382 Editorial Miscellany. 



ter cultivated as a bush or espalier ; in the former case its vigor- 

 ous shoots should be pinched early in June, so as to make the 

 bush as compact as possible with such an irregular grower. In 

 most soils cultivated on the Pear stock, it cankers terribly ; but I 

 saw last autumn fine standards growing on a hill at Cheltenham 

 on the blue lias clay without a spot of canker ; I have indeed 

 rarely seen such beautiful trees. — Gardener's Chronicle. 



QuERcus sEssiLiFLOKA. — In the summers of 1853 and '54,1 visited 

 Fontainbleau, and had long drives through the forest. 'I was 

 much struck with the appearance of the Oaks, and having forgot- 

 ten what Loudon had stated about them, as being all Quercus 

 sessiliflora, I could not account for their fastigiate appearance, so 

 different from our old English oaks. My guide, finding that I was 

 a lover of trees, took care to show me all the lions of the forest in 

 that way ; I took notes at the time of their girth and apparent al- 

 titude, but these I have mislaid, and I now only remember that 

 he first of all drove me up to the foot of an enormous tree which 

 he called " Chene du Roi ;" this was a magnificent " stick," with 

 a clean straight bole entirely branchless, and with a compact, 

 densely leafed head. He then, after a considerable drive, brought 

 me up to another, and with his " Voila, Mo nsieur," directed my 

 attention to its grandeur ; this he called " le Chene des Deux 

 Freres." I remember it as being very tall, straight, and branch- 

 less in its stem ; another he pointed out to me as " le Chene de 

 Ferrand" was equally grand ; in fact, I never before saw such 

 straight, clean stemmed, bulky oak trees. It did not strike me at 

 the moment that they were the sessile sort, but on visiting an- 

 other part of the forest where the sandstone rocks lie on the sur- 

 face in large masses— one place I remember as very picturesque, 

 called, I think, the Valley of Rocks — I found some small stunted 

 trees with acorns, and I then found that the dense foliaged large 

 oaks I had been admiring were Quercus sessiliflora. Loudon de- 

 scribes the leaves as being of a " paler green" than those of Quer- 

 cus pedunculata ; this is just the opposite of my inpressions, for 

 I remember being attracted to some trees of Q. sessiliflora on the 

 banks of the Dart by their dark green hue, and by their thick, 

 may I call it leathery appearance. The Fontainbleau oaks have 



