142 



SYLVA SCOTICA. 



THE FIR IN DUNMORE WOOD, 



Stirlingshire, the property of the Earl of Dunmore, 

 perhaps the largest in the Lowlands of Scotland, is 

 fully as remarkable for its beauty as for its magni- 

 tude ; affording a very pleasing specimen of the cha- 

 racteristic form of its species. It is sixty-seven feet 

 in height ; eleven feet three inches in girth at the 

 ground, and ten feet three inches at seventeen feet 

 from it. The quantity of solid timber which it con- 

 tains is two hundred and sixty-one feet, leaving out 

 of the measurement all branches below six inches in 

 diameter : its age is not known, though that of the 

 Fir in general may be ascertained by the grain of the 

 wood, which appears distinctly in circles, annually 

 formed from the centre to the fork. " Upon cutting 

 a tree close to the root," says Mr. Farquarson, of 

 Marlee, in a letter to Dr. Hunter of York, " I can 

 venture to point out the exact age, which in these 

 old Firs comes to an amazing number of years. I 

 lately pitched upon a tree of two feet and a half 

 diameter, which is near the size of a planted Fir of 

 fifty years of age ; and I counted exactly two hun- 

 dred and fourteen circles or coats, which makes this 

 natural Fir above four times the age of the planted 

 one." 



Notwithstanding the remarks that have been made 



