CHAP. CV. CORYLA'CEiE. QUe'rCUS. 1735 



countries where the oak abounds, sin)ilar varieties might be detected ; 

 and, farther, that acorns collected from these varieties would occa- 

 sionally, 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. 

 Fii^. 1570., to a scale ofl 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 

 18-20; and the parent tree was, in 1S3G, 15 ft. high. Some of the 

 leaves are quite entire, and others deeply and curiously cut, as exhi- 

 bited in fg. 1571., drawn of the natural size. 



i Q.^;. Gfoliis variegdfk Lodd. Cat. has the leaves variegated with white, 

 with some streaks of red ; and, when finely grown, is a very orna- 

 mental tree. We have never seen it worth looking at in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London ; but at White Knights there are very handsome 

 specimens, between 20 ft. and 30 ft. high. 



¥ Q. p. 7 2}urpurea, Q. purpurea Lodcl. 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. 



3f Q, J}. 8 HodginsVi 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. ;). 9 diilcis. Chcne ^ Feuillcs caduques presquo sessiles, Dralet. —This variety exists in 

 France, on Uie borders of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Departments du Gard, de Vau- 

 cluse, des Bnuchcs de Rhi'mc, 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. 

 /'lex, which, from his description, appears to be (I. I. Bailuta. M. Dralet mentions two 

 forms of (I p. diilcis : one having the leaves thin, with acute lobes, and slightly downy 

 beneath ; the acorns being so large as to measure ^i in. in circumference: and the other 

 having coriaceous glaucous leaves, with obtuse lobes ; and the acorns rather smaller, 

 and borne on peduncles 1^ 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 Benches du 

 Rhone; and he adds that he gave acorns to the Botanic Garden at Toulouse in 1811, 

 from which young plants were raised. [Traite dc I'Ati/enagement des Boi's ct Furets, S(c., 

 suivi dc Rccherches sur les ChUncs a Glands dotix, p. 180.) Through the kindness of M. 

 Vilmorin, we received some acorns of this variety in 1836, which we roasted and en- 

 deavoured 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 tlieseoaks 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 leaf- 

 ing 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 through- 

 out the winter, like the hornbeam and the beech. Some oaks bud at Christ- 

 mas, 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 tlie difference in the size of the leaves, and in 

 the length of their footstalks ; and wherever Q sessiliflora is found growing 

 along with Q. pedunculiita, there are, or appear to be, numerous hybrids 

 produced between these two kinds. The Wyre Forest, near Bewdley, con- 

 tains upwards of 1200 acres, the greater i)art of which is the property of 

 W. L. Childe, Esq., whose gardener, Mr. John Pearson, informs us that 



