1280 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



The Kermes oak is a native of the Mediterranean region, occurring in northern 

 Africa, Spain, and Portugal, the south of France, Italy, Dalmatia, Albania, Greece, 

 Asia Minor, and Syria. It covers dry poor soils with a shrubby vegetation, being 

 often mixed on limestone with Q. Ilex. Its bark, especially that of the roots, is 

 much esteemed for tanning, whilst its branches are often covered with an insect 

 (Chermes Ilicis) called Kermes in Arabic, which was formerly used like cochineal, as 

 a scarlet dye. (A. H.) 



In Asia Minor and Syria this species occasionally becomes a large tree, of which 

 Hooker gives the following account : " This is by far the most abundant tree 

 throughout Syria, covering the rocky hills of Palestine especially with a dense brush- 

 wood of trees 8 to 1 2 ft. high, branching from the base, thickly covered with small 

 evergreen rigid leaves, and bearing acorns copiously. Owing to the indiscriminate 

 destruction of the forests in Syria this oak rarely attains its full size. We saw but 

 few very good trees, one of which is the famous oak of Mamre called Abraham's oak, 

 of which a portrait is given (Plate xxxvi.), and I saw other good ones at Anturah on 

 the Lebanon. Abraham's oak is supposed to indicate the spot where grew the oak 

 under which the patriarch pitched his tent, and is reverenced by Jews, Mahometans, 

 and Christians. In general habit it much resembles Q. Ilex as grown in this country. 

 The diameter of the foliage is given, no doubt correctly, by Porter as 90 ft., the 

 girth of the trunk as 23 ft. In the winter of 1856-57 when in the streets of 

 Jerusalem the snow fell deep and lay for many days, a great branch of Abraham's 

 oak was broken off, and when cut up was sufficient to load seven camels." A more 

 recent photograph in my possession shows that this tree has now been protected by 

 a stone wall, and though its foliage is more scanty than as shown in Hooker's draw- 

 ing, the tree is still a very fine one. 



According to Loudon the species was cultivated as long ago as 1683, but is now 

 rarely seen, except in botanic gardens. At Kew it is perfectly hardy, young 

 Algerian specimens having survived the severe winter of 1860-61, and it occasionally 

 bears fruit. We have specimens from Kew, Eastnor, the Heatherside Nursery near 

 Bagshot, and Fota. At Bitton 1 it forms a bush about 20 ft. high, which was 

 raised from an acorn gathered near Athens in 1854-55. It produces root-suckers 

 freely. 



According to Mouillefert, 2 it is hardy at Grignon near Paris, where it has borne 

 a temperature of 5 Fahr. without injury, and thrives well on poor calcareous soil. 



(H. J. E.) 



1 Canon Ellacombe, in Gard. Chron., 1870, p. 1155, says that it produces acorns very freely, but these are nearly always 

 abortive. 2 Ess. Forest. 112 (1903). 





