1850

ARBORETUM AND FRUTJCETUM.

PART III.

evergreen; though the leaves, after withering, generally remain onthe tree through a great part of the winter. However slight thedifference may be between these subvarieties, those who collectoaks cannot do wrong in procuring plants of each of them ; all ofthem forming trees of free growth, and of very great beauty, as maybe seen by the speimens referred to in the arboretum of Messrs.Loddiges.

** Foliage subevergreen. Leaves dentate. Acorns with bristly Cups.

The leaves remain on the tree through a great part of the winter, retain-ing their vitality and greenness. In mild winters, the leaves donot begin to drop till March or April; and even in severe winters,a part of them, on the sheltered side of the tree, continue green tillnear the end of that month.

f Q, C. 8 fulhamensk ; Q. C. dentata Wats. Fend. Brit., t. 93.; Q. C.hybrida var. dentata Sivt. The Fulham Oak. See Jig. 1710., andthe plates of this tree in our last Volume. —

Leaves alternate, ovate-elliptic, largely dentated;the dents obtuse-angular, their sides excurved, andtheir vertices shortly mucronate. ( Wats.) Thisis a fine broad-leaved subevergreen variety, ofwhich there is a magnificent specimen in the Ful- ■ham Nursery. The plates of the Fulham oak in ourlastVolume are portraits of this tree; the onetaken in November, 1836, and the other on May ;

1. 1837. It is 75ft. high; the diameter of thespace covered by the branches 54 ft., and thediameter of the trunk, at 3 ft. from the ground,

3 ft. 10 in. There is a tree of the same varietyat Mamhead, near Exeter, planted by Mr. Lu-combe (the originator of the Lucombe oak, andthe grandfather of the present Mr. Pince of the (

Exeter Nursery), when he was gardener at Mam-head, which is 80 ft. high, with a trunk 4 ft. 6 in. in diameter at 1 ft.from the ground. (See Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 128.) There is agreat similarity between the foliage of this tree and that of the Ful-ham oak, as will be seen by Jig. 1711.; in which the right-handfigure is a fac-simile outline, of the natural size, of a leaf of the Fulhamoak; and the left-hand figure is the outline of a leaf of the Exeter, orold Lucombe, oak, also of the natural size. But, however alike thetrees may be in foliage, they are very different in their habits ofgrowth; the Fulham oak being a branching tree, with a round head,and a comparatively smooth, though still somewhat corky, bark; andthe old Lucombe oak growing with a straight erect trunk, regularlyfurnished with branches, and forming, both in its young and oldstates, a conical spiry-topped tree, with a more rough and corky barkthan the other. In the Fulham Nursery there is a full-grown treeof the old Lucombe oak, as well as one of the Fulham oak, of bothof which portraits are given in our last Volume, which strongly dis-play the characteristic difference between the two trees. The ageand origin of the Fulham oak are unknown; but Mr. Smithers, anold man who has been employed in the Fulham Nursery from hisyouth, and who remembers the tree above 45 years, says thatit always went by the name of the Fulham oak, and that he under-stood it to have been raised there from seed. We have examinedthe tree at its collar, and down to its main roots, several feet underground; and, from the uniform texture, and thick corky characterof the bark, we feel satisfied that it is not a grafted tree. In fineseasons, this variety produces abundance of acorns, from which many