THE DURMAST OAK 
7 
a tunic of very coarse reticulated fibres, 
and JVelde?ii of smooth, shining, hard 
membrane, with the rings at the base 
that characterise the section Anftulati^ 
to which it belongs. Dean Herbert 
ranked dalmaticus as only a variety of 
C. reticulatiis^ but the absence of a sepa- 
rate basal tunic, its greater size, the ab- 
sence of decided featherings, and its re- 
producing itself quite truly from seed, 
are sufficient reasons for classing it as a 
separate species. I have it in three dis- 
tinct forms, that illustrated, in which the 
flowers are of a cool lavender grey ex- 
ternally , with the inner segments slightly 
rosy and both inner and outer surfaces 
marked with fine lilac veins, which might 
be called stellate in form. Another va- 
riety has the outer surface of the outer 
segments of a pale straw colour, and is 
decidedly globose in form ; the third is 
of a very lovely rosy-lilac shade, becom- 
ing almost white near the yellow throat, 
but this is less robust and increases very 
slowly. I have never seen any so dis- 
tinctly feathered as that of Maw's fig. 
l.b. Plate XXXIV., nor the white form 
he mentions from the island of Lesina. 
E. AUGUSTUS BOWLES. 
Waltham Cross. 
Early Flowers. — Both the Shortia and Car- 
penteria seem always quite happy with me 
here, on Harrow Weald, as does also the sweet 
little Epigea. This lovely day (8th January) 
I picked ten fine blooms of Iris stylosa, just 
opening, making over sixty so far. But I could 
not harden my heart to gather the few brilliant 
flowers of Cyclamen Coum, which the sun had ! 
coaxed out in their sheltered corner of the rock- j 
garden, where they lay glowing like rubies and \ 
too plainly rejoicing in the sunlight for me j 
to think of cutting short their enjoyment. — j 
A. KiNGSMILL. I 
THE GREATER TREES OF THE 
NORTHERN FOREST.— No. 26. 
THE DURMAST OAK {Quercus 
sessiliflord) . 
Botanists often class as mere varieties 
of one another, things that may be 
totally distinct from a planter's point 
of view. They do not always know in 
a living state the trees which they see 
as dried specimens only, and without 
knowledge of the wood, habit, stature, 
and other characteristics which are far 
more essential for us than any technical 
description of leaves and stamens. This 
has been the fate of our Durmast Oak, 
The Durmast Oak. 
and the result of failing to keep it apart 
is, that the matter relating to our Oaks 
is so much mixed and interwoven, that 
it is not easy to gather reliable data, 
especially where forestry has been so 
much neglected as it has been in this 
country. 
The Durmast Oak is a noble tree, 
one of the greatest and most stately of 
those known to us. Compared with the 
