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9 9 



paper lie adopts Desfontaines' name Q. pseudo-coccifera for the 

 Palestine tree, he says "how far it is permanently distinct from 

 Q. coccifeni of Spain and Italy may reasonably be questioned; 



the characters given, even if constant, amount to no more than 

 enough to establish a variety upon. 



"Writing of "this oak as seen by him in Palestine, he says it is 

 " by far the most abundant tree in Syria, covering the rocky hills 

 with a dense brushwood of trees, 8 to 12 ft. high, thickly covered 

 with small, evergreen, rigid leaves, and bearing acorns copiously. 

 On Mount Carinel it forms nine -tenths of the shrubby vegetation, 

 and is almost equally abundant on the west flanks of the Anti- 

 lebanon and many slopes and valleys of Lebanon/' The 

 infrequency of trees of large size to which Major Portal refers, 

 was also noted by Hooker, who attributed it to the indiscriminate 

 destruction of the Syrian forests under the Turkish regime. 

 Probably the need for fuel was the prime cause, for even in 

 localities where it was no longer to be seen, as in the valleys 

 south of Bethlehem, he states that its roots were sought for in the 

 soil, and dug up for burning. 



In the brighter era which is in prospect for that country now 

 that Turkish control has come to an end, it is to be expected that 

 the rehabilitation of its forests will be one of the first concerns 

 of the new government. 



In comparing the forms of Quercus coccifera which occur at 

 the extremes of its natural distribution, say in Spain and in 

 Palestine, the chief difference appears to be in stature. At the 

 western limits of its habitat it is usually a bush a few feet high, 

 rarely a small tree, but in the East, as we see from the dimensions 

 given by Major Portal, it is a goodly sized tree, capable of making 

 a trunk one yard or more in diameter. The eastern form too has, 

 in general, larger leaves and acorns. But although there is great 

 variation in the shape and toothing, as well as in the size of the 

 leaves, no attempt to base specific distinctions on these differences 

 has been really successful. Hooker remarks that " not one of 

 these characters holds good with any approach to constancy in 

 Syria, where large and small, more orless membranous, and more 

 or less waved and spiny leaves occur on individual plants and, 

 more conspicuously, on adjacent ones. On Carmel, just below 

 the convent, we gathered two forms, with interlocked branches, 

 with the typical leaves attributed respectively to pseudo-coccifera 

 and coccifera, but with identical acorns." The acorns, too, show 

 great differences in size and contours. In Hooker's paper, 

 illustrations of about twenty are given to show the range of 

 variation. In our plate the acorns shown are comparatively 

 broad in proportion to their length. Those in the parcel sent 

 by Major Portal varied in length from \ in. to 1^ in., but small- 

 ness does not appear to indicate any arrested development, for 

 large and small have germinated equally well in the Arboretum 

 nursery at Kew. 



The most famous of all oaks in Palestine is the venerable tree 

 known as " Abraham's oak/' or the " Oak of Ma rare." It grows 

 at Hebron, just below the Russian Convent, which overlooks the 

 Plain of Mamre, and is the largest known example of this 



