Notes on Flowering Plants and Trees. 



73 



tion saves the situation, as thereby the too far removal of 

 a certain number of the buds from the periphery of the crown, 

 i.e., from the influence of light, is obviated. Now, just as the 

 autumnal fall, or rather the vernal openness of the woods, allows 

 of the formation of numerous twigs and a bold, discursive 

 spray, so the comparative smallness of the blade acts as a com- 

 plementary cause thereof. Small foliar organs in lavish number 

 are best fitted to supply a thick and matted, dense and clustered 

 canopy adequate to the clothing" and investment of a far- 

 stretching skeleton of twigs and branches. Being small, as 

 1 say, each individual leaf does not project a damaging" amount 

 of shade upon those lying underneath ; there is always left 

 between the screen an avenue for some startling, dazzling 

 radiance to dart below and stimulate the vital energies of the 

 organised items tenanting" the darksome underwood. Moreover, 

 as a rule the smaller the leaf the smaller the bud ; and if the 

 individual bud be small, the tree may be more competent to 

 produce and perfect a greater number thereof — a precious pro- 

 vision indeed in the denizen of a cold climate where frosts and 

 chilly blasts would work sad havoc with the watery juices that 

 move in the tender tissues instinct with the fresh new life of 

 germination. 



NOTES on FLOWERING PLANTS and TREES. 



Mildness of Season in Furness.— A handful of ripe Wild Strawberries 

 ( Fragaria vesca) was picked last week on the top of Scora Bank, on the 

 road to Dalton-in-Furness, by Mr. David Huddleston, Parish Clerk of 

 Dendron. — A. H. Hl mphris, Vicar of Dendron, 5th December 1900. 



Some Remarkable Oak Trees in the North. In the garden at the 

 gas manager's house in Spalding there is an Oak {Quercus robur) that has 

 a curious history. It was grown from an acorn sown in [763 in the follow- 

 ing circumstances : A gentleman named Massev had a brace of Pheasants 

 given to him, and in the craw of one of them was found some acorns. 

 Three were sown in a flower pot, one of which grew, and is now the 

 Spalding- Oak. 



In Colwick Park, Notts, is a fine Burgundy Oak (Quercus cerris) blearing 

 the following label: — 'Planted to celebrate Lord Howe's victory on the 1st 

 of June, 1 704.' 



Some years ago large specimens of the Red Oak [Quercus rubra) were 

 felled in the park at Wentworth-Woo.dhouse. They were bought by a 

 timber merchant in Sheffield for exportation to America. 



Last spring, in making a lour in the poet Cowper's haunts, near Olncv. 

 Northamptonshire, I came in view of the largest and oldest Ash tree 

 {Fm.x in us excelsior) I had ever seen ; so large that I hope the note herewith 

 may be Worth recording, It was lull of leaf and hail seme enormous pro- 

 tuberances of overgrowth, especially near the roots. At three feel from 

 the ground the trunk is by measurement jo feet round. This tree Stands in 

 Weston Underwood Park, between the alcove and the highroad. Hknkv 

 Paynk, Xewhill Hall, West .Mehon. Rotherham, 2nd February [901. 



u)oi March i. 



