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TREES: A WOODLAND NOTEBOOK
GLASGOW
PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY
ROBERT MACLEHOSE & COMPANY LTD. FOR
JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, PUBLISHERS
TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
MACMILLAN AND CO. LTD. LONDON
THE MACMILLAN CO. NEW YORK
MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA TORONTO
SIMPKIN, HAMILTON AND CO. LONDON
BOWES AND BOWES CAMBRIDGE
DOUGLAS AND FOULIS EDINBURGH
MCMXV
[Illustration: JUDAS TREE (_Cercis siliquastrum_)
AT TWYFORD LODGE, WINCHESTER]
TREES
A WOODLAND NOTEBOOK
CONTAINING OBSERVATIONS ON CERTAIN
BRITISH AND EXOTIC TREES
ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY MR. HENRY IRVING AND OTHERS
BY THE
RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL
BT., F.R.S., LL.D. (GLASGOW), D.C.L. (DURHAM)
Sit here by me, where the most beaten track
Runs through the forest--hundreds of huge oaks,
Gnarled, older than the thrones of Europe. Look,
What breadth, height, strength--torrents of eddying bark!
Some hollow-hearted from exceeding age
(That never be thy lot nor mine!)--and some
Pillaring a leaf-sky on their monstrous boles,
Sound at the core as we.
TENNYSON'S _The Foresters_, iii. 1.
GLASGOW
JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS
PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY
1915
To the Reader
The following chapters, which have their origin in papers originally
contributed to the _Scotsman_, are designed to meet, and possibly to
stimulate, that interest in British woodland resources which has so
greatly increased within recent years. The author's aim has not been to
present either a scientific botanical treatise or a manual of technical
forestry; he has attempted to describe the leading characteristics of
the forest growths indigenous to the United Kingdom, and to indicate
those exotic species which have proved, or are likely to prove, best
adapted to the British climate, whether as economic or purely decorative
subjects.
There has been in the past--there prevails to a considerable extent in
the present--confusion among British planters between the two branches
of wood-craft--silviculture and arboriculture. Silviculture or
forestry--the science of managing woodland to produce serviceable
timber--has been so grossly neglected in the United Kingdom that its
cardinal principles have had to be learnt afresh. Accustomed to rely
upon foreign imports for our timber supply, we came to look upon
woodland as a luxury, useful in so far as it provides shelter from
storm, cover for game and foxes, and ornament to the landscape, but of
negligible commercial value. Of this result the titles of the
associations formed for the promotion and study of wood-craft are very
significant; they are not styled Forestry Societies or Silvicultural
Societies, but Royal Arboricultural Societies. Ever since the days of
Tradescant and John Evelyn, British planters have excelled in
arboriculture--the skilful rearing and tending of choice trees and their
disposal singly or in groves for the decoration of parks and
pleasure-grounds. Now, however, that the world's consumption of timber
has overtaken, and bids fair soon to overtax, the supply, attention is
being directed to the extent of forest capabilities in the United
Kingdom. The development of these resources can be accomplished only
through systematic forestry, as prescribed in the science of
silviculture. We are the only considerable nation in Europe whose
Government neglects forestry as a source of revenue; we have,
consequently, immense leeway to make up. Timber of every description is
a crop of long rotation, exceeding, in some cases far exceeding, the
average duration of human life. One generation has to plant trees for
the advantage of its successors; but it is just that kind of long-range
altruism which chiefly distinguishes civilised from barbarous nations.
Let me not be interpreted as underrating the value of the work done by
arboriculturists. By the enterprise of our leading nurserymen, the
intrepidity and zeal of their collectors, and the eagerness of
landowners to embellish their estates, a vast experimental stage has
been accomplished, enabling one to form a fair estimate of the
adaptability of different exotic trees to the climate of the British
Isles. The results of this experimental period have been summed up
recently in the great work of Mr. Elwes and Dr. Henry, who have devoted
many years of strenuous labour to examining the conditions of tree
growth in all four Continents, and recording the behaviour of different
species when planted in this country. The extent and thoroughness of
their survey, and the critical experience they have brought to bear upon
the subject, give a special value to their testimony to the work of
British arboriculturists. "After having seen the trees of every country
in Europe, of nearly all the States of North America, of Canada, Japan,
China, West Siberia and Chile, we confidently assert that these islands
contain a greater number of fine trees from the temperate regions of the
world than any other country."[1]
It was high time that, in the material interest of the community,
endeavour should be made to establish an organised forest industry in
the United Kingdom. The Government, after many years of reiterated
enquiry and hesitation, have at last taken the first steps in the
establishment of State forest. At present, these steps have not carried
the matter very far; but great bodies get slowly under way; as one may
not judge the speed of an Atlantic liner by the rate at which she leaves
the harbour, so we should exercise patience during the initial stages of
what we hope may prove a great enterprise.
The newly formed Forestry Departments of the English, Scottish, and
Irish Boards of Agriculture have the results of experimental planting by
arboriculturists to guide them in their choice of species. The opinion
is sometimes expressed that British forests should be composed of
indigenous species, on the principle that Nature has indicated which
species are best adapted to our soil and climate. This is to overlook
the part played by chance in determining what trees and herbs should
form the vegetation of these islands. When the ice-mantle was slowly
being withdrawn, after grinding down the mountains to mere stumps of
their pristine stature and strewing the plains with glacial débris,
seeds wafted by winds and waves or borne by birds found a footing, and
those for which the conditions of soil and climate then prevailing were
suitable, established themselves most readily and formed the staple
vegetation. But those conditions have greatly altered since that far-off
time; vegetation itself is a main agent in changing the character of
the surface soil, adapting it to support growths of a different
character to those which first took possession thereof. It is,
therefore, no derogation to the admirable qualities of our native oak,
ash, and pine that it has been found to our advantage to cultivate such
exotic species as larch, spruce, sweet chestnut, and sycamore. Among the
vast variety of foreign forest trees introduced to this country during
the nineteenth century, it is almost certain that some will prove of
great economic value when submitted to scientific treatment.
