OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



185 



Anyone who like myself has been closely studying and constantly 

 referring to vol. v. of " Trees and Shrubs of Great Britain," in which 

 appear the accounts of exotic oaks, might be excused if he came to 

 the conclusion that by some unaccountable oversight all mention of 

 Q. lanuginosa, other than an incidental sentence, had been omitted. 

 The fact is that, owing to what I must reluctantly regard as the bad 

 arrangement of that otherwise splendid work, this tree does not appear 

 with the other exotic oaks, including its close ally Q. lusitanica, but 

 is dealt with in vol. ii. pp. 294-5, and follows the accounts of the two 

 indigenous members of the genus, viz. Q. pedunculata and Q. sessili- 

 fiora, the three species being those into which the Q. Robur of Linnaeus 

 has been divided. I cannot help feeling that in a work of this scale 

 all the oaks should have been brought into one volume, and, instead 

 of following one another higgledy-piggledy, should have been set out 

 on some system. Even so perfunctory a classification as the separation 

 of deciduous and evergreen would have been better than nothing at 

 all. Neither in this work nor in that of Mr. Bean is there any record, 

 even approximate, of the first introduction of this tree into Great 

 Britain, but I presume it must have been a long time ago, for it is by 

 no means one of the rarest of foreign oaks in this country, though Mr. 

 El wes states that "it is usually small and stunted," and, true as this 

 may be generally speaking, I am very glad to know that the Aldenham 

 plants are an exception. Mr. Elwes records three varieties — 

 Dalechampii, dissecta, and Hartwissiana, none of which I am lucky 

 enough to own, though my catalogue shows that I had at one time, 

 but have lost, the second of the three. Unfortunately this species 

 has often been sent out by nurserymen under the name Q. mongolica, 

 a Chinese tree, of which I possess one small example. I myself bought 

 many years ago an oak under this name, and it was quite a long time 

 before I detected that it was nothing more than Q. lanuginosa ; there- 

 fore anyone who has a plant purporting to be Q. mongolica is, as the 

 lawyers say, " put on enquiry," and should satisfy himself that he 

 has not been entertaining Q. lanuginosa unawares, for the true 

 mongolica, which is closely allied to Q. grosseserrata, is most rare in 

 European cultivation. 



Q. laurijolia (Michaux). — I have no better claim to include this 

 among Aldenham oaks than that I have made strenuous though quite 

 ineffectual efforts to obtain it. The first plant, which I bought from 

 a most famous English nursery, proved to be nothing more than a 

 lanceolate-leaved variety of Q. Ilex ! My second attempt also in a 

 very well-known quarter resulted in the acquisition of a specimen of 

 the American Water Oak, Q. nigra (syn. aquatica). However, my 

 friend Sir John Ross, more fortunate than myself, has got a genuine 

 example of this 1 rare oak from the Southern States of America, and 

 one too with exceptionally fine foliage. He has sent wood to another 

 good friend of mine, Professor Bayley Balfour of Edinburgh, who 

 is engaged in trying to strike cuttings for me. In such a task he is 

 unlikely to fail, for he and his merry men have the uncanny arts of a 



