302 FOEESTS OF GEEAT BEITAIIT. 



latter brancli of rural improvement now receives great attention 

 from private individuals, though, so far as I know, not from the 

 National Government, except in the East Indian provinces, where 

 the forestal department has assumed great importance.* 



and it is a curious etymological fact that ia the earlier stages of many modern 

 European languages the names of the oak and the pr were confounded. See 

 Max MiJLLER, Lectures, vol. ii. 



If it were certain that the aUes of Csesar was the fir formerly and still found 

 in peat-mosses, and that he was right in denying the existence of the beech in 

 England in his time, the observation would be very important, because it 

 would fix a date at which the fir had become extinct, and the beech had not 

 yet appeared in the island. 



From the valuable ]::(omi volgari delle principali piante di bosco, Annali del 

 Ministero di Agricoltura. etc., 1873, it appears that the name abete is nowhere 

 in Italy applied to any tree but the Pinus abies, except that in Tuscany the 

 larch, Pinus larix, is sometimes called abeto larice, and the Pinus picea, abeto 

 rosso or abeto di Moscovia. The universality of the designation abete, as the 

 name of the Pinus abies, in such a multitude of dialects, is a strong proof that 

 the abies of ancient Latin writers was the Pinus abies. 



The English oak, though strong and durable, was not considered generally 

 suitable for finer work in the sixteenth century. There were, however, ex- 

 ceptions. "Of all in Essex," observes Harrison, Holinshed, i., p. 357, " that 

 growing in Bardfield parke is the finest for ioiners craft : for oftentimes haue 

 I scene of their workes made of that oke so fine and f aire, as most of the 

 wainescot that is brought hither out of Danske [Danzig] ; for our wainescot 

 is not made in England. Yet diuerse haue assaied to deale with our okes to 

 that end, but not with so good successe as they haue hoped, bicause the ab or 

 iuice will not so soone be remoued and cleane di'awne out, which some attrib- 

 ute to want of time in the salt water." 



This passage is also of interest as showing that soaking in salt-water, as a 

 mode of seasoning, was practised in Harrison's time. 



But the importation of wainscot, or boards for ceiling, panelling, and other- 

 wise finishing rooms, which was generally of oak, commenced at least three 

 centuries before the time of Harrison. On page 204 of the Liber Albus men- 

 tion is made of " squared oak timber," brought in from the country by carts, 

 and of course of domestic growth, as free of city duty or octroi, and of 

 "planks of oak" coming in m the same way as paying one plank a cart-load. 

 But in the chapter on the " Customs of Billyngesgate," pp. 208, 209, relating 

 to goods imported from foreign countries, an import duty of one halfpenny 

 is imposed on every hundred of boards called " weynescotte " — a term for- 

 merly applied only to oak— and of one penny on every hundred of boards 

 called "Rygholt." The editor explains "Rygholt" as "wood of Riga." 

 This was doubtless pine or fir. The year in which these provisions were made 

 does not appear, but they belong to the reign of Henry III. 



* The improvidence of the population under the native and early foreign 

 governments has produced great devastations in the forests of the British East 



