5^6 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1769. 



chestnut which grows in a court at Tortworth in Gloucestershire : it is supposed 

 by Evelyn and Bradley to have been planted in the time of King John, from 

 mention of it in deeds of that antiquity. Mr, B. however procured more accu- 

 rate information from Lord Ducie, to whom this tree belongs; and finds that 

 the notion of its great age rests merely on a verj' uncertain tradition. But though 

 we should suppose it to have been planted in the time of King John, it affords 

 no stronger argument of the tree's being indigenous, than those mentioned by 

 Dr. Ducarel to grow at Hagley ; especially as there are no straggling chestnuts 

 to be found in the neighbourhood of either of these places. 



Having dwelt thus long on the point of the Spanish chestnut's being indige- 

 nous or not, Mr. B. next adverts to some observations relative to the pine com- 

 monly called the Scotch fir, which certainly is not to be found in any part of 

 England at present, except where the plantation appears most evidently to be of 

 modern date. Caesar indeed informs us, that no sort of fir was to be seen in this 

 country at the time of his invasion. There are however so many well-attested 

 facts, both by Camden and others,* of firs being found at a very considerable 

 depth under the surface of the ground, that we cannot withhold our assent to 

 them, extraordinary as it may appear at present, when throughout England we 

 have no such trees, which affords the least grounds to contend that they are of 

 indigenous growth. And the same in Scotland. There may be two causes as- 

 signed, why these bog-firs may be found in places where there is no such tree at 

 present. The first is, that no pine or fir ever shoots from the stool; and the 

 second, that being a resinous wood, it is very easily set on fire by lightning, after 

 a dry summer; and thus whole tracts of them may be destroyed without their 

 revegetating. Mr. B. was indeed informed by an old man at Ranoch-bridge, 

 that his grandfather used to mention a tradition of the fir wood in that neighbour- 

 hood having continued burning for a considerable time, and that the Irish came 

 over to see the conflagration. A wood of this kind is still growing near the 

 western end of Loch Ranoch. There seems to be little doubt therefore that the 

 fir was formerly an indigenous tree in the northern parts of England ; nor does 

 this contradict any of the rules before laid down, as they have been found in 

 great masses under ground, and their not continuing to grow in the same spot 

 or neighbourhood has been accounted for. 



Mr. B. next mentions some other trees, which do not seem to be indigenous, 

 though they are commonly conceived to be so, as well as by some great botanists, 

 who have treated of English plants and trees. He cannot think that the elm, 

 which we see every where, is indigenous. His reason is that he has never seen 

 it out of a hedge-^ow, avenue, or clump, though it is a tree which shoots vigor- 



• See Camden jn Lancashire, and Phil. Trans. N" 67. where such subterraneous firs are said to 

 be found in great quantities in the island of Axholm in Lincolnshire. — Orig. 



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