202 DR. IT. F. ItANCE 0>' SOME CHINESE CORTLACE^. 



bright chestnut-colour, with cinereous appressed silky pubesceuce 

 surrounding the acute apex ; the rather large hiluvi carpicum, 

 neither elevated nor depressed, is paler, rugose, and girt by a 

 blackish, quite smooth areole; in taste this fruit precisely re- 

 sembles our common chestnut. 



QuERCus (Lepidobalanus) Fabri, n, sp. Ramulis angulatis sulcatis 

 cinereo hispidis, foUis subsessiHbus obovatis obtusis paulo infra me- 

 dium in basin obtusam cuneatis grosse sinuatis lobuUs utrinque cir- 

 citer 7 rotundatis costuhs vix excurrentibus apiculatis supra parce 

 pilosis infra dense fulvido stellato-tomentosis costa utrinque hirsuta, 

 fruetibus sessiUbus soUtariis (? semper), cnpulaj late hemisphaericaj 

 2 lin. longae 3^ lin. latse squamis imbricatis lanceolatis obtusis arete 

 appressis parce tomentellis summis ineurvis cupulam non superan- 

 tibus, glaude oblonga glaberrima 7 lin. longa apice tomentosa styli 

 basi apiculata, 



Hab. In prov. Kiang-su coll. cl. C. Fabre-Tonnerre, M.D., Franco- 

 gallus. (Exsicc. no. 10236.) 



Very similar in foliage to Q. dentatUy Thbg., (though the leaves 

 are rather less broad toAvards the apex,) but quite dift'erent in its 

 much smaller, oblong (not ovate) fruit, and in the cupule. From 

 this, as I have already said elsewhere, Q. ohovata^ Bge., is cer- 

 tainly in no wise distinguishable. Q. mongolica^ Eisch., which I 

 have not yet seen, recedes, according to the description, by its 

 glabrate branchlets and leaves, its larger fruit, and by its cupule 

 being, according to Euprecht (Die ersten botan. IVachr. iib. d. 

 Amurlande), * squamis gibbosis muricata.' In his learned dis- 

 sertation ^ De I'espece dans les Cupulif eres,' M. Alph. DeCan- 

 dolle expresses a suspicion that Q. obovata will one day be united 

 with Q. rohur ; but, on account of the very dissimilar structure 

 of its cup, it appears nearer akin to Q, vaJlonea^ Ky., Q. Brantii, 

 Lindl., and Q. oopJiora^ Ky. Our species, however, notwithstand- 

 ing its leaves, is, from the size and shape of the cup-scales, far 

 more closely allied to Q. rdbur than to Q, dentata. In all the 

 Oaks I have examined, including the vast collections brought by 

 Kotscliy from AVestern Asia, I have found the hilum carj^icwm 

 (" cicatrix affixionis," Ky.) to afford characters, as respects colour, 

 form, and elevation above or depression below the base of the 

 nut, uniformly constant in each species. These characters, already 

 in part carefully noted by Kotschy in his splendid, but, so far 

 as classification is concerned, not over-philosophical work ' Die 

 Eichen Europa's und des Orients/ have been altogether neglected 

 bv A. DeCandolle. 



