ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

planted. From the circumstance of this variety generally coming true from seed, which, from what is stated in the Nouveau Du Hamel, it would appear to do, it is doubtless very distinct; and hence the circumstance of De Candolle and others treating it as a species. Q. p. 4 péndula; Q. péndula Lodd. Cat., 1836; the Weeping Oak; has branches decidedly pendulous. The largest tree of this variety that we know of, in England, stands in the park at Moccas Court, Herefordshire, and is, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary trees of the oak kind in existence. It was first pointed out to us in 1806; and we have lately had the following account of it sent to us by Mr. J. Webster, who was then, and is still, gardener and forester at Moccas:- "The tree is in vigorous health. The height of the trunk to the first branch is 18 ft.; girt, at 9 ft. from the ground, 13 ft. 2 in.; total height of the trunk, 75 ft., with branches reaching from about the middle of its height to within 7 ft. of the ground, and hanging down like cords. Many of these branches are 30 ft. long, and no thicker in any part of that length than a common waggon rope. The entire head of the tree covers a space 100 ft. in diameter. The tree bears acorns every year, from which many plants have been raised, all of which partake more or less of the weeping character of the parent; and many so much so, that, when they are young, they are obliged to be supported by props. Many of the trees raised from this oak at Moccas are twenty years before they show much in

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clination to hang their branches like cords; others begin to do so when they are quite young. There are plants at Moccas, raised from the parent tree, which are 50 years old." (Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 368.) Fig. 1568. is a portrait of this tree to the scale of 1 in. to 50 ft., which has been reduced from a drawing made for us, in September, 1836, by G. R. Lewis, Esq. Owing to the smallness of the scale, the weeping character is not very obvious in the figure; but it is very striking in the tree. As the tree stands on a steep bank, and the spread of its branches is up and down the slope, our portrait, which is a front view, does not show so great a diameter of head as it would have done, if a side view had been taken. There is a tree of this kind at Messrs. Loddiges's, which was procured from the Lewisham Nursery, where it is supposed to have been discovered in a seed-bed about 1816; and there is one in the Horticultural Society's Garden, raised from an acorn of the Moccas tree, which has not yet become pendulous. There is also a tree of the weeping oak in the neighbourhood of Wisbaden, a portrait of which was kindly lent to us by Lady Walsingham; but we are not certain to what species the tree belongs. Q. p. 5 heterophylla, Q. salicifòlia Hort., Q. laciniata Lodd. Cat., Q.filicifòlia Hort., and Q. Fennéssi Hort.- In this variety the leaves vary exceedingly in magnitude, in shape, and in being lanceolate and entire, cut at the edges, or deeply laciniated. Fig. 1569. shows four leaves, which were sent to us by the Rev. W. T. Bree, from a tree growing in a hedge-row at Allesley, near Coventry. One of these leaves (a) is very long and narrow, and quite entire; 6 and care much indented; and d approaches to the usual form of the leaf of the British oak. Mr. Bree remarks that those which are first expanded bear the greatest resemblance to the ordinary foliage. There are entire shoots on the tree with foliage of the common kind; and others with narrow foliage, either entire, or denticulated. The tree, at the height of 5 ft. from the ground, had, in 1832, a trunk 3 ft. in circumference; and

is supposed to be of spontaneous growth. There is a similar tree at Mill Hill, in Middlesex, on entering that village from the London side. (See Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 576.) There is another tree of this kind at Munches, in Dumfriesshire; and in Irving's Nursery, Dumfries, there were, in 1831, some scores of seedling oaks of the same kind. Indeed, we have no doubt that in all extensive oak woods, or

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countries where the oak abounds, similar varieties might be detected; and, farther, that acorns collected from these varieties would occasionally, if not frequently, produce trees with the same character of foliage; in the same manner as acorns from a weeping oak will produce weeping trees, or from a fastigiate oak fastigiate trees. Fig. 1570., to a scale of 1 in. to 4 ft., is a specimen of an oak of this kind, recently brought into notice by Messrs. Fennessey and Son, nurserymen, Waterford. It came up from seed accidentally, about 1820; and the parent tree was, in 1836, 15 ft. high. Some of the leaves are quite entire, and others deeply and curiously cut, as exhibited in fig. 1571., drawn of the natural size.

