396 TRV>fS\CTI0y3 OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCFETY. 



increasing each time as regards girth of trunk, but it seems to have 

 ceased adding to its height, although increasing in circumference 

 of branches. Its present height is 35 feet, with a bole of 10 feet, 

 and it girths, at one foot from the ground, 13 feet 10?, inches ; at three 

 feet, 15 feet; at four feet, 16 feet 10 inches; and 19 feet 8 inches 

 at five feet above ground. The diameter of the spread of its branches 

 is 53 feet. Like many yews, it will be observed that this tree 

 enlarges its circumference as it rises in height, a peculiarity fatal to 

 most comparisons unless all the circumstances of each case are 

 known. Sir R. Christison knew, and had examined in detail, the 

 Ormiston yew when engaged on his investigation into the rate of 

 the annual increase of girths of trees and the exact measui-ement of 

 them, more particularly in reference to the Fortingal yew, to which 

 we have already adverted, and he used the data from the Ormiston 

 yew's increment in centuries past for comparison in arriving at his 

 conclusions for his formula for measurement. 



In the well-known publication The Bee, vol. ii., p. 333, the 

 Ormiston yew is mentioned thus : — " Its trunk is 1 1 feet in circum- 

 ference and 25 feet in length ; the diameter of the ground over- 

 spread by its branches is 53 feet ; and there is about the twentieth 

 part of an English acre covered by it. It is still growing in full 

 vi^^our without the least symptom of decay." This was written in 

 179*J. It is said that George Wishart, the martyr, preached under 

 this yew, then celebrated as one of the largest trees of its 

 kind in Scotland. Its outer spread of branches, says the old 

 chronicler, was 218 feet, and its branches fall around the trunk 

 like a huge umbrella, forming an inner circle large enough to afford 

 standing room for 200 to 300 people. Here Wishart preached to 

 an audience composed of the Laird of Ormiston, his dependents 

 and neitdibours, and in desponding strains, in harmony with the 

 solemn and funereal aspect of the old yew tree, addressed his last 

 and parting words to those friends from whom he was so soon to 

 be severed for ever. It is believed that shortly after Wishart's 

 judicial murder at St Andrews, the plot to revenge his death, 

 the leader in which conspiracy was Norman Leslie of the house 

 of Rothes, was arranged by Leslie and his associates under the 

 old yew tree of Ormiston. John Knox also used to preach under 

 this venerable yew when he resided at Ormiston in the capacity of 

 tutor or chaplain in the family of the Cockburns of Ormiston, then 

 a leading reforming family. 



Another old historical yew tree of great dimensions is still 



