The Sycamore Maple in A.D. 1300

Abstract

IN his description of the carvings of the sycamore on the shrine of St. Frideswyde in the Oxford Cathedral, Dr. Burtt Davy¹ gives a list of ten species of plants that were in all probability growing in or near Oxford about A.D. 1300, when the shrine was being carved. It is only fair to note that the remarkable truth to Nature of the carvings of the fruits and leaves of this tree, and of the nine other species of plants mentioned by Dr. Davy, had already been recognised by Mr. S. A. Warner, with the addition of two more, the water crowfoot, Ranunculus aquatilis, and the hogweed, Heracleum sphondylium, to the list which, with three illustrations, is printed in my “Early Science in Oxford”, vol. 3, p. 198.