1852 
ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PARTY TIl. 
1712 
ee a SER 
Quércus Cérris Lucombeana, in tts deciduous state, in the Exeter Nursery. 
Height 75 ft. ; diameter of trunk 6ft. ; diameter of the head 65 ft. 
This variety is subevergreen: it was raised by Lucombe, nurseryman 
at Exeter, from seeds of the species, sown about 1762. The acorns 
had been saved from a tree of Mr. Lucombe’s own growth; and, 
when the plants came up, he observed one amongst them that kept 
its leaves on throughout the winter, to which he paid particular 
attention, and propagated some thousands of it by grafting. In an 
account of this variety published in the 62d volume of the Philo- 
sophical Transactions, dated 1772, it is described as “a tree, 
growing as straight and handsome as a fir, with evergreen leaves, 
and wood in hardness and strength exceeding that of all other 
oaks. It makes but one shoot in the year, viz. in May; but this 
continues growing throughout the summer, not being interrupted, 
about midsummer, by the pause which occurs between the produc- 
tion of the first and the second shoots, in the case of the com- 
mon oak, The tree grows so rapidly, that the original specimen, 
at 7 years old, measured 21 ft. high, and 1 ft. 8in. in circumference: at 6 
years old, a grafted tree was 23 ft. high; and a tree 4 years grafted was 
16 ft. high.” The shoots are, in general, from 4 ft. to 5 ft. in length; 
