Damage to Trees canted by Frosts of 1879-80. 171 



Whitadder and Blaekadder at many points dead and decaying' 

 Oaks are to be seen, as at North. Blaekadder approach, Allanton 

 Bridge, Broadhaugh, Huttonhall Barns Road, Swinton house 

 park on the Leet, Fish wick Mains near the Tweed, and other 

 localities. In similar situations in Roxburghshire, on the Teviot 

 precisely the same destruction was observed, the wave of cold 

 seeming to have passed over the southern borders, almost in a 

 circumscribed belt. The intensity of the cold, 18° below Zero, at 

 Ormiston on the Teviot, more closely resembled the temperatures 

 at Blaekadder, than anywhere else in Scotland. An Oak at the 

 entrance there, was killed into the ground, leaving a bared 

 skeleton, so that even the first summer afterwards (1880) large 

 pieces of bark were lying on the ground. The Oak we are in 

 the habit of looking upon as the hardiest of our forest trees. 

 Our opinions of its hardness are now somewhat modified after 

 seeing it for two years' subjection to arctic cold. Other tiers 

 however suffered considerable injury besides the Oaks. Elms, 

 Ashes, Spanish Chestnuts, Yews, Laburnums, and even the 

 Birch did not escape. I counted twenty-two Laburnum trees 

 dead from frost at Allanton Bridge, Birches at Chirnside Bridge, 

 Yews and very large Hollies at "Whitehall, Chirnside. No record 

 as far as can be made out, of any similar injury to trees from 

 frost can be obtained, so that we may reasonably conclude that 

 no frost of similar intensity has visited our district for throe 

 hundred years at least. There were veiy few trees in Berwick- 

 shire previous to that date ; the country from Cheviot to Lam- 

 mermoor being mostly in a wild state, with many swamps and 

 morasses covered or fringed with Alder and Hazel scrub. 

 Drainage has changed the face of the country entirely. Now all 

 that can be seen of the former state of things are deep casts in 

 the hollows, running east and west, marginod in many places by 

 huge willows, which give a picturesque appearance to the land- 

 scape. "Where these morasses were extensive, an at Billie Mire, 

 in Chirnside Parish, the Hazel and Alder seemed to have been 

 (juite common. A few years ago, when the cast was deepened, 

 many shells of hazel nuts and seed vessels of the Alder were 

 exposed in the peaty soil, and thrown to the surface. The Oaks 

 seem to be more susceptible to the influences of severe frost 

 several degrees below Zero, than any of our forest trees. A 

 record of the dead and dying specimens would be useful in future 

 years for comparison, should we over again have the misfortune 

 of being visited with the low temperature)* of 1879*81. 



