326 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Another freak of nature is the Marriage Oak in Eridge Park, Kent, which Lord 

 H. Nevill was good enough to show me. Here a yew and an oak have grown up 

 together, though the two trunks, which measure 16 feet 3 inches in girth, have not 

 combined, the yew having spread its branches widely over the top of the bole of the 

 oak. A similar case is recorded by Mr. A. D. Webster' in the South Park at 

 Holwood, Kent. Here the two trees have combined their stems into a normally 

 shaped trunk, which girths 7 feet 10 inches at 5 feet, the yew being only 15 feet high, 

 and spreading 36 feet, while the oak is 35 feet high with a spread of 54 feet. 



Pollard oaks, when they are hollow at the top, sometimes support other trees of 

 considerable size, which originate from seeds dropped by birds or brought by the wind. 

 The best living instance of this that I know, is on an oak of no great size at 

 Orwell Park, the seat of E. G. Pretyman, Esq., in Suffolk. This grows in a wood 

 near the Decoy Pond, which is full of large self-sown hollies mixed with oaks, and 

 looks as if it might be part of an original forest. Here a birch about 30 feet high, 

 20 inches in girth, is growing on the top of the oak, and has formed inside its hollow 

 trunk what on one side seems to be a woody stem, whilst on the other side the 

 roots are still in process of formation within the bole of the oak, which on that 

 side is dead, but on the other has living branches." Henry has seen a similar 

 example on the road between Byfleet and Cobham, on Lady Buxton's property, 

 where the birch, growing out of a stout oak bole, is 49 feet high and 8 inches in 

 diameter. 



Wistmaiis Wood.- — After having said so much of big oaks, I must now mention 

 one of the most remarkable oak woods in Britain, called Wistman's or Welshman's 

 Wood, which is on Crockern Tor, Dartmoor, at an elevation of about 1400 feet. It 

 contains a number, perhaps a thousand, of the most stunted and dwarf oaks in 

 existence, growing among granite boulders in a very exposed and windy situation. 



Wistman's Wood was described by Burt in his Notes to the second edition 

 of Carrington's Dartmoor, p. 56, and also by Mr. W. Borrer.^ I am indebted to 

 Mr. E. Squarey of Downton, Wilts, for information in a letter to him by Mr. 

 P. F. S. Amory of Druid, Ashburton, which brings our knowledge up to date, with 

 photographs showing the curious appearance of these trees. The Journal of 

 Forestry, v. 421, in a description of them, says that no acorns are produced; 

 but Mr. J. B. Rowe, editor of the Perambulations of Dartmoor (ed. 1896), in 

 1895 found two acorns after a long search, one of which, planted at Druid on 

 9th November 1902, is over 4 feet high. 



In September 1868 Mr. Wentworth Buller obtained leave from the Prince of 

 Wales to cut down one of these trees in order to find out its age. One section was 

 sent to Kew; and another now in Mr. Amory's possession is 9 inches by 7 in diameter, 

 and shows 163 years' growth, with distinctly marked medullary rays and several deep 

 shakes. The bark is extremely thin, probably owing to the thick coat of moss and 

 lichen which covered it. The slowness of growth in this tree is remarkable, no less 

 than forty years to the inch. 



' Tram. Scot. Arb. Soc. xii. 313 (iS 

 Compare Plot's account of a similar case quoted on p. 31S supra. ^ Loudon, he. cit. 1757. 



