336 
REV. M. C. H. BIRD ON ACORNS. 
approximately arrived at from the age of the older trees 
growing in the fences, for when the present banks were first 
raised it was the fashion to plant young Oaks therein at 
equal distances apart. Where very ancient, hollow, and 
gnarled Pollard Oaks are found in farm fences, these may be 
naturally-planted trees which were left standing when the 
land was first cleared for arable cultivation, but in some 
parts of our county, as is the case in my own parish of 
Brunstead, such aged trees occur in our hedges, arranged in 
so straight a line and at such regular distances apart, that 
they must have been artificially planted, and now afford 
presumptive evidence of very early enclosure. 
The exceeding fineness of this year’s acorns suggests that 
the opportunity should be taken of selecting specimen seeds 
for sowing in the nursery, irrespective of the character of the 
parent tree, but it is a question whether such a proceeding is 
adviseable. The commercial value of Oak trees consists in 
the size and quality of their wood, not in the hugeness or 
multiplicity of their acorns; timber, not fruit, is the point to 
be aimed at. We know that in the different species of plants, 
as well as animals, the comparative size of the seed bears no 
regular proportion to the dimensions of the adult parent of 
man or mouse. Will then the largest seeds of any one species 
necessarily produce finer specimens than the smaller seeds? 
Certainly not. Other things being equal, such as soil, 
situation, etc., the better start in life the larger seeds will 
certainly have, and the greater growth their embryos will 
make, at least until the stored-up food in the seed-lobes is 
exhausted ; but when the plantlets are a few years, nay, a 
few months old, their individually inherited characteristics 
will begin to assert themselves. Many, if not most of the 
finest Gunton Park Oaks, were raised at Honing Hall by the 
late Mr. Chambers from seed selected there by himself from 
the tallest, straightest, and most clean-stemmed parents, and 
Mr. E. R. Cubitt recently told me that acorns similarly 
