Varieties of Quercus pedunculata
1. Var. fastigiata, Spach, Hist. Vég. xi. 151 (1842), Fastigiate or Cypress Oak.
- Quercus fastigiata, Lamarck, Encyc. i. 725 (1783).
- Quercus pyramidalis, Gmelin, Fl. Bad. iii. 699 (1808).
- Quercus cupressoides, Hort.
The Cypress Oak has the branches pointing upwards, which gives the tree an irregular fastigiate shape; but in foliage and fruit it does not differ from the common oak. It has been found wild in the south-west of France, in the Landes and Pyrenees, in the provinces of Galicia and Navarre in Spain, and in Calabria. A famous tree of this variety stood in 1876 near the village of Haareshausen, close to Babenhausen in Hesse, which was supposed to be 280 years old, and it then measured 100 feet high and 10 feet in girth.[1] It had been celebrated in Germany since the middle of the eighteenth century, and stood originally in the forest, now cleared away. From this tree nearly all the German trees, and possibly many English and French trees of this variety, have been derived. This variety comes true from seed to some extent; of thirty acorns sown at Nancy, twelve produced pyramidal oaks, the remainder reverting to the ordinary type. At White Knights, of several hundred acorns sown by the gardener, only five came true to the fastigiate type. Elwes has raised plants from seed which in youth at least are more or less fastigiate. The tree at White Knights is a remarkably good specimen, being 81 feet high and 8 feet in girth, and is beautifully symmetrical in shape. Sir Herbert Maxwell tells us that there are two trees at Dawick, Peeblesshire. Other fine specimens are at Knole Park, Kent, where Elwes measured one 66 feet by 5 feet; and at Hardwick, Suffolk, where he saw one 61 feet by 4 feet 10 inches. A very well shaped tree of this variety at Melbury Park (Plate 80) measures 65 feet by 3 feet 8 inches, and has the form of a well-grown Lombardy poplar. But none of these are equal to a tree growing at the Trianon at Versailles, which Elwes saw in 1905, and which measures about 90 feet by 10 feet.[2] Several sub-varieties have appeared in various nurseries, and have received names, but as we have seen none of these in cultivation we do not think them worth recording.
2. Var. pendula, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1732 (1838), Weeping Oak.—In this variety the branches are pendulous. The most famous tree of this kind is at Moccas Court in Herefordshire; but it has now almost ceased to weep, and Elwes would not have been able to distinguish it if it had not been pointed out to him. The present owner, the Rev. Sir George Cornewall, writes that "weeping oaks are far from uncommon in Herefordshire," and showed
- ↑ Petzold, Deutschen Reichsanzeiger, quoted in Gard. Chron. v. 51 (1876). See also Gard. Chron. xix. 179, fig. 26 (1883), where Mr. Wissenbach states that the oldest and finest specimens in Germany occur in the royal park at Wilhelmshöhe near Cassel, the best measuring 100 feet high and 8 feet 6 inches in girth. It is 100 years old, being a graft of the original tree in the forest near Babenhausen. An earlier account of the latter tree is given by a correspondent in Gard. Chron. 1842, p. 36.
- ↑ A group of fine trees of this variety, said to be more than 100 feet in height, is reported to be growing in the park of Verdais in Haute Garonne. Woods and Forests, 105 (1884).
