1030 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



tree excelled in having a less proportion of sapwood. These two trees contained 

 nearly the same percentage of resin ; and Mayr's researches have shown that the 

 wood of the Weymouth pine contains more resin than that of Scots pine, larch, spruce, 

 or silver fir. He considers that its qualities of lightness and softness, for which it is 

 esteemed in America, render it useful for many purposes, for which it is better fitted 

 than any European species. 



In Belgium the finest specimens of the Weymouth pine are a group of seven 

 trees standing close together in good soil beside a pond on the farm of St. Michel, 

 in the western Ardennes, not far from St. Hubert. These are growing at an altitude 

 of 1000 ft., and the largest measured in 1909, when they were seen and photo- 

 graphed by Henry, no ft. high and 8 ft. 8 in. in girth. They have produced seed 

 freely from an early period, and there are many seedlings of different ages in the 

 vicinity, some, believed to have been of this source, being as far away as two miles 

 to the westward. The dry easterly winds open the cones, and distribute the seeds 

 to a great distance. To the eastward of the tree the seedlings, though numerous, 

 only extend about 200 yards. The older trees are not attacked by the " rouge " 

 (Peridermium Strobi*), but many of the younger trees are affected. This pine 

 succeeds well at considerable elevations in the Ardennes, and would be a desirable 

 acquisition were it not for its liability to disease. 



This tree grows well as far north as Christiania, where I have seen in the 

 grounds of Baron Wedel Jarlsberg at Bogstad a healthy specimen about 90 ft. high, with 

 a clean trunk of about 1 2 ft. in girth. According to Schtibeler, it has been planted at 

 many places on the coast as far north as Trondhjem, and in Sweden as far as 64 N. 



On the Isola Bella, in Lago Maggiore, I saw in 1906 a fine tree, 98 ft. by 10J ft. 

 and covered with cones, which is said to have been brought from Paris in 18 15. 



Remarkable Trees 



By far the largest tree of which we have an exact record, grew in a sheltered 

 valley at Ironmill Wood not far from Tortworth, Gloucestershire, and, as I learn 

 from the Earl of Ducie, was measured 2 in 1864 by Sir Joseph Hooker and Professor 

 Balfour, who made it about 114 ft. high by iof ft. in girth. It was blown down in 

 1875 when it was believed to be about 105 years old, and measured 122 ft. high and 

 46 ft. to the first branch, containing no less than 324 cubic feet of good timber, which 

 was cut up and used on the estate. 



The next largest is a tree at Stowe, probably at least 150 years old, which in 

 1905 when I measured it, was 104 ft. high by 13 ft. 2 in. in girth at 3 ft., where the 

 stem divides into several massive ascending limbs. 



At Pains Hill, Surrey, there is a remarkable old tree with very spreading 

 branches, not mentioned by Loudon, which in 1904 was about 90 ft. high by 12 ft. 

 8 in. in girth. 



1 This fungus was first noticed in England, in 1892, at King's Lynn. Cf. Plowright, in Card. Ckron. xii. 133, figs. 22, 

 23 (1892) ; xiii. 425 (1893) ; X)CV '- 7 2 > 94 (1899). Dr. Somerville, in Quart, fount. Forestry, iii. 232 (1909), gives an account 

 of its ravages in late years. 



In Gard. Chron. 1853, p. 725, this pine was reported to have been planted in 1772 ; and it measured in 1853, 114 ft. 

 by 9 ft. 10 in. 



