13 14 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



third year. Buds in. long, pale brown, ovoid, obtuse, pubescent. Leaves 

 (Plate 335, Fig. 28) deciduous in autumn, 4 to 8 in. long, 3 to 4 in. wide, oval or 

 obovate, variable in shape, acute or obtuse at the apex, cuneate or sub-cordate at the 

 base ; usually pinnatifid, with five or six pairs of deep, entire or sinuately-toothed 

 lobes, either oblong, rounded at the apex, and with narrow sinuses, or triangular 

 and acute with wide sinuses ; upper surface dark green, stellate-pubescent ; lower 

 surface grey or whitish, covered with a dense soft tomentum ; lateral nerves more 

 numerous than the lobes ; margin ciliate ; petiole about % in. long, tomentose. 



Fruit ripening in the first year, two to four on a tomentose, usually erect, rarely 

 pendulous stalk, |to2 in. long ; acorn variable in size and shape, cylindrical, ovoid 

 or globose, pubescent at the apex, elsewhere glabrous ; cupule hemispheric, \ to \ in. 

 in diameter, with tomentose scales, closely appressed, except near the margin of the 

 cup, where they are occasionally slightly spreading at their tips. 



Q. Toza varies extremely in the size and shape of the foliage, and in Portugal 

 hybridises occasionally both with Q. lusitanica l near Coimbra, and with Q. pedun- 

 culated near Castello Novo, where Padre Tavares showed Elwes trees which he 

 considered to be intermediate between them. 



At Angers, where Q. Toza is found growing in the hedges with both Q. pedun- 

 culata and Q. sessilifiora, it forms occasional hybrids with these species, which have 

 been described by Abbe Hy. 2 



A small tree at Tortworth appears to be a hybrid between this species and 

 Q. pedunculata. Its leaves are variable in size and shape, usually more deeply 

 lobed than Q. pedunculata, of which it has the auricles at the base ; less deeply lobed 

 than Q. Toza, and greyish tomentose beneath, as in the latter species. It bears 

 fruit freely, intermediate in character between the two species, from which seedlings 

 have been reared at Colesborne, which resemble the parent tree in foliage. 



Distribution 



This oak is a native of south-western France, and of Spain and Portugal. In 

 France it is more or less common in the departments of the Basses-Pyrenees, Gers, 

 Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Gironde, Dordogne, Charente, and Charente Inferieure ; 

 and scattered trees are met with as far north as Angers and Le Mans. Its distribu- 

 tion is thus confined to near the coast and to low altitudes ; as it succumbs to the 

 cold winters, which occasionally occur in the interior, a temperature of 4 Fahr. 

 being fatal to it. In the Landes, 3 a tenth of these oaks were killed in 1829-30, 

 when the thermometer fell to 5 Fahr. A plantation 4 of this species at Les Barres, 

 made in 1829-34, was almost entirely destroyed by the severe winter of 1871-72. 

 In France, it is usually a low tree, with a short and crooked stem, doubtless due 

 to the bad soil where it is mainly found, as in favourable situations moderately 

 tall trees with straight stems are met with. It commonly grows unmixed with 



1 Coutinho, in Bull. Soc. Brotero, vi. 57 (1886). 



2 Q. Trabuti and Q. Guerangeri, Hy, in Bull. Soc. Bot. Frame, xvii. 556, 557 (1895), are names given to supposed 

 crosses with Q. sessilifiora. Q. Rechini, and Q. andegavensis, Hy, op. cit. 557, 558, are names applied to the hybrids with 

 Q. pedunculata. 3 Dufour, quoted by Mathieu, op. cit. 360. 4 Pard6, Arb. Nat. des Barres, 288 (1906). 



