CATALOGUE OF THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 189 



oak trees in Epping Forest, as well as many in Sherwood Forest. All 

 the old oaks in Moor Park, Rickmansworth, were and are of this type, 

 and according to tradition owe their state to very human motives. It 

 is stated that in 1685 the Duchess of Monmouth, desirous of revenging 

 the beheading of her husband, caused aU the oaks in this park to be 

 poUarded and thus rendered for ever incapable of supplying timber for 

 the Navy of the hated Enghsh. 



The more or less numerous branches ultimately springing from the 



A Basal Burr. 



head of the pollard tree gradually produce at the summit of the trunk a 

 thick mass of burr-wood. Moreover, the rest of the trunk thickens, and 

 from it there may burst forth countless young .shoots, clusters of which 

 produce at their bases large swollen humps, known as burrs. Elwes 

 describes a good example of the result of this mode of growth : the trunk 

 that he investigated was " ten feet high and nine feet in girth. ... Its 

 wood, when cut into veneer, was throughout the whole thickness of the 



