400 Scottish Arhoricultural Notices. 



found to contain healthy and sound red wood to very near the 

 outside. I saw a plank in the wheelwright's shop measuring 

 about 5 ft. in breadth. (Here I speak from recollection, my 

 notes having been obliterated : but I may afterwards send an ac- 

 count of its annual growth, and exact diameter, when the plank is 

 cleaned, and formed into a table, for which it is intended.) I mea- 

 sured the girt of several old trees on the lawn. A maple mea- 

 sured 14 ft. 7 in. in circumference ; and its branches covered a 

 circle, the diameter of which was 87 ft. ; height about 60 ft. A 

 lime tree measured 17 ft. Sin. in circumference at 6ft. from the 

 ground ; the diameter of the space covered by its branches being 

 78 ft. An ash measured 18 ft., and another maple 22 ft., in cir- 

 cumference, at 1 ft. from the ground. An English elm measured 

 10 ft. 5 in. in circumference; and its branches covered a circle of 

 63 ft. A sweet chestnut measured 13 ft. round, and its height 

 71 ft. An old and singularly picturesque holly, with curved and 

 pendulous branches, something similar to those of the Kincairney 

 ash, jutting out from the foot of a rock, measured 7 ft. 1 in. in 

 diameter near the ground, with a stem 12 ft. high before setting 

 off its fantastic branches : this is evidently a curious seedling 

 variety, with plain leaves, and deserves cultivation by grafting. A 

 fine hemlock spruce stands near the house : its stem girts 6 ft. 

 7 in. ; and its branches cover a diameter of 35 ft. A spindle tree 

 (£u6nymus europse^is) measures 3ft. 10 in. round the stem; 

 and its branches extend 10 ft. each way from the centre. A 

 locust tree has the appearance of extreme old age, and girts 5 ft. 

 7 in. An old tulip tree, which had for a considerable period 

 ceased to produce any young wood above 1 in. long in a season, 

 was some years since severely shattered by a storm, which com- 

 municated youthful vigour to the tree. The year following its 

 mutilation, it pushed out strong healthy shoots, and occasionally 

 it has since shown blossoms, from unfolding which it had ceased 

 long before. 



There are some large spreading yews on a bank in front of the 

 house, one of which, being lately cut down, indicated by its an- 

 nular rings an age of nearly two centuries. A very large hedge 

 of yew, and another of holly, resembling in size and shape large 

 and lengthened Scotch hay-stacks, give an air of antiquity to the 

 place. It may not be altogether imsuitable, here, to mention a 

 fact communicated by the lady, which tends to strengthen Knight's 

 theory respecting the existence of plants propagated by cuttings, 

 layers, or grafts, not extending beyond the natural life of the 

 parent. At this place there formerly stood five fine plants of the 

 Platanus orientalis, which, like all others of that species in this 

 quarter, died about twenty years since : but the lady informed 

 me that, previously to their showing any symptoms of decay, a 

 Mr. Stephens, drainer and landscape-gardener, who was em- 



