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XIII.—QUERCUS AEGILOPS. 
C. C. LACAITA. 
The generally recognised identity of Quercus Aegilops Li. with 
the Vallonea*, or Valonia, oak of Greece and the Levant has 
recently been doubted for the reason that Linnaeus calls the leaves 
glabrous and assigns Spain, where the Vallonea does not grow, as 
the habitat of his species. The latter doubt derives some addi- 
tional support from the fact that the two sheets in the herbarium 
marked Aegilops in Linné’s own hand are unquestionably 
Q. faginea Lam., and at least one of the two was sent by Baron 
Alstroemer from Spain, as appears from the letter A written close 
to the specimen by Linnaeus. But he did not receive these speci- 
mens till long after the publication of the Species Plantarum in 
1753; so they do not account for the habitat “ Hispania.”’ 
I am afraid that we shall have to admit that Linnaeus never 
saw the Vallonea oak, whether alive or in herbarium specimens, 
Kotschy, Q. graeca Kotschy, etc., whatever may be the systematic 
value of those forms, for the simple reason that neither Linnaeus 
nor the earlier authors were aware of these distinctions, and that 
Linnaeus did not have any one of them before his eyes. 
_ The interpretation of Linnean names in the Species Plantarum 
is based on several elements :— 
(1) The diagnosis and observations. 
(2) The synonyms quoted. 
(3) The habitat assigned. 
(4) The specimens in the Linnean herbarium. 
(5) His own earlier work; the Hortus Cliffortianus. 
(6) The specimens of the Hort. Cliff. in the British Museum. 
* Vallonea, usually spelled Valonia by English authors, is the trade name 
under which the acorns and cups of this oak come from Albania, Greece and 
the Levant. The origin of the name is disputed. I am inclined to think 
old Greek word for acorn, which in modern Greek has become Parave or 
Baravids (the tree being Baravidid or Peravid.d), names which appear 
as Velani and Velanida etc. in the accounts of western travellers. On the 
other hand ‘Parmigiani, Vocab. Etimol. della Lingua Italiana, rejects any 
connection of the name Vallonea with (3dXavos, and in that form it more 
probably comes from the Albanian town of Vallona, which is a centre of 
export. The Vallonea oak is plentiful in the district a 
It is tempting to connect the name of the town also with 
P- 1387. Apollonia was a different place, also in Albania, but inland, some 
distance north of Vallona, at a spot now known as Pollona or Pollina. 
