90 ACER PSEUDO-PLATANUS. 
The tree called sycamore, to which allusion is frequently made ii Holy Wnt, 
was not the Acer pseudo-platanus, but the Ficus sycomoj^us of botanists; 
Sycomore of the French; and Indischer Feigenbaum of the Germans. The sup- 
position that this specie? was the sycamore of the scriptures, induced many 
religious persons in Britain, in the XlVth and XVth centuries, to plant it in 
churchyards, courtyards, avenues, and near houses. 
The oldest recorded sycamore, and perhaps the largest tree of the kind in Brit- 
ain, is that at Kippenross, in Perthshire. In 1823, it measured twenty-eight feet 
nine inches in circumference, at a foot from the ground. It appears that it went 
by the name of " the big tree in Kippenross," in the time of Charles II. Another 
tree of this species is mentioned by Loudon, as growing at Taymouth, which 
had been planted more than two hundred years, and attained the height of one 
hundred feet, with a trunk six feet in diameter, and an ambitus of forty feet. 
At Bishopton, on the Clyde, there is another tree, figured by Strutt, in his 
"Sylva Britannica," which is described as being sixty feet high, with a trunk 
six and a half feet in diameter. 
Perhaps the most remarkable sycamores in Scotland, are those called " dool- 
trees," which were used by the powerful barons in the western part of that 
country, for hanging their enemies and refractory vassals upon, and for this rea- 
son, were called dool, or grief-trees. One of these trees is said still to be standing 
on the banks of the river Doon, near the fine old castle of Cassilis, a seat of the 
Marquis of Ailsa, who descended from the powerful family of the Kennedys. It 
is raised on a pyramid, consisting of six steps, covered with turf, and has a 
large, spreading head, nearly two hundred feet in circumference. The last time 
this tree was used as a gibbet, was for the execution of Johnny Faa, the gipsy, 
and seven of his men, who were hanged for eloping with the Countess of Cas- 
silis. 
Two other dool-trees are said to exist on the estate of Blairquhan, recently in 
possession of Sir David Hunter Blair. The largest is seventy-two feet high, 
with a trunk seventeen feet in circumference, at ten feet from the ground. The 
other tree is somewhat less in size. They are probably nearly three centuries 
old. The date on the old coat of arms of the Kennedys, in the adjoining court 
of the castle, is 1573. 
In France, in the botanic garden at Toulon, there is a sycamore, about sixty 
years planted, which is one hundred feet in height. 
In Switzerland, there are many remarkable trees of different species, which 
are more or less linked with the history of the country. They speak to the 
imaginations of the people, and are connected, not only with the amusements of 
the successive generations, but with the victories, that, in ancient times, secured 
the independence of that republic. Among these are the great lime-trees at Fri- 
bourg, already mentioned; and as a monument of a similar nature, we will now 
introduce that venerable old sycamore of Trons, in the Grisons, in the same can- 
ion. It was under the shade of this tree, that the deputies of the country swore 
to free themselves from the yoke of their lords. In 1835, it measured twenty-six 
and a half feet in circumference, at eighteen inches from the ground, and was 
estimated to be nearly five hundred years old. It is celebrated in all the local 
poems as being a lime-tree, but the fact is, it is the Acer pseudo-platanus. In 
the " Bibliotique Universelle de Geneve," for August, 1831, there is a letter from 
M. Bontemps, in which it is stated, that the probable reason why this tree is 
called a lime in the local poems is, that the German word Ahorn, which signifies 
a sycamore or maple, is very unpoetical, while that for a lime-tree, Linde, is soft 
and liquid ; and this caused the former to be rejected by the writers of the old 
ballads. 
The European sycamore appears to have been introduced into the United 
