CHAP. CV. 



corylaVe^. que'rcus. 



1843 



of woolly down that is spread over its young leaves, 

 which, on their first appearance (in the cliiiiate 

 of London, three weeks later than those of the 

 common oak), are of a reddish tinge. The tree is 

 found, in France, in the Lower Pyrenees, and in 

 every part of the west, as far as Nantes, almost 

 always on poor sandy soil. In the Landes, it is 

 known under the name of chene noir, tauzin, or 

 tauza. At Angers, and at Nantes, it is called 

 chene doux ; at Mons, chene brosse ; and among 

 the nurserymen in these countries, chene Angou- 

 mois. The Basques call it amenza, or amet9a. 

 Bosc says that there is a plantation of it in the 

 Parkof Daumont,atthe back of the Forest of Mont- 

 morency, some of the trees in which ripen acorns 

 annually ; and that he had sown a great many of them in the government 

 nurseries at Versailles. Secondat, who appears to have been the first to 

 bring this species of oak into notice, considers it as the true Qu^rcus /Jo- 

 bur of the ancients, as already noticed, p. 1722. He says that this oak grows 

 well in the poorest soil, in which its roots extend close under the surface to 

 a great distance, here and there throwing up suckers. The wood is of great 

 hardness, toughness, and durability; and it is chiefly used for the construction 

 of wine casks. Bosc adds that the wood weighs 60 lb. per cubic foot, 

 and that it is very apt to warp ; but that the bark furnishes the best of all tar. 

 In the Journal d'Hist. Nat., tom. ii. pi. 32., he has figured a gall fly (Diplole- 

 pis umbraculus O/iv., Cynips querciis tojae Fab.), and the gall produced by it, 

 peculiar to this tree. The gall (Jig. 1G97.) is spheroidal, fungous within, and 



1696 



almost ligneous without; smooth, but crowned with from 8 to 12 tubercles, 

 separated by indentations. The gall fly resembles the Cynips glechonifc 

 Lin. ; but differs from that species in having the abdomen as downy as the 

 thorax. In the Nouveau Diet. d'Agric, it is said that, in the Landes, the 

 acorns of the Q. Tauzin are much more sought after for feeding swine, than 

 those of Q. sessiliflora or Q. pedunculata. The young shoots of Q. pyre- 

 naica are more flexible than those of Q. sessiliflora and Q. pedunculata, and, 

 consequently, make better hoops. The leaves and young shoots are nuich 

 more bitter than those of the other species, and are often rejected by cows 



G u 3 



