248 Botanical Characters of tlie Common Oak. 



Shall stop to tell his listening sons how far 



She stretched around her thick-leaved ponderous boughs, 



And measure out the space they shadowed." Sylva JBrit., p. 25. 



The botanical Characters of the Common Oak are as follows: 

 Quercus {quer, fine, cuez, tree, Celtic) i^obiir (name given by 

 the Romans to the hardest kind of oak), the Hard, or Com- 

 mon, Oak (fg. 103.)) belongs 

 to the class Monce^cia and order 

 Polyandria oi Lin., and to the nat. 

 ord. Amentaceae ofjussieu. The 

 generic character is as follows; 

 and if the inexperienced botanist 

 will take the trouble, in this and 

 in future examples, of comparing 

 the description with the figure, 

 and referring from the one to the 

 other, letter by letter, he will 

 gradually initiate himself in the 

 scientific part of botany. 



Male Flowers. — Amentum filiform {fg. 104. a), long, loose : 



Perianth (Z») one-leafed, sub- 

 quinquefid : segments (c) 

 acute, often bifid. 

 Corolla. None. 

 Stamens. Filaments (d) 

 five to ten, very short : An- 

 thers (£') large, twin. 



Female Flowers (f). — Ses- 

 sile in the bud, on the same 

 plant with the males. 



Calyx. Involucre {g) con- 

 sisting of very many imbri- 

 cate scales (/?), united at the 

 base into coriaceous hemispherical little cups, the outer ones 

 larger ; one-flowered, permanent : Perianth [i) very small, 

 superior, six-cleft, permanent : Segments {Jc) acute, surround- 

 ing the base of the style, pressed close.. 



Corolla. None. 

 ■ Pistil. Germ {I) very small, ovate, inferior, three-celled ; 

 rudiments of the seed double : Style {m) simple, short, thicker 

 at the base : Stigmas {n) three, reflexed. 



Seed. A nut (acorn) (o), ovate-cylindrical, coriaceous, 

 smooth, attached at the base, one-celled, fixed in a short 

 hemispherical cup, which is tubercled on the outside. 

 {To be continued.) 



