24 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



these branches is about 400 feet Detailed measurements by Mr. Ramsay are given 

 below.' 



A similar instance of self- layering, perfectly natural, was to be seen in the 

 Kew Gardens, where a very fine beech, though by no means such a giant as the 

 Newbattle tree, was surrounded by a fence in order to protect it. This tree, however, 

 having become seriously decayed, had its main stem cut down in 1904. 



Among the best specimens I have seen in Scotland are those at Hopetoun 

 House, near Edinburgh, the seat of the Marquess of Linlithgow, where I measured a 

 tree no feet high, with a clean bole of about 50 feet, and a girth of 12 feet. At 

 Blair Drummond, near Perth, the seat of H. S. Home Drummond, Esq., Henry 

 measured one of 117 feet high by 16 feet 6 inches in girth, and at Methven Castle, 

 the seat of Colonel Smythe, another which is 120 feet high by 17 feet 2 inches in 

 girth. This tree divides into three stems at about 20 feet, and is the tallest of 

 which we have any certain record in Scotland. At Gordon Castle is a very fine 

 beech with spreading roots (Plate 10) measuring 95 feet by 15 feet 8 inches. At 

 Castle Menzies, Perthshire, the property of Sir Neil Menzies, is a very fine beech, 

 which is described by Hunter* as a vegetable "Siamese Twins." Whether 

 originally two trees or one is difficult to say, but it seemed to me to be from a 

 single root which had forked a little above the ground and then grown together 

 again, leaving an opening through which Hunter says an ordinary sized person 

 might pass, but which in 1904 was smaller. At Inverary Castle is another example 

 of an inosculated beech, known as the Marriage Tree, which, from a photograph 

 published by Valentine, does not seem to be so striking as the one at Castle 

 Menzies. 



The ground measurement was taken by allowing the tape to lie on the roots as near to the uprising of the buttresses as 

 possible, and is necessarily vague. The measurement at 6 feet up is the most correct, being taken on a line marked at 

 intervals all round with white paint for fiiture comparison. 



Circumference of foliage fully 400 feet ; diameter of foliage averages 130 to 140 feet ; height, 1 12 feet. 



The following are a few of the branches with the girth of them, and the girth of the branches springing up from the main 

 branches rooted in the ground : 



No. I. Branch girth, i foot 10 inches, with two branches growing up from it ; girth of both these new branches, 4 feet 

 5 inches each. 



No. 2. Branch girth, i foot 8 inches, having three branches springing up from it, one 5 feet 5 inches, one 5 feet I inch, 

 one 23 inches by I foot 1 1 inches in girth. 



No. 3. Branch girth, 12J inches, having three branches springing up from it, one 4 feet 7^ inches, one 24J inches, one 

 4 feet 4 inches in girth. 



No. 4. Branch girth, 12 inches, with two branches springing up from it, one 2 feet 8^ inches, one 12 inches in girth. 



No. 5. Branch girth, 1 foot 7 inches, with three branches springing up from it, one 2 feet 4J inches, one 12 inches, 

 one 18 inches in girth. 



No. 6. Branch girth, 2 feet 4 inches, with five branches springing up from it, one 4 feet 4 inches, one 3 feet 8 inches, 

 one 4 feet, one 3 feet 4 inches, one I foot 1 1 inches in girth. 



* Hunter, iVoods, Forests, and Estates of Perthshire, 1883, p. 397. 



