48 
A great feature of interest was the visit which was paid 
to the original tree of Abies Pattoniana, which was found 
growing in the corner of the grounds near to the gardens. It 
was called after Mr Patton, who was a leading member of the 
Oregon Association, and the tree, needless to say, was inspected 
with much interest. 
Previous to leaving this charming spot, the officials of the 
Society were received by Mrs Malcolm Patton, to whom Pro- 
fessor Bayley Balfour tendered the thanks of the Society for 
her great kindness and hospitality. They had all been 
delighted with the visit which they had paid to her beautiful 
and romantic grounds. 
KEILLOUR AND BALGOWAN. 
At this point about one half the company, who had to catch 
early trains, took carriages direct to Perth. The other half 
went on to visit the pinetum at Keillour and the estate of 
Balgowan, belonging to Captain Black, who had in the kindest 
possible manner driven over to The Cairnies to conduct the 
party in person over his property. 
As we drove across the purple heather-clad moor, it was 
noticed that much of it had been planted in recent years with 
larch, Scots fir, and spruce, freely sprinkled with Menzies and 
Douglas firs, as well as others of the newer Conifers, which 
were all making satisfactory progress. 
A drive of about a couple of miles brought the company to 
Keillour Pinetum, on the property of Captain Black of Bal- 
gowan, where many fine specimens of coniferous trees of all 
kinds were seen of great size, and growing with remarkable 
vigour on what, within the memory of men still living, was a 
cold bleak moor, not worth enclosing for the scanty pasture it 
afforded. 
The pinetum was originally the property of Mr Smythe of 
Methven, and the trees would be planted about 1834 by the 
same hand as set out many of those at Methven Castle. The 
Douglas fir, Menzies spruce, Abies grandis, A. nobilis, Pinus 
monticola, Araucaria imbricata, and many others are doing 
well in the pinetum, which is about 6 acres in extent. It 
occupies a position in the centre of a very extensive plantation 
of spruce, Scots fir, and larch, all doing well, though the moor 
is black and bleak, and marshy in places, with a cool tilly 
bottom not generally supposed to be well adapted for growing 
conifers, especially the rarer varieties. Many of them, how- 
ever, are not only healthy but luxuriant. The giant of the 
place was a grand Abies Menziesii over 100 feet high, and 
