CHAP. CV. 



d^ORYLA^CEiE. QUE'rCUS. 



191 



drawings of the two trees were taken nearly a month afterwards, when they 

 had exactly the appearance shown in our last Volume. In order that the 

 variety may be kept distinct by propagators, we have given it a name among 

 the others, as below. 



t Q. S. 2 latlfointm, Suhev latifolium, &c., Bauh. Pin., 424, Du Ham. Arb. 

 2. p. 291. t. 80., has the leaves rather broader than the species, and 

 either serrated or entire. The tree at Muswell Hill, between 30 ft. 

 and 40 ft. high, figured in our last Volume, we may suppose to be of 

 this entire-leaved subvariety. 

 -t Q. S. 3 angustlfdUum, Subev angustifolium Bnuh. Pin., 424., Du Ham. 

 Arb., 2. p. 291. t. 81. — The portrait in our last Volume of a tree in 

 the Fulham Nursery, 27 ft. high, and of which there is a botanical 

 specimen given in Watson's Dend.Brit.,t.Bd.yix\\iX our ^g. 1798., 

 may be considered as belonging to this variety. 

 I Q. S. 4 dentdtum, the Q. Pseudo-/S'uber of Muswell Hill, has the 

 leaves large, and variously dentate, as in fig. 1797. The tree of 

 this variety at Muswell Hill, figured in our last Volume, is between 

 50 ft. and 60 ft. high. 

 Description, S^c. The cork tree bears a general resemblance to the broad- 

 leaved kinds of Q. /Mex ; of which species some authors consider it only a 

 variety : but, when full grown, it forms a much handsomer tree; and its bark 

 alone seems to justify its being j\ 



made a species. It would appear ^ 



to be rather more tender than the 

 ilex ; since the severe winter of 

 1709 killed to the ground the 

 greater part of the cork trees of 

 Provence and Languedoc ; and the 

 frost of 1739-40, one of the original 

 trees in the Chelsea Botanic Gar- 

 den. Like the ilex, it varies ex- 

 ceedingly in the magnitude, form, 

 and margins of its leaves, and also 

 in the size of its fruit. The nut, 

 according to Bosc, is more sweet 

 than that of the ilex, and may be 

 eaten as human food in cases of 

 necessity. Swine, he says, are exceedingly greedy of these acorns, and get 

 rapidly fat on them, producing a firm and very savoury lard. The Spaniards 

 eat the acorns roasted, in the same manner as they do those of Q. gramuntia, 

 and as we do chestnuts. The outer bark, the great 

 thickness and elasticity of which is owing to an 

 extraordinary developement of the cellular tissue, 

 forms the cork ; which, after the tree is full grown, 

 cracks and separates from it, of its own accord. 

 The inner bark remains attached to the tree, and,! 

 when removed in its young state, is only fit for tan- 

 ning. Both outer and inner bark abound in tannin ; 

 and the former contains a peculiar principle called 

 suberine, and an acid called the suberic. The tree 

 is found wild in dry hilly places in the south of 

 France, in Italy, in great part of Spain, and in the 

 north of Africa. In Spain, according to Captain 

 S. E. Cook, it is most abundant in Catalonia and 

 Valencia. The wood of the cork tree, which weighs 84 lb. per cubic foot, is 

 used for the same purposes as that of Q. /Mex ; but it is never found of suffi- 

 cient size to be of nmch consequence. By far the most important product, 

 however, which this tree yields, is its outer bark. This, which is the cork of 



