144 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



each catkin-scale sometimes with 2 floral scales adnate to it, or with 

 the floral-scales coherin^^, and forming a perianth ( ?) with 4 to 6 lobes : 

 stamens G to 20. Female flowers solitary or 2 or 3 together, surrounded 

 by an involucre, which increases in size after flowering: perianth 

 adhering to the ovary, and apparent only as a very minute and often 

 deciduous crown of teeth: ovary 2- to 7-celled, -svith 1 or 2 pendulous 

 ovules in each cell. Fruit a nut, which is 1-celled and 1-seeded by 

 the abortion of the other cells and ovules, enclosed in a cupule formed 

 by the enlarged involucre of the female flowers. 



GENUS I—Qi U E R C U S. Toumef. 



Male flowers in long slender interrupted flexible catkins, without 

 catkin-scales, or Avith minute and deciduous ones at the base of the 

 glomerules of which the catkin is composed : floral-scales combined into 

 a cuplike perianth (?) with 6 or 8 narrow unequal segments: stamens 

 6 to 10, inserted in a glandular disk at the base of the perianth. 

 Female flowers solitary, surrounded by a cup-shaped involucre, the 

 outside of which is furnished with numerous scale-like or linear or 

 subulate bracts imbricated in many rows : perianth completely adherent 

 to the ovary, and produced but little beyond it, the limb with G teeth 

 or nearly entire : ovary with 3 or 4 cells ; ovules 2 in each cell ; style 

 short and thick ; stigmas as many as the cells of the ovary, usually 

 spreading. Nut ovoid or oblong-ovoid, crowned by the minute calj'-x- 

 limb and style, 1-celled and 1-seeded, solitary, the base inserted in a 

 woody cupule with an entire margin, and with the outside marked by 

 bosses or clothed with the linear points of the bracts of which it is 

 composed ; pericarp tough and leathery. Cotyledons filling the seed, 

 plano-convex, fleshy -farinaceous. 



Trees with scaly buds, and deciduous or evergreen leaves often 

 sinuated at the margins. Flowers monoecious, apj^earing before the 

 leaves or with the young leaves. 



The derivation of the name of this genus of plants is differently given. One writer 

 says it is derived from two Celtic words, quer frise, and cuez, a tree ; others say it 

 comes from the Greek word ■)^oipoQ, a pig, because pigs feed on the acorns. Mr. Loudon 

 tells us that the Celtic name for the oak is Derw, and is said to be the root of the word 

 Dniid — that is, priest of the oak — and of the Greek word Dnis. The Hebrew name 

 for the oak (J.Z or Alow') is said to be the origin of the old English word clan, origi- 

 nally signifying an oak grove or place of worship of the Druids, and afterwards, by 

 imphcation, a town or parish ; a*nd also of the Irish words clan and dun. In the book 

 of Isaiah (chap. 44, verse 14), idols are said to be made of Allun or Alow — that is, 

 of oak. 



