poor soil. Though the autumn colour of the leaves is pretty, yet as an ornamental tree it is inferior to the Norway, American, and Japanese maples. It seeds itself freely in hedges, growing slowly and living to a great age. Lees[1] mentions a hollow tree at Powick which he estimated to be near 600 years old, and says that one almost as ancient stood near Hanley Castle.
It likes a dry, somewhat stony soil, and is most commonly seen in open sunny places in the form of a large shrub of very irregular growth. It is often pollarded, and in such cases becomes hollow, usually with a burry stem and spreading roots. So far as I have observed, the seeds germinate in the first year if sown when ripe, and are easy to raise. It bears pruning very well and is therefore suitable for hedges, which in France are often made of this tree.
According to Mouillefert,[2] it suffered much at Grignon in the severe winter of 1879–1880, when the thermometer fell to —27° Cent.; and is much less hardy than the sycamore, which sustained this low temperature without being injured in the least; but I have never seen it damaged by frost in this country.
Remarkable Trees
There are many good-sized trees of this species in England, of which one at Cobham Hall, Kent, is the tallest we have seen. This is a twin tree in a wood near the house, with two tall straight stems from the same root, which are 6 feet 4 inches and 6 feet respectively in girth, and about 75 feet high. Another tree, in the deer park here, is 70 feet high, with a trunk girthing, at three feet from the ground, 8 feet 11 inches, and dividing at 4 feet up into four stems. At Chilham Castle, Kent, the seat of C.S. Hardy, Esq., there is a splendid tree 55 feet high by 13 feet 8 inches in girth which covers an area 86 paces round, but the bole is only 7 feet high.
One of the best-shaped large trees that I have seen, grows in the park at the Mote near Maidstone: it measures 60 feet by 10 feet 3 inches. I lately discovered a magnificent tree past its prime at Langley Park, Norfolk, which, though only 45 feet high, girths 9 feet 5 inches and has branches which spread to a width of 24 paces,
At Hursley Park, Hants, the property of Sir G. Cooper, Bart., there is a tree which Sir Joseph Hooker told me was the finest that he had ever seen. Mr. J. Clayton, who was forester-there, tells me that it has a short bole 9 feet 6 inches in girth, with ten large spreading limbs, and contains about 111 feet of measurable timber, The tree in Boldre Churchyard, figured by Strutt, and said by him to be the largest in England, was, however, only 45 feet by 7 feet 6 inches, but I cannot learn that it still exists.
In Cassiobury Park there is a very well shaped tree on the golf ground, which measured, in 1907, 60 feet by 9 feet 6 inches (Plate 184), being little less than the one at the Mote. At Moor Park, Herts, Sir Hugh Beevor found in 1902 a quite sound tree, which was 10 feet 3 inches in girth at 4 feet from the ground, and no less than 76 feet in height.
