CHAP. CV. C'OKYLA V CEA:. ^UE'llCUS. 1719 



which are believed to have been old trees in the time of William the Con- 

 queror; and Pliny mentions u ^uereus 7 v lex which was an old tree when 

 Rome was founded, and which was still living in his time. 



Geoizrajiliy. The oak belongs exclusively to climates temperate either by 

 their latitude or their elevation ; the heat of the torrid zone, and the cold of 

 the frozen zone, being equally unfavourable to its growth. The common 

 British oak, after being a long series of years in the Botanic Garden at St. 

 Vincent's, never attained a greater height than a shrub, having to contend 

 with the sultry climate of that island. It never shed its leaves till they were 

 replaced by others, and had, in effect, become evergreen. A plant of the 

 cork tree, in the same botanic garden, remained stationary for 12 years. 

 (L. Guilding in Mag. Nat. Hist.} The oak grows naturally in the middle and 

 south of Europe, in the north of Africa; and, in Asia, in Natolia, the Hima- 

 layas, Cochin-China, and Japan. In America, it abounds through the greater 

 part of the northern continent, more especially in the United States ; and 

 upwards of twenty species are found in Mexico. No species of Quercus has 

 hitherto been found in Australia, or in any other part of the southern hemi- 

 sphere, except Java and some of the adjacent islands. In Europe, the 

 oak has been, and is, more particularly abundant in Britain, France, Spain, 

 and Italy. In Britain, two species only are indigenous ; in France there are 

 four or five sorts ; and in Italy, Greece, and Spain, six or seven sorts. The 

 deciduous oaks are the most prevalent in both hemispheres ; and the ever- 

 green kinds arc almost exclusively confined to the south of Europe, and to 

 the temperate regions of Asia and Africa. The number of sorts described by 

 botanists as species, and as natives of Europe, exceed 30 ; and as natives of 

 North America, 40. The latter are all comprised between 20 and 48 N. 

 lat. In Europe, Asia, and Africa, oaks are found from 60 to 18 N. lat., 

 and even in the torrid zone, in situations rendered temperate by their eleva- 

 tion. 



In Britain, the oak is every where indigenous. In Norway it is found at 

 N. lat. 60; in Finland, in N. lat. 60 27"; in Livonia, N. lat. 56 30" and 

 59 30" ; and in Russia, N. lat. 50. The species found in these countries is 

 exclusively Q,. 7?6bur L., including under this name Q. pedunculata and Q. sessi- 

 liflora. In the north of Germany, and in the north of France, this is also the 

 only species; but in the south of Germany, as in Austria, and in the centre of 

 France, Q. Cerris abounds ; and in the south of France, Q. /Mex, Q. *Suber, 

 and some other evergreen species, are found. In Spain, as Captain S. E. Cook 

 informs us, Q. /?6bur is the most abundant, and almost the only species in 

 nearly the whole of the northern district of the country ; extending through 

 Navarre, Guipuscoa, Biscay, maritime Castile, and Asturias ; but it is never 

 found in the middle region. (2- 7 v lex is the leading tree throughout the whole 

 of the middle and southern districts of Spain ; and the next abundant is 

 Q. gramuntia, which requires a drier climate than the former. Q. gramun- 

 tia produces edible acorns, which Cook states are as good as, or superior 

 to, a chestnut. These, he says, were the edible acorns of the ancients, which 

 they believed fattened the tunny fish on their passage from the ocean to the 

 Mediterranean. " These are the bellotas which Teresa, the wife of Sancho 

 Panza, gathered in La Mancha, where they still grow in the greatest perfec- 

 tion, and sent to the duchess." (Cook's Sketches in Spain, vol. ii. p. 245. to 252.) 

 In Italy, Q. 6'erris and Q. 7 x lex are the prevailing species in the middle 

 states, Q. pedunculata in the more northern, and Q. sessiliflora in the king- 

 dom of Naples. In Greece and Asia Minor, we have Q. ff'sculus, with the 

 others before mentioned; and Q. ./E'gilops, Q. Tauzin, Q,. infectoria, and some 

 other comparatively rare species, are also found there and in the south of 

 France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. 



The oak is never found in perfection except in a good soil, and in a tem- 

 perate climate. Like almost all other plants, it will thrive in a deep sandy 

 loam, or in vegetable soil; but to attain its full size, and to bring its timber 

 fo perfection, it requires a soil more or less alluvial or loamy ; and the 

 European oaks are always most luxuriant, and produce the best timber, on ; 



