At Coolhurst, near Horsham, Mr. C. Scrace Dickens showed me a very fine and symmetrical tree 75½ feet high by 5½ in girth, and only 8 yards in the spread of its branches.
At many places in the south-west of England trees of from 65 to 70 feet are growing of which the following are the best we have measured ourselves:—Linton Park, Kent, 70 feet by 7 feet 1 inch in 1902; Dropmore, Bucks, 68 feet by 6 feet 10 inches in 1905; Killerton, Devonshire, 68 feet by 7 feet 10 inches in 1905; Bicton, Devonshire, 70 feet by 8 feet 2 inches in 1902; Blackmoor, Hants, 60 feet by 6 feet.
In Wales a tree at Hafodunos measured 65 feet 6 inches by 9 feet 7 inches in 1904, with natural seedlings a few feet from its base on the stump of an old tree; at Welfield, near Builth, the seat of E.D. Thomas, Esq., a tree 68 feet high and 6½ feet in girth was flourishing on the Llandilo slate formation; and at Penrhyn Castle Mr. Richards showed me a well-shaped and healthy young tree about 50 feet high, one of fifty which had been transplanted when about 18 feet high, only one of which died after being moved.
In Scotland Thuya plicata flourishes in the south and west, as well as in England. At Inverary Castle a tree only 25 feet high in 1892 is now over 60. At Poltalloch there are many, of which one in 1905 was 65 feet by 7 feet 2 inches. As far north as Gordon Castle it grows well, and at most of the places from which reports were sent to the Conifer conference in 1892 it is spoken of as healthy and vigorous. At Murthly, Scone, and Castle Menzies, I have seen fine trees, but have not measured any of remarkable size.
At Monreith, Dumfriesshire, the seat of Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., who has a high opinion of this tree, a large number have been raised from seed and planted out, but are as yet too young to measure.
At Benmore, near Dunoon in Argyllshire, the property of H.J. Younger, Esq., where there are very interesting plantations of several kinds of exotic conifers made in the winter of 1878–79, Thuya, when mixed with the common larch and Douglas fir on a steep hillside at 250 to 500 feet above sea-level, is now being suppressed by these species, which grow more vigorously. However, in one part of the plantation, near Ardbeg, at only 50 feet above sea-level and in fairly good soil, the Thuya was holding its own fairly well with the Douglas, and had attained, at twenty-four years old, 50 feet in height with clean stems varying from 25 to 38 inches in girth at 5 feet from the ground. Near Kilmun, on the same property, there is now, according to the forester, about 1½ acres of Thuya, which has been planted mixed with larch. The larch has been cut out, and the whole area is now pure Thuya, with clean stems larger in size than in the other parts of the plantations where it occurs mixed with Douglas fir.[1]
In Ireland the best trees we know of are at Castlewellan, co. Down, 65 feet in 1903; Hamwood, co. Meath, 71 feet by 6 feet 3 inches in 1904; Churchill, co. Armagh, 68 feet by 5 feet 10 inches in 1904; Adare, co. Limerick, 71 feet by 7 feet 7 inches in 1903.
- ↑ We are indebted to Mr. Angus Cameron, factor for the property, and to Mr. J.M. Stewart, forester, for further particulars of these plantations, for which we cannot now find space.
