536 The Museum Gazette 



MORE ABOUT HOLLOW TREES. 



Are there any old hollow trees in your neighbourhood ? If 

 there are they are worth careful inspection. The species of 

 tree should be noted, the size of the hollow, and that of the 

 doorway into it, if there be one, and the trunk outside should 

 be measured. It is but seldom that any important particulars 

 as to the history of such trees are obtainable, but if there are 

 they should be recorded. The process of hollowing is, how- 

 ever, usually a very slow one, and the account of its beginning 

 or early stages is usually far beyond the memory of the oldest 

 inhabitant. 



Almost invariably in England an old hollow tree is an oak 

 or a yew, but it may be a chestnut and possibly an ash or elm. 

 On the Continent hollow chestnuts are the most common and 

 also the very largest. We have explained in our last month's 

 Gazette the conditions under which yews become hollow. 

 They are quite different from those of other trees, such as we 

 are now considering. 



The conditions which are required in order that a hollow 

 tree may be produced, are that the central wood shall die, 

 whilst the outer part with its bark remains alive. If this has 

 been effected in a young or middle-aged tree, the bark will 

 continue every successive spring to deposit its layer of new 

 wood, and thus the girth of the tree will increase, whilst its 

 interior, now exposed to the air, and perhaps to weather, will 

 slowly crumble away. Thus the outer shell never thickens 

 itself beyond a certain point, whilst the damaged tree may 

 grow in girth and prolong its life indefinitely. It will produce 

 every year new twigs which may form small branches, but 

 never large ones. Thus in its humbled state the quondam 

 giant of the forest lives on, free in its lowliness from risk of 

 further disaster from storms. 



The problem in each case is to discover the cause of the 

 death of the heart-wood, for that once effected, all the conse- 



