CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CEX. QUE RCUS. 1859 
with it, being remark- 1719 
able for an unusual 
degree of expansion, 
as shown in fig. 
1720., the trunks of 
middle-aged trees, as it 
is observed in the Dic- | 
tionnaire des Eaux et 
Foréts, often appear 
gibbous. The bark is \ 
comparatively smooth 
and dark when young, 
but corky as it grows 
old; and it is reckoned 
less liable to chap and 
crack than that of the 
commonoak. Theleaves 
are of a beautiful bright 
shining green,somewhat 
glaucous or hoary be- 
neath; and they vary 
so exceedingly in size 
and shape in different 
trees raised from seed, 
that almost every in- 
dividual, if described 
from the leaves alone, might be constituted a distinct species: they have 
short footstalks, and are most readily distinguished from those of oaks of every 
other section by their small buds, and the numerous linear persistent stipules 
which proceed from them. The acorns are sessile, 
or on very short footstalks; and they are easily 
known by the bristly or mossy clothing of their 
cups. They are remarkably bitter and austere; a 
circumstance noticed by Pliny, who says, “Glans cerro 
tristis, horrida, echinato calice, seu castanez.” (See 
Secondat, &c., p. 15.) Inthe climate of London, young 
plants make shoots, in one season, of from 1 ft. 6 in. 
to 3 ft. or 4 ft. in length; and, in ten years from the 
acorn, in good soil, they will attain the height of from 25 ft. to 35 ft. Even 
in the comparatively cold climate of Knedlington, near Howden, in Yorkshire, 
plants, seven years from the acorn, have attained the height of 12 ft. (See 
Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 251.) The duration of the tree does not appear to 
be nearly so great as that of the British oak ; and the timber, after 50 or 60 
years’ growth, is apt to get shaky. There are very fine specimens of this 
tree in the neighbourhood of London, at Syon, Muswell Hill, and Fulham 
Palace; of the first two of which there are portraits in our last Volume. 
Geography, History, §c. The range of the Quércus Cérris, as we have seen 
under the head of Specific Character, is limited to the middle and south of 
Europe, and the west of Asia. The tree, though known to Pliny, has been 
very little noticed by modern botanists, even on those parts of the Continent 
where it is indigenous; and in England, Sir J. E. Smith, only a few years 
ago, had never seen the acorns. In the catalogues, it is indicated as having 
been brought into cultivation by Miller, in or before 1735, as it is first 
mentioned in the Appendix to the third edition of his Dictionary, published 
in that year. It had existed in the country, however, long before that period; 
because, in the same edition of the Dictionary, the Ragnal Oak, already noticed 
among the varieties (p. 1849.), is described as a large tree. 
Properties and Uses. The wood and bark of the Turkey oak are by some 
considered as having the same properties as those of the British oak ; but, as it 
6E 3 
