l66 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



though, however large a size it may attain, it never approaches the 

 pedunculate oak in majesty, and always looks to my eye a bit of a 

 weed. This is, c f course, merely an expression of my personal opinion 

 or taste; and a very good friend of mine, and a first-rate judge of 

 everything pertaining to trees, profoundly disagrees with it, calling 

 it " a noble tree at its best." When I was much younger and knew 

 even less about trees than I do now, I planted a double avenue of 

 Cerris at Aldenham. They must now be just about forty years old, and 

 have certainly done well. Careful measurement gives the height of 

 one of the best as 70 ft., with girth 3 ft. high of 4 ft. 11 in. I know 

 no other oak which would be likely to reach such dimensions in such 

 a time in England, though several would easily do so in Massachusetts. 

 Indeed, anyone who attempted to base his estimate of the age of 

 trees in the U.S.A. on experience gained in England would find himself 

 woefully out in his calculations. I well recall being in the Arnold 

 Arboretum in the spring of 1914 and seeing pedunculates which I 

 estimated at sixty years old, only to learn that in fact they were 

 exactly half that age. 



However, though development is so much more rapid in America, 

 where, for one thing, there is never any hindrance from spring frosts, 

 yet, as a set off, what Insurance Companies call the expectation of 

 life is much shorter, and English oaks soon fall victims to one or other 

 of the many plagues to which trees are liable over there, but from which 

 so far they have proved immune in Europe. In both respects, rapidity 

 of growth and liability to disease, the conditions prevailing in New 

 Zealand are similar to those in the States. 



Q. Cerris is rather disposed to variation, and in Elwes' book five 

 varieties are recorded, though the authors do not as a rule concern 

 themselves much with anything but species. The only variety there 

 mentioned which I possess is Q. Cerris variegata, in which the leaves, 

 though otherwise normal, are freely blotched with white. Our 

 specimen is 10 ft. high, and calls for no remark except that, as is 

 often the case with variegated plants, it is not so free a grower as the 

 typical Turkey Oak. I have also a plant of another variegated variety, 

 which we call Q. Cerris 'Fortress,' from the name of a place in our 

 neighbourhood where it was found : it is not, like the last, in commerce, 

 and has bright yellow instead of white variegation. Besides these 

 we have three good-sized trees which came to me from the Continent 

 as Q. Cerris crispa, but these have been pronounced by experts to be 

 Q. lanuginosa, and will be dealt with under that heading. 



We also possess an out-of-the-way Continental variety, Q. Cerris 

 karlsruhensis, 17 ft. X 1 ft. The name occurs in a catalogue of Spath 

 of Berlin, and my plant probably came from that nursery, with which 

 I have often dealt in past years. I hope I am not disposed unfairly 

 to depreciate my own country, but I must say that in my experience 

 I have found a far larger variety of out-of-the-way plants, from which 

 to select, in Continental than in British nurseries, always excepting 

 Veitch's establishment at Coombe Wood, now, alas, no more. The 



