ARBORETUM NOTES. 113 
CH PILIPR Ree, 
Quercus 
ilex 
showing by turns their dark upper and whitish 
under-side, give to the tree altogether an appear- 
ance which may well be described as twinkling. 
(October, 1868). In this remarkable season, 
Bevera, of the Plex trees at Barton are bearing 
well-grown and full-sized acorns in a certain 
degree of abundance. The acorns in this fresh 
state are very handsome; of a rich, bright brown 
colour, very glossy, and striped lengthwise with 
a darker shade; the cup covered with very small 
neat scales, and whitish with down. 
Mr Mills’s Ilex trees at Stutton are loaded with 
acorns this year. (November, 1868). 
The “Live Oak” of North America, Quercus 
vitens. will not bear our winters here. My father 
planted one in the early days of the arboretum ; 
but it was speedily killed. Yet it is so very much 
like the Ilex, that botanists seem puzzled to point 
out a good distinctive character. 
Alphonse De Candolle, who has studied the 
Oaks with great care, can find (see Prodromus), 
no other constant difference than that the starry 
hairs which clothe the back of the leaf are much 
more minute in the virens than in the Ilex. The 
variations in the form of the leaves correspond in 
the two species. The character derived from the 
form of the acorns, in the Hortus Kewensis, seems 
to be ambiguous. Some acorns of the virens, 
given me by Dr. Hooker, are indeed much 
il 
