\-J2'2 AKBOUKTU.M AND KUUTICKTU.M. I'AICI'JII. 



I'/unitinim, b2 ; anil about tlic same iimnbLr arc destribed in the Xuuveau 

 Dii /lame/, ami by Smith in the i.rticlc ^^iiercus in liec^/'i Ci/clopadia. Ac- 

 cording to tlie Dictloniiairc Classiqttc iC llistoire Xatunllc, the total number of 

 specios'described by botanists u|) tf) 18-^3 was 130; of which one half bclon-red 

 to America, ami of these ni)war(ls of 40 to the United States. Humboldt 

 and Bonpland collected 2^ species in Mexico; Dr. Wallich and Dr. Ro\le 

 have found nearlv half that number in the temperate regions of India; and 

 Blume found Hi si)ecies in Java. If, therefore, we take the innnber of oaks 

 which have been ilescribed by botanists at IJO, we shall probal)iy not be far 

 from the truth. Of these, the number indigenous to, or mtroduccd into, 

 Britain is, according to our Jlorlux Jirdunmcus, G"^ : .so that there remain 

 to be introihiced nearly 100 sorts. When it is considered that all the oak 

 family are decidedly trees of tem|)erate regions, and would probably all live 

 in the open air in the climate of London, their introduction seems one of 

 the most desirable objects of arboricultural exertion. 



Till- economical Jlistori/ o\' the European oaks may date from the days of 

 Theophrastus and Pliny ; the importance of the genus, and the various uses to 

 which the different species are applied, having been treated of in every work on 

 planting or forest culture since the time of the Greek naturalist. Secondat, 

 in his//t-»). stir r Hist. Xat. (lit C/icne, published in 1785, was the first writer 

 who showed the different qualities of the wood of Q. pediinculata, Q. sessili- 

 flora, and Q. Tnuziii ; he also made various experiments to ascertain the 

 strength of the ditterent kinds of oak wood ; antl endeavoured to prove that 

 Q. sessiliriora was the (i. /?6bur of the ancients. Fougeroux and Daubenton, 

 both professors, and members of the Academic Ro\ale des Sciences, first 

 pohited out the common error in considering the wood of Q. sessiliflora, w hich 

 is common in the old ecclesiastical buildings in France, as the chestnut. (See 

 Mem. cle rAcad. des Scicii. for 1781, p. 49. and p. 295. The first work on 

 the American oaks which treated of the uses of the timber was that of the 

 elder IMichaux, entitled Ilistoirc clcs C/icncs de f Amerique, published in iHUl ; 

 and the best modern account of them is in the North American Si/lva of his 

 son, in 3 volumes, 8vo, the English edition of which was published in 1819. 

 Bosc has also published what may be called the poi)ular and economical history 

 of the oak, which is entitled, Memoin-x xiir les diffcrentes Espcces de Cliene 

 qui croissent en France, el siir ces E'lraiigers a r Empire qui se cullivent dutis 

 les Jardins et Pepinieres des Environs des Paris, &c., in the Mem. de r lust it. 

 National de France, 1" Semestre, i'or 1807, p. .307. In this work 50 species 

 are described, of which 14 are considered natives of France. The lieeherches 

 Historiques sur les Clienes, and the Essai sur les Harmonics Vegetates et 

 Animates du Clinie, both by Marcpiis, contain some curious information on 

 the subject. The elder Michaux's work has been translated, and some 

 additions made to it, bv Dr. Wade, in his (^uerciis, published in 1809. It is 

 remarkable, that, in Martyn's edition of iSliller's Dictionari/, the part of which 

 treating of f^uercus was published in 1807, no notice whatever is taken of 

 the oaks of America, except those which had been described in the Hortus 

 Kcwensis, though Michaux's Histoire des Clienrs, Sec, was published six years 

 before. The Amccnitates Quercinece, by the late Professor Burnet, published 

 in Nos. 5. and G. of Burgess's Eidodeudron, 1833, and which occupies -^b folios 

 of the inunense pages of that work, is one of the latest essays on the subject, 

 and, like all works that have been written by that learned author, is a very curi- 

 ous and elaborate proihiction, though not so well known as it deserves to be. 

 J^octical and mytliolo'/tcal Allusions. The oak w as dedicated by the ancients 

 to Jupiter, because it was said that an oak tree sheltered that god at his birth, 

 on .Mount Lycicus, in Arcadia; and there is scarcely a (ireek or Latin poet, 

 or prose author, who docs not make some allusion to this tree. Herodotus 

 first mentions the sacred forest of Dodona (ii. c. 57. ), anil relates the traditions 

 he heard rcspeccmg it from the priests of Egypt. Two black doves, he says, 

 look their flight from the city of Thebes, one of which flew to the temple of 

 Jupiter A^mnon, and the other to Dodona; where, with a human voice, it 



