NOTES AND QUERIES. II5 



Re-introduction of Scots Pine {Fini/s silTes/n's) into 

 Southern England, 



The period at which this took place is frequently given as the 

 last quarter of the eighteenth century ; for instance, the date 

 named for the New Forest, Hampshire, is 1776. This general 

 statement seems to require some qualification, and the following 

 four cases may be cited of earlier dates : — 



1. On Hampstead Heath the trees called "the Firs," so 

 often figured in local views, are of this species, and there is 

 documentary evidence that they were planted in 1734. 



2. The large plantation called the " Evergreens," in Woburn 

 Park, Bedfordshire, was planted in 1743, and there were Scots 

 pines in it which had attained the height of 55 feet and girth 

 of 13 feet at 4 feet from the ground previous to 1839 {Pinetutn 



Woburnense, 1839, p. 7). 



3. At Stratton Strawless, near Norwich, in 1748, R. Marsham 

 planted some of his " Waste " partly with Scotch firs, as he 

 names the trees (T. Bell's edition of Gilbert White's Nat. Hist, 

 of Selborne, vol. ii. p. 267, 1877). 



4. White himself says, in an entry under the date of 24th 

 October 1766, that at Selborne "the Scotch pine casts its leaves 

 of last year" {^A Nature Calendar, by W. M. Webb, Selborne 

 Society, 191 1). 



There are also instances of early planting as an ornamental or 

 park tree, such as at Heron Court, near Bournemouth, where 

 a group of four Scots pines on the south lawn are said to have 

 been grown from seed brought from Scotland in 1746. 



These widely separated localities indicate that there had been 

 considerable planting done previous to 1750. 



Hugh Boyd Watt. 



Abnormal Growths on Willow Trees. 



There is a curious and unusual growth on some of the willows 

 on Hampstead Heath, Middlesex, which was first noticed two 

 years ago and has continued abundantly since then. Externally 

 it resembles the familiar " Witch's Broom " found on birch trees, 

 but is not so large or bunchy, seldom exceeding the size of an 

 average turnip, and in shape it is more frequently elongated than 

 rounded. Some trees look as if their upper branches were 

 occupied by a colony of rooks' nests in miniature, a kind of 



