OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



199 



Abraham's oak, which is a variety of Q. coccijera, he, desiring to name 

 it after " the land of Moreh " (Gen. xii. 6), the first place in Canaan 

 where Abraham halted, formed Moreh into what he regarded as a 

 latinized adjective, " Morehus " ; it has the disadvantage of making 

 a false concord with the feminine word Quercus, but the name has 

 none the less been adopted by botanists, who are not sensitive about 

 such trifles as genders. See remarks later in this paper sub Q. 

 Vibrayeana as to Liriodendron tulipifera and similar horrors. An 

 excellent drawing of this oakr by the above-named Dr. Kellogg is 

 reproduced in " West American Oaks " by Professor E. L. Greene 

 (1889). It has of course no economic or timber value. 



Q. Muehlenbergii (Engelmann), the Yellow Oak. — Dr. Henry 

 writes in 1910 : " The only specimens which we know of are two trees 

 about 8 ft. high at Aldenham, which were procured about eight years 

 ago from a German nursery (Muskau)." These trees in 1918 have 

 gained about 3 ft. in height and are still alive, but I can put it 

 no higher, for they are neither happy nor healthy, and so far must be 

 reckoned, along with our dubious Q. Michauxii and the Japanese 

 Q. deniata or Daimio, as among the comparatively few failures in 

 hardy oak cultivation which we have to admit. 



As a counsel of despair I last year cut them both hard back,' 

 leaving little but the stems, as I have found from experience that such 

 drastic treatment will sometimes restore the lacking vigour by mini- 

 mizing the work which it is incumbent on the roots to perform ; and 

 in this case too a good result has been obtained. 



It makes a very tall slender tree in its native country, N orth America, 

 where it is very widely distributed, but it is of the greatest rarity in 

 European cultivation. My plants are too poor for me to be able to 

 describe its appearance from my own knowledge. In Bean's " Trees 

 and Shrubs " it is treated as a near ally of Q. Prinus, under that head- 

 ing, but in Elwes and Henry's " Trees of Great Britain " it is 

 accorded specific honours. 



Q. nigra (Linnaeus) syn. aquatica, the Water Oak. — I had long 

 neglected to get this species, having been deceived by the fact that 

 our Q. marylandica came to us under this synonym. To increase 

 the muddle I see from " Trees of Great Britain " that no less than 

 three other oaks, viz. Q. cuneata, Q. heterophylla, and Q. velutina, have 

 been given the name of nigra by one or other of the botanists. It 

 further illustrates the confusion still existing with regard to tree 

 nomenclature, that when I did at last obtain two specimens of the 

 true Q. nigra they were sent out as Q. laurifolia, a name which right- 

 fully belongs to a rare Californian evergreen oak of which I have given 

 an account earlier in this paper. 



It seems strange, having regard to the numbers of foreigners of 

 this genus which would thrive in, and adorn, pleasure-grounds in 

 Britain that I know of none excepting Q. rubra and Q. coccinea which 

 are regularly stocked by British nurserymen ; of course all French 

 nurseries are just now hopelessly disorganized by the war, and, though 



