OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



181 



does exist to a certain extent in the case of the shiny evergreen foliage 

 of Q. cocci/era, Q. agrijolia, and of Q. Ilex Gramuntia. 



To my mind the general appearance of this species much more 

 suggests a stunted form of Q. coccinea, and the likeness is all the 

 stronger in autumn, when the dying leaves turn a good red, although 

 according to Bean's book this satisfactory feature though usual in 

 America is rarely manifested in England. It is not often seen in 

 cultivation here, and I find no special reason to think it likely that 

 it ever will be. There is, however, a good-sized brake of it at the 

 bottom of the Tortworth Arboretum, which when in fruit makes 

 attractive game covert. The plants must be thirty or forty years old. 

 The soil natural to it is dry and sandy, but it seems quite at home 

 in the very different conditions prevailing in Gloucestershire and Herts. 



No varieties of this oak are given in the books, but the tree is 

 known occasionally to depart from its customary stunted habit, and 

 there is a specimen at Aldenham labelled Q. ilici folia arbor escens 

 which grows normally, having nothing of the dwarf about it. I 

 bought it at Muskau in 1902, and it is now over 16 ft. high. In my 

 experience they were very careful in that nursery to have their stock 

 true to name, and no one who has not engaged on this task can realize 

 how difficult it is of perfect accomplishment on a large scale. Care- 

 ful comparison with undoubted examples of the type reveals no 

 difference except in growth, and none of the learned botanists who 

 have honoured my arboretum with a visit has as yet thrown any 

 doubt on the nomenclature. I have not been able to learn of any 

 other specimen of an arborescent form of Q. ilicijolia elsewhere in this 

 country. 



Q. imbricaria (Michaux), Shingle Oak. — This handsome deciduous 

 tree, which reaches 100 ft. in height in its home, the Central United 

 States, has long entire leaves, and, partly for that reason I suppose, 

 was classed by Linnaeus as a variety of Q. Phellos. 



It was introduced to England as early as 1786, but has always 

 been very rare here, and is far less often seen than Q. Phellos. I have 

 but one specimen, which Mr. Elwes mentions in his book as having 

 been identified by him when staying at Aldenham in 1908. This would 

 now, ten years later, have been quite a fine young tree, but unluckily, 

 and curiously enough sharing its misfortune with my best specimen 

 of Q. Phellos, it was terribly smashed about in a gale and lost about 

 5 ft. of the head. With the object of starting a new leader I have 

 had to cut all the boughs back very severely, so for the time the tree 

 is quite disfigured, but where roots and stem are healthy no one need 

 despair of the head when broad-leaved trees are concerned. 



Q. incana (Roxburgh). — This handsome evergreen oak grows 

 more or less gregariously on dry hillsides in the North-West Himalaya 

 in company with Rhododendron arboreum, and has a rather stout short 

 trunk with spreading branches, totally different from the erect, thin- 

 stemmed tree as grown in the Temperate House at Kew. It is found 

 at a lower altitude than Q. dilatata, which in its turn gives place, as 



