The Robin Hood English Oak growing in New York descends from the famous Major Oak in England's Sherwood Forest, long associated with the Robin Hood legends. According to the legend, the forest's dense cover concealed Robin Hood as he robbed from the rich to give to the poor, and before each raid he met secretly beneath the knotted, twisted Major Oak with Little John, Will Scarlet, and other members of his outlaw band. In 1926, Professor Nelson C. Brown collected an acorn from the Major Oak and planted it on the campus of the State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences, where it grew into a sprawling tree that still stands today.