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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



-"HALL OF FAME" FOR TREES 



The "Lee Oak" at Cin- 

 cinnati has a place in the 

 Hall of Fame. It is on the 

 property of William A. 

 Windisch. The tree seems 

 to be a puzzle to the ex- 

 perts. It zvas discovered 

 by Dr. Thomas Lee in 

 1836, and m the descrip- 

 tion he wrote of it a few 

 years later, gives its loca- 

 tion as "four (4) mtlcs 

 back of Cincinnati on the 

 Cornish Farm." In honor 

 of its discoverer it was 

 called the "Lee Oak," and 

 has gone by that name 

 ever since. It turns out to 

 be a remarkably rare va- 

 riety of the oak. Speci- 

 mens once reported near 

 Alexandria, Kentucky, and 

 at Waynesville and Love- 

 land, near the Miami 

 River, have disappeared. 

 California was said to 

 have some of the trees, 

 and the eminent English 

 naturalist, Sir William 

 Hooper, when he came to 

 this country in 1870, spent 

 some time with Professor 

 Asa Gray in searching for 

 them there. The question 

 now receiving attention is 

 whether the "Lee Oak" is 



THE LEE OAK 



a straight species or a 

 hybrid. To settle the mat- 

 ter, Captain William Hol- 

 den, Librarian of the Lloyd 

 Library, has given time 

 and effort. .His searches 

 led to the identification of 

 the tree as the origi- 

 nal "Lee Oak." He has 

 sent acorns from the tree 

 to the Academy of Sci- 

 ences, Philadelphia; A 0- 

 tional Museum at Wash- 

 ington and the Botanical 

 Institute at Harvard. The 

 developing young oaks that 

 will grow from these show 

 whether or not the "Lee 

 Oak" is a true species or 

 a mere hybrid, the rule-be- 

 ing that where there is a 

 true or straight species the 

 descendants show all the 

 same marks or character- 

 istics, whereas with the 

 hybrids there is a decided 

 variation. The form of 

 the leaves at various stages 

 of their development is 

 what is relied on to settle 

 these points. The tree is 

 about seventy-five feet high 

 and its branches spread out 

 seventy-five feet. It meas- 

 ures ten and a half feet in 

 circumference about six 

 feet from the ground. 



