1308 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



An excellent account of this oak in Garden and Forest, iv. 241 (1891) says that 

 in its young state, and until it has reached 20 to 30 ft. high, this species develops 

 short stout branches which are very persistent and generally pendulous, as shown in 

 the plate which accompanies the article. The bark separates into long thin papery 

 scales, which remain long on the young trees, and give them a ragged appearance. 

 I have noticed these peculiarities, in a minor degree, on some English-grown trees. 

 The foliage of this oak when newly unfolded in spring is extremely beautiful, 

 the upper surface being bronzed or green, and the lower side covered with white 

 down. In autumn, however, they have no red or orange tints. Sargent says 

 that the largest tree of this kind on record formerly grew at Wadsworth, on the 

 Genesee river, New York, and measured 24 ft. in girth at the narrowest part of its 

 trunk. As the timber is even more valuable than that of the white oak, and the 

 trees bear transplanting better than that species, Sargent recommends planting it in 

 deep moist soils. 



In England, however, though introduced probably about 1800, the tree is very 

 rare, and none of the specimens which we have seen look very thriving. Perhaps 

 if it were planted on deeper and moister soils, free from lime, in the south of Eng- 

 land, it might do better, but the seedlings raised from acorns collected in 1904 at 

 Boston soon died at Colesborne. Loudon mentions no trees except small ones in 

 the gardens of the Horticultural Society and of Loddiges. 



The largest we know of is a tree at Syon, 59 ft. by 5^ ft., which seems healthy. 

 Another at Arley Castle, planted about 1820, No. 36 of Hortus Arleyensis, was 50 ft. 

 by 3 ft. 3 in. in 1904. A third at Corsham Court, growing in damp soil, measured 

 47 ft. by 3 ft. in 1905, and looked fairly healthy, though the twigs seemed to have 

 been repeatedly cut back by frost. A small tree at Kew, with the bark scaling like 

 that of a hickory, is healthy, but grows slowly. There is a well-grown tree in a 

 rather cold and exposed situation at Lyndon Hall (Plate 329), 52 ft. by 4 ft. 3 in. 

 This, when I saw it in 1909, had a large wound at 7 ft., nearly covered over by new 

 wood, and though many young twigs were dead, there was still plenty of healthy 

 foliage on 12th October. 



In France the finest tree that I have seen is one at Verrieres, 65 ft. by 6 ft. 1 in. 

 in 1909. There is a tree about 35 ft. high in the collection at Les Barres, catalogued 

 by Parde as Q. bicolor, which was formerly named Q. alba. Prof. Sargent and 

 Mr. Proctor, who saw it, considered it to be Q. bicolor, but Mr. Rehder, who saw it 

 still later, thought that it was a hybrid between alba and bicolor} 



(H. J. E.) 



1 Parde, Arb. Nat. des Barres, 289, note 1 (1906). 





