J 852

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

Quercus Cerris Lucombek na, in its deciduous state , in the Exeter Nursery.

Height 75 ft.; diameter of trunk 6ft. ; diameter of the head 65 ft.

This variety is subtvergreen: it was raised by Lucombe, nurserymanat Exeter, from seeds of the species, sown about 1762. The acornshad been saved from a tree of Mr. Lucombe’s own growth; and,when the plants came up, he observed one amongst them that keptits leaves on throughout the winter, to which he paid particularattention, and propagated some thousands of it by grafting. In anaccount of this variety published in the 62d volume of the Philo-sophical Transactions, dated 1772, it is described as “ a tree,growing as straight and handsome as a fir, with evergreen leaves,and wood in hardness and strength exceeding that of all otheroaks. It makes but one shoot in the year, viz. in May; but thiscontinues growing throughout the summer, not being interrupted,about midsummer, by the pause which occurs between the produc-tion of the first and the second shoots, in the case of the com-mon oak. The tree grows so rapidly, that the original specimen,at 7 years old, measured 21ft. high,and 1 ft. 8in. in circumference: at 6years old, a grafted tree was 23 ft. high; and a tree 4 years grafted was16 ft. high.” The shoots are, in general, from4ft. to 5 ft. in length;