186 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



wizard in performing what used to be regarded as impossible in this 

 respect. Whether he does succeed or not, I took steps last spring to 

 arrange for the grafting in the next of this and other rare oaks, at 

 present missing from our arboretum, on appropriate stocks. 



In spite of my inability to describe an Aldenham plant, here is 

 some account of the foliage and distribution of the one to be seen at 

 Rostrevor : 



Leaves of a light green colour, linear lanceolate to oblanceolate in 

 shape, 4 to 5 in. long by about I in. wide, usually marked by a little 

 rounded lobe only on one side of the blade, and about three-quarters of 

 the way towards the apex. This quaint and unequal lobing seems only 

 characteristic of young plants, and tends to disappear altogether when 

 the acorn-bearing stage has been reached. Q. laurifolia is a close 

 ally of Q. nigra, and both alike bear in the United States the popular 

 name of Water Oak ; the former has the more Southern distribution, 

 which extends from Virginia to Florida. Though not tender to 

 the extent and degree of some of the Mexican and Himalayan oaks, 

 it is not so hardy as Q. nigra, and should do better in Cornwall or 

 the Mourne Mountains than north of London. 



Q. X Leana (Nuttall), Lea's Oak. — This is a fine hybrid, Q. imbricaria 

 X velutina, of which there appear to be several isolated examples in 

 various parts of the United States of America. It was first discovered 

 by Mr. T. G. Lea about 1830, near Cincinnati. The leaf as figured 

 by Mr. Elwes is long and narrow, irregularly and shallowly lobed, 

 with tapering pointed apex and rounded base. 



The only mature specimens of which I have heard in England are 

 at Kew and at Ham Manor, Sussex, and, as they are not identical 

 in the form of their foliage, I hope to get them both grafted for 

 Aldenham next spring. They are both stately, handsome trees over 

 60 ft. high. I have a well-grown, healthy young tree 14 ft. high, 

 which came to me some years back as Q. alba, but which has a marked 

 bristle, or mucro as botanists name this feature, at the points of the 

 lobes of the leaves, a feature quite absent from the true alba. This 

 has been pronounced by two such good judges as Mr. W. J. Bean 

 and Mr. A. Bruce Jackson to be Q. X Leana, and I cannot dispute 

 their verdict. As a general rule when I am uneasy as to a plant 

 being correctly named, I find no difficulty in getting expert friends to 

 agree that the name is wrong, but, when it comes to the business of 

 giving a new one, unanimity is much less easy to secure. I have also 

 recently acquired two small plants from Messrs. Veitch of Exeter. 



Q. Libani (Olivier). — We have three or four specimens of this grace- 

 ful, elegant, deciduous oak ; the biggest is now 24 ft. high, with a girth 

 3 ft. above ground of 1 ft. 8 in. It would have been materially taller, 

 but it was growing so rapidly that the leader became dangerously 

 long, slender, and whippy, consequently we were compelled a few years 

 ago to shorten it considerably ; it has now made a fresh lead and is 

 going on very well. Dr. Henry, writing in " Trees of Great Britain " 

 in 1910, mentions it as "a healthy young tree which produced ripe 