Q. p. 6 foliis variegatis Lodd. Cat. has the leaves variegated with white, with some streaks of red; and, when finely grown, is a very ornamental tree. We have never seen it worth looking at in the neighbourhood of London; but at White Knights there are very handsome specimens, between 20 ft. and 30 ft. high.

* Q. p. 7 purpurea, Q. purpurea Lodd. Cat., has the young shoots, and the footstalks of the leaves, tinged with purple. The young leaves, when they first come out, are almost entirely purple, and are very striking. There are plants of this variety at Messrs. Loddiges's, and a young tree in the Horticultural Society's Garden.

* Q. p. 8 Hodginsii Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836. From the plants of this variety in the Horticultural Society's Garden, and at Messrs. Loddiges's, it appears to be of a more fastigiate habit of growth, and to have much smaller leaves, than the species.

Q. p. 9 dúlcis. Chène à Feuilles caduques presque sessiles, Dralet. -This variety exists in France, on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Departments du Gard, de Vaucluse, des Bouches de Rhône, and du Var. The leaves are divided into seven very open lobes, of which the middle one is the largest. The acorns are large, and, according to M. Dralet, very handsome; he adds that they are sweeter than those of a variety of Q. I'lex, which, from his description, appears to be Q. I. Ballòta. M. Dralet mentions two forms of Q. p. dúlcis: one having the leaves thin, with acute lobes, and slightly downy beneath; the acorns being so large as to measure 24 in. in circumference: and the other having coriaceous glaucous leaves, with obtuse lobes; and the acorns rather smaller, and borne on peduncles 14 in. in length. These two forms do not differ from the species in rate of growth, magnitude, or quality of the timber. M. Dralet strongly recommends the propagation of this variety in France, with a view to the employment of the acorns as food. The tree, he says, is planted in avenues, in the department des Bouches du Rhône; and he adds that he gave acorns to the Botanic Garden at Toulouse in 1811, from which young plants were raised. (Traité de l'Amenagement des Bois et Forêts, &c., suivi de Recherches sur les Chênes à Glands doux, p. 180.) Through the kindness of M. Vilmorin, we received some acorns of this variety in 1836, which we roasted and endeavoured to eat; but we cannot recommend them from our own experience. The variety, however, ought by all means to be introduced.

Other Varieties. The varieties of British oaks which might be selected from extensive woods of that tree, are without end; but, as these oaks are exceedingly difficult to propagate by any other method than from the acorn, they have been in a great measure neglected by cultivators. The time of leafing and of dropping the leaves varies exceedingly; some oaks retaining their foliage of a deep green for a month or six weeks after others; others, after their leaves have withered, and become of a russet colour, retaining them throughout the winter, like the hornbeam and the beech. Some oaks bud at Christmas, like the Glastonbury thorn; as, for example, the Cadenham oak in the New Forest, near Lyndhurst, mentioned by Parkinson, and by various writers down to the time of Gilpin; and one, that we have heard of, in the Vale of Gloucester. The forms of the trees also vary: some being much more fastigiate than others; and the heads of some approaching to the globular, or rather domical, form; while the heads of others are more conical. The difference in the size of the acorns, and in the length of their footstalks, is as great as the difference in the size of the leaves, and in the length of their footstalks; and wherever Q. sessiliflòra is found growing along with Q. pedunculata, there are, or appear to be, numerous hybrids produced between these two kinds. The Wyre Forest, near Bewdley, contains upwards of 1200 acres, the greater part of which is the property of W. L. Childe, Esq., whose gardener, Mr. John Pearson, informs us that

both species abound in the forest; and that he could collect a bushel of oak leaves, that would vary in breadth from that of a finger to that of a hand; and from being perfectly sessile, to having a footstalk 2 in. long. He finds hundreds of very distinct varieties; and Mr. Childe's wood-cutter informed him that, in regard to the qualities and appearance of the wood, there are three very distinct sorts, which are called the black, the red, and the white oak. The black oak produces the hardest, and the white oak the softest, timber. Specimens of these three kinds of timber have been sent to us; and though they are taken from trees of not more than a foot in diameter, the difference of the colour of the heart wood is obvious, though certainly not so much as we expected to see it.

