204 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



perfectly vertically, and yet no one looks on it in that light when a 

 juniper or a cypress is in question. My three tallest examples of 

 this oak reach 28 ft., 23 ft., and 21 ft. respectively. 



This variety was discovered about 1750 in a German forest, and is 

 still a favourite ornament of tea-gardens in that country. It some- 

 times comes true from seed, and Dr. Henry records an experiment at 

 N ancy where out of thirty acorns sown twelve took an upright form and 

 the balance reverted to type. I have also a fastigiate oak labelled Q. 

 pedunculata fastigiata monstrosa, but there is nothing in the form 

 of its commonplace leaves nor in the growth of its branches which 

 is at all monstrous, yet the habit of the tree is different from, and 

 it is certainly not the same variety as, the Q. fastigiata to be seen at 

 Aldenham and many other places. Another variety, fastigiata 

 Grangei, is also to be seen here, and has reached 16 ft. 6 in. in height ; 

 this is more bushy than the last, and might perhaps more aptly have 

 been called pyramidalis than fastigiata. 



Of variegated forms I have one, called variegata, which has the 

 curious feature that, though the first spring foliage is ordinary and 

 typical, the second or summer growth is always boldly marked by 

 white splashes, denoting, I presume, some want of chlorophyll. It is 

 easy enough to accept this as a general cause of variegation in foliage, 

 but it is difficult to see how it can apply to the second and not to the 

 first of the season's growth. Mr. Bean mentions that they have 

 at Kew an oak with the same peculiarity. My plant is 28 ft. high, 

 and has a girth 4 ft. above ground of 2 ft. I have another tree labelled 

 Q. pedunculata foliis maculatis in which the variegation is constant. 



So much for white-leaved oaks ; as for the variety concordia, the best- 

 known golden- leaved form, Bean says that it has a bad constitution, 

 and I can so far bear him out that I must admit to have lost examples 

 which I once possessed, and can only now show quite young plants, 

 of which the tallest is but 13 ft. high. 



Q. pedunculata leacocarpa, which is in much the same style, has 

 leaves rather of a primrose-yellow than of an orange-gold colour. A 

 seedling oak, one of a batch which was raised at Aldenham many years 

 ago for ordinary forestry purposes, developed foliage brightly splashed 

 with yellow, but, though it retained this feature for several years, 

 it ultimately grew out of it. Another pedunculate which was bought 

 at Muskau, of which all the leaves had a neat silver edging or margin, 

 became an ordinary oak after living two or three years on Aldenham 

 clay. Considering that variegation arises simply from deficiency of 

 chlorophyll, it is not unnatural that as a tree increases in vigour it 

 should shake off its parti-coloured habit and revert to the normal 

 green, but I have noticed that this is particularly likely to occur when 

 the subject has recently been transplanted, and this I should not 

 have expected, as such removal must for a time weaken the plant's 

 health. 



I have had, however, two disconcerting proofs of the truth of this 

 dictum. Many years ago, when I must have had more cash than 



