5 SOILS FOR 



and fituations, growing naturally, that one might 

 almofl fay any foil is adapted to it. It certainly, 

 however, becomes moil ufeful and valuable in 

 fandy foils. 



THE BEECH 



Is found in higheft perfection in fandy loams. It 

 alfo flourilhes remarkably on all calcareous foils, 

 and indeed naturally grows on fuch. Even on 

 clayey foils, lying on a retentive, tilly, wet fub^ 

 flratum, (as in the avenues at Panmure, Forfar- 

 fhire), it beconies a graceful tree of great mag- 

 nitude. Among rocks, crags, &c. where there 

 is little or no foil to be feen, the beech arrives at 

 a great fize. In low fituations, by the banks 

 of rivers, (as at Newbottle, * Edinburgh (hire), 

 and by the fides of rapid ftreams, at the foot of 

 mountains, (as at Ardkindglafs, Argylefhire), this 



tree 



* One tree, in particular, at this ancient seat, was lately 

 blown down by a heavy gale of wind. It contained up- 

 wards of one thousand measurable feet of timber, (20 loads, 

 or 25 tons), and is reasonably supposed to have been one of 

 the largest beeches that ever grew in Scotland. Dr Walker, 

 late Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh, in his Es- 

 jsays, mentions, that, on the 6th of July 1789, the trunk of 

 this beech, where thickest, was seventeen feet in girth ; and 

 that the span of the branches was then eighty-nine feet. He 

 thinks that it must have been planted between 1 540 and 

 1560. 



