THE GIRTH-INCREASE OF TREES. 59 
CASTANEA VESCA. 
Ann. 
3 
a ANNUAL INCREMENTS. 
otal. 
q 
e Decade 198g. | 1889. | 1890. | 1891. | 1892. } 1893. | 1894. | 1895. | 1896, | 1897. 
“80 | *45 | ‘55 | 6:95) ‘69 | 87°20 
‘94 | -€0 | -75 | 1:00] -60| 90] -90 | -40 
This rather handsome tree grew at the rate of nearly an inch 
annually in the first decade, and was little affected by the low 
temperatures of 1879, 1880, and 1881. In the third quinquennium, 
however, the rate fell to :77,and in the fourth to ‘62, so that the 
tree seems to be past its best. It still looks well, and has reached 
the respectable girth of seven feet three inches. 
The range in the first decade, -75 to 1°10, was slight, but the 
decline in the second has raised it to ‘45 to 110 in the whole 
period of twenty years. 
JUGLANS REGIA, 
ANNUAL INCREMENTS. 
Kate, Total. ar os 
Decade.] 1998, | 1889. | 1890. |11891. | 1892. | 1893. | 1894. | 1895. | 1896. | 1897. 
fo | No.in List. | 
i 
& 
"15 | 700: | .°50 9.25 |. 25 | .°15- | 15 | 10 | 1-40]. “14 1136°60 
bi 
& 
S 
As the Walnut is rare in the Edinburgh district, it is some- 
what surprising to see so large a specimen in a situation so little 
favourable to tree longevity as the Arboretum, and where it has 
been so much exposed to the west winds. It has a short stem, 
eleven feet four inches in girth at the narrowest, a foot above 
ground, which has only increased an inch or two in twenty years. 
The two chief limbs girth upwards of eight and five feet. 
The only annual measurements kept up were on the latter, and it 
has increased, very irregularly, only two and a half inches in twenty _ 
years. Very probably the girth-increase was permanently 
checked by the low temperatures of 1880, as in the previous year 
it increased 40 and in 1878-50, almost as much as in the following 
eighteen years. In some years it produces an abundance of 
fruit, which, however. never reaches anything like maturity. The 
