OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



219 



of Kew has favoured me, and is based on the account given in Britton 

 and Schafer's " North American Trees," p. 339. 



This oak was first described under the name of Q. stellata 

 utahensis, and in Sargent's " Silva," vol. viii. p. 33, this is treated 

 as being a syno^^m of Q. Gambelii. More recently Rydberg, a very 

 competent critic of North American plants, in his " Flora of Colorado," 

 p. 98 (1906), regards the two as distinct, and accords the oak now 

 under discussion specific rank as Q. utahensis. Undoubtedly it and 

 Q. Gambelii are very close, but according to Rydberg the former is 

 a small tree with leaves which are velvety beneath, while the latter 

 is a shrub whose leaves do not show this characteristic. As stated 

 earlier in this article sub Q. Gambelii I also possess that species, and 

 an unhealthy plant which I received under the name of Q. stellata. 



Q. variabilis (Blume). — This deciduous Chinese oak, which grows 

 also in Korea, was first introduced into England in 1861 from the 

 neighbourhood of Pekin, but it was also collected by Wilson in Western 

 China about 1906, and my plants come from that source, the kind 

 intermediary to whom I am indebted for them being Professor 

 Sargent. The tree is closely allied to another Chinese species, 

 Q. serrata, and is considered by some botanists to be merely a variety 

 of that species. Bean considers that its foliage is inferior to the latter 

 in brightness. I have not observed this inferiority — indeed, I consider 

 that the silvery grey under side of its long, narrow, oval leaves, a 

 feature not present either in Q. serrata or in Q. glandulifera, to which 

 its leaves also have a likeness, gives it the pre-eminence. 



The best plants now known to exist in England date from 1882. 

 The Aldenham specimens, though quite healthy, have hardly got out 

 of the nursery, and the tallest measures only 8 ft. in height. Accounts 

 of this tree are to be found both in " Trees of Great Britain 

 and Ireland," p. 1276, and in " Plantae Wilsonianae, " vol. hi. pp. 

 219-220. I have also two oaks, 3 ft. and 4 ft. high, labelled " sp. from 

 Pekin Legation," which may, I think, safely be allotted to this species. 



Q. velutina (Lamarck) , Black Oak. — I have no good-sized specimen 

 of this, the two tallest being only 14 and 13 ft. high respectively, 

 with a girth in each case of 9 in., but all alike look clean-grown, healthy, 

 and promising. It is one of the commonest and most widely spread 

 of the genus in its natural habitat, North America, but for some reason 

 is far seldomer to be found than Q. rubra, to which it has a decided 

 surface resemblance, though it seems to me more rigid and less weedy 

 in growth. Internally it can be distinguished by the yellow colour 

 of the inner bark, from which and from the acorns a dye of commercial 

 value is extracted. The leaves of this species are sometimes of immense 

 size, but unluckily I cannot claim the possession of this striking 

 feature for my examples. There is a variety of this kind at Kew 

 with the biggest leaves I have ever seen on an oak; they are fully 

 a foot long by 8 in. at the broadest, and have immense lobes; owing 

 doubtless to their length, these leaves hang downwards, which makes 

 the effect even more striking than it would otherwise be. 



VOL. XLV. Q 



