CHAP. CV. 



Ct)UYLA CEyE. yUE KCUS. 



1859 



with it, being remark- 

 able for an unusual 

 degree of expansion, 

 as shown in Jig. 

 1720., the trunks of 

 middle-aged trees, as it 

 is observed in the Dic- 

 tionnairc des Eaii.v et 

 Forets, 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 

 common oak. The leaves 

 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, eciiinato calice, seu castaneae." (See 

 Secondaf, &c., p. 15.) In the 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 , Sfc. The range of the Quercus Cerris, 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 



6 K 3 