I have endeavoured in these pages to recapitulate in a convenient form
what has been ascertained by experiment of the behaviour of foreign
trees under British conditions, relying, not blindly, upon the
conclusions arrived at by masters of the craft, as corroborated or
checked by personal observation of a practical and somewhat sedulous
nature, extending over youth, manhood, and old age.
Among those to whom I owe cordial thanks for providing negatives and
other material for illustration are the Duke of Northumberland, the Earl
of Radnor, the Hon. Hew H. Dalrymple, Professor William Somerville and
Mr. Gerald Loder.
HERBERT MAXWELL.
MONREITH, 1914.
Contents
PAGE
I. THE OAK 1
II. THE BEECH 16
III. THE SPANISH CHESTNUT 26
IV. THE ASH 33
V. THE LINDEN TREE OR LIME 42
VI. THE ELMS 49
VII. THE SYCAMORE AND OTHER MAPLES 56
VIII. THE PLANE 64
IX. THE HORSE CHESTNUT 69
X. THE POPLARS 75
XI. THE BIRCH 82
XII. THE WILLOWS 89
XIII. THE HORNBEAM 96
XIV. THE ALDER 99
XV. THE TULIP TREE 105
XVI. THE HAWTHORN 108
XVII. THE ROWAN AND ITS RELATIVES 117
XVIII. THE GEAN TREE, OR WILD CHERRY 124
XIX. THE WALNUT 130
XX. THE HOLLY 137
XXI. PEA-FLOWERED TREES 144
XXII. THE ELDER 152
XXIII. THE HAZEL 156
XXIV. THE AILANTO 159
XXV. THE PINES 161
XXVI. THE SILVER FIRS 174
XXVII. THE SPRUCE FIRS 183
XXVIII. THE CEDAR 190
XXIX. THE LARCH 197
XXX. THE YEW 205
XXXI. THE CYPRESS AND ITS KIN 214
XXXII. THE WELLINGTONIA AND THE REDWOOD 221
XXXIII. THE GINGKO OR MAIDENHAIR-TREE 229
XXXIV. THE ARAUCARIA OR MONKEY PUZZLE 233
List of Illustrations
PAGE
JUDAS TREE (_Cercis siliquastrum_) _Frontispiece_
AT TWYFORD LODGE, WINCHESTER
PEDUNCULATE OAK 2
SESSILE OAK 6
QUEEN BEECH AT ASHRIDGE 18
REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION FROM _The Gardeners' Chronicle_
THE CHAIRMAKER, BUCKINGHAM BEECH WOODS 22
SPANISH CHESTNUT IN SUMMER 26
SPANISH CHESTNUT IN WINTER 26
MANNA ASH (_Fraxinus ornus_) 34
AT WAKEHURST PLACE
COMMON LIME (_Tilia vulgaris_) 42
FLOWER OF THE LINDEN TREE (_Tilia europæa_) 44
WEEPING WHITE LIME (_Tilia petiolaris_) 46
AT WAKEHURST PLACE
ENGLISH ELM (_Ulmus campestris_) 48
WYCH ELM (_Ulmus montana_) 50
THE GREAT ELM AT MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD 54
SYCAMORE (_Acer pseudo-platanus_) IN SUMMER 56
SYCAMORE IN WINTER 58
FRUIT OF SYCAMORE (_Acer pseudo-platanus_) 60
HORSE CHESTNUT (_Æsculus hippocastanum_) IN BLOOM 68
HORSE CHESTNUT FLOWER SPIKE 68
ASPEN TREE (_Populus tremula_) 74
WHITE POPLAR (_Populus alba_) IN JULY 78
WHITE POPLAR IN DECEMBER 78
LOMBARDY POPLAR IN SUMMER 80
LOMBARDY POPLAR IN WINTER 80
BIRCH (_Betula alba verrucosa_) IN JUNE 84
BIRCH IN DECEMBER 84
WILLOW BY THE STREAM 88
FRUIT OF HORNBEAM (_Carpinus betulus_) 96
TULIP TREE 104
AT WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD
TULIP TREE (_Liriodendron tulipifera_) 104
AT ALBURY PARK
MAY BLOSSOM (_Cratægus oxyacantha_) 108
FRUIT OF HAWTHORN (_Cratægus oxyacantha_) 108
FLOWERS OF THE ROWAN (_Pyrus aucuparia_) 118
GEAN (_Prunus avium_) IN BLOOM 128
BLACK WALNUT (_Juglans nigra_ var. _alburyensis_) 136
AT ALBURY PARK
PAGODA TREE (_Sophora japonica_) 144
IN THE BOTANIC GARDEN, OXFORD
FLOWER OF LABURNUM 146
ROBINIA PSEUDACACIA AT WINCHESTER 148
FLOWER OF ROBINIA PSEUDACACIA 150
ELDER (_Sambucus nigra_) IN JUNE 154
ELDER IN DECEMBER 154
AILANTHUS GLANDULOSA 158
AT WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD
SCOTS PINE WOOD 162
FLOWER AND FRUIT OF SCOTS PINE 166
SILVER FIRS (_Abies pectinata_) 176
DOUGLAS FIRS (_Pseudotsuga douglasii_) 184
PLANTED AT TAYMOUNT IN 1860
CONES OF NORWAY SPRUCE (_Picea excelsa_) 186
LARCH IN SPRING 196
LARCH FLOWERS (_Male and Female_) AND CONES 196
FRUIT OF YEW (_Taxus baccata_) 206
IN THE YEW WOOD NEAR DOWNTON, WILTS 208
MONTEREY CYPRESS (_Cupressus macrocarpa_) 214
AT WAKEHURST PLACE
DECIDUOUS CYPRESS (_Taxodium distichum_) 216
AT SYON
GINGKO BILOBA 228
AT THE GROVE, WATFORD
AVENUE OF ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA 232
AT CASTLE KENNEDY, WIGTOWNSHIRE
ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA, MALE FLOWER 234
ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA, FEMALE FLOWER 234
The Oak
The literature of the oak far exceeds in volume that of any other tree,
and there is abundant evidence to prove that from earliest times it was
regarded not only with esteem for its timber, but with religious
reverence. Popular names of trees are uncertain guides; the revisers of
the Old Testament express a doubt whether the tree under which Jacob
buried the strange gods which he took from his household (Genesis xxxv.
