 

 [)lanted, was 110 ft. high, and contained 

 160 cubic feet of timber. At Dalguise, 

 about 3 miles north from Dunkeld, are a 

 few larches of the same age as those at 

 Monzie and the large trees at Dunkeld. 

 The measurement of one, taken by Mr. Tyrie, 

 forester there, on the 20th November, 1837, 

 is : circumference, at 3 ft. from the ground, 

 9 ft. 1 1 in., and at 30 feet, 6 ft. 10 in. ; 

 height, 93 ft. The soil is a dead sand. 

 The oldest larches in Scotland are those 



at Dalwick, the seat of Sir John M. Nasmyth, near Peebles. (See p. g^.) 

 There are nine larches at Dalwick, all of which were planted in 1723, by the 

 grandfather of the present baronet ; and the most remarkable of these is 

 a singularly picturesque tree, which had one of its principal limbs shattered 

 by lightning in 1820. Of the remains of this tree, known as the Great, or 

 Crooked, Larch, /g. 2261. is a portrait, to a scale of 1 in. to 20 ft., taken 

 from a drawing kindly lent to us by Sir John Nasmyth in 1836. The height 

 of the tree is only between 40 ft. and 30 ft. ; but the girt of the trunk 

 above the roots is 19 ft.; iumiediately under the two great limbs, 13 ft.; 

 and about the middle, 13 ft. Fig. 2262., to a scale of .30 ft. to 1 in., is the 

 portrait of another of the nine old larches at Dalwick, which is upwards of 



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