668 QUERCUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. RAMONDIA. 



EVERGREEN OAKS. 



Q. ACUTA. Native of Japan, with dark 

 leathery leaves about the size of those of 

 the common Cherry Laurel. It has not 

 been long enough in the country to enable 

 one to judge its merits as an adult tree, 

 but even as a bush it is a line object. Q. 

 Buergeri robusta is a vigorous large-leaved 

 form. 



Q. AGRIFOLIA. The Enceno of the Cali- 

 fornian coast is a distinct Oak rarely 

 seen in gardens, in aspect not unlike some 

 forms of Q. Ilex, but the leaves are of a 

 different shade of green. Dr Engelmann 

 says it is "a large tree, with a stout, low 

 trunk, often 8 to 12 feet, sometimes 1 6 to 

 21 feet, in circumference, and with a 

 spread of branches of 120 feet." 



Q. CHRYSOLEPIS (Californian Live Oak). 

 Along the coast ranges and along 

 the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, 

 it forms a tree 3 to 5 feet in diameter 

 of stem, or, at higher elevations, is reduced 

 to a shrub. It has pretty spiny- toothed 

 dark green leaves, somewhat golden on 

 the under surface, and in its native 

 country it is a beautiful evergreen tree. 



Q. COCCIFERA. A dense bush with small 

 spiny dark green leaves and very small 

 acorns, often hardly larger than a pea, 

 which now and then ripen in S. England. 

 S. Europe. 



Q. DENSIFLORA. A tree 50 to 60 feet 

 high, in some positions often a shrub. At 

 Kew it grows freely in rather sheltered 

 places, and produces fine leathery leaves 

 of a dark green colour, in outline somewhat 

 like those of a small Spanish Chestnut. 

 Mountains of California. 



Q. GLABRA. A Japanese Oak, with 

 large handsome leaves, the acorns borne 

 in upright spikes. -Several varieties are 

 mentioned in catalogues, but they are 

 hardly distinct. At Kew the species 

 makes a large bush, and is thoroughly 

 hardy. 



Q. ILEX. The best-known of Evergreen 

 Oaks, and the most valuable for Britain. 

 Old trees, which have been allowed plenty 

 of space and have been allowed to grow 

 naturally, resemble in form the Olive trees 

 of the Italian coast and of the Riviera. 

 It is one of the most variable of Oaks, but 

 few of the named varieties and there are 

 many are so beautiful as the wild kind. 



Q. SUBER (Cork Oak). The Cork Oak, 

 except for the curious growth of its 

 bark, hardly differs in effect from the Holm 

 Oak. There are fine old trees of this at 

 Mount Edgcumbe, Goodwood, and other 

 places, though the Cork Oak is not hardy 

 enough for our climate generally. 



Q. VIRENS (Live Oak). In its native 

 country a tree of the first economic value, 

 it deserves all the encomiums passed on 

 it by Cobbett in his Woodlands. All the 

 trees in England I have seen under this 

 name are, however, forms of Q. Ilex, and 



I doubt there being any fine trees of the 

 true Q. virens in cultivation in this 

 country. 



RAMONDIA (Rosette Mullein). R. 

 pyrenaica is an interesting plant, 

 with leaves in rosettes close to the 

 ground, the flowers purple-violet 

 colour, with orange-yellow centre, 



i to 1 1 inches across, on stems 2 to 

 6 inches long, in spring and early 

 summer. It is found in the valleys 

 of the Pyrenees, on the face of steep 

 and rather shady rocks. There is 

 a rare white variety and a rosy form 

 of much beauty has also appeared 

 quite recently. Less known, but more 

 easily grown, is R. serbica from the 

 Balkan Mountains, a rather taller 

 plant, in which the leaves are covered 

 with soft brown hair, and the flowers 

 are pale blue or mauve coloured. 

 A form of this from the Carpathian 

 Mountains, Nathalie, is peihaps the 

 best of all, though still scarce. Its 

 white variety is both choice and rare. 

 The Ramondias are not surpassed 

 by any alpines for choiceness, flower, 

 beauty and freedom, and adapta- 

 bility to cultivation in lowland gardens. 

 They revel in cool and shady places, 

 the nearly vertical faces of damp 

 rocks, cool and moist rock gullies, 

 and are well suited to wall gardening 

 where such conditions obtain. In 

 any of these places they should be 

 colonised on a generous scale. Quite 

 hardy, they are happiest when sheltered 

 from cutting winds. A lime - free 



