CHAP. CV.

coiiyla'ceas. que'iicus.

1907

Lamarck; and whether both sorts may not bemerely varieties of Q. /'lex. Sir J. E. Smithsays Linnaeus confounded a variety of Q. /'lex,which he had received from Magnol’s herba-rium, with Q. gramuntia, which Smith, as quotedabove, has correctly described, apparently froma living plant. From a tree bearing this name atPurser’s Cross, which produces fruit annually,this oak certainly appears to be closely allied toQ. /'lex; but it is, nevertheless, very distinct, andis, doubtless, as well entitled to be considered aspecies as many others recognised as such bybotanists. Captain S. E. Cook, who paid greatattention to this oak when in Spain, has thefollowing remarks on it:—“This species isquite distinct from the Q. /'lex, its nearest con-gener. The leaves are thicker, more rounded atthe point, of a dull glaucous green, and the treealtogether is of a more compact and less grace-ful form than the Italian ilex. The great and essential difference, however,consists in the acorns, which are edible, and, when in perfection, are as goodas, or superior to, a chestnut. To give this sweetness, they must be kept;as, at first, they have a considerable taste of the tannin, like those of theother species, which disappears in a few days, and accountsfor the scepticism of some writers, who assert that bothsweet and bitter are the produce of the same tree, and thattheir sweetness is no character. These are the edible acornsof the ancients, which they believed fattened the tunny fishon their passage from the Ocean to the Mediterranean; afable only proving that the acorns grew on the deliciousshores and rocks of Andalusia, which, unhappily, is no longerthe case. Remains of them may, however, still be traced inthe west; and they fattened the swine which produced thecelebrated salted meats of Malaga and that vicinity. Theseare the bellotas, which Teresa, the wife of Sancho Panza,gathered herself in La Mancha, where they grew in thegreatest perfection, and sept to the duchess, wishing, insteadbf their being only the best of their kind, they were thesize of ostrich eggs. I have frequently seen them producedby individuals, and offered to the company, as bon-bons are in somecountries, with a sort of apology for their small intrinsic value, from theirsize and flavour. This species is, beyond question, very hardy; I believeeven more so than the ilex of Italy. It ascends the sides of the sierrasin the inclement region of the centre of Castile; and, in Arragon, is seenwithin the limits of the Pinus sylvestris and P. uncinata ; as also in thecold and wintry valley of Andorre. The widest forests of it are now inEstremadura, where the best sausages, and other salted meats, are madefrom the vast herds of swine which are bred in them. This species oughtto be denominated Q. hispanica, instead of a weak and obscure name froma wood (which, 1 have heard, no longer exists), where the tree may possiblynot have been a native, although the climate and soil of Lower Languedocvery much resemble that of the two regions of Spain to which this tree isconfined.” (Sketches in Spain,\ ol. ii. p. 246.) As a proof of the hardinessof this tree, Dralet mentions that he found it growing on the crest of themountains of the Andorras, where the snow covers the surface for severalmonths during the year; and this circumstance, he says, explained to himthe reason why the kings of Spain had succeeded in getting it to grow inthe park at the Prado, near Madrid, where they had tried in vain to cultivatethe olive. (See Traite, &c., p. 176.; see, also, Gaul, Mag., vol. iv. p. 69.)

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