Abies 



775 



The tallest that I have seen in England grows in Oakly Park near 

 Ludlow, the property of Lord Plymouth, on the rich flat by the river Teme, and 

 measured 102 feet by 8^ feet in 1908. Other fine trees are at Fonthill Abbey, which 

 was 98 feet by 8 feet in 1906 ; and at Madresfield Court 1 and Eastnor Castle, both 

 of which are over 95 feet high and 7^ feet in girth. The latter is figured (Plate 

 217). I have seen several others over 90 feet, of which perhaps the one at 

 Heanton Satchville is the largest, though it is too spreading to be a typical 

 specimen. In 1903 it was about 94 feet by 9 feet 7 inches, and 56 yards in circum- 

 ference of the branches. At Castlehill there are some fine trees, one of which 

 measured 92 feet by 7 feet 10 inches in 1904. At Petworth there is a very tall but not 

 a well-grown tree, 94 feet by 6 feet 6 inches. At Eridge Park a very handsome 

 tree, planted by Mr. Disraeli in 1868, measures 76 feet by 6 feet. At Youngsbury, 

 Ware, in Herts, Mr. H. Clinton Baker measured a tree in 1907, which was 91 

 feet in height and 9 feet 8 inches in girth ; and at his own place, Bayfordbury, 

 there is another, 73 feet by 5 feet 9 inches in 1905. He also reports two good 

 trees at The Heath, Leighton Buzzard, 98 feet by 8 feet 6 inches, and 88 feet 

 by 7 feet 10 inches respectively. There is also a very large tree in a belt by the 

 road at Flitwick Manor, near Ampthill, Bedfordshire, the seat of Miss Brooks, 

 which is 95 feet by 10 feet. At Welford Park there are two trees which though 

 only planted in 1878, are now about 90 feet high by 7 feet in girth. 



At Barton a thriving tree, 68 feet by 4 feet 3 inches, is the best we know in the 

 eastern counties, and this is sheltered and drawn up by tall trees around it. 



At Golden Grove, Carmarthenshire, there is a fine tree which in 1892 was 

 60 feet by 7 feet 8 inches, and when I saw it in 1905 had increased to 80 feet. 



In Scotland there are many fine specimens, of which one at Riccarton, in Mid- 

 lothian, was reported at the Conifer Conference in 1891 to have been 83 feet 3 inches 

 high and only 3 feet 8^ inches in girth, as carefully measured by the owner, Sir 

 James Gibson Craig ; and stated by him to have grown 53 feet in twelve years. 

 Soon after this it was attacked by Chermes and was cut down. 



At Glenlee, near New Galloway, Mr. T. R. Bruce informs me that there is a 

 tree, planted by Mrs. Melville in 1864, which in 1905 measured no less than 95 feet 

 by 10 feet, though, having lost its leader four years previously, it has now three 

 leads. At Castle Kennedy this species grows much faster than any of the 

 other numerous firs planted there. In 1904, one of two trees, nearly equal in size, 

 was 78 feet high by 6 feet in girth. This tree 2 was only twelve years old in 1891, 

 when it measured 30 feet by 1 foot 7 inches. 



At Benmore, in Argyllshire, one of the wettest places in Scotland, a tree said 

 to be only thirty-five years planted was, in 1907, 80 feet by 7 feet 4 inches; but the 

 trunk was infested with scale and did not seem to be healthy when I saw it. At 

 Poltalloch, there is a fine specimen over 80 feet high, and at Inveraray and 



somewhat soft, in great volume, and which is found useful in connection with box-making and other industries in Aberdeen. 

 Specially adapted for cultivation for profit where a large volume of timber is a desideratum. (J. D. Crozier,) 



1 A note signed J. N. in the Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. xx. 126 (1907) states that this tree, in Sept. 1906, was 114 feet 

 by 8 feet 4 inches. When I measured it in 1904, I made it 96 feet by "]\ feet ; and though owing to the ground I could not 

 get a level base line, I can hardly believe that it is now so tall as stated. 



2 Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiv. 547 (1892). 



