Remarkable Trees
The finest tree that I know in England is the one figured (Plate 142) which grows in the grounds at Frogmore. This was planted, as I am told by Mr. M‘Kellar, by H.S.H. the Princess of Hohenlohe on 16th March 1857, and must be about 54 years old. It has been stated on a photograph taken for the late Hon. Charles Ellis to be 82 feet high, but when I measured it in 1904 I could not make it more than 65 feet, and being forked at about five feet from the ground its girth was about 9 feet.
Another very fine tree grows close to the house at Bicton, which in 1900 was 60 feet by 7 feet 7 inches; and at Killerton there is a tree 55 feet by 5 feet 5 inches. At Orton Hall, near Peterborough, the tree succeeds very well on rather heavy soil, which does not suit many conifers, and here a tree 60 feet by 6 feet 9 inches has borne fruit, from which Mr. Harding, gardener to the Marquess of Huntly, has raised seedlings, some of which are now 9 feet high; smaller ones which he sent me are growing at Colesborne. At Hardwicke, near Bury St. Edmunds, one of the healthiest young trees I have seen, which was only planted in 1873, is already 48 feet by 4 feet 5 inches. At Crowsley Park, Oxfordshire, a tree planted about 1850 was, in 1907, 53 feet high by 8 feet 1 inch in girth, dividing into two stems at 10 feet from the ground, but forming a very narrow column. At the Wilderness, White Knights, Reading, an extremely narrow tree is 60 feet high by 4% feet in girth, At Nuneham Park, Oxford, there is a fine tree in the pinetum, which is 58 feet by 7 feet. At Bayfordbury, Herts, the best specimen is 52 feet by 5 feet 9 inches.
In Herefordshire the best specimen I know of is at Eastnor Castle, which forks at about 6 feet, and measured in 1906 53 feet by 7 feet 6 inches. There is a nice avenue of it in the grounds at Ashridge Park, and also a circle consisting of 32 trees at only 1 yard apart, which were planted by Earl Brownlow thirty-five years ago, and are now about 35 feet high.
Other remarkable trees which we have seen are at. Fulmodestone, Norfolk, 58 feet by 5 feet 11 inches in 1905; at Highnam, Gloucester, 50 feet by 5 feet 3 inches in 1905; at Beauport, Sussex, 53 feet by 6 feet 2 inches at 2 feet up, dividing into two stems, a conical tree, with extremely dense foliage, in 1904; at Dropmore, a large tree not measured. At Coldrinick, Cornwall, there is a tree which Mr. Bartlett informs us, was, in 1905, 51 feet by 6½ feet. Mr. R. Woodward, jun., measured in 1906 a tree at Wexham Park, Stoke Pogis, 56 feet by 3 feet. At Salhouse, Norfolk, Sir Hugh Beevor measured, in 1904, a tree 57 feet by 6 feet 8 inches. A fine specimen at Tittenhurst, Sunninghill, is figured in Gardeners’ Chronicle, xxxvi. 284, fig. 127 (1904).
In Scotland the tree is not so common, though specimens 40 to 50 feet high are growing in various places; the tallest reported at the Conifer Conference or 1891 was at Torloisk in Mull, and then measured 37 feet in height.
At Smeaton-Hepburn, East Lothian, a tree planted in 1843 was measured by Henry in 1905 as 53 feet by 5 feet 4 inches, A tree at Keir, Perthshire, seen
