SESSILE-FRUITED OAK. 249 



is that the timber of both kinds has always been indis- 

 criminately used for the most important purposes, such 

 as ship-building, house-rafters, &c, which would scarcely 

 have been the case had the produce of Quer. sessiliflora 

 been known to be, and invariably found, of a quality 

 inferior to that of Quer. pedunculated Our own opinion 

 is, that there is not any such material difference between 

 the qualities of the timber of the two trees as has been 

 asserted by some, but that inferior timber is occasionally 

 produced by each variety, — the result, perhaps, of some 

 original constitutional defect, or arising from the nature 

 of the soil, situation, or other local peculiarities of the 

 ground upon which the timber has been raised. Such, 

 at least, is the result of our own experience, as we have 

 met with oak of the peduncled kind, with timber possessing 

 all the inferior qualities attributed to and supposed to be 

 possessed exclusively by Quer. sessiliflora. 



The grain of the wood of Quer. sessiliflora is generally 

 less varied and of a more uniform and deeper colour than 

 that of Quer. peduncidata, and with less of that laminated 

 appearance which is called the flash or silver grain ; and it is 

 now ascertained that the timbers found in old houses, and 

 other ancient buildings in different parts of the kingdom, 

 and which were long considered to be formed of the wood 

 of the sweet chesnut, are, in reality, composed of Oak, 

 and mostly of the sessile-fruited kind. We are only sur- 

 prised how such a belief ever obtained credit, considering 

 that the chesnut does not appear to be of indigenous 

 growth, that at no period has it prevailed in Britain as 

 a forest tree, and indeed does not even appear to have 

 grown at any time in many districts where house timbers 

 of this description have been found. 



The Durmast Oak of Marty ns " Flor. Rustica," the 



