remains of an immense sycamore which was struck by lightning in 1860. It measured in 1821 as follows :—
| Feet. | Inches. | |
| Height | 100 | 0 |
| Girth at smallest part of trunk | 19 | 6 |
| Girth„ where branches separate | 27 | 4 |
| Girth„ at ground | 42 | 7 |
| Extreme width of branches | 114 | 0 |
| Cubic contents | 875 | 0 |
Captain Stirling informs me that its age, which can be determined from an entry in the records of the estate, is about 440 years. Hunter’ says that this tree was known as the big tree of Kippenross in the time of Charles II., and in 1806 was described by Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre, as "now much the greatest in this country.” He adds that in 1740 the late John Stirling of Keir was told by a woman over eighty, that though all the other trees had grown much in her recollection, she knew of no change in the great tree which many people came to see as a curiosity.
At Keir, Perthshire, there is a remarkable sycamore stool, with eleven stems, 85 feet in height and averaging in girth about 6 feet.
Sir Herbert Maxwell sends me the measurement of a sycamore behind the Birnam Hotel at Dunkeld, which Hunter figures on the frontispiece of Woods and Forests of Perthshire, and says® that it was supposed to be 1000 years old; this of course is without foundation, and the girth, 19 feet 8 inches, as taken by Sir H. Maxwell, is precisely the same as Hunter gave 25 years before.
In the parish of Cramond, county of Edinburgh, a tree of this species is stated in the Old and Remarkable Trees of Scotland, p. 198, to have attained 130 feet in height, but I must doubt the accuracy of this statement, of which I can obtain no confirmation.
Many large trees in the south-west of Scotland are recorded by Renwick,* of which one at Erskine House, Renfrewshire, is 75 feet high and 19 feet 4 inches in girth, but this has only a short bole of 7 feet. Another at Logansraes, in the same county, is 80 feet high and 18 feet 3 inches in girth, with a spread of 95 feet. Strutt figures, on plate 3 of Sylva Scotica, a sycamore at Bishopton, in Renfrew- shire, which was about 60 feet by 20 feet and contained 720 feet of timber.’
At Inveraray Castle, close to the big Scots pine, there is a fine sycamore about 100 feet high, with a bole of about 35 feet, but its girth in 1906 was only 12 feet 2 inches.
At Inveraray Castle there is an avenue of sycamores, said to date from 16809.
In Ireland, the sycamore is commonly planted and grows with great vigour, but Henry has seen no specimens rivalling those of Scotland in size. At
1 Woods, Forests, and Estates of Perthshire, 286 (1883).
2 Ibid. 73.
3 Measurements of Notable Trees, Glasgow, 1901.
4 Sir C. Renshaw informs me that this tree still survives, and that, according to local tradition, John Knox formerly preached under it, but that it is not so fine a tree as one at Erskine House, the property of W.A. Baird, Esq.
