Quercus 12,59 



QUERCUS LUCOMBEANA, Lucombe Oak 



Quercus Lucombeana^ Sweet, Hort. Brit. 370 (1827). 



Quercus Cerris, Linnseus, var. Lucombeana, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 185 1 (1838). 



Quercus exoniensis, Loddiges, ex Loudon, loc. cit 



Quercus hispanica, var. /3, cMne h feuilks dyEgiiops, Lamarck, Encyc. i. 723 (1783). 



Quercus cegylopifolia, Persoon, Syn. ii. 570 (1807). 



Quercus Pseudosuber, .vz.x. cegylopifolia, De Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. 44 (1864). 



The original Lucombe oak, in habit, vigour of growth, and branchlets, is similar 

 to Q. Cerris ; but differs in foliage, stipules, and fruit. 



Leaves (Plate 335, Fig. 23) smaller than in Q. Cerris, never exceeding 5 in. long 

 and 2 in. broad, usually smaller, subevergreen, falling early in the following year, 

 usually in January and February, mostly^ oblong ovate, acuminate at the apex, 

 unequal at the base ; with about seven pairs of regular triangular entire large 

 teeth, each of which ends in a projecting mucro ; lower surface covered with a dense 

 whitish tomentum, different from the green or greyish under surface of Q. Cerris. 

 The stipules around the lateral buds are shorter, and fall earlier than in Q. Cerris. 



Fruit ripening in the second year ; cupule turbinate, smaller in diameter than, 

 and not hemispherical as in Q. Cerris, with grey tomentose scales shorter and 

 broader than in that species, both reflexed and erect irregularly, not showing the 

 definite arrangement of Q. Cerris, in which the upper marginal fringe of erect loose 

 scales is clearly separated from the regularly reflexed scales of the rest of the cupule ; 

 acorn not depressed at the apex. 



The original Lucombe oak was first described by Hoi well in a letter' dated 

 Exeter, February 24, 1772, which states that "About seven years past," i.e. about 

 1765, " Mr. Lucombe sowed a parcel of acorns saved from a tree of his own growth 

 of the iron or wainscot species ; when they came up, he observed one amongst them 

 that kept its leaves throughout the winter. Struck with the phenomenon, he 

 cherished and paid particular attention to it, and propagated by grafting some 

 thousands from it." 



Holwell's account is repeated, with some additions, in the Gentleman s Magazine, 

 1773, p. 446, where William Lucombe is described as "an ingenious gardener in 

 the environs of Exeter." There is no doubt that the iron or wainscot oak is 

 a local name in south Devon and Cornwall for Q. Cerris, and that Lucombe 

 was at this time owner of the garden, which afterwards developed into the 

 famous nursery at Exeter.* The Lucombe oak is said ^ to have been common in 

 1773 about St. Thomas's, a suburb of Exeter, and to have been cultivated with great 

 success by the neighbouring farmers. 



Holwell's account is substantiated by Loudon, who was informed by Mr. Pince 



1 Sweet used this name for the first time. Holwell, who is often credited with it, gives no scientific name, and simply 

 speaks of the tree as the Lucombe oak. 



2 All specimens show some irregularly lobed leaves, which also appear in all the descendants of this tree. The leaves are 

 described above from the tree at Carclew. ^ Published in Phil. Trans. Ixii. 128 (1772). 



* According t6 the heading of a bill of Lucombe, Pince, and Company, preserved at Kew, the nurserj' was founded in 

 ,720. * Gentleman's Magazine, xliii. 357 (1773) 



