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2,6 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland able beeches are mentioned, of which one at Edenbarnet in the parish of Old Kilpatrick, Dumbartonshire, is said to be 140 feet high ; but the measurements of many of the trees in this compilation are so unreliable that I cannot believe them without confirmation. J. Kay, in Scottish Arb. Soc. Transactions, ix. p. 75, mentions a tree in the Beech Walk at Mount Stuart in Bute, which in 1881 was 120 feet by u feet 9 inches, with a clean bole 60 feet high, and contained 450 feet of timber. In Ireland the beech is probably not a native tree. According to Hayes 1 it was first introduced at Shelton, near Arklow, where, in 1794, there were beech trees as much as 15 feet in girth, and many carrying a girth of 10 feet for more than 40 feet high. Another growing at Tiny Park was 16 feet 3 inches in girth, and continued nearly of that girth for 36 feet. Hayes also mentions, as an instance of the rapid growth of the beech in Ireland, " several at Avondale, which were trans planted within thirty years on a swelling ground at that time much exposed to storm, are now (1793) from 7 feet 6 inches to 6 feet 6 inches at a foot from the ground, and continue nearly of that size from 8 to 20 feet in height. Of two which were planted in a richer soil near the river, and are now (1793) just fifty-four years from the mast, one measures 9 feet round, the other 9 feet 6 inches." The finest beeches in Ireland, probably, are those occurring at Woodstock (Co. Kilkenny), the seat of E. K. B. Tighe, Esq. a property which is remarkable all round for magnificent trees of many kinds, and which is in the possession of a family that for generations has been deeply interested in forestry and arboriculture. The measurements of many trees have been taken periodically for nearly a century. The best beeches on this beautiful property occur in the meadow land by the River Nore, close to the village of Inistioge. The following table gives an interesting series of measurements of these beeches : N~ A3 C7 Eg B5 BU B., Bu B8 1825. ft. in. 10 9 ... ... 12 I II IO ii 4 II O ii 9 . . . 1830. ft. in. II I ... ... 12 IO 12 3 II II ii 6 ... 1834. ft. in. ii 6 ... ... 14 4 13 8 12 10 12 7 12 9 9 S GIRTH. 1846. ft. in. 12 6 12 7 12 5 IS 4 14 10 i3 8 13 8 14 o 10 I 1901. ft. in. 20 6 '7 3 14 o 18 9 17 9 IS 8 16 6 16 7 12 3 1904. ft. in. 20 7 i? 9 ... 18 10 ... 16 4 ... ... . . . 1901. Si 97 9i "3 1 08 112 106 I2O IOO HEIGHT. The measurements up to 1901 are from the foresters' records ; those of 1904 were taken by Henry. The beech A3 has a great bole, dividing into three limbs at 18 feet up, and is a very wide-spreading tree. C7 is pressed on each side by two lime trees, and is narrow in shape. The most remarkable of all is B 5, which is probably the tallest beech in Ireland. 1 Ilayes, A Practical Treatise on Planting ( 1794), pp. 109, 118. 1904. 86 99 ... "7 ... 109 ... ... . . . Fagus 2,7 As showing the rale of growth of the beech in Co. Galway, a beech measured by Lord Clonbrock at Clonbrock was n feet 3 inches in girth in 1871, and 15 feet in 1903. A beech hedge at Kilruddery, Co. Wicklow, the seat of Lord Meath, said to be 300 years old, was measured by Henry in 1904, when it was 18 feet through and 29 feet high. It is clipped regularly, and forms a dense, impenetrable mass. BEECH Coccus We are indebted to Mr. R. Newstead of the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, for particulars of the coccus which in some seasons, and in certain parts of England, has been of late years very injurious to the beech. A fuller account of this insect has been written by him in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. 1 900, vol. xxiii. p. 249, and in a leaflet recently published by the Board of Agriculture. From this we take the following precis : The trunks and, less frequently, the main branches of good-sized beech trees are often covered, to a greater or less extent, with irregular spots of a white cottony substance. The latter is really the covering of white felted wax fibres secreted by the felted beech coccus (Cryptococcus fagi, Barensprung), a minute, hemispherical, lemon-yellow insect, about one twenty-fifth of an inch long, without legs, but fur nished on the underside with a well-developed beak, which it buries in the bark for the purpose of sucking up the juices of the tree. When once a tree is attacked the number of individuals of the pest becomes in time so great that it is doubtful whether a badly-infected tree ever recovers unless active measures be taken against the insect. The waxy covering of the latter is sufficient to protect it against the effects of any of the insecticides usually applied by spraying, and its habit of preferring the deepest part of the fissures in the bark makes it difficult to remove with certainty. The only remedy at all likely to succeed is that of thoroughly scrubbing the bark with a stiff brush and soap and water, the latter mixed in the proportion of half a pound of soft soap to each gallon of water ; and the success of this treatment depends for the most part on the amount of care taken to dislodge the insects by means of the brush. TIMBER The timber of the beech is not valued so highly in England as abroad, where it is considered as the best fuel in general use, and is little used in carpentry or building, as it is hard, brittle, and liable to be attacked by beetles. It weighs when green about 65 Ibs. to the cube foot, when dry about 50. Its durability is said to be increased by seasoning it in water, and it is more durable when entirely under water than most timbers, being highly recommended by Matthews and Laslett for planking the sides and bottoms of ships. In France it is used, when creosoted, for railway sleepers, but requires more than twice as much creosote to preserve it as oak does, and is not used in England, so far as I know, for this purpose. It is also used for tool handles, rollers, butchers' blocks, brush heads, planes, and general turnery, but decays rapidly when exposed to the weather.
