QUERNALES.] 



CORYLACE^. 



291 



Inhabitants of the forests of all the temperate parts of the continent both of the Old 

 and New World ; extremely common m Eiu-ope, Asia, and North America ; more rare 

 in Barbary and Chile, and the southern parts of South America ; and wanting at the 

 Cape. The species which are foimd within 

 the trDpics of either hemisphere are chiefly 

 Oaks and Cliestnuts, which abound in the 

 high lands, but are unknown m the valleys 

 of equatorial regions. The most southern 

 genus is the Beech, of which many species 

 occur in the lower parts of South America, 

 and in Van Diemens Land, and New 

 Zealand. Of the former, Fagus procera 

 is said to be a larger tree than the Arau- 

 earia itself, in whose country it grows 

 wild. 



An Order which comprehends the Oak, 

 the Hazel Nut, the Beech, and the Spanish 

 Chestnut, can scarcely requu'e much to be 

 said to a Em'opean reader of its properties, 

 which are of too common a use to be 

 imknown even to the most ignoi'ant. 

 Whatever excellence may be found in the 

 timber of the European species is not at 

 all inferior in that of hotter coimtries. 

 Blume tells us that his Lithocarpus javensis 

 is called Passan-Batu, or Stone-oak, because 

 of its hardness. The leaves of Quercus 

 falcata are employed, on accoimt of their 

 astringency, externally in cases of gan- 

 grene ; and the same astringent principle, 

 which pervades all the Order, has caused 

 them to be employed even as febrifuges, 

 tonics, and stomachics. Cork is the bark 

 of Quercus Suber ; it contains a pecuUar 

 principle called Suberin, and an acid called 

 the Suberic. The galls that writing ink is 

 prepared from are the produce of the Quer- 

 cus infectoria, from which they derive their 

 astringency. The acorns of a species kno^vn 

 in the Levant under the name of Velonia (Quercus ^gilops) are imported for the use of 

 dyers. The fixed acids, called Quercitannic and Gallic, wliich have the power of guard- 

 ing animal and vegetable fibre from decay, are abundant in many of the Oaks, whose bark 

 is therefore invaluable for tanning. The yellow dyeing bark, called Quercitron, belongs 

 to Q. tinctoria. The husks of the common Beech-ti'ee j-ield a narcotic extractive, 

 called Fagine. The sweetness of Spanish Chestnuts and Filberts is not confined to 

 the nuts of those trees ; the other species of Castanea and Corylus resemble them in that 

 respect, as do the Beech and many sorts of Oak, especially Q. gramvmtia, whose 

 acorns are the Belotes of Spain, and a variety of Q. sessihflora, which is beheved to be 

 the ^scvdus of Virgil. The bark of the Oak has been employed as a coarse kind of 

 febrifuge. In hot weather a large quantity of saccharine matter is secreted by the 

 leaves of Q, mannifera, in Koordistan, where it is made into sweetmeats. Oil is ob- 

 tamed from the seeds of some species, such as the Beech and Hazel-nut. 



Fig. CCI. 



GENERA. 



Carpinus, Z. I Fagus, Z. \ Castanea, Gcertn. 



Ostrya, Scop. Calucechinus,'H.. &c 3. Quercus, -L. 



Corylus, £. | Calusparassus,'H..&i3.\ Ilex, lonvu. 



Numbers. Gen. 8. Sp. 265. 



BetulacecB. 

 Position. — Juglandacese. — Corylace^. 

 Urticaceee. 



I Suher, Touni. 

 Lithocarpus, Bl. 

 SjTiaE-drys, Lindl. 



Fig. CCI.— 1. Acorn and cupule of Quercus Skinneri, natural size; 2. cross section of the acorn, 

 showing the lobed embryo. 



