71-0 



Queries and Atisivers. 



cause, all surface would be crowded with them, and pasturage impeded." 

 The object of Mr. Dovaston's paper is to account for the ap[)e-arance of 

 nuishrooms and otl)er fungi in tiiosc circles in grass land which arc called 

 fair}' rings ; and he attributes their thus ap|)earing to the excitement of 

 electricity. The above remarks, sufficiently heterogeneous in themselves, 

 are not offered as any attempt at elucidating the subject which Mr. Mer- 

 rick's query has excited, but as dues and considerations attached to 

 the subject, which any correspondent will nuich oblige us by farther 

 evolving. — J.D. 



A remarkable Varicfi/ of the Common Oafc. — Sir, Herewith I transmit to 

 you specimens of a singular variety of the common oak (Quercus Ruhwr), 

 the peculiarity of which consists in the leaves being long, narrow, and 

 for the most part destitute of the usual indentations so characteristic of 

 oak foliage. {Jig. 152. a.) You will observe that the leaves occa- 



sionally evince a tendency, more or less, to indentation {b and r), 

 especially those placed lowest on the shoot, i.e. the first that arc ex- 

 painled in the season: these are often of the usual form (</), and whole 

 sprays, indeed, are to be iound on the tree, bearing nothing but the 

 ordinary foliage. The oak which proiluced the above s|)eciniens is a 

 yoimg growing tree, measuring, at breast high, little more than .'} ft. in 

 circumference ; it stands in a hedgerow, by the side of a lane, in this 

 parish, and, I should judge, is of spontaneous growth. Though I have 

 for many years been in the frequent habit of passing within a few yards 

 of the tree, I never remarked any thing extraordinary in its foliage till last 

 summer. Some acorns which I gathcretl from the tree last autumn have 

 come up this spring, and bear the ordinary foliage, without exhibiting any 

 of the peculiarities of the |)arent. Is the above variety worth propagating? 



