OAKS AT ALDENHAM. 



221 



teacher or schoolboy for correction before putting it into circulation, 

 when, as it is a case of " forced currency," we all have to use it. These 

 mistakes by no means exclusively belong to " unhappy far-off days," 

 like the terrible Liriodendron lulipifera, and Cotoneastev jrigid&. It is 

 a great pity to spread errors of grammar, and if a knowledge of 

 Latin and Greek does not repay (as many now consider) the labour 

 and time requisite for its acquisition, those who have acted on this 

 assumption had better not employ those languages. No possible con- 

 fusion could arise from writing Liriodendron tulipiferum and Cotoneastev 

 frigidns, and it would be well in future to assign the proper gender 

 to all trees. Strangely enough, it has leaked out among botanists 

 that Acer is neuter, and in that case the correct gender is always 

 given. But enough of this grumbling, let me revert to the pleasanter 

 subject of oaks, though when one has reached V the tale is almost 

 told. 



Quercus Virginiana. — Just as this article is going to press, and too 

 late for me to give any account of it (see p. 178, where it is incident- 

 ally mentioned) , I have received from my kind friends in the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at Washington two plants of this American " live ' ' 

 oak. I do not remember to have seen a specimen at Kew, and it is., 

 I believe, very rarely met with anywhere else in Europe. 



Q. Wislizenii (A. de Candolle). — This evergreen oak is commonly 

 to be found almost throughout California, along the lower slopes of 

 the Sierra Nevada, as a stately tree reaching a maximum height of 

 75 ft. It is admirably figured on Plates 3 and 4 of " West American 

 Oaks " by Edward L. Greene, the drawings being by the American 

 botanist Kellogg, published 1889. Dr. Henry, in " Trees of Great 

 Britain," speaks of one at Kew, and adds, " We have seen no specimens 

 elsewhere." Had he written about 1916 or 1917 instead of 1910, he 

 might, if he had thought it worth while, have recorded the existence 

 of a small one at Aldenham, which I owe to the kindness of my friend 

 F. R. S. Balfour, of Dawyck. It is not as yet particularly vigorous, 

 and even if it should survive for a number of years, I very much 

 doubt its ever making more than a shrub in Hertfordshire ; pro- 

 bably, like the majority of the Calif ornian flora, it would be more at 

 home in the West of England. 



The bark of this tree is black and rough ; the lanceolate or oval 

 leaves are dark and shiny, averaging about 2 in. in length, and on 

 stout stalks or petioles ; the acorns, which are to be found both sessile 

 and peduncled, are quite exceptionally long, narrow, and pointed, 

 with marked longitudinal lines or grooves, and take two seasons to 

 mature ; the wood is hard and lasting, and valuable for mechanical 

 purposes. It is allied to and resembles, in its bark, acorns, and holly- 

 like leaves, Q. agrijolia, but, unlike that species, avoids the sea-coast, 

 and consequently was a later introduction to Europe, which it first 

 appears to have reached in or about 1870. As far as foliage is con- 

 cerned, it is also very like the distant Levantine Q. coccijera, but 

 the fruit is wholly different. 



