Remarkable Trees
Probably the finest tree in the British Isles is the one growing at Barton, Bury St. Edmunds, which in 1908 was 95 feet in height by 13 feet 3 inches in girth. This tree (Plate 214) is very symmetrical, branched to the ground, and in full vigour, though probably it has nearly attained its limit of height, as the top of the crown of foliage is flattened. This is one of the original plants raised at Luscombe, and was planted at Barton in 1838, being then about thirteen or fourteen years old. According to Bunbury,! it did not suffer in the slightest degree from the severe winter of 1860. In 1857, it was 35 feet in height ; and in 1858 began to bear cones, which are confined to the topmost of the lateral branchlets. In 1867, the height had increased to 58 feet, and the trunk at three feet from the ground was 7 feet in girth. Seedlings have been frequently raised from its seed. One of these seedlings, which was sent many years ago to Lord Rayleigh, is now growing at Terling Place, Essex, and measures 53 feet high and 3 feet 3 inches in girth.
Another of the original trees is now growing at Luscombe Castle, near Dawlish, in a rather exposed place, about 200 feet above sea level ; when I saw it, in April 1908, it was a healthy and well-shaped tree, 75 feet by 11 feet.
There is a very fine healthy tree at Blount’s Court, Oxfordshire, which Henry measured in 1907, as 87 feet in height by 10 feet 8 inches in girth. Another planted at the Coppice, Henley, in 1860, measured in 1905, 62 feet high by 84 feet in girth. At Pampisford, Cambridgeshire, there are two trees, the larger of which was, in 1908, 55 feet by 6 feet r inch. The Cephalonian fir has been largely planted on Lord Walsingham’s estate at Merton, Norfolk, the largest specimen, 52 feet by 9 feet 7 inches, dating from 1852. On the Thetford road there is an avenue of these trees, growing in loose, shallow sand, which have attained at forty-eight years old an average girth of 83 feet. The growth of the tap-root is stopped by the compact chalk sub-soil, wide-spreading horizontal roots being formed, which have no great hold in the shifting sand ; and several trees have been uprooted by storms.
At Heron Court, near Christchurch, I measured in 1906 a very large tree with ragged top, 82 feet by ro feet 8 inches. At Beauport, Sussex, there is a good tree, which in 1904 was about 80 feet high by 10 feet 3 inches in girth.
At Powderham there is a very large and spreading, but ill-shaped tree, which appears as though in the mild, soft climate of south Devon it would not be long lived. In 1892 it was recorded as the largest in Great Britain, being then 77 feet by 11 feet at 3 feet from the ground.
At Killerton there is a large tree which measured in 1903 80 feet by 11 feet 9 inches. It forks at about 2 5 feet. At Highclere another, in the same year, measured 75 feet by 11 feet. At High Canons, Herts, Mr. H. Clinton Baker measured a tree in 1908, which was 58 feet by 8 feet 3 inches. At Bayfordbury, a tree planted in 1847 was 70 feet by 6 feet 11 inches in 1905.
At Castle Kennedy there is a very wide-spreading tree, which in 1904 measured
1 Arboretum Notes, 144.
