1282 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



1. Var. Ballota, De Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. 39 (1864). 



Quercus rotundifolia, Lamarck, Encyc. M(th. i. 723 (1783). 



Quercus Ballota, Desfontaines, in Mim. Acad. Sc. Paris, 1790, p. 394, t. 6, and Fl. Atlant. ii. 350 

 (1800); Webb, Iter Hisp. 14 (1838); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1905 (1838). 



Leaves variable, spiny-dentate or entire, usually rounded at the base and white 

 beneath. Acorns large, sweet, edible. 



This variety is the prevalent form in Spain and northern Africa, and occurs 

 also in Portugal, where Coutinho 1 distinguishes another variety, with sweet acorns 

 (var. ave liana formis), very small, sub-globose, and almost enclosed in the cupule. 

 Webb says that the leaves in var. Ballota always have a round rather than an 

 elliptic shape, and that toothed and entire leaves are mixed on the same branch ; the 

 down which clothes them is thicker, the branches stiffer, and the acorns besides 

 being very sweet are much longer and more cylindrical. He also found it more 

 tender 2 than the common form, and said that a specimen which he grew for twenty 

 years in a warm situation only reached 6 ft. high in that time. 



2. Var. Gramuntia, Loudon, Trees and Shrubs, 882 (1842). 



Quercus Gramuntia, Linnaeus, Sp. PL 995 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1906 (1838). 

 Quercus Cookii, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1926 (1838). 



Leaves (Plate 339, Fig. 68) broadly oval, obovate, or almost orbicular, often 

 sub-cordate at the base, 1 to i| in. long ; margin wrinkled, with a few inflexed teeth, 

 ending in long sharp spines. 



This variety was described by Linnaeus from a specimen growing in the wood 

 of Gramont, near Montpellier, where, however, De Candolle afterwards failed to find 

 it. A tree bearing this name was growing in 1838 at Purser's Cross. It was 

 raised in 1835 in the Chiswick Garden from acorns procured from Gibraltar. It is 

 probably a form in which the seedling characters are preserved, and was both by 

 Loudon and by Cook confused with var. Ballota. It is a small tree, occasionally 

 seen in gardens, as at Kew and at Osborne, where there was a tree, 36 ft. by 4 ft., in 

 1908, bearing the name of Q. Ballota. 



3. Var. Fordii, Loudon, Gard. Mag. xix. 36 (1843). 

 Quercus Fordii, Koch, Dendrologie, ii. 2, p. 56 (1873). 



Leaves narrow, lanceolate, 1 to i| in. long ; margin wrinkled, undulate or with 

 a few irregular teeth, without spiny points. This peculiar form originated many 

 years ago in Lucombe and Pince's nursery at Exeter, and was named after Ford, 

 one of the proprietors. 



4. Var. crispa, Loudon. As seen at Kew, a monstrous form, with very small 

 entire leaves, about \ in. in length, with the edges rolled inwards and the under 

 surface concave. 



5. Var. Smilax, Nicholson, in Kew Handlist, Trees, 689 (1902). 

 Quercus Smilax, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 994 (1753). 



Leaves entire, narrow, lanceolate, long acuminate at the apex. 



1 In Boll. Soc. Brot. vi. 94 (1888). 



a The seedlings which Elwes raised at Colesborne were killed by a frost, which left seedlings of the typical form in the 

 same bed unhurt. 



