Chap. 6.] THIRTEEN VARIETIES OF THE ACORN. 345 



CHAP. 6. (5.) THIRTEEN VARIETIES OF THE ACORN. 



It is a well-known fact that acorns 39 at this very day con- 

 stitute the wealth of many nations, and that, too^ even amid 

 these times of peace. Sometimes, also, when there is a scarcity 

 of corn they are dried and ground, the meal heing employed 

 for making a kind of bread. Even to this very day, in the 

 provinces of Spain, 40 we find the acorn introduced at table in 

 the second course : it is thought to be sweeter when roasted 

 in the ashes. By the law of the Twelve Tables, there is a 

 provision made that it shall be lawful for a man to gather his 

 acorns when they have fallen upon the land of another. 



The varieties of the glandiferous trees are numerous, and 

 they are found to diner in fruit, locality, sex, and taste ; the 

 acorn of the beech having one shape, that of the quercus 

 another, and that, again, of the holm-oak another. The various 

 species also, among themselves, offer a considerable number of 

 varieties. In addition to this, some of these trees are of a 

 wild nature, while the fruits of others are of a less acrid 

 flavour, owing to a more careful cultivation. Then, too, there 

 is a difference between the varieties which grow on the moun- 

 tains and those of the plains; the males differ from the 

 females, and there are considerable modifications in the flavour 

 of their fruit. That of the beech 41 is the sweetest of all ; so 

 much so, that, according to Cornelius Alexander, the people of 

 the city of Chios, when besieged, supported themselves wholly 

 on mast. The different varieties cannot possibly be distin- 

 guished by their respective names, which vary according to 



39 " Glandes." Under this name, for which we do not appear to have any- 

 English equivalent, were included, as already mentioned, not only the 

 acorn of the oak, hut the nut or mast of the beech, and probably most of 

 the hard or kernel fruits. In the present instance Pliny probably alludes 

 only to the fruit of the oak and the beech. Acorns are but little used as 

 an article of food in these days. Roasted, they have been proposed as a 

 substitute for coffee. 



40 The acorn of the Quercus ballota of Linnseus is probably meant, which 

 is still much used in the province of Salamanca, and forms an agreeable 

 article of food. This acorn, Fee says, contains a considerable proportion 

 of saccharine matter, and' is better roasted in the ashes than boiled in water. 

 It is not, however, used as a dessert, as in the time of the Romans. These 

 acorns are sold at market in Andalusia in the month of October. 



41 So far as it goes, the kernel of the mast or beech-nut is not unpa- 

 latable ; but in the English beech it is very diminutive. 



