288 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



pairs of rounded lobes, the lateral nerves reaching to the sinuses as well as to the 

 lobes ; coriaceous ; under surface bluish green, with a stellate pubescence, often 

 discernible only with a lens. Fruit : 2 to 6 on a long stalk, very large, the acorns 

 being ^ inch in diameter. The cups look very distinct from those of the common 

 oak. 



This species is considered by Zabel ' to be a hybrid between Q. pedunculata 

 and Q. lanuginosa, but it seems rather to be a geographical form of Quercus 

 pedunculata. Elwes saw two stunted trees which may be this at Orton Hall, 

 Peterborough, said to have been raised from acorns sent by the late Sir H. Layard 

 from Kurdistan. 



The following three species or geographical forms were considered to be 

 varieties of Quercus pedunculata by De CandoUe. 



Quercus Brutia, Tenore, Sent. Ann. Hort. Neap. (1825), p. 12. Occurs in 

 southern Italy. The difference between it and some northern forms of Q. peduncu- 

 lata is very slight, as the leaves are glabrous. The fruit is large and somewhat 

 peculiar. 



Qziercus Thomasii, Tenore, loc. cit. This also occurs in southern Italy, and is 

 a form with large acorns, having leaves pubescent on the under surface, and 

 standing on short pubescent petioles.'' 



Quercus apennina, Lamarck, Encyc. i. 725 (1783). This is a small oak which 

 occurs on dry situations in the south of France, and is said to form considerable 

 forests in the Apennines in Italy. It has hoary, tomentose shoots and small leaves, 

 with the under surface pale pubescent, and shorter stalks than Quercus lanuginosa, 

 which it otherwise much resembles. The fruit is crowded on thick grey tomentose 

 axes, and the cupules are greyish tomentose with appressed scales. 



Hybrid or Intermediate Forms. Hybrids between Quercus sessiliflora and 

 Q. pedunculata occur ; but they seem to be rare in the wild state in England, and 

 I have only seen two or three specimens which could not at a glance be referred 

 to one or other species without doubt. The best name for the hybrid is Quercus 

 intermedia, Boenn, in Rchb. FL Germ. 177 (1830). The type specimen of 

 Q. intermedia, Don, obtained by Leighton in Wyre Forest, Shropshire, is true 

 sessiliflora. Another specimen in the British Museum labelled intermedia, gathered 

 in 1 843 in Surrey, is pedunculata ; in this some of the peduncles are rather short, 

 but there is one fully developed peduncle of the usual length, and the leaves in no 

 way differ from ordinary pedunculata. What is often supposed to be intermedia 

 is, however, the common oak, bearing leaves with stalks of a moderate length. 

 The word pedunculata is apparently a trap to deceive all but the practised botanist. 

 In Q. pedunculata the acorns are sessile on a long peduncle, which is distinct from 

 a shoot, as it bears only acorns, never buds or leaves. I have received specimens 

 from professional foresters, labelled ''sessiliflora, intermediate form," in which the 



* Laubhoh-Betunnung, 78 (1903). 



^ Elwes has received seedlings of both these forms from Hen Sprenger of Naples, and has sent some of them to Kew ; 

 but they do not at present show any appreciable difference, which was the case also in the oaks which he saw growing in the 

 Sila mountains in Calabria. 



