THE OAK AND HAZEL FAMILY. 271 



purple-leaved varieties. Mr Mills, of Enys, notes that some 

 six or seven years ago he found seedlings under a Purple 

 Beech, and that these are still equal in colour to the grafted 

 trees from which they were raised. The size to which they 

 have grown about 8 feet high, with branches from 4 to 6 

 feet long sufficiently proves their permanence. It may not 

 be generally known that the edible-fruited and variegated 

 forms of Sweet-Chestnut ( Castanea vesca) succeed well grafted 

 on young seedlings of Quercus robur. 



Quercus (Oaks). A group of ornamental or timber trees, 

 natives of Europe, N. Asia, N. America, and Japan, and 

 represented in our landscape gardens and parks by many sports 

 or seminal forms. The Cork Oak (Q. suber) is grown in 

 Spain, its bark being used largely in the manufacture of corks. 

 Oak-galls are employed by ink-manufacturers ; and the acorns 

 of Q. czgilops, or Valonia Oak, are used by dyers. All Oaks 

 are best propagated from seeds i.e., acorns, which should be 

 sown in trenches in nursery-beds as soon as gathered, in the 

 case of the hardy American and other kinds, or in boxes or 

 pans in a frame or pit if at all tender. Oaks are found to vary 

 considerably from seed, and some species more than others. 

 Where two or more species are grown in close proximity, this 

 variety is greater, owing, it is presumed, to accidental cross- 

 fertilisation, which is all the more possible in plants of this 

 order, owing to their being monoecious, the male flowers being 

 borne in loose pendent catkins, and the female generally 

 solitary or in few-flowered clusters. Golden-variegated pendu- 

 lous or other sports are only to be propagated by grafting or 

 inarching, or by cuttings in a close frame, but they are rather 

 difficult to root. Mr Charles Lee recommends inarching as 

 the most successful method of grafting Oaks, as by the common 

 method only about 20 per cent of the grafts take, even when 

 the operation is performed by an expert propagator. Her- 

 baceous grafting might be more successful, using a thin clean 

 blade with a razor-like edge. Attempts might also be made to 

 graft the young growth on fibrous pieces of the thick root in 

 a close frame or under a cloche. The Japanese gardeners 

 side-graft their choice Oaks with success. 



Seminal Varieties or Sports. Messrs Ottolander & Son have 

 sent out a seedling Oak, Quercus nobilis, " coming from Q. robur 

 nigra, crossed with the Q. americana. The growth is much 

 like that of Q. alba, but it is more robust, and very hardy, the 

 leaves larger, and the young ones of a fine deep red.' 7 The 

 golden-leaved Quercus americana far exceeds Quercus robur 

 concordia in the beauty of the leaf, and was sent out a year 