4) was really an oak, as it is rendered in the authorised version, or a
terebinth; but there seems to be no question about the tree Homer had in
his mind when he describes Zeus as giving his oracles from the oaks of
Dodona (_Odyssey_, xiv. 328), for the Greeks held the oak sacred to
their premier deity.
Pliny (A.D. 23-79), writing about a thousand years later than Homer,
describes in detail the religious honour paid to the oak in Britain, and
asserts that the Druids, as children of the oak, were so called from the
Greek name for that tree, i.e. δρυς. We are able to check his
statements in one particular from our own experience. He says that the
Druids held the mistletoe as the most sacred of plants, provided it
grew upon an oak, which it did very rarely. It is still so seldom to be
seen on that tree that, although I have been on the lookout for an
instance for many years, both in England and in Continental oak forests,
I have never yet found one. Mr. Elwes, indeed, gives a list of
twenty-three oaks in England reputed as bearing mistletoe; but he has
only succeeded in verifying two of these by personal inspection.[2]
That the early Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles set as high a
value upon the timber of the oak as they did upon its mystic attributes,
must be patent to any one who has explored their ancient lake dwellings.
The framework of these artificial islands was made of massive oak beams
morticed together; these remain as hard and sound as the day they were
laid down in the water; while every other kind of wood used in the
interior of the structure--ash, alder, pine, etc.--has been reduced to
the consistency of soft cheese. Moreover, these people anticipated the
Admiralty in using oak for shipbuilding. All the many canoes which have
been discovered in connection with these islands (five were found in
Dowalton Loch alone) have been "dug-outs" fashioned from trunks of oak
thirty or forty feet long. If other and more easily worked timber was
ever employed for this purpose, it has failed to withstand the tooth of
time.
[Illustration: PEDUNCULATE OAK]
The application of iron to shipbuilding and architecture has done much
to dethrone the oak from its former pre-eminence, nor does its timber
command the high prices of a hundred years ago. But it has no rival for
dignity and durability, and very few equals in beauty, for domestic
architecture and public buildings. Moreover, signs are not wanting that
the supply of pitch pine and other cheap foreign substitutes for British
oak is not inexhaustible; consumption is increasing hand over hand, and
natural forests are being stripped far faster than they can be
regenerated. British oak, therefore, though it is under temporary
commercial eclipse, can never fail of producing timber of the very
highest quality, and, owing to its long span of vigorous life, the tree
may be left standing in the forest for centuries without deteriorating.
Those who desire a quick return from their woodland will hardly be
encouraged to plant oak from such a far-sighted consideration; but
forestry must always be a business of deferred profits. If ash be
esteemed commercially mature at seventy years, larch and Scots pine at
eighty or ninety, oak cannot be reckoned ready for the axe at less age
than one hundred and twenty, and it continues to improve up to two
hundred years.
Even allowing for the fall in value of oak timber and bark in recent
years, high prices may still be obtained for fine trees, whereof there
would have been far more in Britain at this day but for the excessive
drain upon our woodland resources for the Navy during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. In 1877 Messrs. Groom, of Hereford, paid £200 for
a huge oak felled at Tyberton Park in Herefordshire. This grand tree
stood 130 feet high, with a girth of 22 feet 8 inches at 5 feet from the
ground. It was felled after being struck by lightning and badly damaged;
but for which mishap the purchasers estimated its value would have been
£300.
In Kyre Park, Worcestershire, there still stood in 1907 an oak 113 feet
high, with a straight trunk of 90 feet, for which the owner had declined
an offer of £100 a few years previously.
In certain parts of England, chiefly in the eastern counties, the timber
of some oaks is found to have assumed a rich brown hue, instead of the
normal pale fawn. The cause of this is obscure; some botanists consider
it to be produced by a fungoid growth; others, that it is the combined
effect of age and soil; but, whatever be the agent, the result is to
enhance enormously the market value of such trees. American
cabinetmakers first created a demand for it, as much as 10s. a cubic
foot being readily obtained for the best quality. Unfortunately, brown
oak has not yet been recognised as occurring north of the Trent.
Botanists are not agreed whether the oaks of Great Britain consist of a
single species or of two. There are certainly two distinct races, as was
recognised by Linnæus 150 years ago, when he classified them, probably
correctly, as sub-species-the durmast or sessile-flowered oak (_Quercus
robur sessiliflora_) and the pedunculate oak (_Q. robur pedunculata_).
