Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow, there is a fine tree, 15 feet in girth with an estimated height of 90 feet. This is supposed to be the tree referred to by Hayes,[1] as being in 1794 the largest then living in Wicklow; but if this is the case the tree must have remained stationary in growth for many years. At Powerscourt there is a fine widespreading tree 80 feet high by 14 feet in girth. At Carton, a sycamore, remarkable for its small leaves, which are only half the ordinary size, measured, in 1903, 87 feet in height and 11 feet in girth, At Woodstock, Co. Kilkenny, a tree was, in 1901, 73 feet high by 11% feet in girth; and, according to the records kept here was 7 feet 10 inches in 1825, 8 feet 2 inches in 1830, and 8 feet 11 inches in 1846. At Cushendun, Co. Antrim, in a situation completely exposed to the blasts from the sea, in the garden of Miss M'Neil, a sycamore is 60 feet high by 13 feet in girth.
On the Continent the sycamore is not so often planted as in England, but in Switzerland and the Austrian Alps it attains a great size. Two are figured in the Baum-Album der Schweiz,[2] of which one, formerly growing at Truns in the Oberland at an elevation of 853 metres, close to the old chapel of St Anna, is interesting on account of its great age. Under this tree the Grey League, one of the three bodies which, when confederated in 1525, formed the canton of Grisons, were sworn in 1424; and though the last remnant of the veteran was torn up by a storm in 1870, it shows that the sycamore may attain an age of about 600 years. A figure of it, taken from a painting in the possession of M. Descurtins of Coire, is given in the work from which I quote. A young tree raised from its seed was planted in 1870 on the spot, and was in 1896 already over 30 feet high and 4 feet 4 inches in girth.
By the kindness of M. Coaz, Director of the Swiss Government Forests, I am able to reproduce a beautiful photograph (Plate 183) of an even finer tree, now standing on the land of the commune of Kerns, in Melchthal, canton of Unterwalden, at an elevation of 1350 metres, in deep loamy soil, on a formation described as calcaire schrattigue. This immense tree measures 12.20 metres in circumference above the point where its trunk expands, and at 5 feet from the ground 8.85 metres, equal to about 29 feet, thus exceeding any tree of which we have a record in this country. At 12 feet from the ground a branch about 9 feet in girth is given off. The height is not stated, but the branches spread to a diameter of about 25 yards, and though the trunk is hollow and covered in places with a moss (Leucodon sciaroides), the tree still bears fruit. Its aspect reminds me strongly of many sycamores which grow on the Alps of the Vorarlberg in Austria, and especially of one, from the cover of whose trunk I shot my last chamois, a cunning old buck, which for four seasons I had hunted in vain.
Timber
The wood of the sycamore is of a white colour, close grain, and moderately hard; and when of large size is one of the most valuable woods we have, as it has been found the most suitable for making the large rollers, technically called
