CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 187 



The timber fmind in o)ir oldest buildings is of Oak. The door of the inner 

 chapel of Westminster Abbey, and the shrine of Edward the Confessor, are 

 of Oak ; and one of those coronation-chairs, yet so interesting to visitoi-s of 

 the Abbey, and made of Oak, has been there between five and six hundred 

 years ; while the round Oak-table of Prince Arthur, in Winchester Castle, 

 3'et remains to tell of the durability of this wood. Professor Burnet remarks, 

 that the great number of Oak forests formerly in England is shown by the 

 names of several places : "For one Ashforcl, Beech-hill, Elm-hurst, or Poplar, 

 we find a host of Oaks — Oakleys, Actons, Acklands, Akenhams, Aci'ingtons, 

 and so forth. The Saxon ac, aec, aac, and the later ok, okes, oak, have been 

 most curiously and variously corrupted. Thus, we find ac, aec, degenerating 

 into ak, aikc, arks, when ax, exe, were often also aspirated into hac, haec, and 

 hacks. In like manner, we have oak, oke, ok, oc, ock, oeck, ocke, oks, ocks, ockes, 

 running into oax, ox, oxes, for ox, oxs, with their further corruptions, auck, uck, 

 huck, lioke, and wok, as a corruption of the last extreme." The town Oaking^ 

 ham is at this day called and spelt, indifferently, Oakingham, Okingham, or 

 Wokingham. Oakesley, or Oxessey, are two common ways of writing the 

 name of one identical place, and a parallel is found in the name of a Surrey 

 hamlet, Okeshott or Oxshot. 



The two kinds of Oak described at the head of this chapter have received 

 much attention from our most eminent botanists, and there is reason to 

 believe that more is yet to be learned respecting them. To the distinctive 

 differences already given, we may add that the Common or White Oak 

 assumes a rather set and unhealthy appearance ; Avhile the Durmast Oak is 

 a healthy, robust-looking tree, and the medullary rays of its wood are thin, 

 compared to the broad, large rays of the Common Oak. Some remarkable 

 facts relating to the timber of both these Oaks were subjected to the inves- 

 tigation of the Royal Horticultural Society some years since, three subjects 

 being offered for consideration. These Avere, that these Oaks may be dis- 

 tinguished by their timber as well as by other marks ; that Durmast timber 

 is, at least, as good as that of the Common Oak ; and that the belief in its 

 want of durability is altogether erroneous. 



Professor Lindley, remarking on this subject, says : " The large size of 

 the medullary rays is Avell known to afibrd the means of distinguishing the 

 timber, so that a practised eye can hardly fail to recognise the one or the 

 other, in cases where fair specimens can be examined. It is the large size of 

 these processes which makes it so easy to rend the Common Oak, Avhile the 

 Durmast refuses to submit to the operation. When genuine Durmast is con- 

 trasted with genuine Common Oak, the distinctions are obvious ; but in the 

 opinion of all woodmen of experience, there are varieties, or, as some say, 

 hybrids, of each, which partake of an intermediate character in the foliage 

 and acorns, and which may therefore be supposed to offer an intermediate 

 condition of the wood. Of this we have an example now before us, in a 

 specimen from the county of Norfolk, which, because the acorns are on a 

 very short stalk, has been supposed to be Dui'mast, although other circum- 

 stances show it to be merely a sessile-fruited variety of the Common Oak, 

 the only species we ever saw in the eastern counties." 



An experiment as to the value of Durmast was made some years since in 



24—2 