Roughly speaking, the native oaks of the eastern and southern parts of
Great Britain are of the pedunculate race; those of the western parts
and of Ireland are of the sessile-flowered type; but I have examined
the old oaks in the Forest of Arden, Warwickshire, and found them to be
durmast, while young trees, planted to replace blown ones, were all of
the pedunculate kind. In the beautiful park of Knole, near Sevenoaks,
there are hundreds of fine indigenous oaks, all pedunculate; but a
splendid avenue, planted apparently 180 or 200 years ago, has been laid
through them, and these trees are all durmast. I do not know of any
place where the contrast between the two species may be so easily
studied.
When grown in moderate shelter, the two kinds may be readily
distinguished from each other by their habit of growth. Owing to the
terminal bud on every shoot of the durmast oak being the strongest, the
stem and branches are much straighter than those of the pedunculate oak,
which puts its strength into lateral buds, giving the boughs that
twisted, gnarled appearance so characteristic of much English woodland.
In exposed situations, however, this distinction cannot be relied on,
and one must examine the leaves and fruit as tests.
The durmast oak bears sessile flowers--that is, without foot stalks; the
acorns, therefore, sit close to the shoot on which they are borne. On
the other hand, the leaves are carried on footstalks clear of the twig.
In the pedunculate oak these features are reversed, the flowers and
acorns being stalked and the leaves stalkless. The leaves, also, which
are more irregular in shape than those of the durmast, clasp the twig
more or less closely with auricles or lobes. The durmast never has
these auricles, but the other features mentioned are liable to be
modified, when recourse must be had to a less uncertain detail, easily
distinguished through an ordinary lens. The back of a mature leaf of the
pedunculate oak is perfectly smooth, without a trace of down or
pubescence; that of the durmast invariably carries some fine down, at
least in the angles of the leaf-nerves.
It may seem that these differences are of no more than botanical
interest; but they carry an important significance to the forester. The
timber of the two species being of equal quality, it is of course
desirable to plant that kind which produces the straightest timber.
Undoubtedly in this respect the durmast far surpasses the other.
Unfortunately, owing to the durmast oak bearing acorns far less
frequently than the pedunculate oak, British nurserymen have stocked the
latter almost to the exclusion of the durmast, seed of which can only be
obtained in favourable seasons, often at an interval of several years.
Nevertheless, the superiority of the durmast, especially for Scotland
and the north of England, is so great, that it is worth taking pains to
secure it.
[Illustration: SESSILE OAK]
The native oaks of the English lake district and of the shores of Loch
Lomond are all of the durmast variety; when opportunity occurs of
obtaining seed from these it should not be allowed to slip. Even in the
south, durmast oak has proved its superiority to the other. Besides
being far the handsomer tree, with richer foliage, it is generally
immune from the attacks of that curse of English woodland, the
caterpillar of the little moth, _Tortrix viridana_. "I have seen,"
says the Hon. Gerald Lascelles, Deputy Surveyor of the New Forest, "I
have seen a sessile oak standing out in brilliant foliage when every
other oak in the wood around was as bare of leaf as in winter."
Most writers on forestry follow one another in describing durmast oak as
suiting dry soils and pedunculate oak as preferring rich and moist soil.
That is quite at variance with my observation. If the soil of Surrey,
where the native oak is pedunculate, be compared with that of the
English lake district and the west generally, where the durmast is
indigenous, there can be little question which is the moister. The fact
is the durmast, being the more vigorous tree, is able to thrive in a
soil too dry and poor to support the pedunculate oak.
One word of counsel to planters on soil tending to dryness--never plant
oak forest pure, but let beech be mixed with the oaks. The importance of
this is well known to German foresters, who call beech the doctor of the
forest. Its dense foliage prevents undue evaporation under parching
winds and scorching sun, and its heavy leaf-fall in autumn creates the
best kind of forest soil.
No clearer example can be given of the failure of ancient oaks, not from
extreme age, but from the parching of the soil, than is presented in
Sherwood Forest. The giant trunks that stand there singly or in
scattered groups once supported a far loftier dome of foliage than they
do now. The branches have died back through the vigour of the tree
being sapped by excessive evaporation from the ground, consequent on the
loss of forest canopy and undergrowth. Within Lord Manvers's park of
Thoresby, formed long ago by enclosing part of the Forest, oaks of the
same age as those outside stand in close company with the fostering
beech, and clothed with dense foliage to the very end of the branches.
How often has one heard a forester, when a great oak goes "stag-headed,"
explain this as the result of the roots getting down to unsuitable
subsoil; whereas the true reason is that an oak cannot fulfil his
allotted span of years except when grown in close company of other
trees.
As might be expected, the oak, as monarch of the primæval British
forest, has contributed names to countless places, both in Celtic and
Saxon speech; besides a few in Norman French, whereof Chenies, a parish
in Bucks, may serve as an example. The Saxon _ac_, still current in the
north, but supplanted in the south by the broader "oak," is easily
detected in such names as Acton, Aikton, Ackworth, Akenham, in England;
Aikrig, Aikenhead (sometimes disguised by an intrusive _t_ as
Aitkenhead) and Aiket, which is a contraction of the Saxon _ac widu_,
oak-wood. Oakham, Oakford, Oakenshaw, Oakley, etc., speak for
themselves. In old Gaelic the oak was _daur_, in modern Gaelic the
genitive _dara_ or _darach_ is used, but in Manx and Welsh it remains
_dar_. Deer, Darroch and Darra are Scottish place-names retaining
respectively the old and new form of the word, the latter often
appearing in composition, as in Kildarroch, i.e. _coill darach_,
oak-wood. Still commoner is the derivative _doire_, originally _daire_
(pronounced "derry"), signifying primarily an oak-wood, but later
applied to woods in general. Hence the large class of names like Derry,
Dirriemore, Derrynabrock, Derrynahinch, etc. St. Columba founded his
monastery at a place called Daire-Calgaich in the year 546. Adamnan,
writing a hundred years or so later, glossed this name _Roboretum
Calgachi_, Calgach's oak-wood. After this it became Derry-Columkille,
the oak-wood of Colum of the Churches, until finally James VI. and I.
granted a charter thereof to a London company of traders, and the place
became, and remains, known as Londonderry.
