1908 



ARBORETUM AND FRUT1CETUM. 



PART III. 



In the climate of London, this tree is perfectly hardy; as a proof of which it 

 may be mentioned that the specimen already referred to, at Purser's Cross, 

 which is upwards of 40 ft. high, and of which the plate in our last Volume 

 is a portrait, ripens its fruit every year. From the leaves of this tree, and 

 those of the specimen of Q. Ballota sent to us from Paris, we are strongly 

 inclined to think, as we have already stated (p. 1906.), that the latter was a 

 variety of Q. gramuntia, rather than of Q. 7 N lex ; and this is also the 

 opinion of M. Dralet. The rate of growth of Q. gramuntia is much slower 

 than that of Q. / v lex. There are plants in the Horticultural Society's 

 Garden, at Messrs. Loddiges's, and in the London nurseries. Small plants, 

 in pots, are from Is. 6d. to 3s. 6d. each. 



32. Q. COCCI'FERA L. 



Identification. Lin. 

 N. Du Ham., 7. p. 1 



The Kermes, or berry-bearing, Oak. 



PJ., 1413. ; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 433. ; Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 2., 5. p. 289. 

 . ; Smith in Rees's Cycl., No. 34. ; Lodd. Cat, ed. 1836. 



1*789 



. ., . . . ., . . . , . . 



Synonymes. /'lex coccifera Cam. Epit., 774. ; 7. aculekta cocciglandifera Garid. Aix., p. 245., Nis- 



folle in Mem. Acad.Scien. for 1714, p. 435. ; /. coccigera Ger. Emac., p. 1342., Parkinson T/teat. 



Sot., p. 1395. : Chene aux Kermes, Fr. ; Kermes Eiche, Ger. 

 Engravings. Garid. Aix., t. 53. ; Mem. Acad. Scien., 1744, t. 17, 18. ; N. Du Ham., 7. t. 46. ; 



Wats. Dend. Brit, t. 91. ; and our Jig. 1789. from the N. Du Ham., fig. 1790. from Watson, re- 



duced to the usual scale, andfigs. 1791. and 1792. of the natural size. 



Spec. Char. y $c. Leaves elliptic-oblong, rigid ; smooth on both sides, with 

 spreading, bristly, spinous teeth. Fruit on peduncles ; nut ovate. Calyx 

 with spreading, pointed, somewhat recurved scales. {N. Du Ham.) A low 

 bushy shrub, a native of the south of 

 Europe and the Levant; flowering in 

 May. The whole plant resembles a 

 holly in miniature ; but the leaves, are 

 of a paler green. It varies exceedingly 

 in the magnitude of the leaves, as may 

 be seen by comparing fig. 1791. with^g. 

 1792., both of the natural size; the 

 former from a plant in the Goldworth 

 Arboretum, ana the latter from one in 

 the Epsom Nursery. The leaves in the 

 one specimen are nearly four times the 

 length of those in the other. This oak was cultivated in Britain previously 

 to 1683, and is well known as producing the kermes, or scarlet grain, of com- 

 merce. This shrub divides at the ground into a great number of tortuous 

 spreading branches, so as to form a bush of from 

 8 ft. to 5 ft. in height. The leaves are oval, on 

 short petioles, coriaceous ; shining above, glabrous 

 on both sides; sometimes quite entire on their 

 margins, but more frequently bordered with scat- 

 tered spiny teeth, like the leaves of the common 

 holly. The male flowers are on long slender 

 peduncles: the female flowers are sessile, from 

 3 to 7 in number, on a rachis from 8 to 15 lines 

 in length : only two or three of these flowers come 

 to maturity. The fruit is but of a very small size 

 the first year, and does not attain maturity till the 

 end of the second. The nuts are oval, and are 

 enveloped for half their length in a cup furnished 

 with rough scales terminating in rough points, 

 which are almost woody, spreading, and a little recurved. (/</., vii. p. 160.) 

 Bosc, in his Memoirc sur Ics Chcncs y says that he has seen this species cover- 

 ing entire hills in Leon and Old Castile, and in other parts of Spain, where 

 it greatly injures the cattle, and especially the sheep, which can only eat 

 the very young shoots. The bushes, he says, are only employed as fuel, 

 though they would be useful in the tannery, or for dyeing. There is now, 

 he says, little demand for the kermes, because it cannot be afforded so 



1790 



