90
THE OAK TREE IN ESSEX.
"Domesday Book" for Essex, where we find the number of swine which
the woods in each parish would sustain carefully recorded as one
of the most valuable belongings of the manors.- The "Round
Table" of King Arthur in our national romance, was made of the
trunk of an oak, and our Saxon forefathers held their primitive
parliaments under the spreading boughs of the favourite tree. It
was on the stout trunk of an oak that the arrow struck which found
its way to the heart of the second William, and in popular story it
was to the shelter of an oak that King Charles the Second owed
his life.
No tree excels the oak in its picturesque beauty. With its
ponderous trunk, its gnarled but spreading branches, its rich coloured
luxuriant foliage, it is indeed a monarch of the vegetable
kingdom.
To the modern biological student the oak tree offers the
material for much interesting research, as a glance through Marshall
Ward's work, "The Oak," will prove. I have, however, said enough
to show how wide a subject we have entered upon, and how
necessary it will be to confine it within strict limits ; but I must
make a few introductory remarks for the benefit of those of our
members who may not have previously given attention to the
subject.
The varieties of oak which might be selected from extensive
woods are very numerous, but they have been in a great measure
neglected by foresters, as they are difficult to propagate except by
acorns. I must however describe the two varieties into which oak
trees are usually divided by botanists, known as Quercus pedunculata,
Ehr., having long peduncles (flower-stalks), and sessile leaves (with-
out stalks) ; and Quercus sessiliflora having peduncles short and leaves
stalked. It is stated that much, if not all, of the wood found in old
houses, frequently called "chestnut" by builders, is in reality the
wood of Quercus sessiliflora, which resembles the chestnut-wood, and
which is devoid of what is popularly known as the 'silver grain,'
generally considered characteristic of the timber of the oak.
These varieties are usually found growing together in the wild
state, and they are used indiscriminately for all purposes for which
the oak is applicable. Some writers state that Quercus pedunculata
is a low spreading tree or "Broad Oak," whilst Quercus sessiliflora is
a See for much information on this subject the late Mr. W. R. Fisher's valuable book, "The
Forest of Essex."