158 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that, confined to simple English understanded of the people, it yet 

 takes no more space, and gives even to the learned quite as clear 

 a likeness of the supposititious plant : 



" A plant belonging to the Dates, which tends to make a tree, reproduced by 

 runners, growing on gravel, with a straggling branchy head, and smooth rust- 

 coloured brownish bark, with flattened cells ; leathery slightly hairy leaves shaped 

 like a hatchet or a shield, with wedge-shaped base and lobes ending in a sharp 

 point, having hairy or fringed edges, and short stalks, yellow colour marbled 

 with yellowish white spots, a warty and scurfy upper side, the under covered 

 with thickened mealy down, and hairy threads pressed together ; bearing 

 gaping horseshoe- like pods, and long grey silky catkins hanging forward." 



Should any reader be curious to discover how much of this paper 

 is original and how much copied from others, he will be safe in 

 assuming that when there is an outburst of Greek, Latin, and latinized 

 words, I have been " cribbing," even though vanity may have led 

 me to pass myself off as a man of science by suppressing the quota- 

 tion marks. 



Being an old man approaching seventy I will cease to kick up my 

 heels, like a young colt, at botanists, and, leaving them justly to 

 attribute my flouts and jeers to envy of their superior acquirements, 

 will now proceed to business. If anyone should think that my 

 caricature is too grossly exaggerated, let him read of the " dorsifixed 

 extrorse " anthers, and " peripheral reticulate membraneous " wing, 

 &c. &c, in the description of Ulmus by an eminent living friend 

 of mine. 



I will give in alphabetical order a short account of the oaks at 

 Aldenham, together with some half a dozen which, though not there, 

 ought to be there, and if all goes well will be there in a few months, 

 following always the nomenclature adopted by Kew. 



Quercus acuta (Thunberg). — I have only two small examples of this 

 pleasing, slow-growing, shining evergreen ; like other Japanese oaks, 

 and particularly Q. glabra, to which it has a general surface re- 

 semblance, it is never likely to make more than a shrub in England. 

 So far my plants have progressed satisfactorily, but I have not had 

 them long enough to speak very positively. Its first appearance 

 in England dates from 1877, and is due to the well-known Veitchian 

 collector Maries, who was born at Warwick-on-Avon, though his 

 name suggests a French origin. The best specimen which I have is 

 3 ft. high with a spread of 3 ft., but there is one to be seen at Bicton, 

 in Devon, 12 ft. high with a spread of 18 ft. When I mention that 

 in February of this year we had the misfortune to register 33 0 of frost, 

 the lowest temperature since January 1895, when there were 35 0 , 

 and record the fact that this species came through the ordeal un- 

 scathed, not so much as a leaf being scorched, I think it may fairly 

 be classed as absolutely hardy. 



Q. Aegilops (Linnaeus). — I am entitled to count this among the 

 oaks of which Aldenham can boast, but that is the utmost I can say, 

 for my own example of the Valonia oak is only 7 ft. 6 in. high, and 

 though, shapely and healthy is not yet sufficiently developed to 



