552 Strutt’s Sylva Britannica. 
curiosity to measure this tree. Its head was as green and 
vigorous last summer as it was at that time ; and though hol- 
low as a tube, it has increased in its measure some inches. 
Upon the whole, this bears every mark of having been a 
short-stemmed branchy tree, of the first magnitude, spreading 
its arms in all directions round it. Its aperture is a small, ill- 
formed, Gothic arch, hewn out, or enlarged with an axe, and 
the bark now curls over the wound, a sure sign that it con- 
tinues growing: and hence it is evident, that the hollow oaks 
of enormous size, recorded by antiquaries, did not obtain such 
bulk whilst sound ; for the shell increases when the substance 
isno more. The blea and the inner bark receive annual tri- 
butes of nutritious particles from the sap, in its progress to 
the leaves; and thence acquire a power of extending the 
outer bark, and increasing its circumference slowly. Thus a 
tree, which at 300 years old was sound, and 5 ft. in diameter, 
like the Langley oak, would, if left to perish gradually, in its 
thousandth year become a shell of 10 ft. diameter...... Bull 
oaks,” continues Mr. South, are thus denominated from the 
