Pinus Sylvestris 591 
altitude of 1500 to 1700 feet. This is approximately the level at which they die out 
in Abernethy, Rothiemurchus, Glen Feshie, Glenavon, Invercauld, Birse, and Glen 
Tanar.” When stalking on Ben Avon I saw with the telescope some pines in the 
upper part of Glen Derry which I supposed to be at an elevation of about 2000 feet, 
and Mr. Michie, who has seen these trees, thinks that this estimate is not far from 
the mark. (H. J. E.) 
In Ireland the common pine grows with great vigour and beauty, the bark 
becoming bright red in colour and the leaves very glaucous. The tallest trees, 
which I have seen, are at Curraghmore, the seat of the Marquess of Waterford, 
where, near a stream, I measured one 110 feet high and 7 feet in girth; some, 
but difficult to measure accurately on account of their position in a dense wood, 
were probably 120 to 125 feet in height, the largest of these having a girth of 
9 feet. 
At Doneraile Court, Co. Cork, there are some fine pines, growing scattered in 
an oak wood, the largest of which I made 97 feet by 114 feet, with a clean stem 
to 50 feet. These trees are supposed by local tradition to be of native origin, 
and are called Irish pines; but they have evidently been planted, and there is no 
means of determining whether they originated from seed collected in Kerry from 
aboriginal pines still existing there in the 18th century, or, as is more probable, from 
Scotch seed, as they are probably about the same age as the famous larches at this 
place, which are reputed to have been sent to Doneraile by the Duke of Atholl. 
At Emo Park, Portarlington, there are many fine trees, the largest seen 
measuring 91 feet by 74 feet and 88 feet by 9 feet 1 inch. There is also a splendid 
tree, growing near the gate of Mr. Walpole’s beautiful garden at Mount Usher, on 
the Rossanagh property, which is 11 feet 9 inches in girth, and probably 80 feet in 
height. At Castledawson, Co. Derry, an old tree measures 80 feet in height by 11 
feet 4 inches in girth, There are many fine trees scattered through Coollattin in 
Wicklow. These grow on moist boggy soil; and I measured two clean of branches 
to 60 feet, which were 87 feet in height, and 9 feet 5 inches and 8 feet 1 inch 
respectively in girth. 
At Luttrelstown, near Dublin, Hayes! measured a “ Scots fir, eighty-five years’ 
growth from the seed, of 11 feet 6 inches in circumference, and another of very great 
height 11 feet 10 inches round.” He gives several other instances of the rapid 
growth of the tree in Ireland.’ 
Mr. T. W. Webber, late Deputy Conservator of Forests in India, in the appen- 
dix to his book on, the Forests of Upper India, gives an interesting account of the 
growth of Scots pine in Ireland, the planting of which he strongly advocates. To the 
objection that home-grown timber is of inferior quality, he replies that the wood of 
Pinus sylvestris found in bogs in Ireland is often of great length and thickness, 
sound, fine-grained, solid and straight, and so excellent that it has been used by 
coach-builders as superior to Memel timber. Where such timber grew ages ago, 
1 Practical Essay on Planting, 133, 167 (1794). 
2 At Powerscourt an immense Scots pine was blown down by the great gale of February 1903, which I saw on the 
ground soon afterwards and which measured about 12 feet in girth, Some boards cut from the tree were kindly sent me by 
the late Lord Powerscourt, which show its growth to have been very rapid.’ (H. J. E.) 
