79 
Museum No. 8 contains a large collection of timber, the woods 
of Europe, British India, Natal, Cape of Good Hope, British 
Guiana, Trinidad, Canada, Queensland, New South Wales, Vic- 
toria, Tasmania, and New Zealand. 
An afternoon at Oxford was well spent in the Botanic Garden, 
which is situated on the banks of the Cherwell. The garden is 
only a few acres in extent, but contains some wonderfully fine 
specimens of rare and beautiful trees, besides which it is famous 
in the annals of botany and horticulture as being the oldest of 
the British Botanic Gardens (founded in 1632), and the place 
where several eminent botanists studied and brought to light 
many interesting facts connected with science. Jacob Bobart 
was the first director, Tradescant succeeded him, and, later, 
Sherard formed the medicinal garden and herbarium. Drs. Sib- 
thorp and Daubeny were also professors of botany here. John 
Evelyn was a constant visitor between the years 1654 and 1675, 
for the purpose of attending lectures in the School of Medicine, 
and spent most of his time in the Physic Garden, which is still 
in existence. Baxter, 78 years ago, planted the large Sophora 
Japonica, or “ pagoda tree,” near the arch gateway, opposite the 
Magdalen College, and this tree measured 11ft. 3in., circumference 
of stem, 5 feet from the ground. There are some noble examples 
of ash. Fraxinus excelsior (“common European ash”), F. 
pubescens (“ American red ash”), and F. Ornus (“manna ash”), 
the latter 45 feet high and 6 feet round. A copper beech 
measured 11ft. Gin. in girth, and another variety of Fagus 
sylvatica, called F. asplenifolia, was also a magnificent tree. 
Pyrus aria (“the white beam tree”), P. sorbus or “service tree,” 
and P. intermedia, 35 to 40 feet high, was, at the time of my 
visit, a perfect picture, its branches bending to the grass with the 
weight of scarlet fruit. Among other interesting fine specimens 
must be mentioned Corylus colurna (“Constantinople frizzled 
hazel or filbert”), 30 feet high and 5ft. 7in. in girth, Prunus 
cocomilia (“the Calabrian prune”), which yields a bark con- 
sidered a specific for fevers in Calabria, and the flowers of which 
have a perfume resembling that of the heliotrope. On the banks 
of the Cherwell some of the trees are of huge proportions. 
Several Populus alba (“white or silver poplar”) averaged 
14ft. 5in. in, circumference 5 feet from the base; Populus 
fustigiata, or “upright poplar,” 11 feet; Planera aquatica (the 
‘planer tree” of Southern United States) measured 12ft. lin. in 
circumference. Many elms, too, near Christchurch meadows are 
of enormous size ; but in the Magdalen Grove, at the back of the 
College, are two elms, one 26ft. 8in. in girth, and was 125 to 
130 feet high ; the other I found to be 21ft. 6in., and was quite 
as tall. 
