THE 
dartom’ d^Iiranide. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 1881. 
THE OAK. 
I SHALL not trouble the reader with a 
learned dissertation on the varieties of the 
Oak, intending to confine myself chiefly to the 
lotice of remarkable trees which I have myself 
;een. The British Oak is indigenous to the 
rountry, and there are two distinct varieties— 
ome botanists have called them species — 
lamely, Quercus Robur var. pedunculata, and 
2- R. var. sessiliflora. In the former the acorns 
ire on fruit-stalks, in the latter they are sessile, 
ntermediate forms are common. Mr. Grigor 
,ays, in his Arboriculture, that the pedunculata 
s the more common tree both in natural and 
flanted woods throughout Britain. I observed 
hat the acorns of the Royal Oak at Boscobel, 
3f the Cressage Oak near Shrewsbury, and ot 
the Swilcar Lawn Oak in Needwood Forest are 
stalked. 
The leaves of sessiliflora are long, the acorns in 
clusters ot two or three ; the timber is less close- 
grained and durable, and more liable to rot than 
that of the other sort. The inferior variety was, 
according to Mr. Rhind, introduced ages ago 
from the German forests, which consist chiefly 
of this species. It abounds in the New Forest 
and other parts of Hampshire, around London, 
in Norfolk and the Northern Counties. The 
inferiority of the imported species was unsus- 
pected in English dockyards until the dry rot 
in our ships revealed it. The tree has the merit 
of growing more freely than the older British 
Oak, when young, particularly in poor soils and 
unfavourable situations. 
The most remarkable specimens and planta- 
tions of Oaks I have seen are situated in and 
about Needwood Forest, which, like the Oak- 
growing Wealden, is not a superior clay for 
agricultural purposes, but well suited for the 
Oak. Bagot’s Park, enclosed from Needwood 
at an unknown date, presented, with a little herd 
of goats, by Richard II. to the“Bagot” of 
Shakespeare, and now the property of Lord 
Bagot, his descendant, has a wonderful display of 
Oak trees. The Squitch Oak is its largest sped-’ 
men, and was valued in its prime, some years 
ago, at 1012 cubic feet, or, in money, ;^24o \2s. 
It measured 21 feet 9 inches round the trunk at 
5 feet from the ground, which is very much less 
than some of the reported measurements of 
Oaks. Mr. Selby says, in one of the best books 
on its subject, his British Forest Trees, that the 
Squitch Oak “ seems one of the largest, being 
upwards of 43 feet in circumference at the base.” 
Not having measured the tree himself, Mr. 
Selby was obliged to say “ seems,” because 
these reported measurements are often taken at 
the ground, where the trunk of the Oak some- 
times spreads amazingly. When the Mayor of 
a town in the Eastern Counties received the 
Prince of Wales, he made the most of the 
little town in driving His Royal Highness 
round. “ Mr. Mayor,” said the Prince, think- 
ing he had seen one of the streets 
before, ‘‘are you not dodging me to and 
fro ? ” That is just what happens when people 
pretend to 40 feet or 50 feet girth for an Oak 
