Remarkable Trees
The largest trees mentioned by Loudon were at Strathfieldsaye (64 feet) and at Syon (59 feet), the latter tree being reported in 1849 to measure 84 feet by 4 feet. We cannot identify either of them now; but at Syon there is a tree, leaning considerably to one side, which was about 75 feet by 6 feet in 1904. The tallest which I have seen is at Godinton, the property of G. Ashley Dodd, Esq., near Ashford, Kent, which in 1907 was 82 feet by 6 feet, a piece estimated at 12 feet long having been broken off the top; and the next to it is one at Petworth, which Sir Hugh Beevor measured in 1894, 84 feet by 5 feet 7 inches; another tree at the same place, 7 feet 6 inches in girth, has been damaged at the top by wind.
Miss Woolward tells me of a fine tree at Escot, Devonshire, the seat of Sir John Kennaway, which was referred to by Bunbury as the largest known to him, and in 1905 measured 75 feet by 7 feet 8 inches. At Cobham Hall, Kent, there is one which I measured as 80 feet by 5 feet 9 inches; and at Broom House, Fulham, there are two trees on the lawn of about the same height and over 6 feet in girth.
At Barton,[1] Suffolk, there are four trees, which were planted in 1825-26, the two largest measuring, in 1904, 71 feet by 5 feet 6 inches and 52 feet by 3 feet 2 inches. At Arno's Grove, Middlesex, a tree drawn up in a plantation, measured by Henry in 1904, was 83 feet by 3 feet 10 inches. A large tree which we have not seen was reported[2] to be growing on the lake side at Chevening Park, near Sevenoaks, Kent. At Arley Castle there is a tree 65 feet by 4 feet 3 inches.
In Scotland we have no records worth mentioning, though the species exists in the south-west.
In Ireland there is a good tree at Fota, which in 1903 measured 57 feet high by 8 feet in girth.
Timber
Though neglected until recent years this tree is now very largely cut for timber in the Mississippi valley, and has been introduced to Europe under the name of satin walnut. Owing to its low price it has been tried, under the name of red gum, for street paving with very bad results, though, according to Stone,[3] it is very resilient, and if creosoted may be a useful wood for this purpose.
A careful investigation of the mechanical properties of this wood was made by A.K. Chittenden of the U.S.A. Bureau of Forestry in 1905,[4] from which I take the following:—"Red Gum is perhaps the commonest timber tree in the hardwood bottoms and drier swamps of the Southern States, growing best on alluvial soil of great fertility, which is liable to heavy floods in winter and spring, and often covered with water from January till May. In the best situations it reaches a height of 150 feet and a diameter of 5 feet. It reproduces well only where there is sufficient light, as the seedlings will not bear shade. It also sprouts readily from the stump up to about fifty years of age, but such shoots rarely form large trees. The demand for
