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Rh Yorkshire and the county of Durham have all been Q. sessiliflora, which is very scarce in the south. There are some trees of it at Kenwood, the Earl of Mansfield's, near Highgate, which I believe to be one of the oldest woods near London, and a greater part of the Q. sessiliflora appears to be trees from old stools." To this the Secretary, Mr. G. Bentham, adds a note, as follows:—"Mr. Atkinson's opinion on this subject is confirmed in a remarkable manner by the discovery that the oak in an extensive submarine forest near Hastings is Q. sessiliflora."

In a paper on British timber which I read before the Surveyors' Institution in February 1904, I called attention to a form of oak timber, known as "brown oak," which does not appear to have been much noticed by any previous writer. Though after very careful investigation I have failed to ascertain with certainty the causes which produce it, I am inclined to believe that it is not, as some have thought, caused by a fungus; though spores of some fungoid mycelium are often found running through it; but that the change of colour is produced, especially on certain soils and in certain localities, by age. And though I have evidence that in exceptional cases the heartwood of quite young oaks is brown, the majority of the trees which produce this beautiful and valuable wood are in an incipient stage of decay, and often hollow, leaving only a shell of more or less sound wood. The change of colour in some trees commences at the ground and extends upwards, or less commonly begins in the upper part and extends downwards. No one can be certain, without boring or felling the tree, whether the wood is brown or how far the colour may extend; but if the tree is allowed to stand too long after it has become brown it loses its "nature," to use a carpenter's expression, and is often so shaky and full of cracks that it is of little use. The sapwood always remains of the normal colour. But when a brown oak of good rich colour contains sound and solid timber it is superior to any wood I know for the interior decoration of houses, and for the making of sideboards and other heavy furniture.

Until about fifty years ago this wood was little valued in England, and I am told that on the Duke of Bedford's estate its use was prohibited in building contracts because it was supposed to be unsound. Even now it is hardly known or recognised as valuable except in certain parts of England, and is often sold far below its real value by inexperienced persons. But the Americans have created such a demand

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