not have arrived at the size which they possessed in a less period than about three hundred years; and though he does not say upon what evidence the opinion is grounded, Gilpin notices, in his Forest Scenery, a few venerable oaks in the New Forest, that chronicle upon their furrowed trunks ages before the Conquest."

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Some out of the number of ancient oaks that are celebrated, it may not be uninteresting to mention : -One of the three in Donnington Park, the King's oak, was fifty feet high before a bough or even a knot appeared, and the base of it squared five feet entirely solid; the Queen's oak was straight as a line for forty feet, then divided into two immense arms, and the base of it squared to four feet; and Chaucer's Oak, said to have been planted by the poet, though inferior to the royal ones, was still a most stately tree. The Framlingham oak (Suffolk), used in the construction of the Royal Sovereign, was four feet nine inches square, and yielded four square beams, each fortyfour feet in length. An oak felled at Withy Park, Shropshire, in 1697, was nine feet in diameter, without the bark; there were twenty-eight tons of timber in the body alone; and the spread of the top, from bough to bough, was one hundred and fortyfour feet. In Holt Forest, Hampshire, there was an oak, which, at seven feet from the ground, was thirty-four feet in circumference in 1759; and twenty years after, the circumference had not increased half an inch. Dr. Plott mentions an oak at Norbury, which was of the enormous circumference of fortyfive feet; and when it was felled, and lying flat upon the ground, two horsemen, one on each side of the trunk, were concealed from each other. The same author mentions an oak at Keicot, under the shade of which four thousand three hundred and seventy-four men had sufficient room to stand. The Boddington oak, in the vale of Gloucester, was fifty-four feet in

circumference at the base. The larger arms and branches were gone in 1783; and the hollow cavity was sixteen feet in its largest diameter, with the top formed into a regular dome; while the young twigs on the decayed top had small leaves about the size of those of the hawthorn, and an abundant crop of acorns. The hollow had a door and one window; and little labour might have converted the tree into a commodious and rather a spacious room. The Fairlop oak, in Essex, though inferior in dimensions to the last mentioned, was a tree of immense size,— being between six and seven feet in diameter, at three feet from the ground. Damory's oak in Dorsetshire was the largest oak of which mention is made. Its circumference was sixty-eight feet; and the cavity of it, which was sixteen feet long and twenty feet high, was, about the time of the Commonwealth, used by an old man for the entertainment of travellers, as an ale-house. The dreadful storm in the third year of last century shattered this majestic tree; and in 1755 the last vestiges of it were sold as firewood. An immense oak was dug out of Hatfield bog in Yorkshire. It was a hundred and twenty feet in length, twelve in diameter at the base, ten in the middle, and six at the smaller end where broken off.

Some oaks have been as celebrated for being the records of historical events, as others have been for their magnitude, although a part of the celebrity may no doubt be fabulous. Not a hundred years ago, the oak in the New Forest, against which the arrow of Sir William Tyrrel glanced before it killed William Rufus, is said to have been standing, though in such a state of decay, that Lord Delaware erected a monument to indicate the spot. The Royal Oak at Boscobel, in which Charles the Second concealed himself after the defeat at Worcester, has disappeared; and though several trees were raised from its acorns, the race seems now to be lost to vege

table history. An oak of still more venerable pretensions now stands, or lately stood, at Torwood Wood, in Stirlingshire, under the shadow of which the Scottish patriot Wallace is reported to have convened his followers, and impressed upon them, not only the necessity of delivering their country from the thraldom of Edward, but their power of doing it, if they were so determined. Gilpin mentions one, more ancient even than this-Alfred's oak at Oxford, which was a sapling when that great monarch founded the University. This cannot, of course, be implicitly credited; but still the very mention of such things proves, that the oak can reach an age several times exceeding that of the longest lived of the human race.

Since oak was so much in demand, it has become an object of great attention to planters; and the plants are carefully reared by nurserymen from the acorns. If the saplings are to be of considerable size when planted out in their permanent situations, they are several times transplanted in the nursery. The deformed ones are cut down to the ground, and then a young, vigorous, straight shoot is made, instead of that which was deformed. Some of those who have paid considerable attention to the subject are, however, of opinion, that although transplanting probably accelerates the growth a little, the advantage thereby gained is more than compensated by the deterioration of the timber, which is neither so strong, nor so durable, as that sown by the hand of Nature, or where it is to be allowed to remain without transplanting.

In the "Notes and Illustrations" to Sir Henry Steuart's interesting work*, may be found some important observations on the best method of raising oak timber for naval purposes. Our limits preclude little more than a reference to this subject; but the following principles may be stated as the result of *Planter's Guide, p. 478.

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this writer's observations upon the effect of culture:If trees be in a soil and climate worse than those that are natural to them, then culture will be of some advantage, as the extra increase of wood will be of a quality not inferior to what in its natural state it would obtain; or, in other words, it will correspond with that degree of quality and quantity of timber which the nature of the species admits of being obtained; but culture, in this case, must be applied with cautious discrimination, and a sound judgment. On the other hand, if trees be in a better soil and climate than are natural to them, and, at the same time, that the annual increase of wood be promoted by culture, it will be a decided disadvantage, and deteriorate the wood. In the same way, if trees be in their natural state, the annual increase of timber, obtained by culture, will injure its quality, in a degree corresponding with the increased quantity."

Of the various European oaks, the Quercus pedunculata is the most esteemed on the Continent. It is a magnificent tree, considerably taller than our native oak. In the forests of Fontainebleau and of Compiègne there are at this day many trees of this species, the trunks of which measure from thirty to thirty-six feet in circumference at the base, and rise to the height of forty feet without a single branch. Beautiful as this species is, it produces, however, timber very inferior to our Quercus robur. It is probable that the species which is indifferently designated by French botanists Quercus robur, and Quercus sessiliflora, is a species entirely different from our real English oak; for the wood of the Quercus pedunculata is described by these writers as harder and more compact than that of the robur or sessiliflora. The Quercus alba of North America very much resembles the Quercus pedunculata. It is found in all the countries of the United States, from

Florida up to Canada. It is the species chiefly used in ship-building, and for houses; and casks for liquors are principally made of it, as those of the red oak will only contain dry goods. Considerable quantities of this timber are imported into England. Parkinson relates that the Indians extracted an oil from the acorns of this species, with which they prepared their food. The quercitron (Quercus tinctoria) is, after the white oak, commonly preferred for the construction of houses in the United States. The bark of this species affords a yellow dye, which is a considerable article of commerce; it is used for dyeing silk and wool. The quercitron is employed by the Americans in tanning leather, chiefly on account of its abundance; but the yellow colour which it imparts to skins is considered a defect, and is generally removed by a subsequent chemical process. In the United States, the bark of almost every sort of tree is used for tanning; the abundance with which it is procured rendering selection less necessary. In England, oak bark is almost exclusively applied to this purpose, as it contains the largest quantity of tannin of any known substance. The leaves of some trees may be so applied. The Chinese use the coarser leaves of the tea-tree in the preparation of leather.

A fine oak is one of the most picturesque of trees. It conveys to the mind associations of strength and duration, which are very impressive. The oak stands up against the blast, and does not take, like other trees, a twisted form from the action of the winds. Except the cedar of Lebanon, no tree is so remarkable for the stoutness of its limbs; they do not exactly spring from the trunk, but divide from it; and thus it is sometimes difficult to know which is stem and which is branch. The twisted branches of the oak, too, add greatly to its beauty; and the hori