644 T^he Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



scarcely a happy designation, and states that the original tree grew in the grounds 

 of Sir T. Dick Lauder in the parish of Corstorphine, near Edinburgh. 



The Corstorphine sycamore is well illustrated and described by Sargent,' who 

 quotes from a book, published locally by Mr. G. Upton Selway, called A Midlothian 

 Village. The tree has a romantic history, as being the only survivor of an avenue 

 which formerly led to an old manor-house belonging since 1376 to the Forrester 

 family. James Baillie, second Lord Forrester, who took an active part against the 

 Commonwealth, and became involved in difficulties on account of a heavy fine laid 

 on him by Cromwell, is said to have quarrelled with his sister-in-law on August 26, 

 1679, and to have been murdered by her at the foot of this tree. 



Mr. R. Galloway, Secretary of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, 

 informs us that this tree now stands in a garden attached to one of the houses in the 

 village of Corstorphine, and measured in 1905, 61 feet in height and 11 feet in 

 girth. A tree of this variety, which in 1904 measured 62 feet high by 5 feet 10 inches 

 in girth, grows at Kilmarnock, and is believed by the Rev. Dr. Landsborough to 

 be 112 years old. He says that this variety does not grow so fast or attain such 

 a large size as the common sycamore, as owing to its early leafing, the golden 

 sycamore is liable to suffer from spring frosts. 



14. Var. Worlei, Rosenthal. Another form of the golden sycamore, with 

 reddish leaf- stalks and bright -yellow leaves, which are orange-coloured at the 

 time of opening. 



15. Var. aucubcefolium, Nicholson. Leaves marked with yellow spots, similar 

 in appearance to those on the leaves of the common Aucuba japonica. Originated 

 as an accidental seedling in Little and Ballantyne's nursery at Carlisle. 



1 6. Var. Leopoldi, Lemaire, Illust. Horticole, xi. t. 411 (1864). Leaves 

 deep pink at the time of unfolding, afterwards variegated with pink and purple. 

 This originated in the seed-bed in the nursery of M. Vervaene, at Ledeberg-les- 

 Gand, by whom it was sold to Van Geert. 



17. Var. Webbianum, Nicholson. Leaves with silvery streaks. This 

 originated in the nursery of C. Lee and Son at Isleworth. 



18. Var. purpureum, Loudon. Purple-leaved sycamore. Leaves purple 

 beneath. The petiole and wings of the fruit are often also bright -red. This 

 variety originated in 1828 in Sanders' nursery in Jersey. 



Various sub-varieties are known as var. atropurpureum, Spath, under surface 

 of the leaves very dark purple ; var. Nizeti, von Schwerin, leaves purple beneath, 

 spotted with yellow above ; var. Handjeryi, Spath, vinous-purple beneath, upper 

 surface with yellow minute spots; va.x. purpureo-variegatum, Nicholson, with rose- 

 coloured or white stripes on a purple ground. The latter originated in Van 

 Volxem's nursery at Perck, and is considered by Nicholson to be identical with 

 var. variegatum, Carriere, Rev. Hort. 1877, p. 334, which originated as a branch 

 sport from the ordinary purple-leaved variety in the Bois de Boulogne nurseries 

 at Longchamps in 1874. 



19. Var. Jlavo-variegatum, Hayne.^ Leaves splashed and marked with yellow. 



' Garden and Forest, vi. 202, f. 32 (1893). ^ Dendrol. Flora, 212 (1822). 



