76 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION. -1835. 
thick and sound as any of those that were near it, though it must 
apparently have been formed wholly by the liber. 
Notice of a Yew found in a Bog in Queens County. By Charles 
William Hamilton, Honorary Secretary of the Horticultural 
Society of Ireland. ( Communicated hy Mr. Mack ay.) 
In this tree Mr. Hamilton was able to count annual rings or layers 
indicating a growth of 545 years. Yet so compact was the wood, or 
so close the layers, that the diameter of the trunk did not exceed a 
foot and a half, or its circumference three feet and a half. The 
growth had been very slow during the last three centuries, for near 
the exterior there were about 100 rings within the space of one 
inch. 
Many years ago Mr. Mackay measured a yew tree, growing on 
the island of Innisfallen on the Lower Lake of Killarney, of nearly 
double the dimensions of the one described by Mr. Hamilton, or be¬ 
tween six and seven feet in circumference. 
Notice of the Yew at Mucruss. By Dr. Litton. 
Dr. Litton had tried the age of the celebrated yew tree at Mu- 
crass by Decandolle’s test, and found that the result nearly agreed 
with the tradition. He exhibited a specimen of an oak tree bearing 
the impress of letters on the inner concave surface. 
Mr. Saunderson noticed a passage in an old Scotch history, 
wdiich stated that the northern part of Ireland was so much infested 
by yew trees that a great emigration of Irish took place in conse¬ 
quence, who, with their families and cattle, went over to settle them¬ 
selves in Scotland, the yew trees every year destroying their cattle 
in Ireland. 
On Bog Timber. By the Rev. Archdeacon Vignoles. 
The bogs of Westmeath are numerous, covering a considerable 
extent of the county. They almost invariably present the same 
natural appearance, only some are much more thickly imbedded 
with bog timber than others. In some of them there are three 
layers of trees to be found; and alternating with them as many 
layers of peat from three to five feet in depth. The trees in each 
layer appear to have arrived at maturity, and could not have been 
coexistent. The specimen of bark exhibited was taken from a tree 
56 feet long; squaring from 2 feet to 18 inches: it lay upon a 
heathy bed ; consequently where it fell the surface was heath. It 
was charred from top to bottom. With very few exceptions, all the 
timber found in the neighbourhood bears the marks of fire. The 
roots are rarely found attached to the tree, but likewise bear evident 
traces of having been burnt. They are of enormous size. 
