J852 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III 



1712 



Qudrcus Cerris Lucombc&na, in its deciduous state, in the Exeter Nursery. 

 Height 75ft. ; diameter of trunk 6ft. ; diameter of the head 65ft. 



This variety is subevergreen : it was raised by Lucombe, nurseryman 

 at Exeter, from seeds of the species, sown about 1762. The acorns 

 had been saved from a tree of Mr. Lucombe's own growth ; and, 

 when the plants came up, he observed one amongst them that kept 

 its leaves on throughout the winter, to which he paid particular 

 attention, and propagated some thousands of it by grafting. In an 

 account of this variety published in the 62d volume of the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, dated 1772, it is described as " a tree, 

 growing as straight and handsome as a fir, with evergreen leaves, 

 and wood in hardness and strength exceeding that of all other 

 oaks. It makes but one shoot in the year, viz. in May ; but this 

 continues growing throughout the summer, not being interrupted, 

 about midsummer, by the pause which occurs between the produc- 

 tion of the first and the second shoots, in the case of the com- 

 mon oak. The tree grows so rapidly, that the original specimen, 

 at 7 years old, measured 21 ft. high, and 1 ft. 8 in. in circumference: at 6 

 years old, a grafted tree was 2.3 ft. high; and a tree 4 years grafted was 

 16 ft. hiirh." Tho shoots arc, in general, from 4ft. to .0 ft. in length; 



