Hist._ of _Oxfordshire_: Which I only mention here, that the variety may be compar'd by some ingenious person thereabouts, as well as the truth of the fatal prae-admonition, of oaks bearing strange leaves: Besides that famous oak of _New Forest_ in _Hampshire_, which puts forth its buds about Christmass, but wither'd again before night; and was order'd (by our late King Charles II.) to be inclos'd with a Pale; (as I find it mentioned in the last edition of Mr.Camden's _Brit._) And so was another before this; which his grandfather, King James, went to visit, and caused benches to be plac'd about it; which giving it reputation, the people never left hacking of the boughs and bark till they kill'd the tree: As I am told they have serv'd that famous oak near _White-Ladys_ which hid and protected our late Monarch from being discovered and taken by the Rebel-Soldiers, who were sent to find him, after his almost miraculous escape at the battel of _Worcester_.

In the mean time, as to this extraordinary precosness, the like is reported of a certain wallnut-tree as well as of the famous white-thorns of _Glassenbury_, and blackthorns in several places.

Some of our common oaks bear their leaves green all winter; but they are generally pollards, and such as are shelter'd in warm corners and hedge rows.

To speak then particularly of oaks, and generally of all other trees of the same kind, (by some infallible characters) notice should be taken of the manner of their spreading, stature and growth, shape and size of the acorn, whether single or in clusters, the length or shortness of the stalks, roundness of the cup, breadth, narrowness, shape, and indentures of the leaf; and so of the bark, +Trachys+, asperous, or smooth, brown or bright, &c.

Tho' most (if not all of them) may rather be imputed to the genius and nature of the soil, situation, or goodness of the seed, than either to the pretended sex or species.