2. Q. SESSILIFLO RA Sal. The sessile-flowered Oak. Identification. Sal. Prod., 392.; Smith Fl. Br., No. 2. a; Eng. Bot., t. 1845. Synonymes. Q. Robur Willd., No. 64., Ait., No. 23., Lam. Dict., 1. p. 717., N. Du. Ham., 7. p. 176.; Q. R. var. séssile Mart. Fl, Rust., t. 11.; Q. séssilis Ehrh. Arb., 87.; Q. platyphyllos, mas et foem., Dalech. Hist., 2. 3.; Q. latifolia mas, &c., Bauh. Pin., Raii Syn., 440.; Q. regàlis Burnet; Chêne måle, Secondat, t. iv. f. 1, 2. p. 18.; Chestnut Oak, Bay Oak; Chêne roure or rouvre, Durelin, Fr.; Stein Eiche, gemeine Eiche, spät Eiche, Winter Eiche, dürr Eiche, roth Eiche, Berg Eiche, Ger. ; Quercia vera, Ital.; Roble, Span.

Derivation. The name of Chestnut Oak is given to this species, because its wood is said to resemble that of the sweet chestnut. Bay Oak, from some fancied resemblance of the leaves to those of the laurel bay. The French names imply the male oak, the red oak, and the hard oak. The German names, the stone oak, the common oak, the late oak, in allusion to its lateness in leafing; the winter oak, from its frequently keeping on its leaves during winter; dry oak, probably from the leaves remaining on the tree after they have become dry and withered; red oak, from the colour of its wood; and hill oak, from its being more abundant on hilly ground than the Q. pedunculata. Engravings. Eng. Bot., t. 1845.; Mart. Fl. Rust., t. 11.; N. Du Ham., 7. t. 52.; Willd. Abbild., t. 130.; our fig. 1572.; and the plate of this tree in our last Volume.

Spec. Char., &c. Leaves on longish footstalks, deciduous, oblong, smooth; sinuses opposite, rather acute; lobes obtuse. Fruit sessile. Nut oblong. (Smith.) Leaves, when young, pubescent beneath. (Willd.) A tree, readily distinguished from the preceding species, even

at a distance, by the less tufted appearance, and generally paler green, of its foliage during summer; and, in winter, by its less tortuous spray and branches, by its lighter-coloured bark, by its large buds, and by its frequently retaining its leaves, after they have withered, till the following spring. There are trees of this species at Kenwood (which takes its name from the oaks there, being originally Kern Wood, the acorn, or oak, wood); one in the grounds of the Protestant Dissenters' School at Mill Hill, formerly the residence of Peter Collinson; some, according to Martyn, at Norwood, in Surrey; and numerous others at Woburn Abbey, and at Allesley; besides those in Wyre Forest, and in many other places which will be hereafter mentioned. There are also specimens at Messrs. Loddiges's, and in the Horticultural Society's Garden; and, in 1834, there were thousands of young plants in the Milford Nursery. According to Secondat, who wrote in 1785, the kingdom of Naples then boasted of a great many oaks of this species, where it was known under the name of Quercia vera.

Varieties.

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Q. s. 2 pubescens; Q. s. var 8 Smith Eng. Fl., vol. iv. p. 150.; Q. pubéscens Willd. Sp. Pl., iv. p. 450., Abbild., t. 141., and our fig. 1573., Q.R.lanuginosum Lam. Dict., i. p. 717.; the Durmast, Mart. Fl. Rust., t. 12.-Leaves downy beneath. Fruit sessile, but sometimes subsessile. The flowers appear in May, and the fruit ripens in October. Found occasionally in most of the oak woods of Europe; and, according to Willdenow, having the same general appearance, attaining the same height, and living to the same age, as Q. sessiliflòra. In