1908 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
In the climate of London, this tree is perfectly hardy; as a proof of which it 
may be mentioned that the specimen already referred to, at Purser’s Cross, 
which is upwards of 40 ft. high, and of which the plate in our last Volume 
is a portrait, ripens its fruit every year. From the leaves of this tree, and 
those of the specimen of Q. Ballota sent to us from Paris, we are strengly 
inclined to think, as we have already stated (p. 1906.), that the latter was a 
variety of Q. gramintia, rather than of Q. Jlex; and this is also the 
opinion of M. Dralet. The rate of growth of Q. gramuintia is much slower 
than that of Q. ‘lex. There are plants in the Horticultural Society’s 
Garden, at Messrs. Loddiges’s, and in the London nurseries. Small plants, 
in pots, are from ls. 6d. to 3s. 6d. each. 
@ 32. Q. cocci’FERA L. The Kermes, or berry-bearing, Oak. 
i i Lin. Sp. Pl., 1413.; Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. p. 433.; Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 2., 5. p. 289. 
N. Du Ham., 7. p. 160. ; Smith in Rees’s Cycl., No. 34. ; Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836. k 
Synonymes. Ilex coccifera Cam. Epit.,774.; I. aculeata cocciglandifera Garid. Aix., p. 245., Nis- 
solle in Mém. Acad. Scien. for 1714, p.435.; I. coccigera Ger. Emac., p. 1342., Parkinson Theat. 
Bot., p. 1395. ; Chéne aux Kermes, Fr.; Kermes Eiche, Ger. 
Engravings. Garid. Aix., t.53.; Mém. Acad. Scien., 1744, t. 17, 18.; N. Du Ham., 7. t. 46. ; 
ats. Dend. Brit., t. 91.; and our jig. 1789. from the N. Du Ham., fig. 1790. from Watson, re- 
duced to the usual scale, and figs. 1791. and 1792. of the natural size. 
Spec. Char., §c. Leaves elliptic-oblong, rigid; smooth on both sides, with 
spreading, bristly, spinous teeth. Fruit on peduncles; nut ovate. Calyx 
with spreading, pointed, somewhat recurved scales. (NV. Du Ham.) A low 
bushy shrub, a native of the south of 
Europe and the Levant; flowering in 
May. The whole plant resembles a 
holly in miniature ; but the leaves, are 
of a paler green. It varies exceedingly 
in the magnitude of the leaves, as may 
be seen by comparing fig.1791. with jig. 
1792., both of the natural size; the 
former from a plant in the Goldworth 
Arboretum, and the latter from one in 
the Epsom Nursery. The leaves in the 
one specimen are nearly four times the b. 
length of those in the other. This oak was cultivated in Britain previously 
to 1683, and is well known as producing the kermes, or scarlet grain, of com- 
merce. This shrub divides at the ground into a great number of tortuous 
spreading branches, so as to form a bush of from 
3ft. to 5 ft. in height. The leaves are oval, on eag 
short petioles, coriaceous; shining above, glabrous 
on both sides; sometimes quite entire on their 
margins, but more frequently bordered with scat- 
tered spiny teeth, like the leaves of the common 
holly. The male flowers are on long slender 
peduncles: the female flowers are sessile, from 
3 to 7 in number, on a rachis from 8 to 15 lines 
in length: only two or three of these flowers come 
to maturity. The fruit is but of a very small size 
the first year, and does not attain maturity till the 
end of the second. The nuts are oval, and are 
enveloped for half their length in a cup furnished 
with rough scales terminating in rough points, 
which are almost woody, spreading, and a little recurved. (Zd., vii. p. 160.) 
Bosc, in his Mémoire sur les Chénes, says that he has seen this species cover- 
ing entire hills in Leon and Old Castile, and in other parts of Spain, where 
it greatly injures the cattle, and especially the sheep, which can only eat 
the very young shoots. The bushes, he says, are only employed as fuel, 
though they would be useful in the tannery, or for dyeing. There is now, 
he says, little demand for the kermes, because it cannot be afforded so 
