6x2 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



oriental planes in a grass field near the farm, where an old manor-house formerly stood, 

 and these, according to the Rev. L. Mercer, vicar of Hawsted, are said to have existed 

 in Queen Elizabeth's time, and to be the oldest in England.' They are difficult to 

 measure accurately on account of their broad round tops and the trunks being covered 

 with shoots, but the two largest are 75 to 80 feet high and 17 to 18 feet in girth, and 

 the third is not much smaller. When I saw them on 24th June 1905, they were still 

 covered with last year's fruit, three to five on a peduncle, and new half-grown fruit 

 was also growing on them. Their branches spread over a very wide area. 



At Corsham Court, Wilts, the seat of General Lord Methuen, there is an 

 oriental plane with very deeply-cut leaves whose branches spread over a larger area 

 than those of any tree I have seen in England (Plate 175). It is 75 to 80 feet high 

 and 1 8^ feet in girth. One of the branches, which is self-layered in several places, 

 extends no less than 27 paces from the main bole, and the total circumference of the 

 branches is 140 paces. Three of the principal stems grown from the layered 

 branches are 6 feet 3 inches, 4 feet 10 inches, and 4 feet respectively in girth. 

 Lord Methuen believes that this tree was planted soon after his ancestor built the 

 house in 1757, and a cedar recently cut down, probably of the same age, showed 

 about 133 rings and thus tends to confirm his opinion. 



Another very large tree of great age is growing close to the banks of the Test, 

 at Mottisfont Abbey, Hants, which has layered its branches in the damp alluvial 

 soil. When I saw it some years ago it was in good health, and in 1898 measured 

 29 feet 8 inches at 4^ feet where it forks, the branches having a diameter of 

 129 feet.'' At Bisterne Park near Ringwood, in the same county, there is a very 

 fine old tree measuring, in 1906, 100 feet by 18 feet. 



At Weston Hall, Staffordshire, the seat of the Earl of Bradford, there is a very 

 fine plane which I have not seen myself, but which was measured' in 1875 as 

 80 feet by 1 8^ feet with a bole 1 1 feet high, and twelve large limbs from 4 to 

 7 feet in girth. 



At Blickling Hall, Norfolk, there are two very old trees growing close together, 

 the largest of which was, in 1907, 11 feet in girth and almost 60 feet high, with 

 remarkably spreading branches, covering a space of 140 feet in the largest diameter, 

 and 127 paces in circumference. The lowermost branches lying upon the ground 

 had taken root, and growing erect for a time had again bent down and taken root a 

 second time. 



At Chiswick House, London, there is another example of a large oriental plane 

 with very spreading pendulous branches, many of which are lying upon the ground 

 and one has taken root. This tree was, in 1903, 13^ feet in girth, 74 feet in height, 

 and the diameter of the spread was 100 feet. 



At Greycourt, Ham, in Surrey, the residence of Colonel Biddulph, there is a 

 tree which measured, in 1906, i6 feet 11 inches in girth and 72 feet in height, and 

 had a short bole of 7 feet dividing into three great limbs, the diameter of the spread 

 of branches being 94 feet. 



> Cf. iVoods and Forests, 1884, p. 153. cf. Qard. Chron. xxiii. 24, figs. 9, 10(1898). 



' Geo. Berry, in Garden, xx. 370 (1881). 



