Pinus Sylvestris 591 



altitude of 1500 to 1700 feet. This is approximately the level at which they die out 

 in Abernethy, Rothiemurchus, Glen Feshie, Glenavon, Invercauld, Birse, and Glen 

 Tanar." When stalking on Ben Avon I saw with the telescope some pines in the 

 upper part of Glen Derry which I supposed to be at an elevation of about 2000 feet, 

 and Mr. Michie, who has seen these trees, thinks that this estimate is not far from 

 the mark. (H. J. E.) 



In Ireland the common pine grows with great vigour and beauty, the bark 

 becoming bright red in colour and the leaves very glaucous. The tallest trees, 

 which I have seen, are at Curraghmore, the seat of the Marquess of Waterford, 

 where, near a stream, I measured one no feet high and 7 feet in girth; some, 

 but difficult to measure accurately on account of their position in a dense wood, 

 were probably 120 to 125 feet in height, the largest of these having a girth of 

 9 feet. 



At Doneraile Court, Co. Cork, there are some fine pines, growing scattered in 

 an oak wood, the largest of which I made 97 feet by 1 1|- feet, with a clean stem 

 to 50 feet. These trees are supposed by local tradition to be of native origin, 

 and are called Irish pines; but they have evidently been planted, and there is no 

 means of determining whether they originated from seed collected in Kerry from 

 aboriginal pines still existing there in the i8th century, or, as is more probable, from 

 Scotch seed, as they are probably about the same age as the famous larches at this 

 place, which are reputed to have been sent to Doneraile by the Duke of Atholl. 



At Emo Park, Portarlington, there are many fine trees, the largest seen 

 measuring 91 feet by 7^ feet and 88 feet by 9 feet i inch. There is also a splendid 

 tree, growing near the gate of Mr. Walpole's beautiful garden at Mount Usher, on 

 the Rossanagh property, which is 1 1 feet 9 inches in girth, and probably 80 feet in 

 height. At Castledawson, Co. Derry, an old tree measures 80 feet in height by 1 1 

 feet 4 inches in girth. There are many fine trees scattered through CooUattin in 

 Wicklow. These grow on moist boggy soil ; and I measured two clean of branches 

 to 60 feet, which were 87 feet in height, and 9 feet 5 inches and 8 feet i inch 

 respectively in girth. 



At Luttrelstown, near Dublin, Hayes ^ measured a " Scots fir, eighty-five years' 

 growth from the seed, of 1 1 feet 6 inches in circumference, and another of very great 

 height II feet 10 inches round." He gives several other instances of the rapid 

 growth of the tree in Ireland.^ 



Mr. T. W. Webber, late Deputy Conservator of Forests in India, in the appen- 

 dix to his book on, the Forsts of Upper India, gives an interesting account of the 

 growth of Scots pine in Ireland, the planting of which he strongly advocates. To the 

 objection that home-grown timber is of inferior quality, he replies that the wood of 

 Pinus sylvestris found in bogs in Ireland is often of great length and thickness, 

 sound, fine-grained, solid and straight, and so excellent that it has been used by 

 coach-builders as superior to Memel timber. Where such timber grew ages ago, 



' Practical Essay on Planting, 133, 167(1794). 



* At Powerscourt an immense Scots pine was blown down by the great gale of February 1903, which I saw on the 

 ground soon afterwards and which measured about 1 2 feet in girth. Some boards cut from the tree were kindly sent me by 

 the late Lord Powerscourt, which show its growth to have been very rapid.' (H. J. E.) 



