116 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



important article of food.* Even now, the fruit of some species 

 of oak, is not considered unpleasant, and in the Morea and in 

 Asia Minor, acorns are sold as food at the present day. The 

 elder Michaux says,f that he, as well as the naturalist Olivier, 

 has verified this fact ; and he reports that, at Bagdad, he ate 

 excellent acorns, as large and long as one's finger, the produc- 

 tion of Mesopotamia and Curdistan. He also ate with relish 

 the acorns of Spain, where, indeed, they are constantly eaten, 

 as chestnuts or walnuts are here. There are probably few per- 

 sons who have spent their childhood in any country town in 

 New England, who have not found the acorns of the white oak, 

 especially when roasted, a tolerably pleasant substitute for inac- 

 cessible walnuts and chestnuts. 



But if we sometimes reject the fruit, there are many other 

 animals, not so fastidious. The oak is found growing naturally 

 in all parts of the northern temperate zone, in Europe, Asia, 

 America, and the northern parts of Africa; and, in all, contri- 

 butes to the subsistence of a great variety of animals. In 

 Europe, the stag, the roe-buck, and the wild boar, winter upon 

 its fruit. In Asia, pheasants and the wood -pigeon share it 



* The Greek and Latin words which we translate acorn, comprehended many 

 kinds of fruit which are still considered agreeable food. The Arabs are said to 

 give the name tamar to the fruit of the date-tree, and, when they wish to designate 

 any other fruit, they add a specific name to this. Thus, the tamarind, is the Ta- 

 mar-Hendi, or date of India. So the Greek word balanos, (Bal.avug), signified not 

 only acorn but date, chestnut, beech-mast, and several other fruits ; and the persons 

 employed to gather acorns were called balanista, (BakanaTai), as well as those 

 who gathered dates. The Latins used the word glans, a word of the same origin, 

 much in the same manner. Alone, it signified the fruit of several kinds of oak. 

 The date was called glans Phanicea ; the chestnut, glans Sardiana ; the walnut, 

 glans Jovis or Juglans. In a similar manner is the word gland used among the 

 French, who call the fruit of the oak, the beech, or the chestnut tree, gland de 

 Chine, de Hetre, de Chataignier. And the word acorn in our own language seems 

 to have come from the generic word, corn, kernel, — united to aac, — the old name of 

 oak. We may then safely presume that those Arcadian acorn eaters, (Bakavijqiayoi), 

 whom Plutarch reports to have been held invincible, because they made their 

 principal food of acorns, did not always confine themselves to the dry and bitter 

 nuts that we so call, but indulged a reasonable preference for the dates, chestnuts 

 and walnuts, included by them under the same name, and which even we some- 

 times suffer to make their appearance in an after course. 



f Histoire des Chenes, p. 3. 



