OAKS SUITED FOR SCOTLAND. 187 



cause of the results in question, may be refuted at 

 the expense of a very few sentences. Oak trees, 

 though they have become scarce in Scotland, are 

 not yet entirely awanting. In every county, a few 

 tolerable specimens are to be found ; in some in- 

 stances we even meet with very fine ones. Now, 

 though those who impute the fault to the soil, 

 evade any argument hence derived, by pretending 

 that these instances occur in a quality of land 

 which has no parallel in any that now remains to 

 be planted, those who impute it to the climate can- 

 not, with any degree of consistency, advance a simi- 

 lar plea. The soil is known to change almost with 

 every change of place. In one part of the same 

 field it may consist of clay, in another of loam, and 

 in a third of gravel. But this cannot be said of cli- 

 mate, which, in as far as regards heat and cold ; 

 the circumstances that principally affect the growth 

 of plants, is the same, or nearly so, through the 

 whole kingdom. In summer, the thermometer 

 rises as high in Morayshire as in the Lothians, and 

 in winter indicates as great intensity of cold on the 

 banks of the Forth as on those of the Spey. If, 

 then, the climate is capable of bringing oaks to per- 

 fection at Dunkeld or Breadalbane, in Perthshire, 

 at Glammis, in Angusshire, and at Invercauld, or 



