OAK TREE. 277 



be eaten like nuts, or chestnuts*." They must be con- 

 siderably improved by the soil and climate of France. 



The Ilex, Evergreen, or Holm Oak, Quercus ilex, is 

 a native of the south of Europe, Cochinchina, and Bar- 

 bary. Gerarde speaks of it, in 1597, as a stranger in 

 England ; " notwithstanding there is here and there a 

 tree thereof that has been brought from beyond seas." 

 The French call this tree Chene vert ; the Italians, 

 Elice, or Leccio. It is not easy to describe the leaf, for one 

 individual will often be clothed with foliage of different 

 kinds : some are sinuated, and set with prickles ; others 

 are smaller, and neither sinuated nor prickled ; they are 

 of a lucid green, and their length is commonly from 

 three to four inches ; the under side is rather downy. 

 The acorn is of the same shape as that of the Common 

 Oak, but smaller. 



There is a variety of this, by some called the Spanish 

 Oak, of which the acorns are eaten either raw or roasted. 

 This may be the Ilex to which the Spanish poet alludes 

 in these lines : 



hast thou forgotten, too, 



Childhood's sweet sports, whence first my passion grew, 



When from the bowery ilex I shook down 



Its autumn fruit, which on the craig's high crown 



We tasted, sitting, chattering, side by side ? 



Who climbed trees swinging o'er the hoarse deep tide, 



And poured into thy lap, or at thy feet 



Their kernelled nuts, the sweetest of the sweet ? 



When did I ever place my foot within 



The flowery vale, brown wood, or dingle green, 



And culled not thousand odorous flowers, to crest 



Thy golden curls, or breathe upon thy breast?" 



WIFFEN'S Garcilasso, p. 21.5. 



* Vol. ii. p. :J3. 



