FAGUS. QUERCUS. 185 



to R. inodora), the two lateral ones being shortly urceolate. The 

 circumference of one of the first, that I have plucked merely in 

 passing, is 2^ inches. The fleshy part is thick and pulpy, and the 

 persisting calycine leaflets are almost like miniature leaves, from the 

 development they have acquired. The leaves, and especially the 

 stipules, are likewise much magnified ; the upper sides of the leaflets 

 are nearly glabrous, as are the peduncles and fruit. The double 

 dentition of the leaflets is almost lost, the secondary set of teeth 

 being raised nearly to the rank of the primary. The change is also 

 very striking both in the foliage and fruit of Rosa canina, which 

 bears here a full complement of fruit, in a complete triple series. 

 The fruit also is very unlike the puny, fleshless hips on inland 

 bushes, and the primary one rivals in magnitude the largest of the 

 inland fruits of R. tomentosa. The stipules and leaflets are also 

 much enlarged, the latter belonging to the form named sarmentacca. 

 These appearances I ascribe partly, as in the ligneous plants, to 

 their being kept constantly in a youthful condition, from their being 

 subject to repeated blasts, and from their annual efforts made to 

 retrieve the damage thus inflicted by the production of young shoots. 

 Something also may be owing to the increased humidity of the at- 

 mosphere, and the equable temperature prevailing on the coast ; and 

 if an analysis of the foliage could be obtained, it would perhaps be 

 found that an exchange of alkalies had taken place in the com- 

 position of the plants, soda having taken the place of potash. This 

 frequently occurs in inland plants cultivated in the neighbourhood of 

 the sea, and it has been remarked that the oaks of Rhode Island, in 

 America, have made the substitution referred to." J. Hardy. 



24. Fagus sylvatica. Ci)C JStcci). Plantations, pleasure-grounds, 

 and hedge-rows. A fine Beech, on the banks of the Blackadder at 

 Allanbank, must be about 15 feet in girth at a man's height from 

 the ground. — The young zigzag stems are used for whip shafts. 



25. Castanea vulgaris. 1!Ll)t Cijc^tnut. Introduced by the Ro- 

 mans into Britain. Not uncommon in plantations, attaining a large 

 size in a favourable soil. " At Belford Hall, in Northumberland, 

 upon a free loam over the whintrap, at about seventy years old, it is 

 from seventy to eighty feet high, the circumference of the trunk 

 about ten feet." P. J. Selby, For. Trees, p. 335. — A Spanish 

 Chestnut at Bemerside is 1 9 feet at two feet from the ground ; and 

 its stem continues to measure a few inches less than this to the 

 height of nine feet, when the limbs begin to spring out ; and when 

 the girth greatly increases. The age of the tree is not known. 



529. QuERCUs ROBUR. Ci)C (©nfe : ^ih-txtt. In woods and 

 deans. 



530. Q. SESSiLiFLORA. With the preceding, and perhaps the 

 commoner of the two, provided we can draw any certain limits 

 between them, which does not appear to be the fact. See Dr. Gre- 

 ^ille's Observations in Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin. i. p. 65. 



Oak trunks of a large size have been occasionally dug out of 



