883 



tered. The bark is thought to be lighter coloured, and the leaves 

 more apt to be persistent through the winter ; 1 think I have re- 

 rnarked the former to be smoother on young trees, at least than in Q. 

 Robur.* The acorns of the present species are rather ovoid than ob- 

 long, the cup approaching to one half the entire length of the gland ; 

 they are stated, moreover, when ripe, to have very generally a red or 

 pinkish colour. All these characters are liable to great exception, 

 fluctuating so variously between those laid down for the two species 

 as fairly to induce suspicion of their being really distinct as such. 

 Still, as Mr. Bree (Loud. Arbor. Brit. iii. p. 1 738) truly observes, 

 " though there are sessile oaks bearing fruit on peduncles, and pedun- 

 culated oaks bearing almost sessile fruit, there is yet a certain inde- 

 scribable something about the trees, by means of which I can always 

 distinguish each, without minutely examining either the acorns or the 

 leaf-stalks." The present is undoubtedly the handsomer tree of the 

 two, with a certain approach to the sweet or Spanish Chestnut in as- 

 pect, and it is said in the grain and quality of the wood likewise, 

 having, it would appear, been commonly mistaken for that of the 

 chestnut in some of our oldest edifices. This species approaches in 

 the regularity of its growth, flatness and even sinuation of the leaves 

 to the American White Oak (Q. alba), the nearest representative on 

 that continent of our British oak, and scarcely inferior to it in the 

 value of the timber it yields. The characters distinguishing Q. sessi- 

 liflora which I have found most constant, are those of the fruit and 

 leaf-stalks ; for although the acorns are often elevated on a very dis- 

 tinct peduncle, I have never seen the latter anything like so slender 

 and elongated as in Q. Robur, notwithstanding that this last some- 

 times bears its acorns on an abbreviated stalk, very similar to the oc- 

 casional one of Q. sessiliflora. The leaves in Q. Robur are most 

 commonly very unequal at the base, with so deep a notch or sinus on 

 one or both sides of the petiole as to appear auricled ; in Q. sessili- 

 flora the base of the leaf is more equal, and the notch, if any exists, 

 very shallow. The leaves in Q. Robur usually lie in planes variously 

 inclined to one another, and this, together with their wavy surface, 

 convexity, and irregular sinuation, combine to give an air of scrubbi- 



* The woodmen here talk of two kinds of oak, which they call the hlack and the 

 white oak, but the only intelligible difference I could extract from their accounts is, 

 that the twigs of one float, whilst those of the other sink, when thrown into water! 

 Some of the more observant, however, amongst them distinguish more clearly our two 

 species, the Q. sessiliflora they call White Oak and Maiden Oak, as I have repeatedly 

 ascertained. 



