QUAMOCLIT. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



QUERCUS. 753 



planted in pure sand and leaf-mould fully 

 exposed to the sun. Division. 



QUAMOCLIT. Q. cocdnea is a pretty 

 Convolvulus-like plant, with many small 

 scarlet flowers and slender stems of rapid 

 growth, attaining a height of 6 to 8 ft. in 

 a few weeks. It may be treated either 

 as a half-hardy annual, and sown in 

 February or March under glass or in a 

 hot-bed, but it requires a warmer climate 

 than ours to do its best in. Q. hederae- 

 folia is another pretty species. It has 

 scarlet flowers and lobed foliage, and 

 requires the same treatment as Q. 

 coccinea. Both are excellent plants for 

 sheltered trellises, as they give abundance 

 of flowers from July to September. 



QUEECUS (Oak}. Noble evergreen 

 and summer-leafing trees of northern and 

 temperate regions, of which no book can 

 give any but a feeble idea of their gift of 

 beauty to the earth, and value to man ; 

 but if we think of our own stately Oak in 

 the counties of Britain, and its varieties 

 of form in different situations in our 

 storm-tossed isle of such limited area, we 

 may, perhaps, get some idea of the value 

 of the several hundred known species of 

 Oak. Of these, by far the most useful 

 for our northern land are the summer 

 leafing (or deciduous) Oaks, resting as 

 they do from all evil influence during the 

 trying season, and coming out in beauti- 

 ful leaf, as our own Oak does, when the 

 summer is nearly with us. The evergreen 

 Oaks, though of vast importance in more 

 temperate countries (I have passed 

 through millions of acres of evergreen 

 Oak in North Africa alone), are of less 

 value in our cold climate, but we have one 

 precious kind in the Ilex, and other kinds 

 may be grown in the mild parts to a lim- 

 ited extent, especially in sea-shore districts 

 where evergreen shelter is welcome. 



From the point of view of effect, the 

 most noble of the summer-leafing Oaks 

 are the American Oaks, with their fine 

 colour in autumn. No trees have been 

 more and more talked of, yet why are 

 they so rare in our gardens ? The answer 

 is, I think, because of our ways of pro- 

 curing them, by plants too old, from 

 nurseries, and, most fatal of all, by the 

 habit of grafting exotic kinds on the com- 

 mon Oak, and neglecting the natural 

 modes of increase, in the case of Oaks, 

 certainly by seed. If we were dealing 

 with plants of a tender nature, for which 

 some hardy stock would be necessary, 

 there might be some reason for this, but 

 it is not so, because these lovely American 

 Oaks inhabit colder regions than our own 



country, and they are absolutely different 

 in character from ours, some of them living 

 on dry, warm soils, whereas our Oak is 

 usually best, and certainly the timber is 

 best, on soils of a heavy nature. There- 

 fore, those who wish to have the American 

 Oaks in their beauty should work from 

 ! seed sown in the place where we wish the 

 trees to grow, or raised in nurseries and 

 transplanted early, or purchase young 

 and healthy plants from forest tree nur- 

 series, and in that way secure the vigorous 

 growth of the seedling tree. Communi- 

 cation is so easy with America now that 

 there should be no difficulty in getting 

 seeds by post, nor should there be any 

 trouble in our nurserymen raising good 

 stock from seed of all the more essential 

 and well-known kinds. In getting acorns 

 over from America or other countries, 

 they should be sown as soon as possible 

 after coming to hand, and it is best to 

 have them sent packed tightly in moist 

 earth. 



In the country seats of the United 

 Kingdom there is much varied land in 

 which these Oaks might find a place, at 

 first for their beauty, as in the case of the 

 scarlet and red Oaks, and eventually 

 these great Oaks would have value as 

 timber trees, more than some of the trees 

 we give a place to. Therefore I think 

 that in renewing and filling gaps in wood- 

 lands near the house, and also in planting 

 new woods, it might often be well to 

 plant a group or mass of these American 

 Oaks. 



In such a large family as the Oak there 

 are rare and delicate species which we 

 need not concern ourselves with, at least 

 before we have established about us in 

 some effective ways the more stately and 

 noble Oaks, nor need we be much con- 

 cerned about hybrids which occur in 

 nature between wild species, and also 

 have been raised in gardens and much 

 talked about. As a rule, hybrids in this 

 family are not nearly so important as the 

 wild trees, except, of course, such varieties 

 as occur naturally when we raise the tree 

 from seed, as in the case of the common 

 European evergreen Oak, which gives a 

 pretty variety from seed, as, indeed, our 

 wild Oak does, of which we may see in any 

 good Oak district, perhaps, trees in a dozen 

 different states of leaf and colour in one 

 day. 



It is well that some of the favoured 

 shores and valleys of the world have Ever- 

 green Oaks which we may grow in our 

 country, the best known of these being the 

 Ilex of Italy, which is, happily, hardy in our 

 country. It is perhaps most beautiful in 



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