OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



175 



forms an elegant, graceful tree, and its long, narrow, oval, dark-green 

 leaves, tapering at either end and about 4 in. long by 2 J in. broad, 

 are not unlike those of Q. variabilis, although the under- side is of a 

 dull greyish-green, instead of having the beautiful silvery tone notice- 

 able in that species. Professor Henry records having identified a small 

 Q. glandulifera when visiting Aldenham in 1908 ; this, which must 

 have been given me, like other of my treasures, by my generous friend 

 Professor Sargent, should by now have been over 20 ft. high, but 

 has, alas, succumbed, and my best specimen in 191 8 is only 6 ft. 

 in height, though not apparently wanting in vigour. 



This is one of the trees of which Wilson collected seed on one 

 or more of his botanical expeditions to China, and an account of it 

 appears in " Plantae Wilsonianae," vol. iii. pp. 212-4. It is there 

 stated to be very common in the Yangtsze Valley, and to vary very 

 much in the size and shape of the leaves, which are sometimes quite 

 smooth and at others covered with silky down. 



Q. glauca (Thunberg). — An evergreen oak which makes a big tree, 

 and grows wild through Eastern Asia, in the Himalayas, Japan, China, 

 and Formosa. It appears to have been first introduced from India 

 about 100 years ago, but no plants of anything like this age are 

 known to exist now in England. In the youngish state it is not, 

 however, excessively rare in cultivation, and it is more through over- 

 sight than inability that I have so far been without one at Aldenham. 

 I hope very shortly to repair this omission. 



The leaves are leathery in texture, with very slightly serrated 

 edges, and lanceolate in shape, about 3 in. long by 1 in. broad. No 

 account is given of this oak in Bean's " Trees and Shrubs." Two 

 large bushy specimens about fifty or sixty years old are to be seen at 

 Tort worth. Their -spread is about equal to their height, and they 

 grow much in the same fashion as great Portugal laurels ; even had 

 they been severely pruned in youth, I don't think they would have 

 ever made trees. Mr. Banting, the gardener there, informs me that 

 they have never suffered damage from frost. 



Q. grosseserrata (Bliime). — This is a deciduous oak hailing from 

 Japan, which I saw growing in the Arnold Arboretum, when I was 

 there in the spring of 1914, just before the outbreak of war. If I 

 remember right, they were but little over twenty years old and yet 

 were already fine striking trees with conspicuously large foliage. 

 Many oaks, as I have said elsewhere in this article, grow much faster 

 in the United States than they do in this country. As to my plants, 

 it is true that I have them, but they are merely a row of little sticks 

 in the nursery, about 1 ft. high, which were given me two or three 

 years ago. So far though alive, and not, as far as I can judge, sickly, 

 they have made little or no growth, and such leaves as they produced 

 last summer were ill-developed and in no sense characteristic. Bean 

 speaks of the " splendid " foliage often seen on young plants, and 

 states that he has measured leaves at Kew 12 in. by 7 in., but so far 

 I can, I am sorry to say, record nothing of the kind on my plants. 



