90 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PARTI. 



length. There is a very old tree at Riccarton, near Edinburgh, 

 which has been described and figured by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder. 

 The trunk is much injured and decayed; but its boughs and 

 foliage are of luxuriant growth ; the branches hang down to the 

 ground, and, in many places, have rooted into it. The trunk is 

 27 ft. in girt at the surface of the ground, and the branches 

 cover an area of 77 ft. in diameter, \lbzd., p. 268.) 



Dr. Walker mentions (p. 213.) some sweet chestnuts which 

 he found, about 1760, in a thriving condition in the Island of 

 Inchmahona, in the Lake of Menteith, in Perthshire, where there 

 was a priory founded by King David I. Dr. Patrick Graham 

 measured some of these trees in 1813, and found the trunks to 

 be 18 ft. in circumference at 6 ft. from the ground. {Ge?ieral 

 Ii.eport of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 254.) He thinks they were then 

 300 years old, or upwards, which would carry the date of their 

 planting back to the commencement of the sixteenth century. 

 According to Dr. Walker, as before quoted (p. 34'.), the sweet 

 chestnut at Finhaven was both the largest tree of the kind in 

 Scotland, and the first tree planted there by art. " In the year 

 1760, a great part of the trunk of this remarkable tree, and \ 

 some of its branches, remained. The measures of this tree were 

 taken before two justices of the peace, in the year 1744. By 

 an attested copy of this measurement, it appeared, at that time, 

 that at half a foot above the ground, it was 42 ft. 8^ in. in 

 circumference. As this chestnut appears, from its dimensions, 

 to have been planted about 500 years ago, it may be presumed 

 to be the oldest planted tree that is extant, or that we have any 

 account of, in Scotland." {Walker's Essays, p. 29.) Sir Thomas 

 Dick Lauder states, that, " in the possession of Skene of Car- 

 riston, there is a table made of the wood of this tree, having an 

 engraved plate, on which are marked its dimensions. The castle 

 of Finhaven was an ancient seat of the Earls of Crawford." 

 {Lauder''s Gilpin, vol. i. p. 269.) 



To the research of Dr. Walker we are indebted for the fol- 

 lowing list of trees in Scotland, with the name of the places 

 where they were introduced : — 



1664. Tilia europae^ lime. Taymouth. 



1678. iSalix alba, white willow. Prestonfield. 



1682. A^h'xes Picea and excelsa, silver and pitch fir. Inverary. 



Jtcer, maple. Inverary. 

 1690. Juglans regia, walnut. Kinross. 

 1692. Carpinus jBetulus, hornbeam. Drumlanerig. 



1695. Cerasus lusitanica, the Portugal laurel. Inverary. 



{Gard. Mag., vol. ii. p. 178.) 



1696. Populus nigra, black poplar. Hamilton. 

 1705. Cytisus alpinus, alpine laburnum. Panmure. 



1 709. ^'^^'sculus Flippocastanum, horsechestnut. New Posso. 



