356 
OBSERVATIONS ON 
and push them off: in the autumn the beech en leaves turn 
of a deep chestnut colour. Tall beeches cast their leaves 
about the end of October. 
SIZE AND GEOWTH. 
Mr. Marsham, of Stratton, near Norwich, informs me by 
letter thus : — I became a planter early ; so that an oak 
which I planted in 1720 is become now, at one foot from 
the earth, twelve feet six inches in circumference, and at 
fourteen feet fthe half of the timber length) is eight feet 
two inches. So if the bark was to be measured as timber, the 
tree gives one hundred and sixteen and a half feet, buyer^s 
measure. Perhaps you never heard of a larger oak while 
the planter was living. I flatter myself that I increased 
the growth by washing the stem, and digging a circle as 
far as I supposed the roots to extend, and by spreading 
sawdust, &c., as related in the 'Philosophical Transactions.^ 
I wish I had begun with beeches, (my favourite trees as 
well as yours) , I might then have seen very large trees of 
my own raising. But I did not begin with beech till 1741, 
and then by seed ; so that my largest is now, at five feet 
from the ground, six feet three inches in girth, and with its 
head spreads a circle of twenty yards diameter. This 
tree was also dug round, washed, &c.^' Stratton, 24 July, 
1790/ 
The circumference of trees planted by myself, at one foot 
from the ground (1790). 
Feet. Inches. 
Oak in 
. 1730 
4 
5 
Ash 
. 1730 
4 
^ 
Great fir . 
. 1751 
5 
0 
Greatest beech . 
. 1751 
4 
0 
Elm 
. 1750 
6 
3 
Lime 
. 1756 
5 
5 
The great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr. 
^ It was at the hospitable seat of his " very worthy and ingenious 
friend, Robert Marsham," that Stillingfleet prepared his " Calendar of 
Flora for 1755," which has been already referred to. See p. 44. — Ed. 
