CHAP. CV.

COItYLA'cEAi.

QUE ltCUS.

IH50

with it, being remark-able for an unusualdegree of expansion,as shown in Jig.1720., the trunks ofmiddle-aged trees, as itis observed in the Dic-tionnaire des Faux etForets, often appeargibbous. The bark iscomparatively smoothand dark when young,but corky as it growsold; and it is reckonedless liable to chap andcrack than that of thecommon oak. The leavesare of a beautiful brightshining green, somewhatglaucous or hoary be-neath ; and they varyso exceedingly in sizeand shape in differenttrees raised from seed,that almost every in-dividual, if described

1720

from the leaves alone, might be constituted a distinct species: they haveshort footstalks, and are most readily distinguished from those of oaks of everyother section by their small buds, and the numerous linear persistent stipuleswhich proceed from them. The acorns are sessile,or on very short footstalks; and they are easily ...known by the bristly or mossy clothing of their ““cups. They are remarkably bitter and austere; acircumstance noticed by Pliny, who says, “Glans cerrotristis, horrida, echinato calice, seu castaneas.” (SeeSecondat, &c., p. 15.) In the climate of London, youngplants make shoots, in one season, of from 1 ft. 6 in.to 3 ft. or 4 ft. in length; and, in ten years from theacorn, in good soil, they will attain the height of from 25 ft. to 35 ft. Evenin the comparatively cold climate of Knedlington, near Howden, in Yorkshire,plants, seven years from the acorn, have attained the height of 12ft. (SeeGard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 251.) The duration of the tree does not appear tobe nearly so great as that of the British oak; and the timber, after 50 or 60years’ growth, is apt to get shaky. There are very fine specimens of thistree in the neighbourhood of London, at Syon, Muswell Hill, and FulhamPalace; of the first two of which there are portraits in our last Volume.

Geography, History, fyc. The range of the Quercus Cerris, as we have seenunder the head of Specific Character, is limited to the middle and south ofEurope, and the west of Asia. The tree, though known to Pliny, has beenvery little noticed by modern botanists, even on those parts of the Continentwhere it is indigenous; and in England, Sir J. E. Smith, only a few yearsago, had never seen the acorns. In the catalogues, it is indicated as havingbeen brought into cultivation by Miller, in or before 1735, as it is firstmentioned in the Appendix to the third edition of his Dictionary, publishedin that year. It had existed in the country,however, long before that period;because, in the same edition of the Dictionary, the Ragnal Oak, already noticedamong the varieties (p. 1849.), is described as a large tree.

Properties and Uses. The wood and bark of the Turkey oak are by someconsidered as having the same properties as those of the British oak; but, as it

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