1864 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
is, they have for the most part been planted in clumps along with elms ; which, 
being vigorous, rapid-growing trees, have robbed the soil of moisture, and 
overshadowed and stunted the oaks. In any of the London nurseries where 
the American oaks have been allowed to stand 6 or 8 years in the same place, 
they will be found of twice the height of those in the Chiswick Garden ; 
and, instead of being crooked, stunted, and unhealthy, they are straight and 
vigorous. We may refer to a few which are generally to be found in the 
Hammersmith and Fulham nurseries ; but we wish, in a particular manner, to 
direct attention to the specimen trees of American oaks in Loddiges’s arbo- 
retum, and to some hundreds of plants which they have for sale in their 
adjoining nursery ground. Among the latter, we observed on May Sth, 1837, 
above 100 plants of Quércus palastris, the hardiest, the most rapid-growing, 
and, in our opinion, the most beautiful, of all the American,oaks; which, at 
7 years from the acorn, were from 15 ft, to 20ft. in height. In the Leyton 
Nursery, near Stratford-le-Bow, there were, till the sale of the stock of that 
nursery in the autumn of 1836, a great variety of American oaks, selected by 
the late Mr. Hill from seed-beds, and planted across the nursery in rows in 
different directions, for shelter. The variety and beauty of these oaks ex- 
ceeded anything of the kind we ever before saw: in spring, when they were 
coming into leaf; in summer, when they were in full foliage; and in autumn, 
when they were dying off of every shade of brilliant scarlet, yellow, red, and 
purple. The plants were mostly from 10 to 12 years from the acorn; were 
transplanted into these rows, after making 2 years’ growth in the seed-beds ; 
and, with the exception of Q. Banisteri, and two or three other low-growing 
kinds, they were all from 20 ft. to 30 ft. in height. The portrait of Q. paldstris 
in our last Volume, taken froma tree in the Leyton Nursery, will give an idea 
of the progress made by that species there. In the London Horticultural 
Society’s Garden, though about the same age, it is not half that height. (See 
Q. palustris.) 
* 8, Q. a’LBA Lin. The American white Oak. 
Identification. Lin. Sp. Pl., 1414; Banist. Cat. Stirp. Virg. ; Willd. Sp. Pl, 4. p. 449.; Pursh, vol. 2. 
p. 633.; Michx. Quer., No. 4. t. 5.; N. Du Ham., 7. p. 175. ; Smith in Rees’s Cycl., No. 69. 
Synonymes. Q. iba virginiana Park, Theat. Bot., Cat. Carol., 1. t. 21. f. 2.; Q, a. pinnatffida 
Wait..Carol., p. 230., No. 10., Micha. Fl. Bor. Amer.,2. p.195.; Q. palastris Marsh., p. 120. No. 3.; 
Chéne blanc de |’ Amérique, Fr. ; weisse Eiche, Ger. : 
Engravings. Cat. Carol.,.1. t. 21. f.2.; Michx. N. Amer. Syl., vol. 1.t.1.; our figs. 1723, and 1726.; 
and the plate of this tree in our last Volume. 
Spec. Char.,§c. ‘Leaves oblong, pinnatifidly serrated ; pubescent underneath ; 
lobes linear-lanceolate, obtuse, entire, attenuated at the base. Fruit pedun- 
culated. Calyx somewhat cup-shaped, warty, and flattened at the base, 
Acorn oval. ( Willd.) A native of North America, where it grows to the 
height of 60 ft., or upwards, and flowers in April. Introduced in 1724. 
Varieties. The elder Michaux gives the two following forms of this species, 
the leaves of both of which are shown in fig. 1723. copied from Michaux’s 
Histoire des Chénes Ameriques : — 
+ Q. a. 1 pinnatifida Michx. Fl. Bor. Amer., ii. p. 1723 
195., Hist. des Chénes Amér., t. 5. f. 1.,and our 
Jig. 1723. a; Q. alba Ban. Cat. Stirp. Virg.; Q. 
virginiana Catesb. Carol., i. p. 21. t. 21.; and 
Q. a. palistris Marsh., p.120. No. 3—This is 
the usual form of the species, and is common 
in North America, from Canada to Florida. 
Fig. 1726. is a sprig and acorn of Q. alba pin- 
natifida, taken from Michaux’s North American 
Sylva, vol. i. t. 1.; and the acorn without its 
calyx is shown in fig. 1722. at a. ' 
¥ Q. a. 2 repanda Michx. |. c., Hist. des Chénes, t.5. f.2., Du Roi, t.5. f.5., 
and our fig. 1723. 6, which is found wild in the forests of Carolina, 
and which sometimes occurs in seed-beds of Q. alba in Europe. Fig. 
