SI^KAV0R^^-0AKS of xorthekn cuixa. 487 



more sharp-pointed tlian any I had noticed, and intended on my 

 return to gather more, but could not find the tree again. It was 

 the only one of the kind that I saw ; and no acorns were to be 

 found on or under the tree. These leaves also are, according to 

 my informant, used to feed the silk-w^orm. The same name was 

 given'to the tree as to No. 1 ; but the pointed leaf was so charac- 

 tei'istic that it seemed to me to be a distinct species.'' 



The first species alluded to in this note is no doubt referable to 

 Quercus mongolica, Fiscb., a tree which, according to Maximo- 

 wicz*, extends northwards to Albasin, at the mouth of the Amur, 

 in 53^^ 10' N. lat., and has been traced thence in a westerly direc- 

 tion to Nerczinskoi Sawod, on the Argun, the eastern limit of the 

 Government of Irkutsk, in about 120° E. longitude. I have, in- 

 deed, seen no authentically named specimens of this ; but tliose 

 of Mr. Taintor accord so precisely with the diagnoses of Turcza- 

 ninowfj Euprecht^, Carruthcrs§, and A. De Candolle|j, that there 

 can, I think, be no question of their identity, A. De Candolle's 

 description of the cupule (which is sericeous inside) as having 

 " squamas imbricatas, adpressas, dorso convexas," is very accurate, 

 much more so than that of Regel andCarruthers, as being "squamis 

 gibbosis muricata:" there is no murication, or squarrose spreading 

 of the scales; nor do I find the upper ones "apice truneatas" as 

 De Candolle describes them, but, rather (though " cupulara non 

 excedentes," in the words of Carruthers) like the lower ones, acu- 

 minate from a broad ovate base. As I believe the hiliim carpictim 

 in oaks to afford useful characters, hitherto almost entirely neg- 

 lected, I may add that in this species it is circular, convex, slightly 

 elevated, and constricted by a defined ring, concolorous or paler 

 than the glans, and a good deal rugulosely fissured. And, since I 

 learn from Prof Oliver that Prof. (Ersted has recently pub- 

 lished a dissertation on the classification of oaks, in which ho 

 lays much stress on the form of style and stigma, it may not be 

 useless to observe that the style is very short and thick, tomen- 

 tose, like the summit of the glans, which is often depressed, and 

 that the three stigmas are spathulate at the apex, with their 

 ed^-es cucullate, or almost plicate, joining at the base. The leaves 

 are shining above, opaque and glauccscent beneath, and, when 



* Prim. FL Amur. 390, and map appended to work. 



t Flor. Baic.-Dahur. ii. 136. 



J Der erste botan. Nachtrag iib. d. Araurland, 432. 



§ Linn. Journ. Bot. vi. p. 32. 



II Prodr. Sjst. Reg. Yeg. xvi. sect. ii. 14. 



LINN. PROC— BOTAXT, TOL. X. . 2 K 



