CHAP. CXIII.

CONl't'EItjE. Xa'rix.

2355

I then desired it might he cut down, but not sold. My carpenter cut itinto deals that measured 10 ft. in length, and 1 ft. 10 in. in breadth, and madeout of it a dining-table large enough for fourteen people, and two very goodbreakfast-tables. It is very little inferior in appearance to mahogany. Thesilver fir measured at 18 in. from the root, is 7 ft. 10 in. in circumference,and its height is 65 ft. The platanus, at the same distance from the root,measures 7 ft. 3 in. in circumference, and at 6 ft. above, 6 ft. 5 in. Its heightis 55 ft.” (Trans. Soc. Arts, vol. xxi. p. 102.)

The finest Larches in the neighbourhood of London are at Kenwood and Syon ; at both which places theyare upwards of 90 ft. in height; but the largest inBritain are supposed to be those at Dunkeld andMonzie, planted in 1738. The largest larch at Ken-wood is drawn up among other trees, as will be seenby the portrait of it in our last Volume; but those atSyon preserve the drooping character of the trees, aswill be seen by fig. 2259. (to a scale of 1 in. to 50 ft.),taken from one of those trees, by Mr. Le Jeune, inthe summer of 1837. The largest of the larches atDunkeld was accurately measured by Mr. Blackadder,in 1831, when the tree had been 95 years planted,and found to be 100 ft. high, the circumference of thetrunk 10 ft. 6J in. at 5 ft. from the ground, and thecubic contents 368 ft. Fig. 2260. is a portrait of thistree, to a scale of 1 in. to 50 ft. The same year (1831), Mr. Blackaddersaw the larches at Monzie ; and the tallest of these he considered to beabout 90 ft. high, and to contain about 250 cubic feet of timber. Accordingto a statement in a newspaper, the tallest of these trees is now (1837)102 ft. high ; and its branches cover a spaceof above 100 ft. in diameter. A larch cutdown at Blair, from which the coffin wasmade of that celebrated Duke of Athol whoplanted the larch so extensively at Dunkeld and Blair, measured 106 ft. in length. (SeeGard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 176.) One cutdown near the cathedral of Dunkeld , aboutthe year 1810, after it had been 60 yearsplanted, was 110 ft. high, and contained160 cubic feet of timber. At Dalguise,about 5 miles north from Dunkeld , are afew larches of the same age as those atMonzie and the large trees at Dunkeld .

The measurement of one, taken by Mr. Tyrie,forester there, on the 20th November, 1837,is: circumference, at 3 ft. from the ground,

9 ft. 11 in., and at 30 feet, 6 ft. 10 in.;height, 95 ft. The soil is a dead sand.

The oldest larches in Scotland are thoseat Dalwick, the seat of Sir John M. Nasmyth, near Peebles. (See p. 94.)There are nine larches at Dalwick, all of which were planted in 1725, by thegrandfather of the present baronet; and the most remarkable of these isa singularly picturesque tree, which had one of its principal limbs shatteredhy lightning in 1820. Of the remains of this tree, known as the Great, orCrooked, Larch , fig. 2261. is a portrait, to a scale of 1 in. to 20 ft., takenfrom a drawing kindly lent to us by Sir John Nasmyth in 1836. The height°f the tree is only between 40 ft. and 50 ft.; but the girt of the trunkabove the roots is 19 ft.; immediately under the two great limbs, 15 ft.;and about the middle, 13 ft. Fig. 2262., to a scale of 30 ft. to 1 in., is theportrait of another of the nine old larches at Dalwick, which is upwards of

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