1732

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART 111.

planted. From the circumstance of this variety generally comingtrue from seed, which, from what is stated in the Nouveau HuHamel, it would appear to do, it is doubtless very distinct; and hencethe circumstance of De Candolle and others treating it as a species.

S Q. p. 4 pendula; Q. pendula Lodd. Cat., 1836; the Weeping Oak; hasbranches decidedly pendulous. The largest tree of this variety thatwe know of, in England, stands in the park at Moccas Court, Here-fordshire, and is, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary trees of theoak kind in existence. It was first pointed out to us in 1806; andwe have lately had the following account of it sent to us by Mr. J.Webster, who was then, and is still, gardener and forester at Moc-eas: — “ The tree is in vigorous health. The height of the trunk to thefirst branch is 18 ft.; girt, at 9 ft. from the ground, 13 ft. 2 in. ; totalheight of the trunk, 75 ft., with branches reaching from about themiddle of its height to within 7 ft. of the ground, and hanging downlike cords. Many of these branches are 30 ft. long, and no thicker inany part of that length than a common waggon rope. The entire headof the tree covers a space 100 ft. in diameter. The tree bears acornsevery year, from which many plants have been raised, all of which par-take more or less of the weeping character of the parent; and manyso much so, that, when they are young, they are obliged to be sup-ported by props. Many of the trees raised from this oak at Moccasare twenty years before they show much in-clination to hang their branches like cords;others begin to do so when they are quiteyoung. There are plants at Moccas, raisedfrom the parent tree, which are 50 years old.”

( Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 368.) Fig. 1568. isa portrait of this tree to the scale of 1 in. to50 ft., which has been reduced from a drawingmade for us, in September, 1836, by G. II.

Lewis, Esq. Owing to the smallness of thescale, the weeping character is not very obviousin the figure; but it is very striking in the tree.

As the tree stands on a steep bank, and thespread of its branches is up and down theslope, our portrait, which is a front view,does not show so great a diameter of head as it would have done,if a side view had been taken. There is a tree of this kind atMessrs. Loddiges’s, which was procured from the Lewisham Nursery,where it is supposed to have been discovered in a seed-bed about1816; and there is one in the Horticultural Society’s Garden, raisedfrom an acorn of the Moccas tree, which has not yet become pendu-lous. There is also a tree of the weeping oak in the neighbourhood ofWisbaden, a portrait of which was kindly lent to us by Lady Wal-singham ; but we are not certain to what species the tree belongs.

X Q. p. 5 heterophylla, Q. salicifolia Hort., Q. laciniata Lodd. Cat., Q.fWi-cifolia Hort., and Q. Fennessi Hort.— In this variety the leaves varyexceedinglyin magnitude,in shape, and in being lanceolate and entire,cut at the edges, or deeply laciniated. Fig. 1569. shows four leaves,which were sent to us by the Rev. W. T. Bree, from a tree growingin a hedge-row at Allesley, near Coventry. One of these leaves (a) isvery long and narrow, and quite entire; 6 and c are much indented ;and d approaches to the usual form of the leaf of the British oak. Mr.Bree remarks that those which are first expanded bear the greatestresemblance to the ordinary foliage. There are entire shoots onthe tree with foliage of the common kind ; and others with narrowfoliage, either entire, or denticulated. The tree, at the height of 5 ft.from the ground, had, in 1832, a trunk 3 ft. in circumference; and

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