21 6 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I mean to try them again in sheltered positions. Much to my surprise, 

 Professor Balfour informs me that it has proved hardy for many 

 years at Edinburgh, but one is constantly coming across cases of tender 

 plants thriving in unexpected places — e.g. I have seen Embothrium 

 coccinenm growing quite comfortably on the Cotswolds at my friend 

 Sir George Holford's ; and the only explanation which I can suggest 

 is that when a plant has a soil that exactly suits it, it can then contend 

 with climatic conditions under which in ordinary circumstances it 

 would succumb. It is said to have been introduced as early as 1699, 

 and even if this statement be not true, it only antedates its arrival 

 by a few years. The south-west of England is the part where it is 

 to be seen at its best, and Sir Robert Newman's trees at Mamhead, 

 near Exeter, have long been famous. For the last five or six years, 

 however, we have had a plant of the attractive neat-growing, small- 

 leaved variety, Q. Suber occidentalism which though quite small passed 

 unscathed through the cruel winter of 1916-17. I mention its being 

 " quite small," for, as all cultivators are aware, a well-established and 

 rooted plant some 25 ft. high, with its terminal lead well above the frost 

 level, will often escape injury when a newly planted one of the same 

 species, still in the nursery stage, will be crippled or killed. A striking 

 example of the truth of this dictum occurred at Aldenham in the above- 

 named winter in the case of our Nothofagus obliqua. Mr. Elwes 

 bears out my estimate of the two forms of Suber by mentioning that 

 at Nancy this variety is hardy in ordinary winters, though the type 

 always succumbs there in the first winter after planting. The most 

 probable explanation of the variety being so much hardier than the 

 type is that it has naturally a more northern habitat, namely, Portugal 

 and the Atlantic region, whereas the home of the type is along the 

 Mediterranean. 



I owe the presence of my plant, which is now 5 ft. high and of good 

 promise, like so many others, to the generosity of my eminent friend, 

 the Director of Kew. A marked feature of this deciduous tree is that 

 it holds its leaves all through winter, not shedding them till June, 

 when they are pushed off by the newly growing ones. 



Q. Toza (Bosc), Pyrenean Oak. — This is one of the most free- 

 growing, distinct, and pleasing oaks that I know ; the grey down 

 which covers the young shoots gives the tree a glaucous appearance 

 and makes jt contrast very effectively with any conifers in its neigh- 

 bourhood, and the depth to which the largest leaves are lobed helps 

 to add distinction to the plant. All four of my specimens are growing 

 well, the youngest is labelled simply Toza and is only 6 ft. high. 

 Two plants called Q. Toza pendula are some twenty years old, or a 

 little more, and are 18 ft. high with a girth of over a foot. Though 

 given this varietal name by the nurseryman who raised them, they do 

 not, I consider, deserve this distinction, for it is a recognized habit of 

 this species to produce long, slender, and consequently pendulous 

 branches under cultivation. In my judgment the epithet pendula 

 should only be applied to forms such as those of some ashes, elms, and 



