46 



THE OAK. 



duous tree, and an original native of our island. 

 It is the longest lived, the most robust, and, when 

 it rises to its natural size, the most majestic in as- 

 pect of all our trees. There is said, hov^ever, to be 

 a counterfeit of it in the country, against which 

 planters should, if possible, be on their guard. 



" We have here to notice," says a writer in the 

 Quarterly Review, " a fact long known to botanists, 

 but of which our planters and purveyors of timber 

 appear to have had no suspicion — that there are two 

 distinct species of the oak in England, the Quetxus 

 Eohur and the Quercus sessiliflora ; the former of 

 which affords a close- grained, firm, solid timber, 

 rarely subject to rot ; the other more loose and 

 sappy, very liable to rot, and not half so durable." 

 " This second species is supposed to have been in- 

 troduced some two or three ages ago from the Con- 

 tinent, where the oaks are cliiefiy of this latter 

 species, especially in the German forests, the timber 

 of which is known to be very worthless. But, what 

 is of more importance to us is, that, de facto^ the 

 impostor abounds, and is propagated vigorously in 

 the New Forest, and other parts of Hampshire ; in 

 Norfolk, and in the northern counties, and about 

 London ; and there is but too much reason to be- 

 lieve, that the numerous complaints that were 



