Exact Measurement of Trees. 81 



exposed, southern slopes of Ben Vrackie, at 1700 feet above 

 the sea-level. Nor were tliey defective in fruit, — except 

 indeed that those, which do not usually ripen until late in 

 autumn, such as the bramble-berry, had scarcely time to 

 reach maturity, at least had not done so in Strath-Tay on 

 the 2d of October. I may add, as a circumstance of probably 

 very rare occurrence, that on the same day, in a garden 

 seven miles above Dunkeld, 250 feet above sea-level, with a 

 gentle slope and fine exposure towards the south, I gathered, 

 ripe and of good quality, strawberries, raspberries, red cur- 

 rants, and red gooseberries, though they had not been 

 subjected to any means of artificial retardation. The little 

 indigenous ornaments of our Highland mountains under- 

 went a chequered fate. Erica cinerca and E. tctralic showed 

 flower in profusion ; but the more abundant Calluiut vulgaris 

 was not only very late, but also defective in flowering. Of 

 the berry-bearing hill plants some fruited well, and others 

 were unproductive. In many rambles I found no fruit on 

 the crow-berry, very little on the bear-berry, but abundance 

 on the bil-berry at the Falls of the Bruar, and on numberless 

 elevated slopes a profusion on the whortle-berry, the Vac- 

 ciniiim Vitis Idcca* 



Eeturning from this digression, I repeat that, in spite of 

 the inclement spring and summer of 1879, the foliage of 

 most trees was abundant, or even rich. But I doubt the 

 statements made by some in print, that the annual shoots 

 of trees were of average length. In no instance has com- 

 parative measurement been given ; and mere eye-measure- 

 ment with comparison by memory merely, can go for 

 very little in such a question. Were I to trust that method 

 of investigation, I should say that the hawthorn shoots in 

 October were very much under the average in length, and 

 that the pine-tribe generally, though not invariably, showed 

 more or less of the same inferiority. In regard to the 

 Araucaria there can scarcely be a mistake, on account of the 

 usual length and sharp definition of its internodes. Each 

 internode in most trees marks two years of growth. It is 

 easy to observe everywhere around Edinburgh, that the 

 newest growth for 1879 is much under one-half, and often 



* In the Highlands this is often gathered as the crau-berry, the fruit of a 

 much less common species, V, ulifjinvsum . QVy c^-<-<— i-i 



TRA^'S. BOT. SOa VOL. XIV. / F 



