1782 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



the seat of John Walter, Esq., M.P., there is a large oak with a beech growing 

 from its root. In Needwood Forest, there were, in 1806, many large hollies 

 growing out of oaks ; and nothing is more common in the New Forest, than 

 to see oaks and thorns growing apparently from the same root. In Kinmel 

 Park, Denbighshire, there is a sycamore, a large tree, growing out of a hollow 

 oak : and at Ribbesford, near Bewdley in Worcestershire, there is a yew tree, 

 with a trunk 2 ft. in diameter, completely cased in the trunk of a pollard oak ; 

 the hollow cylinder of the oak being filled up with the body of the yew tree, 

 to the height of 18ft. or 20ft.; after which the two trees entwine their 

 branches in the most friendly manner possible. On the river Loddon, 

 in Berkshire, not far from Forest Hill, there was, in 1818, a handsome oak 

 tree growing out of a pollard willow. Elders growing out of decaying oaks, 

 and also mountain ash, and other trees and shrubs which spring from berries 

 eaten by birds, are common. Dr. Plot mentions a thorn enclosed in an oak 

 at Drayton Basset, the branches of which seemed to pass through the trunk 

 of the oak in several places. 



Oaks of remarkable Origin. In Deene Park, Northamptonshire, the seat of 

 the Earl of Cardigan, there is an oak growing in the pleasure-ground, which 

 was produced from an acorn found in the middle of a large piece of oak 

 timber, sawn in Woolwich dockyard ; and which was planted here, in 1757, 

 by the late Dowager Duchess of Buccleugh, when Lady Elizabeth Montague. 

 This tree, though nearly 100 years old, is of small dimensions, in consequence 

 of the very bad situation in which it is planted ; being near a sheet of water, 

 and on a sandy rock full of springs. Its extreme height is 55 ft., and the 

 diameter of the trunk, at 3ft. from the ground, is 1 ft. 4 in. The species is 

 Q. sessiliflora. 



Curious Circumstances connected with Oak Trees. Major Rooke mentions 

 that, in cutting down some trees in the wood of Birkland, or Birchland, in 

 Sherwood Forest, letters, &c., were found within the wood of several oaks, 

 marking the king's reign. In one tree, cut down in 1786, were found J. R., 

 supposed to signify James Rex ; and in another, W. M., with a crown, for 

 William and Mary ; and in a third, Jo h . Rex, with several marks something 

 like the old crown in prints of King John ; but Major Rooke observes that 

 the crown is not sufficiently made out for him to insert it as a fact. The 

 letters were about 1 ft. within the tree, and above 1 ft. from the centre. Cruci- 

 fixes, images, &c., have been found in similar situations, enclosed in the like 

 manner. Often dead branches of trees, when small, are thus enclosed, and 

 grown over by the parent trunk. Professor Burnet observes that " Queen 

 Anne's and Queen Charlotte's Oaks in Windsor Forest, both of which have 

 had brass plates, with commemorative inscriptions thereon, fixed to them, 

 might be given as further illustrations. Over the edges of these plates the 

 yearly increasing bark has already made considerable encroachments, and, in 

 due course of time, will progressively enclose the whole. To this process do 

 we owe that more noted and variegated texture of the central parts of planks, 

 on which much of the beauty of heart wood depends ; for the small branches, 

 knots, and nodes of young trees, which detruded themselves near the ground, 

 being, in process of growth, broken off or destroyed, their relics or rudiments 

 are in like manner enclosed, and thus buried in the heart of aged trees. Sir 

 John Clarke mentions that the horn of a large deer was found embedded in 

 the heart of an oak, which was discovered on cutting down the tree ; and that 

 it was found fixed in the timber by large iron cramps : it seems, therefore, 

 that it had been first fastened on the outside of the tree, which, in growing 

 afterwards, had enclosed the horn." (Amain. Quer.) 



Raining Oak Trees. All trees, especially those of great height, in insulated 

 situations, condense the watery vapour of the atmosphere; and, when this 

 is very abundant, it falls from the leaves in drops like rain. The elm and the 

 poplar (as already mentioned, p. 1667.), being tall trees, afford familiar illustra- 

 tions of this ; but the oak, also, occasionally exhibits the same phenomenon. 



