ABBOBICULTUBAL FEATURES OF BDTESHIBE. 69 



years old, planted in the centre of the old wood to the west of the 

 castle ; but the greater proportion have been destroyed by the deer, 

 which are very numerous here. With the exception of a small por- 

 tion of wood to the east and west of Invercloy, this comprises the 

 principal portion of the wood round Brodick Castle. 



The plantations in the south end of the island have been mostly 

 planted within the last fifteen years. Exposure — south and south- 

 east, with an elevation of from 100 to 500 feet. "With the excep- 

 tion of the young plantation at Lag, the larch of which seem to be 

 in an unhealthy and diseased state, they are all remarkably healthy, 

 though much in want of thinning. 



At Lamlash and neighbourhood, the glens are more or less fringed 

 with a margin of natural wood, composed of plane, birch, alder, and 

 elder. At White House there are a number of fine silver firs, and 

 some fine shrubs ; also, near the north end of Lamlash village there 

 are several fine araucarias, about 15 feet high. Xear the shore, 

 along side of the road leading from Lamlash to Brodick, there are a 

 number of beech and Scots firs about 80 years old. 



The next to be noticed is a margin of birch coppice-wood, along 

 the sea-cliff from Brodick woods to Glen Sannox, and from Loch 

 Banza to Dugarry. Hazel is very scarce in most parts. Though 

 the above are the principal localities of the birch or coppice wood, 

 straggling trees are seen more or less in all the glens near the shore 

 in Arran. 



On the west side of the island, immediately above the shore, we 

 observed numbers of elder trees more than a foot in diameter. 



The only piece of wood of any note on the slate formation is 35 

 acres of young plantation, 25 years of age, immediately above the 

 shore, at Whitefarland, on the west side of the island, which has an 

 elevation of from 20 to 300 feet, with a full west exposure to the 

 sea. It is composed principally of larch, with a few ash and alder 

 intermixed, with a double row of planes along the shore. Con- 

 sidering the nature of the ground, which is a rough rocky face, and 

 exposed as this plantation is to the storms of the Atlantic, the trees 

 are remarkably healthy. The planes are very healthy, averaging 

 9 inches in diameter 5 feet up. The hills rising immediately behind 

 this plantation must act an important part in warding off the storm 

 from the lower ground. 



As evidence of the mildness of the climate on the east side of 

 the island, Dr Landsborough remarks, "that in Cromla garden (near 

 Corrie) the oleander (Nerium oleander) stood a winter in the open 



