3SS TRANSACTI0Ni5 OP ROYAL SCOTTISH AnP-OnTCULTURAT. SOCIKTV. 



near Coinrie. It is 38 feet high; yirths, at five t'uet up, 12 feet 

 6 inches ; and is in a perfectly vigorous condition. 



In the Catheilral grounds at Dunkeld there are two old yew 

 trees worthy of }i()te, as they are different in habit and appearance. 

 No. 1 is planted close to the west gable of the cathedral, and is of 

 a stiff, upright habit of growth, resembling the variety known as 

 the " Ncidpath Yew." It is 3G feet in height, and, at one foot above 

 the ground, girths 7 feet 8^^ inches. No. 2 is also growing to the 

 west of the cathedral, at, the present bowling-green, which is 

 sujjposed to have been in former times the site of the burying- 

 ground of the monks of the abbey. It is a peculiar-looking, round- 

 lieaded tree in full vigour, and quite distinct from its neighbour. 

 It is 42 feet high, and 10 feet 8 inches at one foot from the ground. 

 Both occupy very favourable situations — well sheltered, in fine, 

 free, loamy soil, on a cool subsoil, and in the congeinal damp 

 atmosphere, close to the banks of the Tay. The old yew growing 

 at Parkhill, near Blairgowrie, girths 15 feet at five feet from 

 tlie ground, and its length of bole is 7 feet, while the height of 

 the tree is 26 feet. It grows in good loam on a clayey subsoil. 

 This tree is in shape like a large mushroom. From a drawing 

 taken of it in 1774, and still j)reserved, it presents the same 

 outline, and seems as high then as now. It measures 14 feet 

 5 inches in girth at the ground, and was probably planted in IGIO. 

 There are no other yews near it, nor other large trees, excepting 

 a very old box tree beside it, 10 feet in height, and 2 feet 9 inches 

 in circumference at the ground. 



The well-known and frequently-quoted Fortingal Yew has 

 naturally been visited and examined, and is not omitted from 

 our tabulated list of old trees in the Appendix, although, of 

 course, it was impossible to record the information regarding its 

 l)resent condition in the columns of our Table. This aged and 

 now sadly dilapidated patriarch has formed the siibject of much 

 controversy amongst botanists and scientists as to its age, and it 

 has, by eminent authorities, been credited with an antiquity far 

 beyond that of any other tree in Britain, and has been thought 

 indeed by no less an authority than De Candolle to be possibly 

 " the most venerable specimen of vegetation in Europe." The 

 site of this patriarch amongst trees is the village churcliyard of 

 the parish of Fortingal, at the entrance to Glenlyon in Perthshire, 

 al)()ut four miles by road above the confluence of the Tay and 

 Lyon, and about 400 feet above sea-level, in a valley very favour- 



