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CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE BRITISH OAKS. 



By the Rev. H. COOPER KEY, M.A., Vice-president. 



After our anniversary dinner last year a good many objections were raised 

 against my estimate of the comparative values of our two isrincipal British oaks, 

 the Sessiliflora and Pedunculata. These objections were so various and ran to 

 such a length that I was quite viuable to reply to them at the time, but shortly 

 afterwards I di-ew up a paper in which I gave a detailed answer to each. This 

 paper I had intended to read on the present occasion, but I abstained from 

 doing so for two reasons ;— fiist because our time this evening is limited, and 

 secondly because it has come to my knowledge that the whole question in dispute 

 has been aheady before a competent tribunal, and has been, I may say, 

 authoritively settled once before all, as I will presently show. 



First of all, however, I wish to make a few observations on one or two 

 objections which were raised this time last year. 



Mr. Blashill, from one of his remarks, seemed to think that we have but 

 "two indigenous forest oaks, the Pedunculata and Sessiliflora. He spoke of the 

 " Durmast or Sessiliflora," saying "you must not mention the New Forest — the 

 home of the Durmast or Sessilijiora oak — to a jjurchaser of ship timber." Now 

 the fact is, the Durmast is a quite different kind of oak, it is not the Sessiliflora, 

 it is a third variety, and goes by several names in different parts of England, 

 Buch as Quercus atrovirens. intermedia, pubcscens or bastard oak. Indeed it is 

 evident that this fact, of there being a third and worthless variety bearing some 

 resemblance to the Sessiliflora in the leaf and fruit, though not in the habit, — 

 having been overlooked, has caused a good deal of confusion, and very much 

 damaged the character of that valuable species the true Sessiliflora, 



Again, there is one more point I had stated, that the Pedunculata timber 

 was weakened by the existence of the principal medullary rays, well known as 

 the flower in the grain of the wood, and that where the flower was prominent, 

 when split or broken it invariably fractured at the spot. Mr. Blashill denied this 

 statement altogether, and said that "the French call this cross-grain or flower 

 the maiUe, i.e., the stitch, from the idea that it holds and gives solidity to the 

 other grain." Now, the fact is, that the word maille, thus apphed, does not 

 mean stitch at all, it simply means the spot or 7narJc in the grain. The word is 

 derived from the Latin macula, a spot. It came thence to mean the interstices 

 between woven fabrics of any material, and was specially applied to chain armour, 

 hence our "coat of mail." And when we speak of a meadow imaille de tleurs, 

 we mean spotted over, or enamelled with flowers, the word enamelled being 

 from the same origin. 



There is one other point I wish to mention. Mr. AVells found that his 

 seedlings of Q. Pedunculata rather outstripped those of Q, Sessiliflora and 



