(vol. v.), which is largely quoted by Loudon, it is said that Mr. Menzies of Migenny was the introducer, and Walker[1] gives 1727 as the date of their introduction. When measured in 1831, Loudon says that the largest was 100 feet by 10 feet 6 inches at 5 feet from the ground. In 1888, according to the tablet mentioned above, it was 102 feet high, and girthed at 3 feet 17 feet 2 inches, at 5 feet 15 feet 1 inch, at 17 feet 12 feet 10½ inches, at 51 feet 8 feet 8 inches, and at 68 feet 6 feet 1 inch, the estimated contents being 532 cubic feet. When measured by Mr. Keir, forester to the Duke, in 1899 it was 15 feet 6 inches in girth; and I made it in 1904 15 feet 8 inches and 100 feet high; so it is still growing and vigorous, though the smaller tree beside it has lost most of its top and many of its branches.[2] There are many other fine larches on this estate, of which the largest perhaps, on the Kennel Bank at Dunkeld, is 120 to 125 feet high by 11 feet 10 inches in girth, with sound top and clean bole to 50 to 60 feet, containing about 350 feet of timber. Three trees of the same age as the Mother Larches are growing near the Castle at Blair Atholl, but are not nearly as large or well shaped.
At Gordon Castle there are some fine larches, one of which, growing in a plantation called Cotton Hill, exposed to the full blast of the North Sea, is figured on account of its remarkable trunk (Plate 104). An immense limb comes off close to the ground, where the trunk girths 20 feet 6 inches, and at about 5 feet, where the tape is seen in the plate, it is 11 feet in diameter. The branches spread to at least 15 yards on each side and measured 198 feet in circumference, and the tree in April 1904 was covered with fine cones, which were beginning to shed their seed, and from which I have raised some plants.
At Monzie Castle, near Crieft, are some splendid larches of the same age and origin as those at Dunkeld, of which the largest, according to Hunter, was 100 feet by 16 feet 3 inches, and contained about 380 feet of timber when he wrote in 1883. I have not seen these trees myself, but Henry measured the largest in 1904 as 109 feet by 17 feet 4 inches, and describes them as very beautiful trees with immense pendent branches in full health and vigour. Hunter says that John, fourth Duke of Atholl, called "the Planting Duke," because he is said to have planted over 10,000 acres of larch, considered them to be the only rivals to the Mother Larches at Dunkeld, and sent his gardener every year to report on their progress. They are figured by Michie on p. 205.
At Inveraray there are some very fine larches on the level ground near the Castle. The best that I measured was about 110 feet by 11 feet, but there may be taller ones;[3] none approached the silver firs in the same locality in height or girth. They serve to show, however, that the larch will succeed well in a climate as unlike that of its native mountains as it is possible to find in Scotland, provided the soil is good and there is shelter from the west wind.
- ↑ Economic History of the Hebrides and Highlands, ii, 214 (1812).
- ↑ I was told by Mr. Keir in 1906 that the largest tree had lately been struck by lightning and was now quite dead.
- ↑ In Old and Remarkable Trees of Scotland, p. 64, it is stated that a larch at Ben-an, in the parish of Inveraray, was 130 feet high and 10 feet in girth at 3 feet, and others are reported at Glenarbuck, in the county or Dumbarton, and at Auchintorlie, in the same county, 143 feet and 140 feet high, but these latter measurements are not reliable, and have never been confirmed. Mr. Renwick has recently measured the Auchintorlie tree, and finds it only 95 feet high.
