1262 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



axillary buds short and early deciduous. Leaves (Plate 335, Fig. 21) usually de- 

 ciduous in January and February, ovate, broader in proportion to their length, and 

 smaller than those of Q. Lucombeana, about 3 in. long and \\ in. wide ; broad, 

 rounded, and unequal, or occasionally auricled at the base ; acute at the apex ; with 

 5 to 8 pairs of sinuate mucronate teeth ; white tomentose beneath. 



Fruit ripening in the second year ; cupule hemispheric, smaller than in Q. Cerris, 

 with lanceolate acuminate grey tomentose scales, red at the tips, usually all reflexed, 

 except a few erect and curving inwards at the margin of the cupule, but not forming 

 a regular fringe as in the Turkey oak ; acorn not depressed at the summit, which 

 bears a stout short tomentose umbo. 



The original Fulham oak grew in Whitley and Osborne's nursery at Fulham, and 

 was, 1 in 1835, 75 ft. high and 11J ft. in girth. Loudon supposed it to be a seedling 

 but in 1840 it sent forth a branch from the base, which proved it to have been 

 grafted on Q. pedunculata? It appears to have been always reproduced in the 

 Fulham Nursery by grafting on the common oak. The origin of this tree is unknown ; 

 but an oak of apparently the same age, which was 80 ft. high and 4^ ft. in diameter 

 at a foot from the ground in 1835, is said by Pince 8 to have been planted by Lucombe 

 at Mamhead. This tree cannot now be identified, if it still exists. We can only 

 conjecture that the Fulham oak, like a large Q. Lucombeana which grew beside it in 

 the Fulham Nursery, was procured from Lucombe. Different in foliage and in fruit 

 from the original Lucombe oak, it is possibly one of its earliest seedlings, of which no 

 record was kept. 



There are two trees, which we believe to be of this origin, at Kew, growing near 

 the No. 3 Museum ; one (Plate 319) measures 69 ft. by 7^ ft. ; the other, 63 ft. by 

 7 ft. 1 in. 



7. Var. fulhamensis latifolia. 



The original Fulham oak produced acorns freely from which many plants were 

 raised, differing greatly in appearance from one another, and from the parent. About 

 1838, Messrs. Osborne selected a seedling with leaves broader and less dentate than 

 usual, which they propagated under the name Q. fulhamensis latifolia. Specimens 4 

 corresponding to this description from Westonbirt, Abbotsbury, and Liphook differ 

 from all the other oaks of this series, in having leaves rounded and not acute at the 

 apex, elliptical, about 3^ in. long, and 2\ in. broad, grey tomentose beneath, with 

 7 or 8 pairs of lateral nerves, each ending in the mucronate apex of a broad shallow 

 sinuate tooth. Fruit not seen. 



8. Var. diversifolia. 



Quercus Ilex, var. diversifolia, Nicholson, in Kew Handlist of Trees, 189 (1896). 



A small tree, with remarkably ascending branches, and thick corky bark. 



1 Loudon, Gard. Mag. xi. 128 (1835). Watson, Dcnd. Brit. ii. t. 93 (1825), gives its measurements in 1825 as 

 bole 10 ft., total height 60 ft., diameter 2 ft. 3 ins. 



2 W. K., in Gard. Chron., 1842, p. mi, There are also specimens at Kew of the original Fulham oak, collected by 

 Nicholson in 1 88 1 , which show a branch of Q. pedunculata, found growing from the stock. 



* In Loudon, Gard. Mag. xi. 128 (1835). 



4 A small tree outside the garden at Mamhead has foliage very similar, only differing in being somewhat narrower, but 

 with identical nervation and shallow teeth. 



