CHAP. CV.

coryla'cejE. qde'rcus.

1719

which are believed to have been old trees in the time of William the Con-queror ; and Pliny mentions a Quercus /'lex which was an old tree whenRome was founded, and which was still living in his time.

Geography. The oak belongs exclusively to climates temperate either bytheir latitude or their elevation; the heat of the torrid zone, and the cold ofthe frozen zone, being equally unfavourable to its growth. The commonBritish oak, after being a long series of years in the Botanic Garden at St.Vincent’s, never attained a greater height than a shrub, having to contendwith the sultry climate of that island. It never shed its leaves till they werereplaced by others, and had, in effect, become evergreen. A plant of thecork tree, in the same botanic garden, remained stationary for 12 years.(L. Guilding in Mag. Nat. Hist.) The oak grows naturally in the middle andsouth of Europe, in the north of Africa; and, in Asia, in Natolia, the Hima-layas, Cochin-China, and Japan. In America , it abounds through the greaterpart of the northern continent, more especially in the United States ; andupwards of twenty species are found in Mexico. No species of Quercus hashitherto been found in Australia, or in any other part of the southern hemi-sphere, except Java and some of the adjacent islands. In Europe , theoak has been, and is, more particularly abundant in Britain, France, Spain ,and Italy. In Britain, two species only are indigenous; in France there arefour or five sorts; and in Italy, Greece, and Spain , six or seven sorts. Thedeciduous oaks are the most prevalent in both hemispheres; and the ever-green kinds are almost exclusively confined to the south of Europe , and tothe temperate regions of Asia and Africa . The number of sorts described bybotanists as species, and as natives of Europe , exceed 30; and as natives ofNorth America , 40. The latter are all comprised between 20° and 48° n.lat. In Europe, Asia, and Africa , oaks are found from 60° to 18° n. lat.,and even in the torrid zone, in situations rendered temperate by their eleva-tion.

In Britain, the oak is every where indigenous. In Norway it is found atn. lat. 60° ; in Finland , in n. lat. 60° 27"; in Livonia, N. lat. 56° 30" and59° 30"; and in Russia , N. lat. 50°. The species found in these countries isexclusively Q. Robur L., including under this name Q. pedunculata and Q. sessi-liflora. In the north of Germany, and in the north of France , this is also theonly species; but in the south of Germany, as in Austria , and in the centre ofFrance, Q. Cerris abounds ; and in the south of France, Q. /'lex , Q. Ruber,and some other evergreen species, are found. In Spain , as Captain S. E. Cookinforms us, Q. Robur is the most abundant, and almost the only species innearly the whole of the northern district of the country ; extending throughNavarre, Guipuscoa, Biscay, maritime Castile, and Asturias ; but it is neverfound in the middle region. Q. /'lex is the leading tree throughout the whole°f the middle and southern districts of Spain ; and the next abundant isQ. gramuntia, which requires a drier climate than the former. Q. gramun-tia produces edible acorns, which Cook states are as good as, or superiorto, a chestnut. These, he says, were the edible acorns of the ancients, whichthey believed fattened the tunny fish on their passage from the ocean to theMediterranean. “ These are the bellotas which Teresa, the wife of Sancho"anza, gathered in La Mancha, where they still grow in the greatest perfec-tion, and sent to the duchess.” ( Cook's Sketches in Spain , vol. ii. p. 245. to 252.)m Italy , Q. Cerris and Q. /'lex are the prevailing species in the middlestates, Q. pedunculata in the more northern, and Q. sessiliflora in the king-dom of Naples. In Greece and Asia Minor , we have Q. .E'sculus, with theothers before mentioned; and Q. AS'gilops, Q.. Tauzin, Q. infectoria, and someother comparatively rare species, are also found there and in the south of1 l I J ce ’ Sp^ n , Portugal, and Italy .

•he oak is never found in perfection except in a good soil, and in a tem-perate climate. Like almost all other plants, it will thrive in a deep sandyoam, or in vegetable soil; but to attain its full size, and to bring its timbero perfection, it requires a soil more or less alluvial or loamy; and thewopean oaks are alwmys most luxuriant, and produce the best timber, on a