S13 



A famous tree of this kind in India, called Cub- 

 beer Burr, is much famed throughout Hindostan for 

 its great extent and surprising beauty. The Indian 

 armies generally encamp around it, and at stated sesi- 

 sons solemn J afmuas, or Hindoo festivals, are held there, 

 to which thousands of votaries repair from various 

 parts of the Mogul empire. It is said that seven 

 thousand men find ample room to repose under its 

 shade. But to return to our Braco spruce fir, which 

 in its growth is certainly one of the greatest curiosi- 

 ties in nature. It is planting and rearing up of it- 

 self, without the aid of human art or ingenuity, a nu- 

 merous offspring, and enfeoffing them in its native soil, to 

 perpetuate its name to all time coming. This tree is 

 well worth the proprietor's special care, with whom, I 

 am glad to see, it is a great favourite, as also of Major 

 Elliot, his son-in-law, who is a keen and skilful botanist. 

 It is well known to those by whom I have had the ho- 

 nour to be employed, that for a number of years past 

 I have recommended the layering down of spruce 

 firs horizontally on their sides, particularly along the 

 sides of private family walks, which makes a most 

 beautiful screen, and shelter alike from the summer's 

 sun and winter's storm, and withal a most excellent 

 ornamental and impenetrable fence against cattle at 

 all seasons. Although this was by many (like my 

 layering of the oak) laughed at as nonsensical and 

 chimerical at first, there are now stubborn proofs of the 

 facts on several estates. Let all who doubt it go toRic- 

 carton and Braco, and they will there see proofs of it 

 without the possibility of a doubt. Nature herself^ as if 

 she deemed her generating powers overlooked by the 

 slovenly woodman, seems to say, — I here give a free 

 and manifest display of what I can do to the scepti- 

 cal, and convince them that Monteath, the Forester, 



