1868

arboretum and fruticetum.

PART III.

may have pushed above 1 in. in length. Cobbett recommends gathering theacorns before they are quite ripe, drying in the sun, and packing in dry sand ;but by this mode, we think, the vital principle would not be so well preservedas by packing them in Sphagnum.

Insects. In America, the white oak is infested with numerous insects, someof which are figured in Abbott and Smith's Insects of Georgia. PhalEe'na(? Pygee'ra) albifrons (t.80., . 1728

and oar fig. 1728.),thewhite-tip moth, is by no means acommon kind. The cater-pillar, which is of a pinkishcolour, striped with yellow,white, and black, has a finepolish, as if glazed or var-nished. The whole broodfeeds together, especiallywhen small. One observedby Abbott spun itself a thinwhite web,between the leavesof the oak, on October 28th,and came out on the 18th ofFebruary. The chrysalis isof a reddish brown, and theperfect insect of a dull brown,tinged with yellow. Phalae'na(Notodonta) A urdra (Abb.and Smith, t. 87., and our fig.

1729.), the pink and yellowprominent moth, was takenby Abbott on the white oak. “ The caterpillar went into the ground,and enclosed itself in a thin case of dirt, on July 15th, appearing on the wingon August 7th. Sometimes this species buries itself in the autumn, and remains

* Igg?

1729

till spring, at which season the moth may now and then be observed sittingon the oak branches.”

Statistics. In the environs of London, at Fulham Palace, a tree bearing this name, between 100and 120 years old, is 60 ft. high, but it appears to us to be nothing more than Q. pedunculUta; atYork House, Twickenham, it is 50 ft. high; at Muswell Hill, 72 years old, it is 61ft. high, thediameter of the trunk 6ft. Gin., and of the head 70ft. In France, in Brittany, at Barrcs, 8 yearsplanted, it is 9 ft. high. In Austria, at Vienna, in the park at Laxenburg, 10 years planted, it is20 ft. high. In Bavaria, at Munich, in the English Garden, 10 years old, it is 7 ft. high. InItaly, in Lombardy, at Monza, 24 years planted, it is 30 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 8 in., andof the head 10 ft.

Commercial Statistics. The name of the white oak does not occur in anyof the London nursery catalogues of the present day, with the exception ofthat of Messrs. Loddiges; neither is it in the Bollwyller catalogue. In that