QUERCUS ROBUR-ENGLISH OAK. 



CLASS, MONOECIA ; ORDER, POLYANDRIA 

 NATURAL ORDER, CUPULIFER^E. 



GEN. CHAR. Male : Calyx commonly five-cleft. Corolla none. 

 Stamens five or ten. Female : Calyx one leaved, quite entire, 

 rugged. Corolla none. Styles two. to five. Seeds ovate, one. 

 SPEC. CHAR. Leaves subsessile. Acorns or fruit. Stalks single 

 or two together. 



This tree is indigenous in England ; it constitutes the greater 

 part of the forests of Europe, and spreads over the whole northern 

 section of Asia, and also the northern parts of the coast of Africa. 

 It is not found at all, so far as we know, in the United States. The 

 name is from the latin quero, to inquire ; because it was from under 

 this, their favorite tree, that the Druids used their divinations, 

 giving oracular answers to the assembled multitude. They some- 

 times attain an extraordinary size ; the one in Dorsetshire, probably 

 not the largest one even on record, in girth was 68 feet ; the hollow 

 within was used as an alehouse, being an apartment 16 feet long and 

 20 feet high. 



This tree is easily known in the forest from among its neighbors, 

 by the right-angled manner in which the branches shoot from the 

 main trunk, and afterwards divide in different directions ; it is, 

 besides, often 60 feet in height before it sends off a branch. The 

 leaf is another unerring guide ; its form i^ peculiar and beautiful 



