FLORA OF OXFORDSHIRE. 267 
First record, Plot, 1677. 
‘There was a hollow oak at Kidlington Green which was frequently 
used before the death of Judge Morton, before whose house it stood, for 
the imprisoning vagabonds and other inferior malefactors for the space of 
a night or so, till they conveniently might be had to the Gaol at Oxford ; 
of which the hollow was so large within that it would receive 8 or Io 
commodiously enough, the tree being 25 foot round the spurs.’ Plot 
also refers to the discovery on Binfield Heath ‘in a pond of a parcel 
of subterranean oaks, very fine and sound, but quite through to the heart 
as black as ebony.’ Plot says ‘there is an oak between Nuneham Court- 
ney and Clifton, which from bough end to bough end stretches 81 feet. 
In circumference 243 feet, shading 560 square yards of ground.’ 
‘ At Ricot there was an oak somewhat bigger, by the Author of Dodona’s 
Grove, called his Robur Britannicum, whose branches covered 972 square 
feet,’ Plot, 1677. : 
‘One of the finest specimens of pollard oak ever grown in England was 
sold lately at Liverpool. Its trunk was 14 feet in length and 21 feet in 
circumference, its actual weight, inclusive of the root, being 13 tons 
7 cwt. This tree, which was grown near Chipping Norton, is to be 
used for furniture. It was opened at the Brunswick Saw Mills, and 
presented a rich brown appearance, resembling in every appearance 
tortoiseshell, and being perfectly free from shake, the tree is calculated 
to cut 70,000 feet of veneers, their value being estimated at 500 guineas,’ 
Weekly Times, Jan. 23, 1876. 
Dr. Stukely in his Jtinerarium Curiosum says, the Magdalen College 
Oak ‘is still standing, nigh to which the founder ordered his college to be 
built.” Magdalen was founded in 1448. The tree fell in 1789. Its girth 
was 21 feet 9 inches, the height about 72 feet. Evelyn in his Sylva, 
1662, states that ‘the branches shoot sixteen yards from the stem. 
Plot observes ‘that the branches cover a space of 768 square yards, 
and that 256 horses might stand under that tree, or allowing two square 
feet for a man, 3456 men,’ Plot, 158. There is a fine tree in Cornbury 
Park whose trunk, at two feet from the ground, measures over 27 feet. 
About Woodperry, in 1884, the trees were much infested with the round 
smooth gall, Cynips linicola. In Wychwood the oak spangles were fre- 
quent. 
Q. sessilifiora, (Sisb.) Leight. Durmast Oak. 
Syme, E. B, viii. 157. 1289. Nym. 660. 
Native (?). Coppices, plantations. Tree. Apr., May. 
First record, J. Bobart. Quercus latifolia mas que brevi pedunculo est, 
C. B. P. 419. In Bagley Wood and divers other places (Bagley is in 
Berks), Ray, ed. ii. 1696. 
3. Swere. Bodicote Road, Gull. 
5. Isis. Wychwood, North Leigh. 
