Common Oak 291 



oak raised in 1840 from a tree at Woburn Abbey. Measurements show that the 

 former was 6 ft. 7 in. in girth in 1865, and is now 9 ft. 4 in. ; whilst the latter, only 

 I ft. 8 in. in 1865, is now 8 ft. 7 in. Mr. J. Hopkinson in Trans. Hertfordshire 

 Nat. Hist. Soc. xii. pp. 249, 250, gives diagrams showing the comparative annual 

 increase during two periods of these trees. I may add that the habit of the two 

 trees differs but little, and the soil is more suitable to the sessile oak. 



Mr. Sharpe,^ forester at Monreith, where Sir Herbert Maxwell planted in 1898 

 a quantity of oaks of the two species, on a fairly deep loam soil, measured ten of 

 each sort in 1905, and informs us that the sessile oak averaged \-i,\ feet in height, 

 and the pedunculate oak only 10^ feet. (H. J. E.) 



QUERCUS SESSILIFLORA, Sessile or Durmast Oak 



Quercus sessiliflora, Salisbury, Frod. Stirp. Hort. Chap. Allerton, 392 (1796)5 Loudon, Arb. et Frut: 



Brit. iii. 1736 (1838); Boswell Syme, Eng. Bot. viii. 157, tab. 1289 (1868). 

 Quercus sessilis, Ehrhart, Beitrage, v. 161 (1790). 

 Quercus Robur, Miller, Gard. Diet, vii. i (1759). 

 Quercus Robur, Linnaeus, var. ;8; Mantissa, 496 (1771). 

 Quercus Robur, L., sub-species sessiliflora, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 6 (1864). 

 Quercus Robur, L., var. sessiliflora. Hooker, Stud. Mora Brit. Isles, ed. 2, 364 (1878). 



A tree resembling Q. peduncutata, but with more regular branching, resulting 

 in a denser crown of foliage. It differs somewhat in the characters of the 

 branchlets, buds, leaves, pistillate flowers, and fruit, as follows : 



Branchlets pubescent, especially near the top. Buds more sharply pointed, with 

 scales pubescent on the outer surface, especially near the apex, and having long 

 marginal cilia. 



Leaves with a long petiole ; symmetrical, obovate-oblong, widest at the middle 

 and gradually diminishing to the base, which is cuneate and generally without 

 auricles ; firm, almost coriaceous in texture ; sinuately lobed or pinnatipartite, the 

 lobes being oblong or triangular, entire, occasionally apiculate ; upper surface 

 glabrous and shining, dark green ; lower surface brighter even glaucous green and 

 always more or less pubescent. Lateral nerves running to the sinuses are very 

 seldom present. Pistillate flowers with stigmas almost sessile. Fruit solitary or 

 crowded, inserted on the branchlets, or borne sessile on an erect, stout, short pubescent 

 peduncle. Cups pubescent, with scales more numerous and more closely crowded 

 together than in Q. peduncutata. 



This species is quite distinct from Q. peduncutata, and the characters given 

 above are very constant. The pubescence, which is visible in this species throughout, 

 on the top of the twigs, buds, stalks, peduncles, cups, and under surface of the leaves, 

 is not so pronounced in specimens occurring in rainy districts ; but it can always be 

 made out by a lens. The physiological differences are well marked. The sessile 



* Cf. Sir Herbert Maxwell's account in Gard. Chron. xxxvii. 82 (1905). 



