SECTION XIV. 



Note I. Page 834. 



The Maple, in the Linnfean system, is of the class and order Polygamia 

 Monoecia ; and the Sycamore or greater Maple is thus described by 

 botanists — Acer Psuedo-Platamis,foliis quinquelohis inmqualiter serratis, 

 racemis pendulis, florihus aecemosis, — See Lin. Sp. Plant, 1495. Smith 

 Flor. Britan. t. i. p. 422. Sir James E. Smith calls it vix indigena. 

 It has two varieties, now first noticed — the early and the late — of which 

 the chief characteristics are, that the former comes out from a fortnight 

 to three weeks before the latter. 



Note II. Page 885. 



Mr Pontey says that the Sycamore " will thrive in a considerable 

 degree of wet." This, I apprehend, is erroneous ; because, if what is 

 stated in the text, that " a light and porous subsoil is necessary to its 

 vigorous growth," be true, (which I conceive it to be,) it follows that it 

 will not thrive in wet ; because all situations must be dry of which the 

 subsoil is light and porous. This may be assumed as a correct theory : 

 and wherever there are appearances to the contrary, the inexperienced 

 planter may rely upon it that there is some deception, as there can be 

 no effect without a corresponding cause. 



To the universality of this rule I thought I had, some years since, 

 found a remarkable exception in some old Sycamores at this place, 

 which are from three to four feet in diameter. Their age happens to 

 stand on record, and is traced as far back as the battle of Langside, 

 which took place in 1568, when the unfortunate Queen Mary was 

 defeated by the Earl of Moray, and forced to take refuge in England. 

 In this action my then ancestor commanded a troop of the Regent's 

 horse, and, by suddenly occupying the hill of Langside, turned the 

 fortune of the day. The trees in question grow upon a rich deep loam, 

 with a stiff and retentive clay, as I had conceived, at bottom, which 

 had been frequently turned up ; so that there seemed no reason to 

 doubt the fact that here was one example, at least, of this sort of tree 



2 H 



