Q > uercus.~\ CXL. CUPULIFERJE. (J. D. Hooker.) 601 



toothed or lobed, penninerved. Flowers monoecious, small or minute, 

 spicate ; male in pendulous or erect spikes ; bracts small ; female erect. 

 MALE FL. Perianth campanulate, 4-7-lobed or -partite. Stamens indefinite, 

 6-12 ; filaments slender ; anther-cells contiguous. Pistillode hairy or 0. 

 FEM. FL. enclosed in imbricate bracts. Perianth-tube adnate to the ovary, 

 limb very minute lobed or toothed. Staminodes minute or 0. Ovary after 

 fecundation more or less perfectly 3- rarely 4-5- celled ; styles 3-5, short ; 

 ovules 2 in each cell. Nut ovoid globose or depressed, 1-celled, seated in 

 or enclosed in, and attached by a broad base or by all its surface to an 

 involucre of imbricate hardened bracts. Seeds 1 or 2, testa membranous ; 

 cotyledons plano-convex, thick, fleshy, smooth grooved lobed or ruminate ; 

 radicle minute. Species about 300, temperate and tropical; absent in S. 

 America, Tropical and S. Africa, the D'eccan Peninsula, Australia and the 

 Pacific. 



The following prodromus of the Indian Oaks is a very imperfect one. It is founded 

 on a systematic list with references and synonyms of the Indo-Malayan species kindly 

 sent me by Dr. King, and which embodies his ideas of the limitation of the species 

 as they will appear in the illustrated Monograph which he is preparing, and which 

 will doubtless supplement the shortcomings of this work. The genus is one of excep- 

 tional difficulty, from the variability of the foliage, and in the size and form of the 

 involucre of the fruit and of the nut itself, and I doubt the possibility of identifying 

 most of the species in many of these states by descriptions alone. 



Since the above lines were written Dr. King has visited England, bringing his 

 mss. account of the Oaks with him. This he has generously allowed me to collate 

 with my descriptions to the great advantage of the latter. 



SECT. I. LEPIDOBALANUS, Endl. Male spikes simple, lax-fld., pendulous, 

 deciduous, fruit subsessile, on short spikes ; bracts of cup imbricate, tips 

 free. Leaves usually toothed serrate or lobed. 



1. Q. semecarpifolia, Smith in Rees Cyclop, xxix. No. 20 ; leaves 

 short-petioled elliptic or oblong entire or spinous-toothed obtuse or pungent, 

 base cordate or rounded, cup hemispheric covering the base rarely more of 

 the oblong or globose nut, bracts appressed acute tips often membranous. 

 A. DC. Prodr. xvi. ii. 15; Wall. PI. As. Ear. ii. 56, t. 174; Cat. 2776; 

 Brand. For. FL 479, t. 64 ; Gamble Man. 382 ; Miquel Ann. Mus. i. 119. 

 Q. cbtusifolia & Cassura, Don Prodr. 56, 57 ; Wenzig in Jahrb. Hot. Gart. 

 Berl. iv. 219. 



TEMPEEATE HIMALAYA ; from Kumaon to Bhotan and Munnipore, alt. 6-12,000 ft. 

 DISTB.IB. Aflghanistan. 



A small or large subevergreen gregarious tree, 30-80 ft., rarely 80-100 ft., with 

 trunk 12-18 ft. in girth. Leaves 2-6 by 1-4 in., coriaceous, glabrous-pubescent 

 or young stellate-pubescent; nerves 6-8 pairs, forked; petiole 6-5- in. Hale spikes 

 crowded, softly pubescent; sepals obtuse, ciliate; stamens 8-18, glabrous. Fern, 

 spikes short; styles long, recurved. Cups solitary, J-l in. diam., margin thin; 

 nut globose, rarely ovoid, 1 in. diam., glabrous, umbo large. Often confounded with 

 Q. Ilex, from which the forked nerves distinguish it. 



2. Q. serrata, Thunb. FL Jap. 176; leaves long-petioled oblong- 

 lanceolate acute or acuminate spinulose-toothed many- nerved, cup half 

 covering the globose or oblong nut, bracts free long thick coriaceous 

 recurved. Brand. For. FL 486; Gamble Man. 384. Q. serrata, var. 

 Roxburghii, A. DC. Prodr. xvi. i. 57 ; Wenzig in Jahrb. Sot. Gart. Serl. 

 iv. 221. Q. polyantha, Lindl. in Wall. Cat. 2771. Q. Koxburghii, Endl. 

 Gen. PI., Suppl. iv. 28. 



