Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol01.djvu/52

24 these branches is about 400 feet. Detailed measurements by Mr. Ramsay are given below. Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, N.B. Measurement of the great beech tree, August 25, 1903, by Mr. John Ramsay.

Girth in feet, inches, etc., of trunk—

The ground measurement was taken by allowing the tape to lie on the roots as near to the uprising of the buttresses as possible, and is necessarily vague. The measurement at 6 feet up is the most correct, being taken on a line marked at intervals all round with white paint for future comparison.

Circumference of foliage fully 400 feet; diameter of foliage averages 130 to 140 feet; height, 112 feet.

The following are a few of the branches with the girth of them, and the girth of the branches springing up from the main branches rooted in the ground:—

No. 1.—Branch girth, 1 foot 10 inches, with two branches growing up from it; girth of both these new branches, 4 feet 5 inches each.

No. 2.—Branch girth, 1 foot 8 inches, having three branches springing up from it, one 5 feet 5 inches, one 5 feet 1 inch, one 23 inches by 1 foot 11 inches in girth.

No. 3.—Branch girth, 12½ inches, having three branches springing up from it, one 4 feet 7½ inches, one 24½ inches, one 4 feet 4 inches in girth.

No. 4.—Branch girth, 12 inches, with two branches springing up from it, one 2 feet 8½ inches, one 12 inches in girth.

No. 5.—Branch girth, 1 foot 7 inches, with three branches springing up from it, one 2 feet 4½ inches, one 12 inches, one 18 inches in girth.

No. 6.—Branch girth, 2 feet 4 inches, with five branches springing up from it, one 4 feet 4 inches, one 3 feet 8 inches, one 4 feet, one 3 feet 4 inches, one I foot 11 inches in girth.

A similar instance of self-layering, perfectly natural, was to be seen in the Kew Gardens, where a very fine beech, though by no means such a giant as the Newbattle tree, was surrounded by a fence in order to protect it. This tree, however, having become seriously decayed, had its main stem cut down in 1904.

Among the best specimens I have seen in Scotland are those at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, the seat of the Marquess of Linlithgow, where I measured a tree 110 feet high, with a clean bole of about 50 feet, and a girth of 12 feet. At Blair Drummond, near Perth, the seat of H.S. Home Drummond, Esq., Henry measured one of 117 feet high by 16 feet 6 inches in girth, and at Methven Castle, the seat of Colonel Smythe, another which is 120 feet high by 17 feet 2 inches in girth. This tree divides into three stems at about 20 feet, and is the tallest of which we have any certain record in Scotland. At Gordon Castle is a very fine beech with spreading roots (Plate 10) measuring 95 feet by 15 feet 8 inches. At Castle Menzies, Perthshire, the property of Sir Neil Menzies, is a very fine beech, which is described by Hunter as a vegetable "Siamese Twins." Whether originally two trees or one is difficult to say, but it seemed to me to be from a single root which had forked a little above the ground and then grown together again, leaving an opening through which Hunter says an ordinary sized person might pass, but which in 1904 was smaller. At Inverary Castle is another example of an inosculated beech, known as the Marriage Tree, which, from a photograph published by Valentine, does not seem to be so striking as the one at Castle Menzies.