Notes Dry burgh, Fortingal 209 



only 12 feet, proving that the estimate of its age 

 is utterly fallacious. One may ' suppose ' anything, 

 but one could scarcely with reason assign an age 

 of 760 years to a tree which probably did not 

 exceed 300. Mr. Hutchison, in 1890, gives the 

 following measurements of this tree : ' The head 

 is 60 feet in diameter. The trunk is 14 feet 3 

 inches in circumference at i foot from the ground ; 

 1 1 '4 inches at 5 feet, with a bole of 8 feet. The 

 increase in girth at i foot betwixt 1837 and 1890 

 was 27 inches or 9 inches, of diameter in fifty- three 

 years.' 



Another tree growing in the south transept of 

 Dryburgh Abbey has its age verified by a tablet 

 of stone on the north side of the Erskine burying- 

 ground, which states that this tree * was planted 

 from the seed-bed by the Earl of Buchan, 1789.' 

 In August 1887 it was 3 feet 8 inches in girth at 



3 feet from the ground ; at the ground line it is 



4 feet. This is a somewhat slow rate of growth, 

 yielding only i foot of diameter in 82*8 years. 



Fortingal. From details published in 1770, De 

 Candolle estimated that this tree had, in 1831, 

 reached the age of 2500 to 2600 years. Speaking 

 of this and the Brabourne tree, he says ' it is 

 probable they are the veterans of European vege- 

 tation.' 



The tree was first described by the Hon Daines 

 Barrington in the Philosophical Transactions for 



o 



