Nov. 1802.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBUEGH. 



463 



In 1771 Dr. Walker estimated the girth of the "Wallace 

 Oak," Torwood, Stirling, to have been about 22 feet at 

 -4 feet lip, but apparently only half the circumference of 

 the trunk remained ; and he mentions an oak on the north 

 side of Loch Arkeg, Lochaber, measuring 24 feet 6 in. at 

 4 feet up, as being " the largest oak of which we have any 

 account in Scotland." 



English Oaks. — Newland, Forest of Dean, 

 Gloucestershire. — By common consent the oak is king 

 of British trees, but which is the king of British oaks is 

 not so easily decided. By the single test of greatest girth, 

 however, the Newland oak is entitled to the honour, as it is 

 the only one in which the stem girths nowhere less than 

 40 feet. In April 1893, with the aid of the Eev. Mr. 

 Bagnall Oakeley and Dr. John Beddoe, F.E.S., I measured 

 it at four points. Other measurements yielding much 

 higher results have been published, but as our observations 

 agreed, within a few inches, with the girths taken for me 

 three years previously by Mr. and Mrs. Oakeley, the com- 

 bined results here given may be accepted as substantially 

 correct, considering the " bumpy " nature of the surface 

 dealt with. 



Spread of foliage, IST. to S., 65 ft. 



E. toW., f.7ft. 



Height of tree, . . , . 50 ft. 



,, stem 9tol0ft. 



Girth of largest limb, . . 8 ft. 



The measurements show that the tree springs from the 

 ground without buttresses. The stem, instead of dividing 

 into two or three great limbs, gives off' eight branches of 

 moderate size in a circle at a nearly uniform level 9 feet 

 above ground. What may be called the roof of the stem 

 has measured 6 feet by 4 feet 6 inches within the circle 

 of limbs, but it has mostly rotted away, showing the 

 stem to be a hollow shell, although without a lateral break. 

 The peculiar form of the tree is no doubt due to pollarding, 

 a practice so common in ancient times, to provide fodder 

 for cattle, that an old writer complains that scarcely a fine 

 tree in England had escaped it.* It is interesting to note 



* I am informed by Mr. Oakeley that in this very dry spring, from a 

 want of fodder, the farmers in his district had recourse to pollarding to feed 

 their cattle. 



