H. BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 349 



enous to a very different climate. Transactions Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society^ 1876, 70. 



AN AGED OAK. 



Mr. Arayot gives a very interesting account of the Win- 

 farthino" Oak. He states that at the time of the Norman 

 Conquest a forest occupied the spot now known as Winfar- 

 thing ; and in the reign of Henry IH. a large park, well stock- 

 ed with deer, covered the spot. The old oak is said to have 

 been called "an old oak" in the time of William the Con- 

 queror. Nor does this seem incredible, if we compare tlie 

 measurements still extant with regard to it. The tree was 

 first measured by Mr. Marsham in 1744, when its circumfer- 

 ence was thirty-eight feet and seven inches. Its present cir- 

 cumference being forty feet, shows it to have increased seven- 

 teen inches in one hundred and thirty years. In 1820 the 

 circumference of the tree at the middle part of its trunk is 

 stated to have been forty feet. The best estimates that can 

 be made of its age are based upon the average growth of 

 oak-trees in that neighborhood, and show that it can not be 

 less than fifteen hundred years old. Trans. Norfolk and 

 Norwich Nat. Soc, 11. , 12. 



WAXY MATTER ON BEECH BAEK. 



A green felty mass, formed on the bark of beech -trees, 

 doubtless through the agency of some insect, was investi- 

 gated by Flilckinger and A. Kopp. It had a greasy feel, and 

 under the microscope exhibited thin cylindrical, bent, and 

 twisted fibres, which readily broke up into smaller pieces. 

 A small quantity of other undeterminable substances accom- 

 panying it gave no clew to its origin. Water had but little 

 effect upon it, and the extract was tasteless, and without re- 

 action on litmus. The wax extracted from the crude ma- 

 terial with boiling bisulphide of carbon, and purified by re- 

 peated crystallizations out of its solution in the bisulphide, 

 formed white scales, which fused at 178 to 180. Neither 

 its analysis nor its reactions indicated identity with Chinese 

 wax, (Pe-la)-cerotyl-cerotate, but its composition seemed to 

 be that of cerotic acid, obtainable from Chinese wax, al- 

 though the acid reaction of the solution of cerotic acid was 

 wanting. 18 C, September 1, 1875, 548. 



