Nov. 1892.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBUEGH. 



475 



The seven upper girths were taken with a 24 feet 

 Chesterman steel tape, the base from which their position 

 was fixed being a line marked with white paint at 6 feet 

 6 inches. The four lower girths, taken with an ordinary 

 66 feet tape, are less reliable, as they encounter the sloping 

 base. The measurement at the ground was taken by a 

 tape laid on the roots close to the rise of the base. The 

 circumference of the foliage was got by measuring along 

 the ground with a tape under the e.xtremities of the 

 branches, but disregarding those that projected over- 

 head decidedly beyond the mass. The result may be 

 somewhat unduly increased by including the foliage of 

 the secondary trees, whicli cannot be separated from the 

 general mass. The tree is perfectly sound and healthy, 

 making long annual shoots, and the foliage in summer is 

 so dense as to completely conceal the stem and branches 

 except at a small opening on one side. 



(h) EccLES Beech, Dumfriesshire. — Mr. Hutchison 

 quotes the girths in 1869 as 26 feet at 2 feet; 20 feet 

 at 4 feet ; 2 5 feet at 7 feet ; 1 7 feet at 1 6 feet ; with a 

 spread of branches of 100 feet, and a height of 65 feet. 

 Sir E. Christison some years later says the trunk is only 

 4 feet high, and that at the sharply defined narrowest 

 point, 2 feet up, the girth is 21 feet. He describes it as 

 little inferior to the Newbattle beech, except in height and 

 in the length of the trunk. 



(c) Belton Beech, East Lothian, in 1863, girthed 

 19 feet 4 inches at 6 feet; 17 feet 8 inches at 9| feet: 

 and in 1880, 32 feet 8 inches at 1 foot; 20 feet 4 inches 

 at 5 feet, with a 31 feet bole and a height of 63 feet, "a 

 very magnificent specimen." — Mr. Hutchison. 



(d) Methven Castle Beech, Perthshire, deserves notice 

 for its general size and great height, although the girth 

 at 5 feet is not so much as in the others. Colonel Smythe 

 has furnished the following measurements : — 



Ft. 

 Diameter of foliage, . . . 110 

 Longest horizontal branch, . 57 



Bole, 18 to 20 



Height, about 120 



