THE AGE OF TREES [To the Editor of TI1E SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—In The Spectator of February 16th I was very much surprised to read a paragraph, on that charming page of " Country Life," in which the statement is made that it is " dOubtful whether any single tree in Britain is known to be a thouiand years' old."
Of the many old and remarkable trees in England alone this is a very sweeping statement to make, but 'in Scotland there s is one tree *hose antiquity has been the subject of much inquiry' and examination by competent authorities — namely, the old yew-tree of Fortingall. In an exhaustive report report by the late- Sir RObert Christison, he reckoned the t
to be about 3,000 years Old. Pennant, in his " Tour " mck- tions having seen the Yew-tree of Fortingall in the year 1761, when it was 56 feet in circumference. From measurements taken in the year 1769 by De Candolle, this authority assigned 2,500 to 2,600 years for the age of the tree ; but Sir Robert Christison, a century later, considered -De Candolle to have been well within the mark in his calculations. The tree today is but a shell—" the skeleton of a ghost," one might almost say ; but there it stands a link with untold centuries.—I am,
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