22 
Larch trees at Kenlochewe, at the Rollright Stones, and at Great 
Marlow were then exhibited. 
The really native trees of Britain were next described. 
These number about 30, and include the two species of Lime 
already referred to, one species of Maple, two species of Prunus, 
the Cherry, or Gean, and the Bird Cherry, the Crab Tree, of 
which there is a fine avenue at Welford, in Berkshire, the 
Mountain Ash, with its beautiful clusters of scarlet berries, the 
Service tree, of which there are fine examples in Wychwood 
Forest and the White Beam tree, so frequent in the woods of the 
Chiltern Hills. 
The Hawthorn was next illustrated by a photograph of a 
group at the Thames head, and by others on the chalk down 
near Streatley, in Berkshire ; and reference was made to that early 
notice of the Hawthorn by Bishop Asser, of Salisbury, who 
described, towards the end of the ninth century, the great battle 
of Ascesdune, which took place on the Berkshire downs, near 
Unica spinosa arbor, which was a Hawthorn in the Hundred of 
Ilsley,—this Hundred being called the Hundred of the Naked 
Thorn in Domesday Book. Reference was also made to the 
Battle of Bosworth, when the crown of England was hidden in a 
Hawthorn bush, where it was found by a soldier, and taken to 
Lord Stanley, who crowned Henry VII. with it, and the 
Hawthorn thus became the badge of the House of Tudor, hence 
the proverb, ‘ Cleave to the crown though it hangs in a bush.” 
Reference was also made to the Glastonbury Thorn, which 
flowers about Christmas. 
Passing notice was made of the Elder (Sambucus nigra), 
with its large cymes of white flowers and purplish-black fruits. 
The Ash next received attention, and some fine examples of 
the Ash at Chatsworth, Haddon Hall, and Bulstrode were shewn. 
The wood was said to bear a greater strain before breaking than 
any other tree indigenous to Europe. The manner in which the 
fruits are fitted for dispersal by wind was also alluded to. That 
the Ash is native of Britain is shewn by the names,—Ashbourn, 
Ashbridge, Ashby, &c. 
The Box tree is very local, and is, perhaps, only native of 
Boxhill, and possibly on the northern escarpment of the Chilterns 
in Buckingham and Hertfordshire. 
The Elm, which is really native in Britain (the Wych Elm), 
is less common in the South than the one already mentioned ; 
but the Tubney Elm, mentioned by Matthew Arnold, in Berk- 
shire, belongs to this species which, probably, at one time was 
more frequent. The foundation of St. John’s College, Oxford, 
was determined by the presence of a triple Elm. Sir Thomas 
White dreamed that he should build a college near a triple Elm, 
and repairing to Oxford he found one which seemed to answer to 
his idea, and he, therefore, built the college, and the tree existed 
to the end of the seventeenth century, 
a 
