12 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
woods, as well as the gardens and grounds belonging to the 
Duke of Athole at Dunkeld. There we inspected the first 
larches ever planted in Scotland, and an inscribed stone standing 
near informs the visitor that one of the trees, which appears to 
be still in good health, was planted in 1738, and is 102 feet high. 
The distinction of being the oldest example of its species in 
Scotland does not appear to be quite so well established in the 
case of a magnificent Douglas Fir growing near, a similar claim 
being advanced in favour of a specimen at Murthly Castle. 
To me the most interesting day proved to be the 8th of 
August. After an early visit to the nursery and a pine wood 
near Dunkeld, we inspected the wonderful collection of exotic 
‘trees at Murthly Castle, over which we were most kindly con- 
ducted by the proprietor, Mr Stewart Fotheringham. Later on 
in the day we visited the grounds and woods of Scone Palace, 
and finally reached Edinburgh at half-past nine. My trusted 
mentor, Professor Bayley Balfour, accompanied me to the 
steamer at Leith, where Messrs Mackenzie and Erskine were 
waiting for me, and with whom I spent a very pleasant hour 
till the boat sailed at eleven o’clock. On the voyage to 
Hamburg I had time to reflect on the very successful results 
of my trip, which had made me acquainted with so much that 
was beautiful and interesting, and during which I had received 
so much kindness, and this I take the present opportunity of 
gratefully acknowledging. 
In submitting my views to the members of this Society, I 
would ask them to bear in mind that my visit was of but short 
duration, and consequently I may have made some mistakes, or 
have been insufficiently informed on certain points. 
It will be convenient to arrange what I have to say under the 
following three heads :— 
(1) Forestry, 
(2) Afforestation of waste lands, and 
(3) Exotic conifers. 
1. The most extensive as well as the most scientific system of 
forestry, according to German notions, was met with in the large 
pine forests belonging to the Countess of Seafield, in the 
neighbourhood of Grantown. These woods occupy a soil over- 
lying gneiss, such a soil, in fact, as would for the most part be 
placed in the third class—to some extent also in the second class 
