We have already stated our opinion that the sessile-fruited oak does not usually attain the huge dimensions of the pedunculate form; but on the other hand we incline to the belief that it grows more rapidly, and is best adapted for a lighter soil than the latter. There are conditions which might to a greater or less extent affect the quality of its timber, but we do not think that there is much difference in this respect. We believe that their wood has been used indifferently, and the quality is influenced by surrounding circumstances. Selby, in his “History of Forest Trees,” states on this head:—“The result, perhaps, of some original constitutional defect, or arising from the nature of the soil, situation, or other local peculiarities of the ground upon which the timber has been raised; such at least is the result of our own experience, as we have met with oak of the _peduncled_ kind, its timber possessing all the inferior qualities attributed to, and supposed to be possessed exclusively by, _Q. sessiliflora_.” The longer, straighter spars of the Sessiliflora, in days when oak was so uniformly used for roofs, seem to have pointed out this variety for roof-timbering; and hence some of the finest ancient timbered roofs of this country have been ascertained to have been formed from its wood. With respect to these the opinion long prevailed that they were formed of the wood of the Spanish chestnut. This, however, is but a poor timber tree, as, long before it could afford so large a scantling as would be required by the roof of the Parliament House at Edinburgh or of Westminster Abbey (both of which were supposed to be of chestnut), the chestnut would begin to decay at the heart; in fact, just at the period when the heart-wood of oak begins to harden, that of the chestnut would appear to deteriorate. _Quercus Robur intermedia_, having a petiole intermediate in length between the other two varieties described, and a peduncle varying from a quarter to one inch in length, may with propriety be deemed a variety intermediate between “Sessiliflora” and “Pedunculata,” and a comparison of the three will substantiate its claim to this title. As a tree it is impossible to make out any specific character from its mode of growth, and, indeed, without the fruit, it is extremely difficult even to distinguish it as a variety. It occurs—only occasionally—in the Cotteswold district, and we suppose the same elsewhere. One meets with it here and there in the hedge-rows, and in Oakley Park, the seat of Earl Bathurst, we can point out a few specimens. [Illustration: Galls of the _Cynips Quercus petiolata_. (Natural size.)]