CHAP. CV.

CORYLA'CE^E. QUE'RCUS.

1775

commenced some centuries prior to the era of Christianity ?” We can readilysubscribe to this doctrine,” says a writer in the Magazine of Natural History,vol. iii. p. 379., “ and feel, indeed, quite at a loss to set limits, under favourablecircumstances, to the natural duration of this monarch of the forest.” Thoseoaks in England which are reputed to be the oldest are, the Parliament Oak(p. 1767.); Cowper’s Oak (p. 1765.); the Winfarthing Oak (yijg.1623.), which

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is said to have been an old oak at the time of the Conquest (p. 1764.); theNannau Oak, which was a hollow oak in the reign of Henry IV. (see p. 1763.) ;the Salcey Forest Oak (see p. 1766.); and the Bull Oak in WedgenockPark, which was made a park about the time of Henry I. (see p. 1770.). Tothese might be added several others, perhaps of equal age, such as the FlittonOak (see p. 1757.), but which have not attracted public attention, in thatparticular, so much as those above enumerated.

The largest Oaks on Record. The Rev. Abraham De la Pryme records, inthe Philosophical Transactions for 1701, that his friend Mr. Edw. Canby foundwithin his moors, beneath the level of Hatfield Chase, in Yorkshire, the solidtrunk of an oak tree, 120 ft. long, 36 ft. in circumference at the but end, 30 ft. incircumference at the middle, and 18 ft. at the small end, where the trunk w'asbroken off; so that, by moderate computation, he says, this tree may havebeen 240 ft. in height. Dr. Plot mentions an oak at Norbury, which was ofthe circumference of 45 ft.; an oak at Rycote, under the shade of which 4374men had sufficient room to stand. The Boddington Oak, in the Vale of Glou-cester (seep. 1760.), was 54ft. ia circumference at the base; and Damory’sOak, in Dorsetshire (see p. 1758.), was 68 ft. in circumference within thehollow.

The largest Oaks still existing. These appear to be, the Salcey Oak, inNorthamptonshire, with a trunk 46ft. in circumference; the Grindstone Oak,in Surrey, 48 ft.; the Hempstead Oak, in Essex, 53 ft.; the Merton Oak, inNorfolk, 63 ft.; and the Cowthorpe Oak, in Yorkshire (fig. 1624.), 78 ft.

Oaks remarkable for their horizontal Expansion. The Three-shire Oak, nearWorksop, was so situated that it covered part of the three counties of York,

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