Remarkable Trees
The largest Ailanthus was that at Syon, which was 70 feet high in Loudon's time, and nearly 100 feet in 1880.[1] It is now dead.
At Kew a vigorous tree is growing in the garden behind the Palace, which measures 73 feet high and 8 feet in girth. Not far off a number of Ailanthus trees of varying size, but none very large, occurs in a group, and they seem to be root-suckers; probably one of the original trees was planted in this spot in the eighteenth century.
At Milton Rectory, Steventon, Berks, there are two trees of equal height (78 feet), one girthing 9 feet 1 inch, and the other 8 feet 6 inches. Both these trees bloom freely every year, producing fruit of a bright red colour on the south side of the trees; and the seeds, as they fall in the garden near hand, produce seedlings which are very vigorous.[2]
At the Mote, Maidstone, there are two large trees, one of which is 70 feet high and 8 feet in circumference.
At Linton Park, Maidstone, is a tree growing in a shrubbery which was nearly 80 feet high by 6 feet 6 inches in 1902.
At Broom House, Fulham, the residence of Miss Sulivan, is a tree 80 feet high, with a bole 9 feet long and 10 feet in girth, which divides into two main stems (Plate 13).
At Fakenham, Norfolk, Sir Hugh Beevor has measured a tree 75 feet by 8 feet 11 inches.
At Barton, Bury St. Edmunds, an Ailanthus which was planted in 1826[3] measured in 1904 55 feet high, with a girth of stem of 5 feet 2 inches. Bunbury says that it is perfectly hardy at Barton, and did not suffer in the least from the severe winter of 1860. It was 3½ feet girth at 3 feet from the ground in 1862. It flowered abundantly in August of 1861, the greater part of the flowers being hermaphrodite, and a considerable number of fruits were formed, but all dropped off before coming to maturity. It fruited abundantly in 1868. Bunbury says, generally there is only one samara to each flower, but not unfrequently two or three; he never saw more than three.
At Belton Park, the seat of Earl Brownlow, is a fine specimen of the tree, for a photograph of which (Plate 14) we are indebted to Miss F. Woolward, who gives its height as 83 feet, and its girth as 6 feet. This seems to be the tallest tree recorded in England.
At Burwood House, Cobham, Surrey, the seat of Lady Ellesmere, Colonel H. Thynne has measured an Ailanthus 71 feet high by 10 feet 10 inches girth, which, though partly fallen down and supported by a prop, is still a fine tree.
The tree seems to require a climate which is at once both warmer and drier in summer than that of the northern and western counties of England, and we do not know of any trees of any great size now existing in Scotland, Ireland, or Wales, though Loudon states that there was one at Dunrobin Castle, Sutherlandshire, 43 feet high.(A.H.)