28 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland The principal centres for beechwood furniture in England are at High Wycombe, and Newport Pagnell in Bucks, and the price of clean trunks in these districts is from is. to is. 6d. per cube foot standing, according to the situation. Beechwood is also used largely for making saddle-trees, and in consequence of the great demand for these during the South African war, went up to a very high price in 1901, when I was offered is. 4d. a foot standing for beech trees which in ordinary times would not be worth more than 8d. or gd. a foot. Being easy to split it is, where there is a demand for firewood, easier to dispose of the branches and rough parts of the tree for this purpose, but the amount of waste is much greater in the beech than in some other trees, unless grown in thick woods. For more minute particulars of the characters and uses of this timber, Stone's Timbers of Commerce, p. 231, and Loudon, pp. 1959-64, may be consulted with advantage. (H. J. E.) AILANTHUS Ailanthus, Desfontaines, Mem. Acad. Paris, 1 786 (1789), 263, t. 8 ; Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PI. i . 309 (1862); Prain, Indian Forester, xxviii. 131, Plates i. ii. iii. (1902). LOFTY trees with very large alternate imparipinnate leaves. Flowers small, polygamous, bracteolate, in panicles. Calyx 5-toothed, imbricate. Petals 5, valvate, disk lolobed. Stamens 10 in the staminate flowers, 2-3 in the hermaphrodite flowers, and absent in the pistillate flowers. Ovary present in pistillate and hermaphrodite flowers, rudimentary in staminate flowers, deeply 2-5 cleft with connate styles: ovules i in each cell. Fruit of 1-5 samaras, with large mem branous wings, each samara containing i seed. Ailanthus belongs to the Natural order Simarubese, and consists of about eleven species occurring in India, Indo-China, China, Java, Moluccas, and Queensland. Most of the species are tropical trees, Ailanthus glandulosa being until lately the only species which was known to occur in temperate regions; but A ilanthus Vilmoriana, Dode, 1 must be here mentioned. This is a tree remarkable for its prickly branchlets, of which only one specimen is known, namely, a young, healthy, vigorous tree grown in M. de Vilmorin's garden at Les Barres. 2 It was raised from seed sent by Pere Farges in 1897 from the mountains of Szechuan in Central China; 3 and is certainly a very distinct species. I saw it in the summer of 1904, and in general aspect there is little to distinguish it from the common species. It is now about 20 feet in height. The leaflets in this species are less abruptly acuminate, not falcate, much duller above and paler beneath, with larger glands than in Ailanthus glandulosa. All the parts of the tree are much more pubescent than in that species. Ailanthusgrandis* Prain, a new species from Sikkim and Assam, which attains 120 feet high, may be here mentioned, as it is possible that it might be grown in Cornwall or in Kerry. It has not yet been introduced. 1 Revue Horlicole, 1 904, p. 445, fig. 184. 2 Figured in Fruticetum Vilmoriniamtm, 1 904, p. 31 ; where it is called Ailanthus glandulosa, var. spinosa. 3 Mr. E. II. Wilson informs us thai it is very common in the valleys of the Min, Tung, and Fou rivers, between 2000 and 4500 feet. He says that it is much more spiny in the young than in the adult state, and that it has much larger foliage than the common species. A plant is now growing at Kc\v, and is referred to by Mr. Bean in Gardeners' Chronicle, xxxviii. 276(1905). 1 Indian Forester, xxviii. 131, Plate i. (1902).
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Page 29 and 30: SOPHORA Sophora, Linnaeus, Gen. PI.
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132, The Trees of Great Britain and
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2OO The Trees of Great Britain and
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a 7" KSrJi «£^«~ **». . "" ^ '"
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INARCHED BP;ECH AT ASIIRIDGE TLATE
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13KECII WOOD AT SLINHON A ru 6.
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BEECH AT NEWBATTLE Pi .ATE 8.
Page 121 and 122:
I BEECH AT GORDON CASTLE TLAI-K 10.
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KING BEECH AT KNOLE I'LAIE 12.
Page 125 and 126:
AILANTHUS AT BELTON PLATE 14.
Page 127 and 128:
SOI'HORA AT CAMBRIDGE PLATE 16.
Page 129 and 130:
ARAUCARIA FOREST IN CM ILK I'l.MT.
Page 131 and 132:
ARAUCARIAS AT BEAUFORT
Page 133 and 134:
MAIDENHAIR T liEK AT FKOGMOKF. PLAT
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TULIP TREE IN NORTH CAROLINA 1'LATE
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TULIP TREE AT KILLERTON PLATE 26.
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PLATE SERVIAN SPRUCE IN BOSNIA 28.
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MENZIES' SPRUCE AT BEAUFORT PLATE 3
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YEW AVENUE AT MIDIIURST PLATE 32.
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i '*m i t /n b &; y'JM i /Jk, - •
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•• *-' YEW AT WHITTIKGHAME PLAT
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CRYPTOMERIA FOREST IN NORTH JAPAN 1
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CRYPTOMEKIAS AT IMAICHI I'l.ATE 40.
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CRYPTOMERIA AT HEMSTED PLATK 42.
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PYRUS. PLATE 44.
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SORB TREE AT ARLEV PLATE 46.
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SERVICE TREE AT RICKMANSWORTH >.mmm
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'^iji^m^^Jt^.^M. SERVICE TREE AT SY
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS IN VIRGINIA PLATE
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS AT SYON Tr.ATE 54
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GIANT THUYA IN VANCOUVER'S ISLAND P
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Plate 58 represents the trunk of wh
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j« WESTERN HEMLOCK GROWING ON FALL
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