OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



201 



of Kew, and the opinion of Rehder and Wilson in " Plantae 

 Wilsonianae," vol. iii. p. 228, in treating it as a separate species. 



I hardly know whether Q. oxyodon should be described as deciduous 

 or evergreen, for it is betwixt and between, as it throws off all its 

 leaves every year, but retains them till the spring, when they are 

 pushed off by the new-comers. Its distribution is not confined to 

 Western Hupeh and Eastern Szechwan in China, where it is a common 

 forest tree at a high level, but it is also a native of the Khasia and 

 Naga Hills in Assam, 3000 to 5000 ft. up. Its life has been too short 

 yet in this country to speak with perfect confidence as to its future, 

 but there seems no reason to fear that it will prove tender, and the 

 plants which I have seen look healthy enough. 



I owe the possession of one little specimen of this very rare oak, 

 which is grafted on a Q. Ilex stock, to the kindness of the Director of 

 Kew, who has also favoured me with the following botanical account, 

 which I transcribe : "A low-growing tree with widespreading branches, 

 which form a broad flattened crown ; branchlets angular and glabrous. 

 Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate at the apex, somewhat 

 acute or more or less rounded at the base, closely and prominently 

 spinous-serrate on the margin, except at the entire base, somewhat 

 leathery, shining above, covered with a close, dense, whitish felt beneath, 

 sometimes becoming almost glabrous with age, 4 to 8 in. long, 

 1 J to 2 J in. wide ; midrib and lateral veins very prominent beneath, 

 lateral veins nearly parallel and straight, 18 to 25 on each side of the 

 midrib ; leaf-stalks rather slender, glabrous, | to 2 in. long. Fruit 

 maturing in the first year, solitary or a few together on short peduncles 

 near the ends of the branchlets. Ripe cups hemispherical, thin, 

 § in. across, scarcely \ in. deep, with about seven hoary tomentose 

 toothed concentric rings. Acorns hemispherical, truncate at the base, 

 rather more than \ in. long and broad." 



The above has the merit of being far more lucid than the average 

 botanical accounts with which I have had to contend, and would, 

 I really believe, enable anyone of fair intelligence, who was at all 

 familiar with plant life, to identify the foliage and fruit of this species. 



Q. palustris (Muenchhausen) , Pin Oak. — This is a very attractive 

 oak, too much like Q. coccinea for anyone who is not a collector .0 

 want them both, unless indeed there is a great deal of planting space. 

 Though its red autumn colour is pleasing, it is not usually so vivid 

 as that of Q. coccinea. As I have seen it growing in the United States, 

 it seems generally to take a pyramidal shape, tall and slim with a 

 straight stem, and not sprawling about as the somewhat similar 

 Q. rubra is inclined to do. It happens to be the first exotic oak of 

 any interest (the Turkey Oak cannot be counted in this category) 

 of which I became possessed, consequently it is the biggest of these 

 at Aldenham. Its height is now 37 ft., with a girth of 4 ft. 6 in. at 

 3 ft. from the ground. Had I not neglected to prune it in its youth 

 it would have been much taller ; as it is, it has been allowed to fork 

 at a height of about 15 ft. and then forms a large spreading head, so 



