On the Quality of Oak Timber produced in Great Britain. 337 



stiffer wood, and though it may be broken with a less weight than 

 the Q. sessiliflora, yet it requires a much greater weight to bend it, 

 and is therefore best calculated for beams, or to bear the greatest 

 weight without bending. 



The Q. sessiliflora contains so small a portion of the silver grain or 

 flower, that wood of that kind from old buildings has generally been 

 mistaken for Sweet Chesnut (Castanea Vesca); during the last 

 thirty years I have taken every opportunity of procuring specimens 

 of wood from old buildings, and particularly what the carpenters 

 called Chesnut, but I have never in a single instance seen a piece of 

 Chesnut from an old building ; what has been taken for that wood 

 I have always found to be the Q. sessiliflora, mistaken for Chesnut 

 from its deficiency of the flower or silver grain. 



The roof of Westminster Hall has been said to be Chesnut ; 

 while it was under repair I procured various specimens from diffe- 

 rent parts of the roof, the whole of them were oak, and chiefly the Q. 

 sessiliflora. Most of the black oak from trees dug out of the ground, 

 I have found to be of the same kind. From finding the wood from 

 the oldest buildings about London to be chiefly of the Q. sessiliflora, 

 I should suppose that some centuries ago the chief part of the 

 natural woods were of that kind;* at present the greater part of the 

 Oak grown in the South of England is the Q. pedunculata. 



Specimens of Oaks that I have procured from different parts of 

 Yorkshire and the County of Durham, have been all Q. sessiliflora, 

 which is very scarce in the south. There are some trees of it at 

 Kenwood, the Earl of Mansfield's near Highgate, which I believe 

 to be one of the oldest woods near London, and a greater part of 

 the Q. sessiliflora, appear to be trees from old stools. 



* Mr. Atkinson's opinion upon this subject is confirmed in a remarkable manner by 

 the discovery that the Oak, in an extensive sub-marine forest at Hastings, is Q. sessiliflora. 

 Note by the Secretary. 



