650 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 
Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow, there is a fine tree, 15 feet in girth with an estimated 
height of 90 feet. This is supposed to be the tree referred to by Hayes,’ as being 
in 1794 the largest then living in Wicklow; but if this is the case the tree must 
have remained stationary in growth for many years. At Powerscourt there is a fine 
widespreading tree 80 feet high by 14 feet in girth. At Carton, a sycamore, 
remarkable for its small leaves, which are only half the ordinary size, measured, 
in 1903, 87 feet in height and 11 feet in girth, At Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny, 
a tree was, in 1901, 73 feet high by 11% feet in girth; and, according to the 
records kept here was 7 feet 10 inches in 1825, 8 feet 2 inches in 1830, and 8 feet 
11 inches in 1846. At Cushendun, Co. Antrim, in a situation completely exposed to 
the blasts from the sea, in the garden of Miss M‘Neil, a sycamore is 60 feet high 
by 13 feet in girth. 
On the Continent the sycamore is not so often planted as in England, but 
in Switzerland and the Austrian Alps it attains a great size. Two are figured 
in the Baum-Album der Schweiz, of which one, formerly growing at Truns in 
the Oberland at an elevation of 853 metres, close to the old chapel of St Anna, 
is interesting on account of its great age. Under this tree the Grey League, 
one of the three bodies which, when confederated in 1525, formed the canton of 
Grisons, were sworn in 1424; and though the last remnant of the veteran was 
torn up by a storm in 1870, it shows that the sycamore may attain an age 
of about 600 years. A figure of it, taken from a painting in the possession of 
M. Descurtins of Coire, is given in the work from which I quote. A young tree 
raised from its seed was planted in 1870 on the spot, and was in 1896 already over 
30 feet high and 4 feet 4 inches in girth. 
By the kindness of M. Coaz, Director of the Swiss Government Forests, I am 
able to reproduce a beautiful photograph (Plate 183) of an even finer tree, now 
standing on the land of the commune of Kerns, in Melchthal, canton of Unter- 
walden, at an elevation of 1350 metres, in deep loamy soil, on a formation described 
as calcatre schrattigue. This immense tree measures 12.20 metres in circumference 
above the point where its trunk expands, and at 5 feet from the ground 8.85 
metres, equal to about 29 feet, thus exceeding any tree of which we have a 
record in this country. At 12 feet from the ground a branch about 9 feet in girth 
is given off. The height is not stated, but the branches spread to a diameter 
of about 25 yards, and though the trunk is hollow and covered in places with a 
moss (Leucodon sctarotdes), the tree still bears fruit. Its aspect reminds me strongly 
of many sycamores which grow on the Alps of the Vorarlberg in Austria, and 
especially of one, from the cover of whose trunk I shot my last chamois, a cunning 
old buck, which for four seasons I had hunted in vain. 
TIMBER 
The wood of the sycamore is of a white colour, close grain, and moderately 
hard; and when of large size is one of the most valuable woods we have, as it has 
been found the most suitable for making the large rollers, technically called 
1 Practical Essay on Planting, 121 (1794). 2 Published by Schmid, Francke & Co., Bern, 1896. 
