KARLY TREE-PLANTING IN SCOTLAND. 25 



into the humure of planting and making nurseries,"' with so 

 effective a result that about thirty years later we find him saying 

 he has planted more than 300,000 trees, which, he remarks, " in 

 time may be of considerable value " (4). 



John Cockburn of Ormistoun (Haddingtonshire) was an 

 enthusiastic planter and improver, and thanks to the fact 

 that official duty called him to reside in London during part of 

 the year, and that he carefully directed his estate operations 

 from there by letter, we have a remarkably interesting and full 

 account of what was done, all the more so because the laird 

 was critical and not easily pleased. In 17 19 there was grown 

 timber- at Ormistoun, but the letters date from 1727 to 1744. 

 Their greatest value to us is that the kinds of trees used are 

 named, and it is this information alone that will be given at 

 present. The list, in alphabetical order, is — Alder (called Aller), 

 Apple, Ash, Aspen (called Quack Esp), Beech, Birch, Black- 

 thorn, Cedar (not definitely stated to be planted), Cherry, 

 Chestnut, Elder, Elm (English and small leaved mentioned 

 specifically), Fir, Green Oak, Hazel, Holly, Hornbeam, Horse 

 Chestnut, " Mapple," Mulberry (1740, the first known to be 

 planted in Scotland), Oak, " Orientall Plain," Pear, Pine, Plane 

 (Sycamore), Privet (called Privy), Quince, Rowan (called 

 Rawen), Saugh, Silver Fir, Swedish Pine (Spruce), Sweet 

 Chestnut, Thorn, Whitebeam (not named, but apparently this 

 from the description given). Walnut, and Yew (5). Another 

 writer states that Cockburn first planted the Acacia as a forest 

 tree in the park at Ormistoun (9). Larch, Lime, Poplar and 

 Willow are not mentioned. 



A brief reference to the planting of the Dawyck Estate, 

 Peeblesshire, brings us to the first introduction of the Larch, 

 and probably also of the Horse Chestnut in Scotland. Sir 

 James Naesmyth (died 1779), second baronet of Posso (and also 

 of Dawyck), was a botanist and pupil of Linnaeus, and did much 

 planting, which included the first Larches in Scotland. In 

 1725 a number were planted at Dawyck, some of which still 

 stand (7). This predates the Dunkeld and Blair AthoU trees 

 (planted 1738), although the Dunkeld trees are generally called 

 the " parent Larches." Two Horse Chestnuts near Dawyck 

 House date probably from about 1730, a Lime tree avenue 

 from the same year, and a row of Silver Firs from 1735 (7)- 

 Horse Chestnuts were known there one hundred years earlier 