The mightiest oak I have seen of late years, at all events the oak which
impressed me most forcibly with its mightiness, is one of the
pedunculate kind near the mansion-house of Panshanger, Lord Desborough's
place in Herts. It is figured in Strutt's _Sylva Britannica_; when he
measured it in 1822 the girth was 19 feet at 3 feet from the ground, and
its cubic contents were estimated at 1,000 feet. Elwes measured it in
1905 and found the girth to be 21 feet 4 inches at 5 feet. Following him
in 1913, but without being aware of his measurement, I made the girth to
be 21 feet 6 inches. This tree, however, is not likely to increase much
in girth, unless it grows burrs, for it is stag-headed and past its
prime. In this fine park of Panshanger I found two or three other oaks
with a circumference of 21 feet, but none so impressive and majestic as
the one aforesaid.
"The oak," writes Mr. Elwes, "rarely attains in Scotland the size and
vigour so commonly met with in England."[3] To that I make reply--"Give
us time!" Scotland, her resources drained by three hundred years of all
but incessant war which she had to wage in order to win and maintain her
independence, became and remained a byword for poverty among the
nations. Almost every shred of her woodland, once so vast, had been
consumed before the end of the seventeenth century, so that Dr. Johnson
was but drawing his bow a trifle too far when he vowed that in all his
Scottish travel he had only seen two trees big enough to hang a man on.
Practically no oaks were planted in Scotland until many years after the
Union of Parliaments in 1707 had inaugurated an era of peace and
security for north country lairds. "Give us time!" I repeat, and we
shall produce oaks in Scotland that no English magnate would be ashamed
to have in his park. Probably the tallest, if not the bulkiest oak that
I have seen north of the Tweed, stands close to the mansion house of
Blairdrummond in Perthshire. Elwes made it 118 feet high in 1906, with a
girth of 17 feet at 5 feet from the ground and a clean bole of 24 feet.
Irish woodland suffered as disastrously as Scottish from reckless
felling, but there can be no doubt about the size and quality of the
oaks that grew in Ireland in the past. The roof timbers of Westminster
Hall were grown in Shillelagh Forest, Co. Wicklow. These trees, no
doubt, were of the sessile-flowered race, but the forest has entirely
disappeared; and the great oak-wood at Abbeyleix, in Queen's County, is
composed of pedunculate oaks.
Besides our British oak, there are between two and three hundred
distinct species of _Quercus_ in the Old and New Worlds, many of which
are very beautiful trees, but not one whereof the timber approaches that
of _Quercus robur_ in quality. The foreign oak most commonly seen in
these islands is the Turkey Oak (_Q. cerris_, Linn.), a native of
southern Europe and Asia Minor, which grows to an immense size; it is
invaluable as a shelter for more valuable growths, especially in
maritime exposure, but for little else, as its timber, though very
heavy, is said to be perishable, and certainly produces an excess of sap
wood. "We shall say little," wrote John Evelyn, "of the _Cerris_ or
_Ægilops_, goodly to look on, but for little else."[4]
The ilex, or holm oak (_Quercus ilex_) is another tree which nobody need
think of planting for profit, seeing that it produces timber of little
value except for firing; nevertheless, it is one of the most ornamental
trees that can be grown. Planted in the open, and given some attention
in its youth to keep it to a single leader, it develops into a
stately-domed mass of evergreen foliage, quite distinct in character
from any other tree that flourishes in the British Isles. It would be
sombre, did the leaves not glitter delightfully in sunlight; and in
cloudy weather the wind sweeps up their white undersides and sets them
all a-twinkle.
Although a native of the Mediterranean region, it adapts itself
thoroughly to our climate, being perfectly hardy in all but the coldest
parts of our country, and ripening its acorns plentifully in districts
near the coast. Indeed, it is doubtful whether in its native region many
loftier specimens can be found than one at Rossanagh, in County Wicklow,
which, when I saw it in 1905, was 80 feet high. The tallest recorded by
Mr. Elwes stands in the garden of the Hotel Hassler at Naples,
measuring, in 1910, 90 feet high and 12½ feet in girth.
We commonly follow Roman usage in calling this tree "ilex," nor is it
easy to understand why Linnæus appropriated this name for the holly,
because Pliny plainly distinguishes between them, writing of the holly
as "aquifolium." In English vernacular this oak was known as the holm
oak, which is a corruption of hollen oak--_i.e._ the holly-like oak,
because it is evergreen and the leaves of young plants are spined,
though not so strongly as those of the holly.
Pliny has a great deal to say about this tree. He tells us that in the
Vatican of Rome there was in his day an ilex older than the city,
bearing a brazen plate inscribed with Etruscan characters, showing that
it had been sacred of old. He also states that at Tivoli there were
three holm oaks flourishing which were growing when Tivoli (Tibur) was
founded centuries before Rome. Now, considering that Rome was founded
about B.C. 750, and Pliny died about A.D. 115, it appears that the
traditional age attributed to certain trees in his day was as liberal as
it remains in ours. It would not be rash, however, to venerate the
splendid ilexes in the grounds of the Villa Pamfili and the Villa
Borghese at Rome as lineal descendants of the trees that Pliny loved.
