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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
evidently produced by the stagnation of a stream, which now passes through 
it, and which, at some distant period, had been dammed back by the fall of 
the trees upon its margins. This oak was covered by a layer of the peat to 
the depth of about three feet, and was discovered by probing the moss. The 
trunk, with a small portion of one of the larger limbs, was with great labour 
and difficulty dragged from its miry bed. The contents of the portion 
recovered contained 545 cubic feet, although the whole of the sap-wood had 
perished. The timber was perfectly sound, and the tree, by whatever acci- 
dent it had been overthrown, had fallen in the vigour of its growth. When 
sawn up, the interior planks were found of a deep rich brown colour ; those 
nearer the exterior darker, or approaching to black. A variety of elegant 
furniture has been made from the wood, but it has been found necessary, for 
fine cabinet-work, to have it cut into veneers, for, when worked in bulk, it is 
apt to crack and become warped. Remains of other huge oaks have also 
been met with on the banks of the Tyne, the Alne, and other rivers, as well 
as in various bogs and morasses ; and we mention these instances to show 
that in a district where, at the present day, nothing but recently-planted oak 
or dwarfish timber from stock-shoots exists, in former times the monarch of 
the forest grew luxuriantly, and attained a splendid development ; and also 
as an inducement to the planter not to neglect the. liberal insertion of this 
national tree wherever soil and situation are found congenial to its growth. 
In other parts of England, the oak still grows in all its native magnificence 
of form and dimensions, and the remains of those ancient forests, which are 
chronicled by our earliest writers, and which, in the time of our Saxon ancestors, 
spread over the greater portion of the country, are still to be traced in the 
venerable but living relics of enormous oaks, many of which are supposed to 
number more than a thousand years. 
Not to neglect to plant tlie national tree ! We liope indeed 
tliat there is no possessor of broad acres who does not esteem it a 
duty, regardless of profit, to provide for a succession of forest 
kings, if only to beautify the face of the country, and to leave 
the people of the present some grand living object to connect 
them with the history of the past. In fact, planting of the 
“ British oak ” has not only been considered a duty, but fol- 
lowed out with the keenest pleasure by the country gentleman. 
In so doing', the question has scarcely until lately occurred, is 
the British oak always the same ? or, are there not different 
species, or at least varieties of the genus Quercus, which have 
been confounded by the planter ? To this question we now 
propose to address our inquiries. 
On referring to different authors, we shall find mention of 
the following names as applied to the British oak : — 
1. Quercus Bobur, Linn. 
2. ,, sessiliflora, Salisbury. 
3. ,, intermedia, Don. 
This method of nomenclature would however be only tenable 
on the supposition that we considered the trees so named 
