THE GIRTH-INCREASE OF TREES. 47 
FAGUS SYLVATICA. 
j 
ANNUAL INCREMENTS. 
2 Av ' | 
et Be ee Girth, 
4 te, Sy fatten | ii See Ot ore Oct, | 
le tet ie 1897. | 
& |Decade| 1888. | 1889. | 1890. | 1891. | 1892. ] 1893. | 1894. | 1895. | 1896. | 1897. | 
| 
7} 103 | -75 | 80} -95 | -90 | 1:20 }1-10/) -25| 60 | -90| -80 9885 | -88 | 89-60! 
8{ 099 | -80/ ‘95 | 95} -90| ‘907 -90| ‘90 | -90| 1.19 | ‘9019-20 | -92 | 79°50 
14} 048 | -40 | 35 | -20] -25 | -30] -25 | -45 | +30} -25 | 30 9} 3-05 | -30 | 83-70 
38 | 0°43 | -30 | -25 | -25 | -25 | 409 -25 | -45 | -25 | -40 | -25 3-05 | -30 [67-75 
| 
2°25 | 235 | 2:35 | 2-30 | 2-80 | 2-50 | 275 | 2°05 | 2°65 | 229 
97 1:15 | 1°30 | 1°50 | 1-30 | Died after Transplantation. 5°25 | 1°31 | 15°55 
ae 100 | 1:10 | 1-45 | 1°35 | 1°55 Do. 6-45 | 1-29 | 14-55 
eee Oe ae Se 145 | 20 0 55 1435 | 1-45 | 20-95 
* See Explanation of Figures, page 44. 
I have placed this species first, because the Beech here, as in 
Scotland at large, thrives better perhaps than any other of our 
forest trees, 
The two first in the Table, handsome and healthy looking 
trees, stand free in the low ground where the original Botanic 
Garden bordered the former Horticultural Garden. Reckoning 
in round numbers, they have increased in girth, No. 7 from six 
feet to seven and a half feet, No. 8 from five feet to six and a 
half feet, in twenty years, and the annual rate in each has been 
‘95. But the rates in the first decade were 1°03 and ‘gg, and in 
the second ‘88 and ‘92 respectively, showing an appreciable 
decline, which, however, was not steady, for if we take the total 
increments for the two trees in quinquennial periods they come 
out—9'70, 10°35, 8°95, 8:95. The inferiority of the first to the 
second quinquennial period is explicable by the depressing effect 
of the low temperatures in 1879, 1880, and 1881, which, although 
they affected this species less than any other, still left their 
mark upon it for three years. Thus, the united increase of Nos. 
7, 8 was 2°40 in 1878 and only 1°75, 1°55, and 1°75 in the three 
following years. The marked decline in the third quinquennium 
from 10°35 to 8:95 cannot be explained unless on the theory that 
the trees had passed the maximum of their growing power, but 
the rate underwent no further fall in the fourth quinquennium. 
