DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 127 



most magnificent of the genus, growing often in the fine 

 old woods and parks of England, to eighty and one 

 hundred feet in height. The branches spread over a 

 great surface. "The leaves are petiolated, smooth, and 

 of a uniform color on both sides, enlarged towards the 

 summit, and very coarsely toothed." As a single tree foi 

 park scenery, this equals any American species in majesty 

 of form, though it is deficient in individual beauty of 

 foliage to some of our oaks. It is to be found for sale in 

 our nurseries, and we hope will become well known 

 among us. The timber is closer grained and more 

 durable, though less elastic than the best American oak , 

 and Michaux, in his Sylva, recommends its introduction 

 into this country largely, on these accounts. 



The Turkey oak. (Q. Cerris.) There are two 

 beautiful hybrid varieties of this species, which have 

 been raised in England by Messrs. Lucombe and Fulham, 

 which we hope will yet be found in our ornamental 

 plantations. They are partially evergreen in winter, 

 remarkably luxuriant in their growth, attaining a height 

 of seventy or eighty feet, and elegant in foliage and 

 outline. The Lucombe and Fulham oaks grow from one 

 to five feet in a season ; the trees assume a beautiful 

 pyramidal shape, and as they retain their fine glossy 

 leaves till May, they would form a fine contrast to other 

 deciduous trees. 



We might here enumerate a great number of other fine 

 foreign oaks ; among which the most interesting are the 

 Holly or Holm oak (Quercus Ilex) ; and the Cork oak 

 (Q. Suber), of the south of France, which produces the 

 cork of commerce (both rather too tender for the north) ; 

 the Kermes oak (Q. coccifera), from which a scarlet dye 



