Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol02B.djvu/147

Rh him a very striking one on the road from Moccas to Bredwardine, from the acorns of which seedlings have been raised. In 1884 there was a weeping oak at the King's Acre nurseries, Hereford, grafted at 3 feet up, which was planted by Cranston in 1785. It bears acorns every year; but none of the seedlings, it is said, show a tendency to droop. The top of this tree is not pendulous; the weeping only occurs on the outer parts of the lower branches.

3. Var. filicifolia, Lemaire, ''Illust. Hort. i. t. 32, verso (1854), Fern-leaved Oak, also known as asplenifolia, pectinata, pinnata, taraxacifolia,'' etc. The leaves are stalked and cuneate at the base, long and narrow in outline, deeply and irregularly pinnatifid. This was found wild in the mountains of southern Germany; and was sent out by Messrs. Booth and Sons, Hamburg.

4. Var. heterophylla, Loudon, ''Arb. et Frut. Brit.'' iii. 1732 (1844), Various-leaved Oak. This variety has leaves varying greatly in shape; some are lanceolate and entire, others are cut at the edges or deeply laciniate; but all are cuneate at the base. It has received a variety of names, as comptonæfolia, incisa, dissecta, laciniata, salicifolia, Fennessi, Fenzleyi, diversifolia, cucullata, etc. Loudon's figure represents a branch from an accidental seedling, raised in 1820 in the nursery of Messrs. Fennessey, Waterford. There is a free-growing tree of this variety at Smeaton-Hepburn, East Lothian, which measured in 1905, 56 feet by 4 feet $ inches.

5. Var. hyemalis, Bechstein, Forstbot, 333 (1810). In this variety the fruit stalk is very long, at least as long as the leaf itself. This is also known as Quercus longipes, Steven, ''Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc.'' i. 385 (1857).

6. Var. scolopendrifolia, Hort. This form has leaves with short stalks and cordate bases, somewhat variable in shape. Most of the leaves are long and narrow, with short lobes; but others more angular in form have swollen bladderlike projections on their upper surface. Certain sub-varieties are distinguished as bullata, cochleata, crispa, etc.; all having leaves variously deformed and presenting bladder- or blister-like projections on their surfaces.

7. Var. Concordia, Lemaire, ''Illust. Hort.'' xiv. t. 537 (1867). Leaves yellow, much more brightly coloured than in the variety commonly cultivated under the name aurea, the colour persisting during the summer. This beautiful form, the Golden Oak, originated in the nursery of Messrs. van Geert at Ghent in 1843. The late Mr. Charles Ellis wrote in 1894 to Kew that some golden oaks occur at Inglewood, Hungerford, Berkshire, as bright as the golden elder when seen in May. Mr. Clarke, gardener to H.J. Walmesley, Esq., the owner, informs me that the trees are now in vigorous health, and measure at 6 feet from the ground 45 feet by 6 feet 2 inches and 4o feet by 4 feet 9 inches respectively.

8. Var. purpurascens, A.DC., Flore Française, vi. 351 (1815), Purple Oak. —This was found wild near Le Mans by De Candolle; and another wild tree was subsequently found in Thuringia. The young leaves, petioles, and branchlets are purple, the colour fading away later in the season, This form