106 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. 



PART I. 



are frequently dug up from bogs. Mr. Mackay has sent us an 

 account received by him from Mr. Charles Hamilton, Honorary 

 Secretary to the Horticultural Society of Ireland, of one dug 

 up in Queen's County, the rings of annual increase of which 

 indicated a growth of 545 years. The greatest diameter of 

 the trunk of this tree was only 19 in. ! The growth appeared 

 to be very slow during the last 300 years, for near the cir- 

 cumference there were about 100 rings within the space of 

 an inch. The root and bark were quite sound, and the stem 

 from which the section was taken was about 12 ft. long, and 

 of tolerably even thickness throughout. Mr. Mackay says that 

 he saw a yew tree in the Island of Innisfallen, on the lower 

 lake of Killarney, which must have been as old as that men- 

 tioned by Mr. Hamilton ; and which, when he measured it about 

 thirty years ago, was nearly double the dimensions. If the Irish 

 yew be a distinct species, Ireland may claim this fine tree as her 

 own. Our own opinion is, that this yew is nothing more than 

 a variety of the common species. The largest specimens of this 

 tree, the Taxus hibernica of Mackay, are in a garden at the 

 village of Cumber, near Belfast: they are about 25 ft. in height, 

 and have, at a distance, the appearance of cypresses. They 

 are supposed to have been planted about 50 years, but their 

 history is unknown. 



From information procured for us through the kindness of 

 of Lord Viscount Ferrard, we find that there is an upright or | 

 Irish yew in a garden at Mayland, near Antrim, 130 years old, 

 25 ft. high ; the diameter of the space covered by the branches, 

 10 ft. ; and the diameter of the trunk close to the ground, 3 ft. 

 This tree, and three others in the town, are supposed to have 

 been planted by the Refords, when they first settled in Mayland 

 in 1712. " An upright yew, probably the parent of the above 

 trees, and of all others in this country, grew in Mr. Ferguson's 

 garden. It was cut down about 1 6 or 1 7 years ago, by the late Mr. 

 Ledlie; and his son, now in Antrim, has several pieces of furni- 

 ture which were made from it. In the panel 1 ft. broad, of one 

 of these a wardrobe, I can count about 100 annual concentric 

 layers, and as the tree, it is said, was 2 ft. in diameter, this would 

 give 200 years, and 40 or 50 years more might probaby be added 

 for the time when scarcely any enlargement took place." — 

 L. F. Antrim Castle, March 24. 1835. 



If the arbutus be not indigenous to Ireland, it is at least 

 completely naturalised there, being found, as the yew is in 

 .England, in places completely inaccessible to a planter, and 

 where the seeds must have been carried by birds. One of the 

 largest specimens stood in Rough Island, on the lower lake of 

 Killarney, in 1805 ; it was measured in that year by Mr. Mackay, 

 and the trunk found, at a foot from the ground, to be 9J ft. in 



