CHAP. CV.

conviA'cEJE. gue'rcus.

1735

\

countries where the oak abounds, similar varieties might be detected;and, farther, that acorns collected from these varieties would occa-sionally, if not frequently, produce trees with the same characterof foliage; in the same manner as acorns from a weeping oak willproduce weeping trees, or from a fastigiate oak fastigiate trees.Fig. 1570., to a scale of 1 in. to 4 ft., is a specimen of an oak of thiskind, recently brought into notice by Messrs. Fennessey and Son,nurserymen, Waterford. It came up from seed accidentally, about1820; and the parent tree was, in 1836, 15ft. high. Some of theleaves are quite entire, and others deeply and curiously cut, as exhi-bited in fig. 1571., drawn of the natural size.

2 Q. p. dfoliis variegatis Lodd. Cat. has the leaves variegated with white,with some streaks of red; and, when finely grown, is a very orna-mental tree. We have never seen it worth looking at in the neigh-bourhood of London ; but at White Knights there are very handsomespecimens, between 20 ft. and 30 ft. high.

2 Q. p. 7 purpurea, Q. purpurea Lodd. Cat., has the young shoots, and thefootstalks of the leaves, tinged with purple. The young leaves,when they first come out, are almost entirely purple, and are verystriking. There are plants of this variety at Messrs. Loddiges’s, anda young tree in the Horticultural Society’s Garden.

2 Q. p. 8 Hodginsn Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836. — From the plants of this varietyin the Horticultural Society’s Garden, and at Messrs. Loddiges’s, itappears to be of a more fastigiate habit of growth, and to have muchsmaller leaves, than the species.

Q. p. 9 dtilcis. Cliene k Feuilles caduques presque sessiles, Dralet. —This variety exists inFrance, on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Departments du Gard, de Vau-cluse, des Bouches de Rh6ne, and du Var. The leaves are divided into seven very openlobes, of which the middle one is the largest. The acorns are large, and, according toM. Dralet, very handsome; he adds that they are sweeter than those of a variety of Q.J'lex, which, from his description, appears to be Q. I. Ballbta. M. Dratet mentions twoforms of Q. p. dtilcis : one having the leaves thin, with acute lobes, and slightly downybeneath ; the acorns being so large as to measure 2§ in. in circumference: and the otherhaving coriaceous glaucous leaves, with obtuse lobes ; and the acorns rather smaller,and borne on peduncles 1| in. in length. These two forms do not differ from the speciesin rate of growth, magnitude, or quality of the timber. M. Dralet strongly recommendsthe propagation of this variety in France, with a view to the employment of the acornsas food. The tree, he says, is planted in avenues, in the department des Bouches duRh6ne; and he adds that he gave acorns to the Botanic Garden at Toulouse in 1811,from which young plants were raised. {Trnite de VAmenagement des Bois el For its, fyc.,sutvi de Rccherches sur les Chines a Glands doux , p. 180.) Through the kindness of M.Vilmorin, we received some acorns of this variety in 1836, which we roasted and en-deavoured to eat; but we cannot recommend them from our own experience. Thevariety, however, ought by all means to be introduced. J

Other Varieties. The varieties of British oaks which might be selectedfrom extensive woods of that tree, are without end; but, as these oaks areexceedingly difficult to propagate by any other method than from the acorn,they have been in a great measure neglected by cultivators. The time of leaf-ing and of dropping the leaves varies exceedingly; some oaks retaining theirfoliage of a deep green for a month or six weeks after others; others, after theirleaves have withered, and become of a russet colour, retaining them through-out the winter, like the hornbeam and the beech. Some oaks bud at Christ-mas, like the Glastonbury thorn; as, for example, the Cadenham oak inthe New Forest, near Lyndhurst, mentioned by Parkinson, and by variouswriters down to the time of Gilpin; and one, that we have heard of, in theVale of Gloucester. The forms of the trees also vary: some being muchmore fastigiate than others; and the heads of some approaching to theglobular, or rather domical, form; while the heads of others are moreconical. The difference in the size of the acorns, and in the length oftheir footstalks, is as great as the difference in the size of the leaves, and inthe length of their footstalks ; and wherever Q. sessilifldra is found growingalong with Q. pedunculata, there are, or appear to be, numerous hybridsproduced between these two kinds. The Wyre Forest, near Bewdley, con-tains upwards of 1200 acres, the greater part of which is the property ofW. L. Childe, Esq., whose gardener, Mr. John Pearson, informs us that