Common Oak 289 



peduncle bearing the acorns overtopped the end of the shoot, and was mistaken 

 for it, and the acorns in consequence were considered to be sessile on the shoot. 

 I think that the alleged occurrence of numerous intermediate forms is due to 

 an imperfect appreciation of the real distinctions between the two species ; and 

 specimens to support the common occurrence of hybridity are not as yet forth- 

 coming. The first writer who tried to break down the distinctions between the two 

 species in England — Greville^ — was not at all sure that he had succeeded; and in 

 view of the important sylvicultural differences between the two trees the subject is 

 one of more than academic interest. 



Certain cultivated forms may be hybrids, as, e.g. Qtierais falkendergensis ; and 

 Q. armeniaca, Kotschy, from Armenia, is an undoubted hybrid. (A. H.) 



The question of the distinctness of the sessile and pedunculate oaks in England 

 has been discussed at great length on many occasions, but is one on which opinions, 

 even among careful observers, always have differed, and differ still. Perhaps the 

 best account of their peculiarities and merits is given by Loudon, pp. 1737-46, and 

 in the Gardeners Chronicle (1900), when a discussion was opened by Prof Fisher, 

 and continued by other well-known authorities. 



Prof. Fisher describes the physiological difference, and maintains the opinion, 

 which, largely based on French experience, is confirmed in some -parts of England, 

 that the pedunculate oak is naturally adapted to a wet soil, while the sessile will 

 thrive in comparatively dry situations, and says that these peculiarities are of great 

 importance to planters in selecting seed. As nurserymen rarely distinguish them and 

 are, as a rule, careless of the source from which their seed comes, provided it will 

 produce good nursery plants, I should strongly advise all oak planters to select and 

 grow their own oaks from the trees which thrive best on similar soil in their own 

 district, or in places with similar soil and climate. 



Mr. A. C. Forbes says that in many localities the sessile oak is quite rare, and 

 in Wilts "probably the rarest indigenous tree that we have." He accounts for this 

 by the fact quoted from a paper ^ by Mr. J. Smith of Romsey, that at the time 

 when oak timber was in demand for the navy, the durmast oak was not considered 

 fit for that purpose, being, as it was said by the purveyors for the navy, more liable 

 to dry rot, and this tradition still lurks in the minds of the older woodmen, tales 

 being told of how they deceived those worthy gentlemen into passing the durmast 

 oak for the dockyards. 



There is a great deal of very interesting information in this paper both on the rate 

 of growth and effects of transplanting of oaks, on their insect enemies and fungoid 

 diseases, and a list is given, with many particulars and measurements of many of the 

 most celebrated oaks of England. No one who is interested in oaks should fail to 

 read it, but it is too long to quote from as freely as I should wish. 



Sir Herbert Maxwell, in Gardeners Chronicle, Nov. 10, 1900, says: "The long 

 correspondence in your columns relative to the merits of the durmast or sessile- 

 flowered oak will probably leave most people of the same mind as they were when it 



1 Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin. \. 65, tt. 4, 5 (1S41). ^ Tra>is. Scot. Arbor. Soc. xiii. 21 (189 1). 



II N 



