196 EEV. CANON GEE — WINDSOE FOEEST 



But Royal trees are common in Windsor. The ground round the 

 Mausoleum is full of them. Every tree there has an illustrious 

 patron and planter. The practice is kept up. There are some 

 oaks planted in 1882 by Princess Christian's daughters, and there 

 is one tree mournfully dear to the present Royal house as planted 

 by her Majesty herself on the edge of the Flemish Farm at the spot 

 where the Prince Consort ended his last day's shooting. The 

 photograph representing that ceremony is noteworthy as being the 

 first representation of the Princess of Wales taking any part in a 

 transaction on English ground. 



Before leaving the oaks I may mention that it is a doubted 

 point whether any mistletoe has ever been found upon them. It 

 seems established that the oak is, with all respect for the Druids 

 and their golden sickle, the tree to which the mistletoe takes least 

 kindly. London is supplied, as regards its kitchens and staircases, 

 at Christmas, chiefly from Normandy ; but in Herefordshire, where 

 the mistletoe attracts your eye, even as you pass in the railway 

 through the apple-orchards, there is next to none on the oak-trees. 

 Only two instances are known in the whole county, and only six 

 in all England have been traced by intelligent botanists. Where 

 it is found on an oak, mistletoe has a more delicate appearance 

 than when on other trees, with pensile leaves, as if the tonic flavour 

 of its strong juices were hardly digestible. 



I feel that though my paper almost limits me to trees, I may to a 

 Natural History Society say something about the fauna of the forest, 

 or rather its introduced inhabitants, the deer, herons, and wild boars. 

 Yes, wild boars ! They exist now in the Great Park, but are confined 

 within a small enclosure of 18 acres. They are more recent than 

 myself in their residence in Windsor. They are a present from 

 the Prince of Wales to her Majesty, and were collected by him 

 during his Indian and other journeys. Some are Indian, and some, 

 I believe, are of German extraction. They are now 23 in number, 

 including sows and pigs. I do not myself consider them impressive 

 as specimens of the Pachydermata. The fact is that by breeding 

 and feeding we have so increased the size of the wild animal, that 

 the original ancestor does not seem very large when compared with 

 his really degenerate descendant. This is very noticeable when 

 you see the wild cattle of Chillingham or Cadzow. There is a 

 specimen in the British Museum of the early English Bos, which 

 would look very small by the side of a prize bull. The interest in 

 visiting the boars in our park is to observe what is their power of 

 turning up the ground when left to do this at their own sweet will. 

 They are shot when their life has run its prescribed length, and 

 her Majesty at Osborne has had boar's head at her Christmas table 

 which was more nearly like that supplied to the Plantagenet Princes 

 than is generally supposed to be the case. 



Of course there are herds of deer in the park. I am told that 

 there are 1600 head of fallow-deer maintained, besides 150 red-deer 

 and 15 white harts. Many more persons than we have generally 

 any notion of are entitled by precedent or long usage to venison 



