294 Descriptive Memoir of the Forest of Bialowie-m. 



Maple, 110 years old. Height of whole tree 92 feet ; of the 

 trunk 51. Lower diameter 24".! ; of last 30 years 3".5. Present 

 contents 1 62 cubic feet ; 30 years ago 82. Annual increase 

 2.6 cubic feet *. 



These measurements of oaks, beeches, and maples, shew that 

 the climate and soil must here be favourable to these species of 

 wood. No example is given of the lime-tree, as its age could 

 not be certainly determined, and because the most remarkable 

 lime trees are situate in inaccessible places. It rivals the oak 

 in height, often exceeds it, and is then truly the colossus of the 

 vegetable kingdom. A number of stems of pine trees (Scotch 

 fir or pine) prove that this tree has a duration of 250 to 300 

 years : it seldom survives beyond 300 years. The silver-fir 

 (Pimis picea) terminates its life sooner : the greatest age of 

 this tree does not exceed 200 years, after which it soon dies. 

 Internal decay is not the cause of the death of the pine, but 

 it probably depends on the severity of the climate. The beech 

 reaches 220 years ; the birch 120, and the maple 250 years. 

 The life of the oak appears in this forest to terminate between 

 500 and 600 years ; we can trace a retrograde growth in this 

 tree of a century. Of all the trees which have been enume- 

 rated, the lime attains to the greatest age. 815 annual circles 

 were counted on the section of a stem of the lime tree. 



" In Scotland, trees of all the above kinds are found of a large size. The 

 Pine, the Oak, and the Birch are indigenous : the Silver-fir, the Beech, and 

 the Maple were introduced towards the middle of the ICth century, or shortly 

 before the Reformation, and are found of a large size only near old mansion, 

 houses. Mr IMacnab of our Botanic Garden, informs us, that, in the present 

 autumn, he saw native Pines in Mar Forest, 12 feet in circumference at 2 

 feet from the ground, and from 50 to 60 feet in height, English measure. 

 The silver-fir reaches from 50 to 100 feet high : very fine specimens exist at 

 Woodhouselee near Edinburgh, and at Ramornie in Fife. Dr Walker (in 

 the posthumous Essays in Natural History and Rural Economy) mentions an 

 oaA; at Lockwood in Annandale, 230 years old, about CO feet high, andat]6 feet 

 above the ground 14 feet in girth. ]\Iany noble oaks exist in the Duke's 

 Great Park near Hamilton, where some of the original white cattle of Scot- 

 land are still preserved. Some beeches more than 200 years old exist at New« 

 battle Abbey near Dalkeith, with trunks 16 feet in girth at breast-height. 

 The hirch is a most abundant native, and sometimes acquires a great size : 

 one at Balbegie attained t'le height of 100 feet, with a clear stem of 50 feet. 

 At Barnton, near Edinburgh, are two maples (Acer campestre) with stems 

 between 8 and 9 feet in circumference, and perhaps the largest trees of the 

 kind in Scotland Editor. 



