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 fòlis 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. purpùrea 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. Flex, 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. sessiliflora 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 inas, &c., Bauh. Pin., Raii Syn., 440.; Q. regàlis Burnet; Chêne mâle, 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 folJowing 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 speci 1572 mens 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. 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 1573 the Companion to the Botanical Magazine, it is Other Varieties. Bosc mentions, 1. le Chêne à Trochets, or Chêne à petits Glands, which has the leaves velvety beneath; 2. le Chêne à Feuilles découpées, which has the leaves deeply lobed, and very small; 3. le Chêne laineux, or Chene des Collines, which has also the leaves deeply lobed, velvety beneath, and pubescent above; 4. le Chêne noirâtre, which has the acorns very large, and almost solitary; and the leaves large, and pubescent beneath. This last variety must not be confounded with the Q. nigra of America, or the Chêne noir of Secondat, which is the Q. Taúzin. Bosc also mentions that "he thinks the Chêne mâle of Secondat, the Quércus latifòlia mas quæ brevi pediculo est of Bauhin, different from the chêne mâle, or Q. sessiliffòra, of the neighbourhood of Paris." It seems that this variety is known in the Landes under the name of Auzin, or Chêne de malediction; because the country people there believe that any one who cuts down one of these trees, or who sleeps in a house built with any of the timber, will die within the year. Bosc had never seen this variety, though he had traversed the country where it is said to grow. It is described as a low spreading tree, with tortuous branches, of great toughness, and well adapted for ship-building; weighing 75 lb. per cubic foot, and consequently sinking in water. From the name auzin had not Bosc described Q. Tauzin separately, we should have supposed this kind to be that species. Le Chêne de Haies is also mentioned by Bosc, under the head of Q. sessiliflòra, as common on the Jura, and in the mountains of the Vosges, where it is planted for hedges, seldom growing above the height of 6 ft. or 8 ft. The shoots are used for basket-making and tying bundles. The leaves are like those of Q. pedunculata, but the acorns are sessile. It is said not to change its nature by transplantation; and hence Bosc thinks that it may be a distinct species. (Nouv. Cours d'Ag., art. Chêne.) In Britain, the varieties are very numerous, though none has hitherto received a technical designation, except the durmast, just described; respect ing which name Mr. Atkinson observes (Hort. Trans., 2d s., vol. i. p. 336.), that the woodmen in the New Forest call all the oaks that have darkcoloured acorns dunmast (of which word durmast is supposed to be a corruption); and that dun-coloured acorns are found both on Q. pedunculata and Q. sessiliflòra. A variety of Q. sessiliflòra was found by Mr. Borrer in North Devon, with large leaves, oblique at 1574 "I think the apex, as shown in fig. 1574. These leaves are not quite so long as those of one of Mr. Bree's varieties (fig. 1584.), which differ from Mr. Borrer's in being pointed at the apex. The only account which we are aware of, that has been given of other British varieties of Q. sessiliflora, is that by the Rev. W. T. Bree, in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. xii. p. 571. The varieties there mentioned were all found at Corley, in the parish of Allesley. Mr. Bree's communication was accompanied by 15 dried specimens, 5 of which we have figured, and the rest shortly described. "When you examine these specimens," Mr. Bree observes, you will come to the conclusion that our two so-called species of oak are mere varieties; but, though there are sessile oaks bearing fruit on peduncles, and pedunculated oaks bearing almost sessile fruit, there is yet a certain undescribable something about the trees, by means of which I can always distinguish each, without minutely examining either the acorns or the leaf-stalks. There is little difference in the general form and outline of the two trees when full grown; but young seedlings of Q. sessiliflora bear their leaves close to the stem, and not on footstalks; so that, in this stage of their growth, it is difficult to distinguish them from Q. pedunculata. Q. sessilifòra generally bears small acorns; but it sometimes produces very fine large ones. The acorns, when ripe, have very generally a red or pinkish tinge; so that, in nine cases out of ten, they are distinguished by looking at the fallen acorns only." The specimens which accompanied Mr. Bree's communication are thus described:: "Q. s. 1.-Acorns large, ovate, quite sessile, and growing in clusters of four or five. Leaves from 5 in. to 5 in. in length. "Q. s. 2.-Acorns large, quite sessile, and growing singly, or in clusters of two or three, as in the preceding specimen, but closer together on the branches. Q. s. 3. Very large leaves, and very small long acorns; one of the latter sessile, and the other with a footstalk, of about 3-8th in. in length. "Q. s. 4-Acorns of three times the diameter of "Q. s. 5.-Acorns with a short peduncle. Two "Q. s. 8.-Leaves but little laciniated, and re- with long footstalks, pale green. (See fig. 1575.) |