To Face Supplementary Plate No. 368.
SCOTS PINE IN GLEN MAILLIE
The remarkable tree which is here figured, though the size of the plate is insufficient to do it justice, is a larger one than any of those mentioned in Vol. III. of this work. I am not sure whether it is the same tree of which Capt. Ellice had sent mea sketch, and which is mentioned on p. 588. Though much injured by the breaking of two of the large limbs, it was still healthy when I saw it in 1910. The trunk in the smallest place near the ground measured 18 ft. 1 in., and at five feet from the ground, below the fork, 22 ft. in girth. Its height is about 75 ft. An unusual feature in this tree is a young pine about 25 ft. high and 2 ft. 9 in. in girth, which has grown from a seed dropped in the fork of the old tree; and which has now become as completely united with the sound wood of the trunk as if it was a true branch. A good-sized birch and a small rowan are also growing as epiphytes on the trunk.
The primæval forest, in which this tree is probably the largest, is in my judgment the finest in Scotland, and extends from a little above sea-level up to 700 or 800 feet. The largest trees in it are probably over 300 years old, and grow on dry ridges among patches of peat covered with long heather and intersected by small watercourses. A few hollies, rowans, and birches are scattered among the pines; but few seedlings of the latter are visible owing to the presence of deer. There are many fine timber trees, as well as trees attractive to the naturalist. Among them is one 74 ft. high and 13 ft. in girth, which has three tall clean stems of equal size, dividing at about 10 feet from the ground and remaining close together for a considerable height.
In Lochiel’s house at Achnacarry there is a beautiful water-colour, painted in 1847 by I. Giles, of a pine called “The Fir of Gusach,” which formerly grew on the shore of Loch Arkaig, but has long ago disappeared. It was remarkably similar in form and size to the tree now figured.
