Common Oak 287 



carries foliage, it produces as much timber as tlie common form.^ The variety 

 is considered of some importance in France, as owing to the lateness of leafing 

 it is never affected by spring frosts ; and it is recommended for cold, damp 

 situations where the common oak is injured by this cause. 



Many other varieties doubtless occur, both in cultivation and in the wild state. 

 Specimens were sent to Kew from an old oak tree at Springfield, West Wickham, 

 Kent, which bore extremely large leaves all over the tree, measuring as much as 

 8 inches long and 6 inches wide, and similar leaves occur on a tree at Colesborne. 

 At Tortworth there is an oak about fifty years old, which bears fruit on very long 

 peduncles,- and has remarkably glossy coriaceous leaves^ somewhat variable in 

 shape, but generally obovate- lanceolate, with quite entire or only slightly lobed 

 margin. This is almost identical with a specimen at Kew, gathered near Arcachon 

 in France by Mdme. de Vilmorin. Specimens collected in Wistman's Wood, Dart- 

 moor, are also remarkable for their irregularly shaped and very slightly lobed leaves, 

 which have a cuneate base. 



The variation in 'the size and shape of the leaves in natural wild seedlings 

 growing side by side is often remarkable. Elwes gathered from three trees 

 growing on the rocks above Minard Castle, Lochfyne, leaves varying from 

 about 2 to 8 inches long. Meehan ^ narrates that when he settled in Germantown, 

 near Philadelphia, he found a single Quercus Robur on the grounds of Mr. J. 

 Hacker, from the acorns of which he raised hundreds of young seedlings, and 

 has from these a second generation. He found amongst the seedlings numerous 

 varieties, e.g. trees with leaves quite sessile, others with a petiole \ inch long, 

 others with leaves as entire as those of Quercus Primis, others with pinnatifid lobes : 

 while in some cases the acorns were only a little longer than broad, in other cases 

 cylindrical and twice as long as broad. Evidently here there was no possibility of 

 hybridisation, as there was only one tree. This experiment of Meehan's, however, 

 only goes to show the extreme variability of Q. pedunailata ; and there is no 

 evidence brought forward that any of the varieties became in the least like 

 Q. sessiliflora. 



In all the preceding varieties we are treading on safe ground, as there is no 

 doubt that they are all derived from Q. pedunctilata ; but the case is different with 

 certain forms from the Orient and southern Europe, which were considered by 

 De Candolle to be varieties of Q. peduncu/ata, but by other authorities are treated 

 as distinct species. A brief account of such of these as are in cultivation in England 

 follows : — 



Qziercus Haas, Kotschy, Die Eiche. Etir. u. Or. t. 2 (1862) ; Q. Robur, pednncu- 

 lata, var. Haas, DC. Prod. — This oak occurs in Cilicia and the Taurus, and in 

 habit and size resembles the common oak ; it differs in the following respects : — 

 Young shoots white pubescent, puberulous when adult. Buds finely pubescent. 

 Leaves on very short pubescent stalks, obovate, with cordate base, and four or five 



1 Rlathey, E.xJ>!oilation Conuncrciak des Bois, 95 (1906), speaks of its timber as being excellent, with very little 

 sapwood, and scarcely any defects. 



2 Figured in Plate 79, fig. 2, ' Bull, of the Torrey Bet. Cli'-b. ix. 55 (1S82I. 



