of Hoy, Orkney, and the acorn from which it sprang must have been brought from the mainland by a rock-dove or rook.
Remains of oak are found in all the later geological deposits ; in the pre-glacial deposits in the Cromer forest-bed ; in inter-glacial deposits in Hampshire, Sussex, Hertford, Middlesex, and Suffolk; in neolithic deposits; common in "submerged forests” everywhere; at the base of peat-mosses in many localities (ascending in them up to 1000 feet in Yorkshire).!. Mr. S.B.J. Skertchley describes? the growth of five successive oak forests in the valley of the Ouse, and considers the oldest of them to be some 70,000 years old. These forests spread downwards towards the fen till checked by water and peat moss, the latter eventually burying and preserving them. The trees in thousands lie to the north-east, having been blown down by the south-west, which is still the prevailing wind. The word oak occurs in place-names both of Celtic and Saxon origin, the Saxon forms in names being ac, oak, wok, and auch. These forms are illustrated by names like Auchley, Auckland, Acworth, Wokingham, Oakingham, Oakham, Oakfield, Oakley, Martock, Holyoak, and Selly- oak. The Gaelic name is dair, as in Derry, Edenderry, Ballinderry, Kildare, Adare, Darnock, Kildarragh, Auchindarroch, Craigandarroch.
Quercus pedunculata, according to Willkomm, occurs throughout the greater part of Europe, Asia Minor, and the Caucasus. Its northern limit reaches, on the west coast of Norway, 62° 55’, on the eastern side of Norway 60° 45’, in Sweden 60°, in Finland 61° 30’ at Björneborg and 60° at Helsingfors, then passes along the coast of Esthonia to St. Petersburg, and crosses Russia south of Jaroslav and Perm, then descends southwards, reaching the Ural river between Orenberg and Orsk, and descends along that river to Iletzkoi. Its distribution in the Caucasus and Asia Minor is not known with exactness, owing to the conflicting opinions about the oaks of these regions. In Europe it occurs as far south as Greece, Sicily, and in the Peninsula reaches its southern limit in the Sierra Morena range. The western limit, beginning at the western part of this range, includes the northern part of Portugal and Galicia, and continues up along the coast of France, ending in Ireland and Scotland. It is essentially a tree of the plains and low hills, but it ascends in Southern Scandinavia to 993 feet, in the Berne Oberland to 2530 feet, in the Tirol to 3160 feet, in the Jura to 2216 feet, and in the Pyrenees to 3300 feet.
It is, according to Max von Sivers,’ a much scarcer tree than it formerly was in the Baltic Provinces of Russia, and only exists in pure forests of any extent in Kurland, where it attains in river valleys and loamy soil very large dimensions, as much as 9 metres (about 30 feet) in girth, Some of the best trees produce logs free from branches over 60 feet long and 5 feet in girth at the top. He attributes its comparative scarcity at present to over-felling during the last two centuries, but states that replanting has been recently carried on to some extent. Quercus sessiliflora occupies a more restricted area than the other species. Its northern limit is 60° 11’ in Norway, 58° 30’ in Sweden; it then passes through east Prussia, Lithuania, and crosses the central provinces of Russia, Minsk, Mohilev,
1 °C. Reid, Origin of the British Flora, 145 (1899).
2 Fenland, Past and Present, chap. xv. (1878).
3 Die Forstlichen Verhältnisse der Baltischen Provinzen, 1903.
