350 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



THE SIZE OF FAMOUS OAKS. 



The following table, compiled from data given by Amyot, 

 will be of interest to some. It purports to give the approxi- 

 mate, or, if possible, the exact age, and the dimensions of 

 some of the famous and larger oak-trees in England : 



The Winfarthing Oak; circumference, 40 feet; age, 1500 

 years. 



The smaller Winfarthing Oak; circumference, 30 feet. 



The St. Edmund's Oak, at Iloxne, to which King Edmund 

 was bound by the Danes in 870, and pierced by their arrows ; 

 circumference, 18 feet. 



The twelve oaks at Brome Hall, near Diss ; circumference 

 varying from 11 feet down to T^ feet, the average being 9 

 feet and 2 inches. They are all uniformly of the same age, 

 125 years. 



Cowper's Oak ; circumference, 47 feet ; age, over 1500 years. 



Cowthorpe Oak; circumference, 48 feet; age, 1600 years. 



LeddinOak; circumference, 30^ feet; age unknown. "Too 

 old for naval timber" in Cromwell's time. 



King's Oak at Windsor ; circumference, 26 feet ; age about 

 1000 years. " Favorite tree with William the Conqueror." 



Flitton Oak; circumference, 33 feet; age, 1000 years. 



SwilearLawn Oak; circumference in 1830 was 19 feet ; at 

 present 21 feet 4 inches. "Knowm to have been a large tree 

 600 years ago." Age, 1000 years or more. 



Bentley Oak; circumference in 1759, 34 feet. Trcms. N'or- 

 folk arid Norwich Nat. Soc, II., 11. 



OAKS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



According to Dr. George Engelmann (vide Transactions of 

 Academy of Science, St. Louis, vol. iii.,]Sro. 3), the oaks arrange 

 themselves into two great groups, the White oaks and the 

 Black oaks. 



" The White oaks are characterized by paler, often scaly, 

 bark, tougher and denser wood, and sessile or subsessile 

 stigmas, and bear the abortive ovules at the base, or rarely 

 on the side of the perfect seed. Besides this, the leaves and 

 their lobes or teeth are obtuse, never bristle-pointed, though 

 sometimes spinous-tipped ; their stamens are more numerous, 

 the scales of the cup more or less knobby at base, the inner 