In suitable districts near the sea the ilex is invaluable as shelter.
Once established, it stands the roughest buffeting of storms without
disfigurement. I am writing these notes within a hundred yards of an
ilex at Ardgowan, on the Clyde. It is about 50 feet high, and stands
isolated on a bare lawn, exposed to all the fury of tempests that come
roaring up the firth, twisting its boughs in the most violent manner.
Yet these are so tough as never to be broken, and the tree remains a
model of symmetry and grace.
At Holkham, in Norfolk, there is a large grove of ilex, called the
Obelisk Wood, the like of which for extent is not to be seen, I think,
elsewhere. At Tregothnan, in Cornwall, also an immense number of
ilexes have been planted in a long avenue beside the sea. It is
remarkable--unique, probably--but it is not an arrangement to be
recommended for displaying the peculiar beauty of the trees, which
consists in their massive foliage. The branches meet overhead, and as
you drive along under them the effect is gloomy.
Very near of kin to the ilex is the cork oak (_Q. suber_), which grows
all through the Spanish Peninsula and the Mediterranean region, except
in those parts where limestone or chalk forms the soil. Of all the oak
family, this comparatively humble member is of most importance to
civilised life, for no efficient substitute has been devised for cork in
some of the uses to which it is put. The annual consumption must be
enormous; it is wonderful how the supply is maintained. Having no
qualities to recommend it to the landscape gardener, the cork oak is
only fit for growth in this country as a curiosity, and there only in
the eastern and southern English counties. In the midland and northern
districts it may exist, but cannot rightly thrive.
Many hybrids have been reared from the ilex. One of the choicest is
Turner's oak (_Q. Turneri_), said to have originated in the Holloway
Down Nursery, Essex, in 1795, as a cross between the ilex and the common
English oak. It is of moderate stature, not greatly exceeding 50 feet,
and is semi-evergreen, retaining its leaves, which are of a bright,
rather light green, till February. The Lucombe oak (_Q. Lucombeana_) is
also sub-evergreen, a hybrid between the ilex and the Turkey oak (_Q.
cerris_), but is a much loftier tree than Turner's oak; the foliage
inclines in colour to the ilex, but the leaves approach those of the
Turkey oak in form, the under surfaces being clothed with white down.
This variety was raised about 1765 by William Lucombe, of Exeter.
Another remarkable hybrid, apparently between _Q. ilex_ and _Q. cerris_,
is the Fulham oak, of which the finest example I have seen in Scotland
grows on the banks of the Ayr, in the grounds of Auchencruive.
Although these hybrid oaks ripen acorns, they cannot be relied on to
produce exact counterparts of their parents, the offspring of
cross-bred seeds always tending to revert to one or other type in the
cross.
Of the forty-seven North American species of oak enumerated by Sargent,
none is to be desired by reason of the quality of its timber, which in
every instance is inferior to that of our native species; but three, at
least, have proved their value in this country as highly decorative
trees, owing to the rich tints of the foliage in autumn. These are the
red oak (_Q. rubra_), the scarlet oak (_Q. coccinea_) and the pin oak
(_Q. palustris_). These are all trees of great stature, the pin oak
having already exceeded 100 feet in height in England, presenting a
gorgeous display when its leaves turn scarlet in the fall. In Scotland,
however, the summer is not always warm enough to produce these fine
colours; in wet, cold seasons the foliage remains green till the early
frost blights it into brown.
Among oaks of the Old World, the Hungarian oak (_Q. conferta_ syn.
_pannonica_) and the Algerian oak (_Q. mirbeckii_) are the most
ornamental, and have proved amenable to British conditions. As a
curiosity, a sheltered corner may be found for the Japanese _Quercus
acuta_, a small evergreen tree with large laurel-like leaves, quite
hardy, but apt to be broken by snow. In the absence of flowers or
acorns, it would puzzle anyone to identify this tree as a member of the
great clan of oaks.
The Beech
Among all the trees of British woodland none excels the beech in grace,
vigour, and hardihood. It is not indigenous to Scotland; indeed, it is
only in recent years that it has been recognised as a true native of
southern Britain, its remains having been identified in post-tertiary
beds at Southampton, Cromer, and some other places in East Anglia.
Previous to that discovery, botanists had accepted Julius Caesar's
assurance that the tree he called "fagus" did not grow in Britain
(_Bellum Gallicum_, v. 12). But popular names for plants are never to be
relied on, and although it is certain that Pliny (_Nat. Hist._ xvi. 6)
described the beech under the name "fagus," it seems equally clear that
Virgil (_Georgics_, ii. 71) applied it to the sweet chestnut. The
confusion arose, no doubt, from the application of a Greek word
signifying food to two species of tree very different from each other,
but each producing edible fruit.
Although the beech (_Fagus sylvatica_, Linn.) cannot be reckoned as an
aboriginal native of Scotland, it is long since it received letters of
naturalisation in that country, and has taken so kindly to the northern
soil and climate that it may no longer be considered an alien. Indeed,
it is in Scotland that the mightiest beech in the United Kingdom,
perhaps in the world, is to be seen; not the loftiest, but one
containing the largest amount of timber. This is the famous tree at
Newbattle Abbey, near Dalkeith. Eighty years ago the indefatigable John
Loudon measured it, and found it to be 88 feet high. In 1906 the equally
indefatigable Mr. H. J. Elwes took its dimensions, and ascertained them
to be as follows:
Ft. Ins.
