CHAP, CV. CORYLA‘CEE. QUE’RCUS. 1719 
which are believed to have been old trees in the time of William the Con- 
queror; and Pliny mentions a Quércus J‘lex which was an old tree when 
Rome was founded, and which was still living in his time. 
Geography. The oak belongs exclusively to climates temperate either by 
their latitude or their elevation; the heat of the torrid zone, and the cold of 
the frozen zone, being equally unfavourable to its growth. The common 
British oak, after being a long series of years in the Botanic Garden at St. 
Vincent’s, never attained a greater height than a shrub, having to contend 
with the sultry climate of that island. It never shed its leaves till they were 
replaced by others, and had, in effect, become evergreen. A plant of the 
cork tree, in the same botanic garden, remained stationary for 12 years. 
(1. Guilding in Mag. Nat. Hist.) The oak grows naturally in the middle and 
south of Europe, in the north of Africa; and, in Asia, in Natolia, the Hima- 
layas, Cochin-China, and Japan. In America, it abounds through the greater 
part of the northern continent, more especially in the United States; and 
upwards of twenty species are found in Mexico. No species of Quércus has 
hitherto been found in Australia, or in any other part of the southern hemi- 
sphere, except Java and some of the adjacent islands. In Europe, the 
oak has been, and is, more particularly abundant in Britain, France, Spain, 
and Italy. In Britain, two species only are indigenous; in France there are 
four or five sorts; and in Italy, Greece, and Spain, six or seven sorts. The 
deciduous oaks are the most prevalent in both hemispheres ; and the ever- 
green kinds are almost exclusively confined to the south of Europe, and to 
the temperate regions of Asia and Africa. The number of sorts described by 
botanists as species, and as natives of Europe, exceed 30; and as natives of 
North America, 40. The latter are all comprised between 20° and 48° N. 
lat. In Europe, Asia, and Africa, oaks are found from 60° to 18° n. lat., 
and even in the torrid zone, in situations rendered temperate by their eleva- 
tion. 
In Britain, the oak is every where indigenous. In Norway it is found at 
n. lat. 60°; in Finland, in np. lat. 60° 27”; in Livonia, Nn, lat. 56° 30” and 
59° 30”; and in Russia, n. lat. 50°. The species found in these countries is 
exclusively Q. Robur L., including under this name Q. pedunculata and Q. sessi- 
lifléra. In the north of Germany, and in the north of France, this is also the 
only species; but in the south of Germany, as in Austria, and in the centre of 
France, Q. Cérris abounds ; and in the south of France, Q. J‘lex, Q. Suber, 
and some other evergreen species, are found. In Spain, as Captain 8. E. Cook 
informs us, Q. Robur is the most abundant, and almost the only species in 
nearly the whole of the northern district of the country ; extending through 
Navarre, Guipuscoa, Biscay, maritime Castile, and Asturias; but it is never 
found in the middle region. Q. J‘lex is the leading tree throughout the whole 
of the middle and southern districts of Spain; and the next abundant is 
Q. gramantia, which requires a drier climate than the former. Q. gramin- 
tia produces edible acorns, which Cook states are as good as, or superior 
to, a chestnut. These, he says, were the edible acorns of the ancients, which 
they believed fattened the tunny fish on their passage from the ocean to the 
Mediterranean. ‘ These are the bellotas which Teresa, the wife of Sancho 
Panza, gathered in La Mancha, where they still grow in the greatest perfec- 
tion, and sent to the duchess.” (Cook’s Sketches in Spain, vol. ii. p. 245. to 252.) 
In Italy, Q. Cérris and Q. Ilex are the prevailing species in the middle 
states, Q. pedunculata in the more northern, and Q. sessiliflora in the king- 
dom of Naples. In Greece and Asia Minor, we have Q. E’sculus, with the 
others before mentioned; and Q. A’gilops, Q. Tauzin, Q. infectoria, and some 
other comparatively rare species, are also found there and in the south of 
France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. 
The oak is never found in perfection except in a good soil, and in a tem- 
te climate. Like almost all other plants, it will thrive in a deep sandy 
oam, or in vegetable soil; but to attain its full size, and to bring its timber 
to perfection, it requires a soil more or less alluvial or loamy; and the 
European oaks are always most luxuriant, and produce the best timber, on a 
