472 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. lvu. 



of gradually dimiuishiug, continues unimpaired till a very 

 advanced age. But the age may be a great deal more if 

 the rate after all has only been an average one, and if the 

 period of decay has been longer than is recorded, and if 

 during that period there has been little or no growth. 

 That the age might ■s\ell be a great deal more is shown by 

 the very slow rate of the Heme's oak (2 //) towards the 

 end of its career, ascertained to have been only about 0'20 

 for the last 1 J:2 years, and 0"13 for the last 4-i years of 

 growth; and this in a tree only 26 instead of 36 feet 

 in girth. Here it may be noticed that by De Candolle's 

 method the inner incli of the last five would make 

 Heme's oak 10l;3, but the outer one 2077, years of age. 

 All this proves, I think, the impossibility of forming even 

 a rough estimate of the age of such a veteran as the 

 Cowthorpe oak, without far more precise and extensive 

 data than we at present possess. But we may go so far as 

 to say that it is 'possibly not much more than eight centuries 

 old. 



IT. The Beech (Fafjm sylvatica). 



The beech flourishes better in most parts of Scotland 

 than any other deciduous tree. It seems somewhat 

 surprising, then, that in Mr. Hutchison's list only three 

 are to be found as much as 20 feet in girth at 5 feet from 

 the ground, and of these but one, the short-stemmed Eccles 

 tree, reaches 20 feet at its narrowest part. Even at the 

 lesser girths of 19 to 20 feet he records not one, and 

 between 16 and 19 feet, but fourteen. On the other hand, 

 splendid beeches, between 10 and 14 feet in girth, are so 

 numerous in Scottish avenues and plantations as to lend 

 much probability to Mr. Hutchison's belief that the older 

 generations of the species were rarely allowed to survive to 

 a great age, and that a newer generation, planted most 

 extensively about the beginning of the eighteenth century, 

 are now coming to great perfection, but have not yet had 

 time to yield a crop of giants. 



Scottish beeches above 17 feet in girth, at 5 feet from 

 the ground (Mr. Hutchison's Table of 232 Scottish Beeches, 

 Trans. H. and Agr. Soc. Scot., xiii., 1881). 