Height 105 0
Girth of bole, at the ground 43 8
Do., at 1 foot up 37 0
Do., at 2½ feet up 27 8
Do., at 3 feet up 25 9½
Do., at 4 feet up 23 1½
Do., at 4½ feet up 21 11½
Do., at 5 feet up 20 3½
Do., at 6 feet up 19 7½
Truly an amazing edifice of sound timber; how long has it taken in the
building? Normally, the beech is not long-lived compared with the oak,
the yew, the Corsican pine, and some other trees grown in British
woodland. Its "expectation of life" does not exceed 200 years. When it
gets near that age it sometimes dies in a night, so to speak, expiring
suddenly while apparently in full vigour. At other times it gets
stag-headed, a sure sign of flagging vitality, and becomes infested with
parasites, especially the felted beech-scale (_Cryptococcus fagi_),
which administer the _coup de grâce_.
But the Newbattle beech is probably much more than 200 years old. Mr.
Elwes estimates its age at 300 years. It has adopted a plan for
prolonging its existence by allowing its great branches to droop to the
ground, where seven of them have taken root, whence they have sprung up
afresh and form a perfect grove still maintaining connection with the
parent tree. Some of these subsidiary trees are already forty feet high
and five feet in girth; and if, as is possible, they continue to
contribute to the nourishment of their parent, the life of the original
stem may be prolonged indefinitely.
There are at least three other beeches in Scotland taller than the
Newbattle monster--namely, at Hopetoun House, at Blairdrummond, and at
Methven Castle; but all of these must yield the palm to the Queen Beech
at Ashridge Park, Hertfordshire. Mr. Elwes measured this tree in 1903,
and "made it as nearly as possible to be 135 feet high (certainly over
130), and this is the greatest height I know any deciduous tree, except
the elm, to have attained in Great Britain. Its girth was 12 feet 3
inches, and its bole straight and branchless for about 80 feet, so that
its contents must be about 400 cubic feet to the first limb."[5] It may
be noted in passing that elsewhere in his book Mr. Elwes has recorded
certain deciduous trees even taller than the Queen Beech. For instance,
on page 365 he mentions larches at Croft Castle, Herefordshire, 150 feet
high; on page 873 he records having measured an ash at Cobham Hall,
Kent, 143 feet high, and on page 1820 the height of the black Italian
poplar at Albury Park, Surrey, is estimated at 150 feet.
[Illustration: QUEEN BEECH AT ASHRIDGE
REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION FROM _The Gardeners' Chronicle_]
Beech timber is not held in high repute in the United Kingdom generally,
being hard, brittle and perishable under weather exposure, although it
is extremely durable under water. I have examined some of the beechen
logs which were laid to strengthen the foundations of Winchester
Cathedral in the extremely wet peat and shifty gravel which seam the
site. For seven hundred years these logs have lain in the ground,
faithfully fulfilling the function assigned to them of supporting the
Lady Chapel erected by Bishop Godfrey de Lucy in the last few years of
his life (he died in 1204), yet they are still perfectly hard and sound,
having acquired with age a peculiar wan pearly hue.
In the north we reckon beechen slabs to be the best material for
drain-tile soles in wet land. The timber is put to higher purpose in
Buckinghamshire, where the extensive beech forests about High Wycombe
and Newport Pagnell afford one of the few examples of systematic
wood-craft in England. The trees are regularly grown and felled in
rotation to supply the chairmaking industry, clean timber commanding, as
it stands, a price of 1s. to 1s. 6d. a cubic foot. It has been asserted
that the very name Buckingham is derived from the Anglo-Saxon _boc_, a
beech; but it appears in the _Winchester Chronicle_ as Buccingaham,
which indicates its origin in a family named Buccing, descended from an
ancestor or chief called Bucca, the Buck. Howbeit, we are incessantly,
though unconsciously, using the Anglo-Saxon _boc_, for it was smooth
tablets or panels of beech that formed the primitive "book." In like
manner crept in the term "leaves" of a book, because the foliage of
_papyrus_ preceded paper, which is the same word.
The beech is distinguished for three qualities beyond every other native
of British woodland. First, by its abundant leaf-fall it promotes the
formation of forest _humus_--the rich vegetable soil so essential to
vigorous tree growth--more speedily and effectively than any other tree.
Secondly, it bears shade better than any other broad-leaved tree;
indeed, the only trees of any kind that approach it in this respect are
the hornbeam and the silver fir. These two qualities make the beech best
of all trees for under-planting; for, while the young beeches nourish
the older trees by their leaf-fall and by checking evaporation from the
soil, they are themselves preparing as a successional crop for the time
when the old trees are ripe for felling. The third distinguishing
quality of the beech is its unrivalled merit as firewood. None other
throws out so much heat or burns so steadily; though it is a curious
fact that the hornbeam, belonging to a different genus from the beech,
mimics it in its foliage, is nearly as patient of overhead shade,
produces timber closely resembling that of beech in appearance and
quality, and, as fuel, yields very nearly as much heat.
Besides the felted beech louse, _Cryptococcus fagi_, referred to above,
the beech is liable to be attacked when young by the deadly fungus
_Nectria ditissima_. The trees affected should be felled and burnt so
soon as the canker characteristic of that plague manifests itself, for
they never can recover. The singular disease called "beech-snap," which
causes the stem to break off abruptly at 15 or 20 feet from the ground,
is attributable to the fungus _Polyporus adustus_, though _Nectria_ is
generally present also on the trees affected.
