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(Quercus coccinea) has more than three
filamentous toothed lobes with rounded
sinuses between them. The leaves of
the Lucombe Oak (Quercus x hispanica) have
short, abrupt points on their lobes rather
than filaments, and are semi-evergreen.
Only the terminal bud is surrounded by
whiskers. One of the gardens' rarities
is the Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor)
with shallow lobes and a long, wedge-shaped
base. One very large oak puzzled us for
a while which had very large leaves
reminiscent of our own Sessile Oak. It's
mature leaf stalks were without hairs.
This was Mirbeck's Oak (Quercus canariensis).
Another label-less tree also puzzled us
until we recognised the leaves of this huge
tree as being similar to Hazel. Phillips'
photographs confirmed it as the Turkish
Hazel (Corylus colurna). Another very
large tree, like an enormous bush on a very
short trunk, was the Caucasian Elm (Zelkova
carpinifolia) .
We tested out the Birch key in Mitchell on
a small specimen of the Himalayan Birch
(Betula utilis). It has strikingly white
bark and hairy shoots with fairly large
leaves borne on a reddish, grooved leaf
stalk. There were about twelve veins
along each side of the lamina.
The fruits of the Medlar (Mespilus germanica)
attracted our attention amongst other
examples of the Rose Family.
We only looked at two of the Gymnosperm
species. One of these was a very rare
variety of Pinus nigra with its rugged black