650 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow, there is a fine tree, 15 feet in girth with an estimated 

 height of 90 feet. This is supposed to be the tree referred to by Hayes,' as being 

 in 1 794 the largest then living in Wicklow ; but if this is the case the tree must 

 have remained stationary in growth for many years. At Powerscourt there is a fine 

 widespreading tree 80 feet high by 14 feet in girth. At Carton, a sycamore, 

 remarkable for its small leaves, which are only half the ordinary size, measured, 

 in 1903, 87 feet in height and 11 feet in girth. At Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny, 

 a tree was, in 1901, 73 feet high by 11^ feet in girth; and, according to the 

 records kept here was 7 feet 10 inches in 1825, 8 feet 2 inches in 1830, and 8 feet 

 II inches in 1846. At Cushendun, Co. Antrim, in a situation completely exposed to 

 the blasts from the sea, in the garden of Miss M'Neil, a sycamore is 60 feet high 

 by 13 feet in girth. 



On the Continent the sycamore is not so often planted as in England, but 

 in Switzerland and the Austrian Alps it attains a great size. Two are figured 

 in the Baum-Album der Schweiz^ of which one, formerly growing at Truns in 

 the Oberland at an elevation of 853 metres, close to the old chapel of St Anna, 

 is interesting on account of its great age. Under this tree the Grey League, 

 one of the three bodies which, when confederated in 1525, formed the canton of 

 Grisons, were sworn in 1424 ; and though the last remnant of the veteran was 

 torn up by a storm in 1870, it shows that the sycamore may attain an age 

 of about 600 years. A figure of it, taken from a painting in the possession of 

 M. Descurtins of Coire, is given in the work from which I quote. A young tree 

 raised from its seed was planted in 1870 on the spot, and was in 1896 already over 

 30 feet high and 4 feet 4 inches in girth. 



By the kindness of M. Coaz, Director of the Swiss Government Forests, I am 

 able to reproduce a beautiful photograph (Plate 183) of an even finer tree, now 

 standing on the land of the commune of Kerns, in Melchthal, canton of Unter- 

 walden, at an elevation of 1350 metres, in deep loamy soil, on a formation described 

 as calcaire schrattique. This immense tree measures 1 2. 20 metres in circumference 

 above the point where its trunk expands, and at 5 feet from the ground 8.85 

 metres, equal to about 29 feet, thus exceeding any tree of which we have a 

 record in this country. At 1 2 feet from the ground a branch about 9 feet in girth 

 is given off. The height is not stated, but the branches spread to a diameter 

 of about 25 yards, and though the trunk is hollow and covered in places with a 

 moss {Leucodon sciaroides), the tree still bears fruit. Its aspect reminds me strongly 

 of many sycamores which grow on the Alps of the Vorarlberg in Austria, and 

 especially of one, from the cover of whose trunk I shot my last chamois, a cunning 

 old buck, which for four seasons I had hunted in vain. 



Timber 



The wood of the sycamore is of a white colour, close grain, and moderately 

 hard ; and when of large size is one of the most valuable woods we have, as it has 

 been found the most suitable for making the large rollers, technically called 



" Practical Essay on Planting, 121 (1 794). ' Published by Schmid, Francke & Co., Bern, 1896. 



