71-4? Queries and Ans*wers. 



Ceiiain Trees in the Park at Blair Drummond, near Stirling. — Some of the 

 trees at Blair Drummond are of large dimensions ; their branches sweeping 

 the ground ; and, what is remarkable, they are never eaten by horses, sheep, 

 or cattle. Can you inform me what species these trees are likely to be ? The 

 guide who showed me through the grounds said they were some kind of beech 

 from America. — J. Wilson. Greenhithe, Kent, Oct. 2. 1836. 



The beech is certainly not so readily eaten by horses or cattle as some other 

 trees, and the hornbeam still less than the beech. However, we have written 

 to Blair Drummond on the subject, and also to other places where we know 

 the beech and the hornbeam abound. In the mean time we shall be glad if 

 any of our readers, who are in possession of any facts as to trees suitable for 

 park scenery, the leaves and branches of which are not liable to be eaten by 

 cattle, will favour us with their experience on the subject. — Cond. 



Malformations of Pears. — Having two jargonelle pear trees in my garden at 

 Hoxton, which this year have borne several curious pears, I should feel obliged 

 by being informed whether or not the case is uncommon, and how it is 

 accounted for. — Frederick Lush. Hoxton, Sept. 1836. 



The circumstance of malformations of pears occurring in very wet seasons 

 is by no means uncommon ; and several examples have been noticed in the 

 previous volumes of this Magazine. 

 Fig. 1 1 1. is a specimen of one which 

 we gathered in 1828, in a garden near 

 "Woking. (See Vol. IV. p. 263.) To 

 enable our correspondent to account 

 far this Insics naturce, or vegetable 

 metamorphosis, we recommend him 

 to consult Dr. Lindley's Introduc- 

 tion to Botany, 2d edit. 1 vol. 8vo, 

 1835; or it will be a good exercise 

 for any of our young correspondents, 

 who may be studying vegetable phy- 

 siology, to write a short article on 

 the subject. The materials they 

 will find in the various elementary 

 works of Dr. Lindley. 



Johnson^ s Willow, (p. 310.) — Mr. Grigor, in his Notices of Gardens, 

 remarkable Trees, S^c, in the Environs of Lichfield, Staffordshire, alludes to a 

 large and celebrated willow tree, which formerly stood near that city, and 

 which was called " Johnson's Willow,'* " famous on account of its having 

 been planted by Dr. Samuel Johnson." Now, that this tree was really 

 planted by the doctor seems a matter of some doubt; for, in the Gentleman^s 

 Magazine for July, 1783 (seven months after the death of Dr. Johnson), 

 there is a particular account of this willow tree, wherein it is stated that it 

 had been generally supposed to have been planted by Dr. Samuel Johnson's 

 father, but that the doctor never would admit the fact. It appears, however, 

 to have been a favourite tree of the doctor's, and to have attracted his 

 attention for many years : indeed, to use his own expression, it was the 

 delight of his early and waning life ; and it is said that he never failed to visit 

 it whenever be went to Lichfield ; and, during his visit to that city, in the 

 year 1781, he desired Dr. Trevor Jones, a physician of that place, to give him 

 an account of it, saying it was by much the largest tree of the kind he had 

 ever seen or heard of, and therefore wished to give an account of it in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, that its size might be recorded. Dr. Jones, in 

 compliance with his request, furnished him with the particular dimensions of 

 it, which were as follows : — 



The trunk rose to the height of 12 ft. S^Tg-in,, and then divided into 13 large 

 ascending branches, which, in very numerous and crowded subdivisions, spread 

 at the top in a circular form, not unlike the appearance of a shady oak, in lining 



