294 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
adopt this specific name for the Flat-Leaved Oak, 
some of their number designate the present species 
robur, instead of giving it the consistently dis- 
tinctive name of pedunculata. The word robur is 
derived from a Latin word meaning strength, and 
would thus be applicable to Oaks in general, and 
would not be so clearly distinctive as the word 
pedunculata. It will be interesting to note in 
this connexion that the common English name 
Oak is derived from the Saxon ac, from which 
word we derive the name of the Oak fruit—the 
ac corn, or corn of the ac. Though ac has become, 
in modern English, Oak, the Saxon name is still 
retained in other words, as, for instance, in 
Acton, which is derived from Oaktown. To the 
ancient Greeks, no less than to the ancient 
Britons, the Oak was a prominent inhabitant of 
the forest; for the Greek word drys, although 
meaning generally a Tree, had especial reference 
to the Oak, and hence came the word dryads 
to indicate the fairy inhabitants or nymphs of the 
wood. From the Celtic word derw, meaning the 
Oak, came also the name Druids, the priests of 
ancient Britain, whose mysterious and cruel 
