OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



171 



started into active growth, so that at present I can form no opinion 

 as to their prospects. The biggest is but 3 ft. high, with a 2 ft. spread 

 of branches, and seems inclined to be bushy. The tree when it does 

 well is certainly worth growing and can be seen to advantage at 

 Kew, where the best example must be about 25 ft. high. 



In its own habitat it forms a symmetrical tree, and is reckoned 

 as one of the most beautiful in California. The bark is rich in tannin, 

 from which fact it derives its popular name ; the wood, on the other 

 hand, is economically worthless. The leathery leaves are from 

 2 to 5 in. long, being sometimes entire, at others coarsely serrate, 

 and on the under-side densely downy. The oblong acorns, which 

 are an inch or more long, are set in shallow cups and take two years 

 to develop. Professor E. L. Greene, of the California University, 

 wrote of this species, in 1889, as " almost as much a chestnut as it 

 is an oak," and its erect catkins are stated to be (for I have never 

 seen them in life) more like those of a Castanea than a Quercus. In 

 February of this year, when our glasses registered one degree below 

 zero in the screen, its hardiness was severely tested, and, for a Cali- 

 fornian plant, it came through the ordeal most satisfactorily ; certainly 

 many of the leaves were a little burnt, and the general aspect rendered 

 rather shabby, but no serious injury was inflicted. I should not have 

 expected a young plant, all in the frost level, which had not yet made 

 vigorous root action, to get off so cheaply. 



Q. dentata (Thunberg). — I have but one solitary specimen of this 

 curious Japanese oak, now 11 ft. high, which grows very slowly in 

 its present quarters, where neither soil nor climate are, I imagine, 

 congenial. The leaves ought to be of enormous size, and any tree- 

 lover who saw them for the first time, when properly developed, would 

 be anxious to add a tree bearing such remarkable foliage to his 

 collection. 



My plant, however, is very disappointing in this respect, for, owing 

 I suppose to want of vigour, it has never borne leaves at all exception- 

 ally big, though I have had it a good many years. Mr. Bean, in his 

 " Trees and Shrubs," remarks that it " has never been really a success 

 in this country," and, judging from the Aldenham representative, 

 I can well believe him. It is apparently one of those exotics which 

 drag out a sickly existence for a period of years without ever looking 

 or feeling at home, or becoming truly naturalized, and finally disappear. 

 It is getting on for a century since it was first introduced, and I doubt 

 if there is a single fine specimen or one over thirty years old in existence. 

 No tree however rare, or however beautiful in its natural habitat, 

 gives me any pleasure to look on, whether in my own place or that 

 of my friends, unless it be in good robust health. This dictum applies 

 even more strongly to conifers than it does to broad-leaved trees. 

 Q. dentata has never borne fruit with me, and, as I could not describe 

 the acorns from personal knowledge, it is not worth while taking up 

 time and space in copying the account of others. 



Q. dilatata (Lindley). — My possession of this extremely rare 



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