July 1902.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 259 



My next experience was in the south part of County 

 Wicklow, where T had the management of the extensive 

 home woods and gardens of Lord Fitzwilliam. This part 

 of the county was colder and later than Queen's Co. ; the 

 soil was thin, the cold, shingly sub-soil mixed with a 

 strong clay. The portions of the property where tree 

 planting was carried out ranged from 400 feet to 1100 

 feet above sea-level. At the 400 feet level was a remnant 

 of the old shillelagh oak forest that once extended to 

 Donnybrook. The oaks still standing vfere very fine 

 specimens, with long, clean, straight boles, 10 and 12 feet 

 in circumference. It was in this wood only that the true 

 shillelagh sticks were got, a shillelagh being an oak sapling 

 taken up by the root, the root forming the head of the stick. 



This large estate, with its high hills, low valleys, varied 

 soils, and varied aspects, gave exceptional facilities for 

 testing the growth of the larch commercially, pro- 

 bably the most valuable timber grown in Britain. One 

 system of planting was adopted over the whole estate, 

 a mixture of larch, Scots pine, fir, silver, common 

 spruce, and some hard woods, chiefly oak, through them. 

 The larch seemed to do equally well on tlie north side 

 as on the south side of these hills, and grew well on the 

 tops of the highest of them ; all the planting was bole 

 planting. A careful investigation was made throughout 

 the whole of the plantations to try and detect any larch 

 disease ; the whole estate was pronounced clear of it, 

 excepting two trees, growing with many more larches on 

 a piece of ground, the subsoil of which was blue clay. 

 Deep open drains intersected closely this piece of ground, 

 still, it never became normally dry. Birch grew luxuriantly 

 on this, but I should say larch should never be planted 

 on soils with a cold clay subsoil. I have seen a great deal 

 of high lands in Ireland of little value agriculturally, 

 almost waste, that would grow excellent larch. The 

 Government should plant these otherwise waste mountain 

 tops ; they would prove in time a valuable asset to the 

 nation, and, at the same time, improve immensely the value 

 of the surrounding country. 



One of the greatest drawbacks to the proper growth of 

 w^oods and plantations in these islands is the destruction 



