1326 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



a few inconspicuous irregular teeth. This includes some remarkable forms, which 

 are possibly distinct species. 1 



Q. infectoria is widely spread throughout Syria, Asia Minor, Armenia, and 

 Kurdistan; and occurs also in Turkey near Constantinople, and in Cyprus; but 

 appears to be unknown in Greece. 2 



Sir Joseph Hooker saw it in great abundance on the east slopes of Lebanon, 

 on the rocky hills of Galilee south of Safed, and on the summit of Carmel. It 

 occurred as a small tree 15 to 20 ft. high, or more often, as a bush sparingly 

 branched, with a rather slender rugged trunk, and grey deciduous foliage, white 

 on the under surface, and was rendered very conspicuous by the abundance of 

 spherical galls of a deep red brown colour and shining viscid surface. 3 He also 

 speaks of another gall, of smaller size, paler colour, and softer texture with several 

 angular protuberances, found sparingly in Syria and, as he believed, also on this 

 species. Neither of these- galls is collected in Syria. The larger and commoner 

 is probably not different from the Aleppo gall, though it may be inferior in quality. 

 Hooker adds that the acorns are of a singularly elegant form and of a bright amber 

 colour. 



The galls of this species, known as Aleppo galls, of which a full account is 

 given by Fliickiger and H anbury,* are exported from Smyrna and Trebizond ; 

 and are used in medicine, for dyeing and tanning, for making tannic and gallic 

 acids, and in the preparation of ink. 



We are indebted to Consul H. Shipley of Erzeroum for some drawings of 

 oak leaves and specimens of galls from Kurdistan, which in the absence of acorns 

 cannot be certainly identified, but which, in Dr. Stapf's opinion, belong in part to 

 Q. pedunculata. The galls, however, are extremely similar to those commonly 

 found on Q. lusitanica in Portugal. 



Loudon says that although, according to the catalogues, this tree was introduced 

 into England in 1822, he had never seen a specimen. Apparently 5 it was first culti- 

 vated in the Chiswick Garden in 1850, when seedlings were raised from acorns sent 

 by Sir A. H. Layard from Kurdistan, where he had found the tree abundant, especially 

 near Bitlis, which was the emporium for galls. Sir J. Hooker 6 also brought home 

 from Syria, in i860, acorns in damp earth, from which plants were raised at Kew. 



The only specimens that we have seen are at Kew, where a tree of the typical 

 form, about 23 ft. by 2 ft. 3 in. in 1909, is probably one of Hooker's seedlings. 

 Trees of similar size, belonging to var. Boissieri, were obtained in 1870 and 1873 

 from Booth of Hamburg. (A. H.) 



1 Cf. Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 191, fig. 120 (1904), who describes and figures, as Q. veneris, Kerner, an oak in 

 the Botanic Garden at Vienna, which was raised from an acorn sent by Kotschy from Cyprus. This is identical with 

 Q. P/aeffingeri, var. cypria, Kotschy, in Unger and Kotschy, Die Insel Cypern, 492 (1865), who state that it once formed 

 extensive woods of fine trees, of which only a few scattered individuals now remain. 



* It is not mentioned as one of the oaks of Greece, by Halacsy, Comp. Fl. Gracce, iii. 125 (1904). 



* Figured by Lambert, in Trans. Linn. Soc. xvii. t. 22 (1837). * Pharmacographia, 595 (1879). 



6 Journ. Hort. Soc. Land. viii. 132 (1853). 6 Trans. Linn. Soc. xxiii. 383 (1861). 



