1804 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



are rarely seen, and the species appears to be dying out in all parts of England, 

 except on the Welsh borders and in East Anglia. The glabrous Continental form 

 is very rarely planted in Britain. 



Remarkable Trees 



In the south-western counties I have seen none except at Dunster in Somerset, 

 where, in a meadow below the castle there is an old hollow stump 24 feet in girth, 

 from which a large limb has extended and taken root some way off, and thrown up 

 two stems 5 and 5J ft. in girth, but only about 40 ft. high. There are three other 

 large trees near the park gate south-east of the castle, the first 92 ft. by 17 ft 

 measured over a large burr, the second about 90 ft. by i6 ft., also very burry. 



In Hants I have seen none, but am told by Mr. J. Smith of Romsey that an old 

 pollard exists near that town 15 ft. by 7 ft. 9 in. In Sussex there is a tree in the 

 park at Beauport about 100 ft. by 8 ft. In Kent in Penshurst Park there are some 

 small, old, and very stunted trees. 



In Middlesex by far the finest are two at Syon. These are rather shut in 

 by other trees, and in 1905 were 1 about no ft. by 17 ft. 8 in. In the MS. 

 catalogue at Syon a tree of this species was recorded as 120 ft. by 15 ft. in 1849. 

 There are two trees on Wandsworth Common, and Miss Woolward tells me of a 

 young female tree near the Serpentine Bridge. In the Green Park there are three 

 trees in a group about 100 yards from Piccadilly opposite Down Street. 



In Suffolk on the banks of the Larke in the Abbey grounds at Bury St. 

 Edmunds there are several old trees, one of which was figured by Strutt, 2 and 

 was said by him to be 90 ft. by 15 ft, and to contain 551 cubic ft. of timber. I 

 could not identify this particular tree in 1907, when on 7th April I found them 

 covered with bright red male flowers, which gave a beautiful effect in the sun. A 

 female tree here was only just showing flower at the same date, but produced 

 fertile seeds later, from which Mr. Hankins, forester at Culford Park, raised numerous 

 seedlings, thirty of which planted out in a plot measured 5 to 7 ft. high in November 

 1911. 



A tree at West Stow, near Bury St. Edmunds, which measured 92 ft. high by 

 19 ft in girth, was felled in March 1912. It had immense spreading superficial 

 roots ; and the original set, about 4 in. in diameter, was recognisable in the centre of 

 the butt, being separated from the older wood by a ring-shake. Near the base of 

 the trunk Mr. Hankins counted 225 annual rings. The timber was quite sound, 

 the first length measuring 39 ft. by 42^ in. quarter-girth or 489 cubic ft, the total 

 contents being 748 cubit ft. ; a plank of it is now in the Cambridge Forestry 

 Museum. 



At Islington Hall, King's Lynn, there is a magnificent tree, which was measured 

 by Mr. A. P. Long in October 19 12, as follows : total height, 108 ft. ; girth at five feet 

 from the ground, 1 7 ft. 3 in. ; volume of the bole (36 ft. in length to the point where 

 the first branch is given off), 361 cubic feet ; total volume, 620 cubic feet 



1 A. B. Jackson, Cat. Trees Syon. 22 (1910), gives the height of these trees as 128 ft. 

 8 Sylva Britannica, t. 24. 



