1868 



ARBOIIF/IUM AND F/lUTICETUiM. 



PART III. 



1728 



may have pushed above 1 in. in length. Cobbett recommends gathering the 

 acorns before they are quite ripe, drying in the sun, and packing in dry saml ; 

 but by this mode, we think, the vital principle would not be so well preserved 

 as by packing them in 5phdgnuni. 



Insects. In America, the white oak is infested with numerous insects, some 

 of which are figured in Abbott and Smitli's Insects of Georgia. Phalae^na 

 (? Pyg£E'ra) albifrons (t.80., 

 and ourjf%. 1728.),the white- 

 tip moth, is by no means a 

 common kind. The cater- 

 pillar, which is of a pinkish 

 colour, striped with yellow, 

 white, and black, has a fine 

 polish, as if glazed or var- 

 nished. The whole brood 

 feeds together, especially 

 when small. One observed 

 by Abbott spun itself a thin 

 white webjbetween the leaves 

 of the oak, on October 28th, 

 and came out on the 18th of 

 February. The chrysalis is 

 of a reddish brown, and the 

 perfect insect of a dull brown, 

 tinged with yellow. Phalae^na 

 (Notodonta) Aurora (^Abb. 

 and Smith, t. 87., and our ^g, 

 1729.), the pink and yellow 

 prominent moth, was taken 

 by Abbott on the white oak. " The caterpillar went into the ground, 

 and enclosed itself in a thin case of dirt, on July 15th, appearing on the win"- 

 on August 7th. Sometimes this species buries itself in the autumn, and remains 



I 



I 



till spring, at which season the moth may now and then be observed sitting 

 on the oak branches." 



Statistics. In tho environs of London, at Fulham Palace, a tree bearing this name, between 100 

 and 120 years old, is flO ft. high, but it appears to us to be nothing more than (i. ppdunculilta ; at 

 York House, Twickenham, it is 50 ft. hign ; at Muswell Hill, 72 years old, it is 61ft. high, the 

 diameter of the trunk ti ft. 6 in., and of the head 70 ft. In Krance, in Hrittany, at Barrcs, 8 years 

 planted, it is 9 ft. high. In Austria, at Vienna, in the park at Laxenburg, 10 years planted, it is 

 soft. high. In Bavaria, at Munich, in the English Garden, 10 years old, it is 7 ft. high. In 

 Italy, in Lombardy, at Monza, 24 years planted, it is 30 (t. high, the diameter of the trunk Sin., and 

 of the head 10 ft. 



Commercial Statistics. The name of the white oak docs not occur in any 

 of the London nursery catalogues of the present day, with the exception of 

 that of Messrs. Loddigesj neither is it in the Bollwyller catalogue. In that 



