OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



205 



brains, I gave £5 for an extra large and showily variegated horse- 

 chestnut, which, from the first season that it bore leaf at Aldenham 

 till ten or twelve years later when I arose in wrath and had it destroyed, 

 never had any variegation which could be seen without a magnifying 

 glass. Again a few years ago I moved a purple form of Acer plaianoides 

 from one place to another in the grounds, the next spring no purple 

 was observable, and, though in later years the dark colour came back 

 to a certain extent, it was never so marked as it had been before 

 removal. 



Besides these yellow and white-leaved varieties there is another 

 called atropurpurea ; this is less often seen, and has rich dark purple 

 foliage of as deep a hue as is ever seen in the case of a copper-beech. 

 Though quite healthy, it is an amazingly slow grower, and is very 

 little larger now than it was sixteen years ago when I first got it. 



Of varieties with distorted or malformed leaves I have both 

 Q. pedunculata heterophylla, 19 ft. in height, and Q. pedunculata 

 heterophylla cucullata, a symmetrical tree also reaching 19 ft., of which 

 the foliage is long, narrow, and distinctly hooded (though not so con- 

 spicuously so as in the case of Broussonetia papyrijera cucullata) and 

 Q. pedunculata filicifolia or pectinata, in which the leaves are shredded, 

 indented, and cut right down to the midrib, so as entirely to destroy 

 the natural look of the leaf and to produce the likeness of some out- 

 landish fern frond. Like the fastigiate variety mentioned above, this 

 oak also originated in Germany. Lastly, I must not omit among 

 distorted forms our Q. pedunculata contorta, about 13 ft. high, in 

 which the short, roundish leaves are crumpled up and puckered 

 together, somewhat in the fashion of Laburnum monstrosum. 



In all these cases of non-natural leaf formation, only fit, as some 

 of my friends consider, for a sylvan chamber of horrors, the trees bearing 

 them seem to lose their usual vigour and nearly always prove bad 

 doers and " miffy " subjects. I was more attracted by these vege- 

 table freaks in " my green unknowing youth " than I am now, but 

 I must confess that Corylus Avellana contorta still has attractions 

 for me. 



There is also a curious variety, Q. pedunculata contorta, as far as I 

 know a unique specimen, in the nursery garden of Mr. H. B. May, at 

 Chingford, in Essex. Though it bears the same varietal name as our 

 oak it is a perfectly distinct form, for in this case the foliage is normal 

 and its eccentricity is shown in the branches ; it might be better to 

 call it var. ramulis contortis, for it grows a mass of twiggy boughs 

 turning in all directions, producing the effect of a bird's nest. It was 

 figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle under date January 13, 1912. 

 I have had cuttings struck of it, and am now taking steps also to 

 have it grafted. 



I have also Q. pedunculata grandijolia, an exceptionally handsome 

 oak with very large leaves; it is well grown and vigorous, 22 ft. 

 high with a girth 4 ft. above ground of 1 ft. 7 in. It came to me 

 from a Continental nursery about twenty years ago with the name 



