298 



THE PLANTER S GUIDE. 



stateliness and cleanness of stem give in general to the 

 stalk-fruited over the sessile-fruited species ; while the 

 adaptation of the latter to naval and other purposes, 

 renders it more worthy of cultivation than any other kind 

 with which we are acquainted. 



The circumstances attending these experiments, which 

 proved so interesting and instructive to myself, I have 

 detailed with some minuteness, as they may, perhaps, 

 prove interesting to others. I shall now add the con- 

 clusions, or practical principles, which I deduced from 

 them, and by which I have been since guided in the 

 management of this charming tree. That they are 

 founded in nature I cannot entertain a doubt, as many 

 years' experience has tended more and more to confirm 

 them. 



In the first place, I found that the spreading Oak 

 (Quercus rohur sessilis) is decidedly a much more hardy 

 plant than the upright or stalk-fruited ; that it always 

 bears removal better, and grows more vigorously after 

 being removed. And I hold that, to any one practically 

 acquainted with the subject, no proof more decisive of the 

 fact can be adduced, than its being able, in a full-grown 

 state, to recover with such ease from the severity of that 

 operation. I have known considerable trees of this sort, 

 standing single in the park, shoot more than six inches in 

 the third year after being transplanted ; a length which 

 the real planter will admit to be pretty remarkable in an 

 exposed situation. 



Of this species, (I mean the spreading Oak,) the two 

 varieties first observed by myself, — namely, the black and 

 white aboriginal — are the hardiest of all, and carry their 

 leaf latest, always, indeed, till the commencement of the 

 ensuing summer. It is true, we may often find Oaks, 

 clearly sessile-fruited, with long foot-stalks to the leaves. 



