HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



201 



hand of time, as measured in our butterfly lives^ 

 can make upon the tough old frame of such a 

 veteran as this. In the year 1820 the circumference 

 of the trunk in the middle was 40 feet, and on the 

 25th of Jidy, 1873, it is exactly the same ; showing 

 either that he of the scythe and hour-glass has, for 

 the last 53 years, given up his attacks upon him as 

 a bad job, or that our old friend is tired of keeping 

 his birthdays after the wont of trees, and of 

 registering his age by an annual increase of his 

 circumference. 



So much for the past,— and now for future pro- 

 spects. I beg, then, to recommend his life for 

 assurance to any office whose directors are inclined 

 to make a good stroke of business, for verily, as far 

 as I can ascertain, his health has undergone no 

 change for the worse during the present century, 

 and we have some pretty strong evidence that he is 

 as vigorous and well (or even more so) as he was 

 about the year 1796, for in the Gardener's Magazine 

 ■A correspondent, writing in 1836, says of this tree,— 

 " Is is said to be very much altered of late ; but I 

 own I did not think so when I saw it about a 

 month ago (May, 1836), and my acquaintance with 

 the veteran is of more than forty years' standing, — an 

 important portion of my life, but a mere span of his 

 own." If this writer is to depended upon, the condi- 

 tion of the tree must have undergone a marvellous 

 improvement between the date of his communica- 

 tion and the present time, for he further says : — 

 " It is; now a mere shell, a mighty ruin, bleached 

 to a snowy white, but it is magnificent in its decay. 

 The only mark of vitality it exhibits is on the 

 south side, where a narrow strip of bark sends 

 forth a few branches, which even now occasionally 

 produce acorns." But this description by no 

 means does justice to the oak at the present date, 

 for although it may be called a shell and a mighty 

 I'uin, the snowy whiteness (which may have been 

 attributable to some lichen which has now disap- 

 peared) is no longer observable, and instead of the 

 narrow strip of bark and the few branches said 

 then to constitute the only mark of vitality, a 

 vigorous limb is now covered thickly with dense 

 and healthy foliage and young fruit, and our 

 Norfolk monarch may still be called iu a green old 

 age. fourteen or fifteen persons might easily sit 

 round a table in his interior. 



In an adjoining meadow is another magnificent 

 oak, which may with more propriety be called a 

 ruin, for only a few branches give evidence of life. 

 The circumference of this tree is 30 feet at 3 feet 

 from the ground. It is far more favourably placed 

 for observation than its more ancient neighbour. 



In conclusion, let me express a hope that some gen- 

 tleman, now peradventure in his swaddling-clothes, 

 Mall take the trouble just fifty years hence (July, 

 1933) of visiting these venerable objects, and of 

 reporting on their changes ; by doing which he will 



greatly oblige— not exactly myself — but some future 

 lover and reader of Science-Gossip. 



Note. — Much interesting information concerning 

 this and other ancient trees will be found in the 

 Rev. C. A. John's " Forest Trees of Britain," and 

 in the third volume of Loudon's " Arboretum at 

 Fruticetum Britannicum," where two sketches of 

 the Winfarthing Oak are given. 



Diss, Norfolk. T. E. A. 



RAMBLES AMONG THE MODERN 

 VOLCANOES OF ITxVLY. 



ALTHOUGH we know not for certain which 

 of the various volcanic groups of the west of 

 Italy came into action first, — whether those imme- 

 diately north or south of Rome, those of the 

 Phlegrsean Fields, or Vesuvius, — yet, as regards their 

 present aspect, while the volcanoes of the district 

 round Rome have entirely ceased to show any signs 

 of activity, and there are no historical records of 

 any such, those of the Phlegrsean Fields may in 

 some cases be considered as still active — such 

 as the Solfatara — and several eruptions are on 

 record ; while lastly, Vesuvius, after having been 

 apparently long quiescent previous to the year 

 A.D. 79, is now in a state of permanent and 

 vigorous activity. So that, in noticing a few of the 

 most marked phenomena of the modern volcanic 

 rocks of western Italy, the proper plan will be to 

 begin with the Roman volcanoes, thence pass to the 

 Phlegraian Fields, and lastly touch briefly upon 

 Vesuvius. 



The Alban Hills may be taken as a good sample 

 of volcanic action in the Roman area, and the 

 Alban Mount forms a most excellent type of vol- 

 canoes in general. 



Perhaps one of the most instructive ways of visit- 

 ing this extinct volcano is to proceed by rail from 

 Rome to Albano station, walk up the hill through 

 the towns of Albano and Ariccia, and thence 

 through the woods above one end of the Alban 

 Lake to the summit, returning through the crater 

 to Rocca di Papa, and across to Frascati, where 

 rail may again be taken into Rome. 



Starting then from Albano station, a good sec- 

 tion of a lava-current is soon met with where the 

 high road crosses a small stream. This old lava 

 is a somewhat fine-grained [greenish-grey basalt, 

 with scattered crystals of green augite. As the 

 road is ascended, beds of ash arc seen of some- 

 what varying consistency and degrees of fineness, 

 some layers being evidently currents of liquid ashy 

 mud, and exhibiting sometimes apparent instances 

 of false bedding, while upon them, or dovetailing 

 into them, are layers of coarser material, approach- 

 ing even to a breccia. Such sections are met with 

 in the roadside cuttings before reaching the town 



