78 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



QUE ECUS SEMECARPIFOLIA SMITH. 



By R. A. DuMMER, F.R.H.S. 



Many years have elapsed since Loudon suggested the advisability 

 of the introduction of this Himalayan Oak, sometimes called the 

 Brown or Kharshu Oak, but it is only within recent years that the 

 efforts of Mr. J. S. Gamble, the well-known Indian forester and 

 botanist, have been successful in the raising of two plants, which 

 are flourishing in his garden at East Liss, Hants. These specimens, 

 the only two in the British Isles, were raised from acorns received 

 from Chakatra, in the North-west Himalaya, 9000 feet above sea 

 level, in 1900. The acorns, packed in charcoal dust, on arrival were 

 sown immediately. Two of the resultant seedlings were 10 and 

 15 feet high respectively in 1909, and, having a slightly sheltered 

 position, have withstood the idiosyncrasies of this climate admirably 

 up to now. (Figs. 25, 26.) 



The sub-evergreen character of this Oak, in conjunction with its 

 holly-like appearance, invites for it a more extended cultivation, though 

 in the more rigorous parts of the Kingdom difficulty wiU, no doubt, 

 be experienced in its cultivation. 



Quercus semecarpifolia, known also as Q. ohtusifolia and 

 Q. Cassura, is a native of the Himalayas, where from Kumaon to 

 Bhutan and Munnipur it is rather gregarious, affecting altitudes 

 of 6000 to 12,000 feet ; it extends, however, north-eastwards to the 

 mountains of China, in the provinces of Szechwan and Yunnan. 

 Under very propitious circumstances it attains to a height of 

 100 feet and an i8-feet girth of trunk. The current year's shoots are 

 angular, purplish or chestnut-brown in colour, and sparingly stellately 

 pubescent. Leaves, holly-like, almost sessile, falling a month or 

 two before the new leaves appear, at maturity leathery, greyish- 

 green, variable in size and margin, usually elliptical in outline, 

 about 3 inches long and 2 inches broad (rarely 6 inches by 4 inches), 

 rounded or spine-tipped at the apex, cordate or rarely rounded at 

 the base, with scattered deciduous stellate pubescence and sunken 

 nerves above, paler and equally pubescent below, the midrib and its 

 six to ten pairs of lateral nerves prominently raised, the latter forking 

 towards the strongly wavy and spinous margin. The solitary or 

 paired fruits ripen in the second year, and are borne on short stout 

 pubescent peduncles, the acorns being globose or ovoid and enclosed 

 at the base in the hemispherical cupule, about J inch in diameter, which 

 is covered with closely appressed tomentose scales. The wood, 

 weighing 54 lb. to the cubic foot, is utilized locally for building purposes, 

 door-frames, bedsteads, ploughs, and mule-saddles ; it is very hard, 

 close-grained, of fairly good quaUty, with a silvery though not very 

 marked grain, but unfortunately is inclined to split in seasoning. 

 The sap wood is greyish-white, the heartwood light pinkish-brown. 



