To Face Supplementary Plate No. 370. 



LABURNUM ALPINUM 



The finest specimen, that I have seen or heard of, grows at Countesswells near 

 Aberdeen, the seat of Sydney J. Gammell, Esq., to whom I am indebted for the 

 photograph taken by him on 30th June 191 2, when the flowers were a Httle past their 

 prime. The age of this tree is uncertain, but probably coeval with the oldest part 

 of the house, built about 1700. Though several large limbs have fallen outwards, 

 and the main trunk, which is split into three portions at the base, has been cut off at 

 about ten feet from the ground ; yet the vitality of the tree is so great, and the old 

 wood so resistant to decay, that the tree is covered with young branches ; and in some 

 seasons the racemes of flower are so thickly set that the leaves can hardly be seen. 

 The height of the tree is about 30 ft. ; the girth of the largest part of the trunk is 

 7 ft., and of the split trunk at the ground 10 ft. The spread of the branches covers 

 an area 153 ft. round. The fertile granite soil of the district, where I saw many 

 laburnums of large size, seems specially favourable to this species. A tree, self- 

 sown, at the foot of a cherry at Balcraig farm, near Aboyne, was over 30 ft. high 

 and almost without branches for 20 ft. Mr. H. B. Watt tells us of a fine tree in 

 the grounds of Dr. R. Farquharson at Finzean, Aberdeenshire, which measured on 

 27th June 1912, when it was in full flower, about 25 ft. in height and 5 ft. 10 in. in 

 girth at three feet from the ground. Here the altitude is 550 feet ; but Mr. Watt sent 

 us specimens in flower of both species from Braemar at 1 100 to 1 200 feet. The alpine 

 laburnum seems to grow and flower in shade better than the common laburnum. 



