1288 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



As far north as Gordon Castle the Ilex is hardy near the coast ; and I measured 

 a tree there, which was 45 ft. by 10 ft. 10 in. in 1907. 



Possibly the oldest if not the largest tree in Ireland, is one growing at Courtown 

 on the Wexford coast, of which the Earl of Courtown has been good enough 

 to send me a photograph. He believes that it may have been planted by Sir 

 Walsingham Cook, whose mansion and garden were conveyed in 1648 to T. Jones, 

 a sea-captain of Stepney: but in any case is a tree of very great age. In 1884 it 

 was 66 ft. high, dividing into several large trunks close to the ground. At 

 Rossanagh there is a very fine old tree 80 ft. high by 16 ft. 7 in. near the ground, 

 dividing at 3 ft. into two big stems, one of which is 10 ft. 9 in., the other 8 ft. 

 8 in. in girth. 



At Kilruddery Castle, Co. Wicklow, Henry measured two big trees in 1904, 

 one yy ft. by 14^ ft., the other yy ft. by n ft., with a bole about 25 ft. high. At 

 Castlemartyr there are many fine old trees, one of which in 1908 measured nearly 

 100 ft. by 12 ft., with a bole of 30 ft. At Belgrove, near Queenstown, Mr. 

 Gumbleton showed me a very handsome and well-shaped tree about 70 ft. by 

 14^ ft., the branches over 80 yds. round. 



At Doneraile Court, Co. Cork, there is a tree with a short butt, 15 ft. 3 in. 

 in girth, dividing into two main stems about 45 ft. high, with a spread of branches 

 about 80 ft. across. At Cooper Hill, Limerick, Henry saw several very old trees 

 of no great height, but of immense girth, one 21 ft., the other 18 ft., in 1907. 



(H. J. E.) 



QUERCUS TURNERI, Turner's Oak 



Quercus Turneri, Willdenow, Enum. Hort. Berol. 975 (1809), and Berlin. Baumz. 339, t. 3, fig. 2 



(181 1); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1922 (1838). 

 Quercus hispanica, var. y, le chene Turnire, Lamarck, Encyc. Me"th. i. 723 (1783). 

 Quercus hybrida nana, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1924 (1838). 



A tree, attaining about 50 ft. in height and 8 ft. in girth, variable in bark and 

 foliage, probably hybrid in origin, the supposed parents ' being Q. pedunculata and 

 Q. Ilex. Two distinct forms occur, one with short broad leaves, corresponding to 

 the typical plant described by Willdenow ; the other with larger narrower leaves, 

 treated by us as a variety. These two forms are connected by trees intermediate in 

 foliage; and a seedling, about 5 ft. high, raised at Kew in 1894 from an acorn, 

 produced by the narrow-leaved form, has both broad and narrow leaves. 



The typical form is characterised as follows : Young branchlets covered with 

 dense stellate pubescence, glabrescent in the second year. Leaves slightly coriaceous, 



1 The fruit on long peduncles, and the auricles often present at the base of the leaf indicate Q. pedunculata parentage. 

 The subevergreen habit, the pubescence on the branchlets and leaves, and the mucronate teeth of the latter, suggest the 

 influence of Q. Ilex. The bark usually resembles that of Q. Ilex more than the common oak. 





