8 THE OAK. 



word to express the abstract idea of strength.^ The name 

 Quercus Rohur, therefore, rendered into English, means, 

 "the tree of beauty and strength." Quercus sessiliftora 

 is distinguished from the first species by having its fruit 

 almost sessile, or sitting in groups on the leafy twig, without 

 the intervention of any proper stalk ; whilst Quercus Rohur, 

 or Quercus jyedunculata, as it is sometimes called, bears its 

 fruit two or three together on a long peduncle, or fruit- 

 stalk. But as this distinction is a modern one, and belongs 

 rather to the naturalist than to the poet or the historian, 

 the names Quercus Rohur and Oak, when met with in 

 English books not of a scientific character, must be under- 

 stood to include both species. The word Oak is identical 

 with the Saxon aack or ak ; from which, also, acorn is 

 derived. Hence Turner, the earliest English author on 

 this subject, says : '* Oke, w^hose fruite we call an acorn or 

 an eykorn (that is, y*' come or fruite of an Eike), are harde 

 of digestion and norishe very much, but they make raw 

 humores. Wherefore we forbid the use of them for meates." 



But fir. ally, not to expend on etj'mologies too much of 

 the space which should be appropriated to trees and 

 woods ; — from the Celtic deriv, an Oak, the Druids took 

 their name ; and hence also the Greeks called the tree 

 drys, and gave the appellation of Dryads to the imaginary 

 beings who peopled their woods. 



Like most long-lived trees, the Oak is of slow growth, 

 averaging about a foot and a half in circumference in twenty 

 years, and increasing about one inch in a year for the next 

 century of its existence ; after which its rate of growth 

 diminishes. The extreme slowness of this increase may 

 be better estimated by contrasting it with that of the 

 Larch, which is very rapid in its formation of timber. 

 An Oak at Wimbush, in Essex, in thirteen years had in- 

 creased four inches and a half in circumference ; and in 

 the same time a Larch had increased thirty-three inches, 

 or nearly eight times as much. The Oak does not usually 



1 In the North of Italy, the Oak is still called Bovore 



