430 Barry: Sylvan Vegetation of Fylingdales. 
As to the introduction of the Sycamore into these parts, I 
cannot doubt that here, as in so many other places, the original 
introducers were the monks. The abbot and monks of the 
Whitby Monastery were the possessors of the greater part of 
Fylingdales from the time of William II. to that of Henry VIII., 
and the oldest Sycamore trees in the township are around the 
two homesteads with which the monks seem to have been 
brought in special connection, viz., Fyling Old Hall, the ancient 
‘Manerium de Fyling,’ and Fyliny New Hall, formerly Park 
Gate, and so called from its proximity to the ancient Park. 
The Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) has been introduced here 
much later than the Sycamore. In fact, as I have not seen a 
Beech tree which can be a hundred years old, I do not think 
that there can have been one in the Dale in 1819, when my 
great grandfather bought this estate and began to plant. As 
it is, there are but a few odd specimens away from the plan- 
tations which adjoin this house. 
At the same time the Beech reproduces itself even in this 
climate ; not, of course; as freely as the Sycamore, but at least 
as freely as the indigenous Oak. This circumstance is again 
peculiar, because it is a rare thing with us to find Beech mast 
which has any kernel. The crops of it are both more abundant 
and more frequent than those of acorns, but the nut almost 
invariably proves to be ‘deaf.’ And yet there is scarcely a 
standard of over sixty years of age near which seedlings cannot 
be found. The seedlings and saplings seen in Ramsdale Woods 
by the side of the beck can be traced to two Beech trees about 
eighty years old that have been planted at the upper and outer 
edge of the coverts. 
The Beech here, as in many other parts of Britain, is infested 
by a species of Scale, Cryptococcus fagt, some trees being already 
in a dying condition. Those which suffer most seem to be 
saplings which are shaded by taller timber over them. 
The Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is excellently adapted 
to the slacks and more sheltered parts of our moorlands. On 
the open plateau it requires to be massed in great bodies in 
order to resist the winter gales, and even then is liable to 
be blown over where the subsoil is impervious or the 
surface moist. But in the situations that have been mentioned 
it is quite at home, and in a climate so congenial to it that 
matured timber from the Foulsyke plantations has been found, 
according to the late I. Taylor, to be as good as any imported 
from the Baltic. At the same time it seeds itself freely. Indeed, 
Naturalist 
