106 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PARYT'T; 
are frequently dug up from bogs. Mr. Mackay has sent us an 
account received by him from Mr. Charles Hamilton, Honorary 
Secretary to the Horticultural Society of Ireland, of one dug 
up in Queen’s County, the rings. of annual increase of which 
indicated a growth of 545 years. The greatest diameter of 
the trunk of this tree was only 19 in.! The growth appeared 
to be very slow during the last 300 years, for near the cir- 
cumference there were about 100 rings within the space of 
an inch. ‘The root and bark were quite sound, and the stem 
from which the section was taken was about 12 ft. long, and 
of tolerably even thickness throughout. Mr. Mackay says that 
he ‘saw a yew tree in the Island of Innisfallen, on the lower 
lake of Killarney, which must have been as old as. that men- 
tioned by Mr. Hamilton; and which, when he measured it about 
_ thirty years ago, was nearly double the dimensions. If the Irish 
yew be a distinct species, Ireland may claim this fine tree as her 
own. Our own opinion is, that this yew is nothing more than 
a variety of the common species. ‘The largest specimens of this 
tree, the 7axus hibérnica of Mackay, are in a garden at the 
village of Cumber, near Belfast: they are about 25 ft. in height, 
and have, at a distance, the appearance of cypresses. ‘They 
are supposed to have been planted about 50 years, but their 
history is unknown. 
From information procured for us through the kindness 
of Lord Viscount Ferrard, we find that there is an upright or 
Irish yew in a garden at Mayland, near Antrim, 130 years old, 
25 ft. high; the diameter of the space covered by the branches, 
10 ft.; and the diameter of the trunk close to the ground, 3 ft. 
This tree, and three others in the town, are supposed to have 
been planted by the Refords, when they first settled in Mayland 
in 1712. An upright yew, probably the parent of the above 
trees, and of all others in this country, grew in Mr. Ferguson’s 
garden. It was cut down about 16 or 17 years ago, by the late Mr. 
Ledlie; and his son, now in Antrim, has several pieces of furni- 
ture which were made from it. In the panel 1 ft. broad, of one 
of these a wardrobe, I can count about 100 annual concentric 
layers, and as the tree, it is said, was 2 ft. in diameter, this would 
give 200 years, and 40 or 50 years more might probaby be added 
for the time when scarcely any enlargement took place.” — 
L. F. Antrim Castle, March 24. 1835. \- 
If the arbutus be not indigenous to Ireland, it is at least 
completely naturalised there, being found, as the yew is in 
England, in places completely inaccessible to a planter, and» 
where the seeds must have been carried by birds. One of the 
largest specimens stood in Rough Island, on the lower lake of 
Killarney, in 1805; it was measured in that year by Mr. Mackay, 
and the trunk found, at a foot from the ground, to be 93 ft. in 
