Chap. 8.] THE OTHER ACORNS. 347 



robur, the sesculus, the cerrus, the holm-oak, 48 and the cork- 

 tree : 49 it is contained in a rivelled calyx, which embraces 

 more or less of it, according to the several varieties. The 

 leaves of these trees, those of the holm-oak excepted, are 

 weighty, pulpy, long, and jagged at the edges, and they do 

 not turn yellow before they fall, as with the beech : they are 

 also longer or shorter, as the case may be. 



There are two kinds M of holm-oak : one of them, which 

 belongs to Italy, has a leaf not very unlike that of the olive ; 

 some of the Greeks give it the name of " milax," 51 and in our 

 provinces it is known as the aquifolia. The acorn of these 

 two kinds is shorter and more slender than in the others : 

 Homer 52 calls it " acylos," and by that name distinguishes it 

 from the ordinary acorn : it is generally said that the male 

 tree of the holm-oak bears no fruit. 



The best acorn, and the very largest, is that which grows 

 upon the quercus, and the next to it is the fruit of the aescu- 

 lus : that of the robur, again, is diminutive, and the fruit of 

 the cerrus has a meagre, wretched look, being enclosed in a 

 calyx covered with prickles, like the outer coat of the ches- 

 nut. With reference to the acorn of the quercus, that which 

 grows upon the female tree 53 is sweeter and more tender, 

 while that of the male is more solid and compact. The acorn, 

 however, of the latifolia 54 is the most esteemed, an oak so 



48 " Ilex." Fee thinks that the varieties known as the Prinos and the 

 Ballota were often confounded by the ancients with the " ilex " or " holm- 

 oak." This tree, he says, bears no resemblance to the ordinary oak, except 

 in the blossoms and the fruit. It is the Ilex of Linnseus, the " yeuse," or 

 " green oak," of the French. 



19 The Quercus suber of Linnseus ; it is found more particularly in the 

 department of the Landes in France. 



50 As Fee remarks, Pliny is clearly in error here ; one kind being the 

 veritable ilex or holm oak, the other, the aquifolium or holly, quite a dif- 

 ferent tree. 



61 The smilax or milax wasareal holm oak,but the aquifolia was the holly. 



62 Od. xi. 242. Fee remarks that the berry of the holly has no resem- 

 blance to the acorn whatever, and he says that this statement of Pliny al- 

 most leads him to think that the second variety here mentioned by him was 

 not in reality the holly, but a variety of the quercus. 



63 Fee observes that, properly speaking, there is no sex in the oak, the 

 individuals being neither male nor female. The Flora Danica however, as 

 he observes, gives the name of " Quercus fcemina" to the Quercus racemosa 

 of Lamarck. 



5* Or "broad-leaved" oak; one of the varieties of the Quercus sessili- 

 flora of Smith — Flor. Brit. 