The common beech has sported into many varieties. Those most commonly
planted are the purple and copper beeches, which are far from being the
same, as many people seem to think they are. A well-grown purple beech,
such as that near the south-west corner of Osterley House, Isleworth (to
name one out of very many fine specimens which exist in the United
Kingdom), is a truly magnificent object, the rich, but subdued, depth of
colour showing in charming contrast with other foliage, yet so soft as
never to jar with it. This variety is said to have originated in a
forest in the canton of Zurich, where, according to the legend, five
brothers fought, three of whom fell, and from the soil where each lay
grew a purple-leaved beech.
As for the copper beech, had I the chance of stopping the supply, I
should not hesitate to do so, for the foliage, as I think, has a
disagreeable metallic hue that consorts well with nothing else. Before
purchasing young purple beeches, it is prudent to visit the nursery when
they are in leaf, or you may be served with copper beeches, and not
discover the mistake till it is too late. The mast or seed of both
purple and copper beeches yield a large proportion of seedlings in the
parental livery; but no beech, green or purple, bears mast till it is at
least forty years old.
The fern-leafed beech is no improvement on the type, and grows with the
ungraceful pose of a grafted plant; but the weeping beech, which also
has to be propagated by grafts, sometimes develops into an object of
great beauty.
Of three or four exotic species of beech in the Northern Hemisphere
there is but one, the American beech (_F. ferruginea_), which would be a
gain to ornamental planting in the British Isles. Our own beech has a
pretty bark, but that of the American species outshines it as silver
does pewter. Unluckily, like many other growths of the Eastern States,
it fails utterly to accommodate itself to the British climate. Visitors
to Boston, Massachusetts, should not fail to see the group of beeches in
the Arnold Arboretum at Brookline.
[Illustration: THE CHAIRMAKER, BUCKINGHAM BEECH WOODS]
There are seventeen species of beech native of South America and
Australasia. These have now been classified as a distinct genus,
_Nothofagus_, that is, southern beech. Two of them appear to agree with
British soil and climate, namely, the evergreen _N. betuloides_, whereof
I have no experience, and the deciduous _N. obliqua_, of which two
seedlings, raised from seed brought from Chile by Mr. Elwes in 1902,
were sent me from Kew in 1906 to experiment on their hardiness. These
have grown vigorously, having endured 20° of frost without wincing, and
are now [1914] about 20 feet high; but, owing to their leafing fully a
fortnight earlier than our native beech, they are more apt to be seared
by late frost. In its native country this species equals our own beech
in stature and bulk, its timber being largely used for railway sleepers,
building, etc. Moreover, judging from the very few young plants in this
country, it is an exceedingly ornamental tree. Of the other southern
species, six are large evergreen trees, natives of Australia, New
Zealand and Tasmania, not capable of enduring the British climate,
except, perhaps, in the mildest districts of the south and west.
There are still, I believe, among the loyal subjects of King George V.
persons who profess to be Jacobites, as there are undoubtedly thousands
who cherish the memory of Prince Charles Edward as a precious national
heritage. For these, the beeches that droop over the swift-running
Arkaig at Lochiel's place of Achnacarry must have a mournful
significance. In the spring of 1745, Donald Cameron of Lochiel, already
advanced in years, was busy, in common with many other Scottish lairds,
in developing the resources of his estates by draining, reclaiming, and
planting trees. The union of the English and Scottish Legislatures had
brought peace and security to the northern kingdom such as it had not
known since the death of Alexander III. in 1286, and landowners felt
encouraged for the first time to apply themselves to useful enterprise.
Suddenly Prince Charlie landed at Borrodale on 28th July, and summoned
Lochiel and the other Highland chiefs to his standard. Lochiel, well
knowing the hopelessness of the enterprise, started to obey the summons,
thoroughly determined to dissuade the Prince from going forward with it.
His brother, John Cameron of Fassifern, begged him not to meet the
Prince. "For," said he, "I know you far better than you know yourself,
and if the Prince once sets eyes upon you, he will make you do what he
pleases." Fassifern was but too just in his forecast. It happened
exactly as he had said. Lochiel at first flatly refused to bring out his
clan; but in the end yielded to the Prince's persuasion, returned home,
marshalled fourteen hundred men, and took part in all the phases of that
hare-brained campaign, till he was carried off the field of Culloden
severely wounded.
During Lochiel's absence a quantity of young beech trees had arrived at
Achnacarry from the south to his order. They were heeled in a long row
beside the river, awaiting his instructions. But the chief "came back to
Lochaber no more." He lingered a couple of years in exile, his estates
forfeited, his person proclaimed, and he died in 1748. The beeches were
never removed from the trench where they had been set to await his
return. They have grown up in a rank of silvery stems, so closely
serried that between some of them a man's body may not pass. Winds of
winter wail a coronach among the bare boughs; in summer the leafy
branches stoop low upon the hurrying water; at the sunniest noontide
there reigns deep gloom under that crowded grove. No more pathetic
memorial could be designed for a lost cause and for him whom men spoke
of as "the gentle Lochiel."
The Spanish Chestnut
The sweet or Spanish chestnut (_Castanea sativa_, Miller) cannot be
reckoned indigenous to the British Isles, nor is there any evidence in
support of the common belief that it was introduced during the Roman
occupation. It is, however, far from improbable that the Roman colonists
sowed some of the fruit which they imported as food, and, finding that
the young trees took kindly to our soil and climate, continued to
cultivate them.
[Illustration: SPANISH CHESTNUT IN WINTER]
[Illustration: SPANISH CHESTNUT IN SUMMER]