206 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Q. sessiliflora longifolia, to which the stalked acorns when they 

 appeared gave the lie. 



I have now come to the last of my pedunculate varieties, tar- 

 dissima, which is certainly neither a freak nor " miffy," for a stronger, 

 more thriving tree it would be hard to find. Its varietal name is 

 meant to indicate that it is later coming into leaf than the type, and 

 in my experience this claim is well founded. I watched my two 

 specimens closely this year, and no leaf buds appeared till June i, 

 though the trees were in full leaf by the 15th. It is strange that 

 Mr. Elwes should write in his book, and that Mr. Bean should tell 

 me that at Colesborne and Kew respectively they have not observed 

 that this tree deserves its name. Undoubtedly with me this and an 

 oak which I believe to be a hybrid of Q. Toza and Q. lanuginosa are 

 far away the two latest of the genus to come into leaf. I am not a 

 botanist enough to point out in what essentials, if any, it differs 

 from an ordinary pedunculate, but the general effect is quite distinct. 

 I should expect any tree-lover noticing it for the first time to say 

 " Hullo, what oak is that ? I am sure it is not a common one, but 

 I can't put a name to it." It is of a much darker, richer green than 

 the common oaks about it, and quite as noticeably different from 

 them in the general effect produced, as, say, our Q. Mirbeckii. 

 I believe my plants are due to the kindness of Mr. Elwes, who has 

 done so much to help me in my arboretum. I observe that he adds 

 a note to his account of this variety that seedlings raised by him do 

 not seem to retain the late-leafing habit. 



In the summer of 1917 all the pedunculate oaks in our neighbour- 

 hood were almost entirely defoliated by the larva of the green oak 

 moth, and in this respect the pedunculate is at a great disadvantage 

 compared with the sessile oak, which is nearly immune from the dis- 

 figurement if not injury caused by this pest. Mr. Gerald Loder 

 informs me that in the Sussex woods adjoining Wakehurst, his beau- 

 tiful Elizabethan house, the caterpillars, not content with stripping 

 the oaks, dropped down on the choice Himalayan rhododendrons 

 planted below and ate off all the young shoots. As even rabbits, which 

 are almost omnivorous with regard to vegetation, will starve sooner 

 than eat most rhododendrons,* it is strange that Tortrix viridana 

 should have been able to accommodate itself to this unnatural 

 diet. 



I have been particularly interested in reading what Mr. Elwes 

 writes of his experiments in 1901 with a view to ascertaining whether 

 " the size of the acorns and vigour of the parent tree had much in- 

 fluence " on the growth of the resulting seedling. My own limited 

 experience entirely bears out his negative conclusion. A fine old 

 oak close to the front door of Aldenham House bears exceptionally 

 large acorns ; we sowed a lot of these a good many years ago, but 



* Of late years it has been found in Cornwall that some rhododen- 

 drons are not rabbit-proof, and at Caerhays they prey especially on one species, 

 R. oreotrephes. 



