1782

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

the seat of John Walter, Esq., M.P., there is a large oak with a beech growingfrom its root. In Needwood Forest, there were, in 1806, many large holliesgrowing out of oaks; and nothing is more common in the New Forest, thanto see oaks and thorns growing apparently from the same root. In KinmelPark, Denbighshire, there is a sycamore, a large tree, growing out of a hollowoak : and at Ribbesford, near Bewdley in Worcestershire, there is a yew tree,with a trunk 2 ft. in diameter, completely cased in the trunk of a pollard oak ;the hollow cylinder of the oak being filled up with the body of the yew tree,to the height of 18 ft. or 20 ft.; after which the two trees entwine theirbranches in the most friendly manner possible. On the river Loddon,in Berkshire, not far from Forest Hill, there was, in 1818, a handsome oaktree growing out of a pollard willow. Elders growing out of decaying oaks,and also mountain ash, and other trees and shrubs which spring from berrieseaten by birds, are common. Dr. Plot mentions a thorn enclosed in an oakat Drayton Basset, the branches of which seemed to pass through the trunkof the oak in several places.

Oaks of remarkable Origin. In Deene Park, Northamptonshire, the seat ofthe Earl of Cardigan, there is an oak growing in the pleasure-ground, whichwas produced from an acorn found in the middle of a large piece of oaktimber, sawn in Woolwich dockyard; and which was planted here, in 1757,by the late Dowager Duchess of Buccleugh, when Lady Elizabeth Montague.This tree, though nearly 100 years old, is of small dimensions, in consequenceof the very bad situation in which it is planted; being near a sheet of water,and on a sandy rock full of springs. Its extreme height is 55 ft., and thediameter of the trunk, at 3 ft. from the ground, is 1 ft. 4 in. The species isQ. sessilifldra.

Curious Circumstances connected with Oak Trees. Major Rooke mentionsthat, in cutting down some trees in the wood of Birkland, or Birchland, inSherwood Forest, letters, &c., were found within the wood of several oaks,marking the king’s reign. In one tree, cut down in 1786, were found J. R.,supposed to signify James Rex; and in another, W. M., with a crown, forWilliam and Mary; and in a third, Jo h . Rex, with several marks somethinglike the old crown in prints of King John; but Major Rooke observes thatthe crown is not sufficiently made out for him to insert it as a fact. Theletters were about 1 ft. within the tree, and above 1 ft. from the centre. Cruci-fixes, images, &c., have been found in similar situations, enclosed in the likemanner. Often dead branches of trees, when small, are thus enclosed, andgrown over by the parent trunk. Professor Burnet observes that “ QueenAnne’s and Queen Charlotte’s Oaks in Windsor Forest, both of which havehad brass plates, with commemorative inscriptions thereon, fixed to them,might he given as further illustrations. Over the edges of these plates theyearly increasing bark has already made considerable encroachments, and, indue course of time, will progressively enclose the whole. To this process dowe owe that more noted and variegated texture of the central parts of planks,on which much of the beauty of heart wood depends ; for the small branches,knots, and nodes of young trees, which detruded themselves near the ground,being, in process of growth, broken off or destroyed, their relics or rudimentsare in like manner enclosed, and thus buried in the heart of aged trees. SirJohn Clarke mentions that the horn of a large deer was found embedded inthe heart of an oak, which was discovered on cutting down the tree; and thatit was found fixed in the timber by large iron cramps: it seems, therefore,that it had been first fastened on the outside of the tree, which, in growingafterwards, had enclosed the horn.” ( Amcen. Qucr .)

Raining Oak Trees. All trees, especially those of great height, in insulatedsituations, condense the watery vapour of the atmosphere; and, when thisis very abundant, it falls from the leaves in drops like rain. The elm and thepoplar (as already mentioned, p. 1667.), being tall trees, afford familiar illustra-tions of this; but the oak, also, occasionally exhibits the same phenomenon.