248 QUERCUS ROBUR 



strongly imbricated, ciliate reddish bracts forming a bud-like cup, 

 solitary, or two or three at the extremity of erect tapering 

 peduncles coming from the axils of the uppermost leaves and 

 either very short (so that the flowers themselves seem axillary), 

 or more usually nearly half an inch long, each flower subtended 

 by a deciduous, acute, ciliate bract about its own length. Male 

 flowers : perianth cup-shaped, very deeply cut into 6 8 strap- 

 shaped segments with laciniate ends ; stamens 6 8, inserted on 

 the central receptacle, filaments short, slender, anthers 2-celled, 

 cells rounded, connate, dehiscing longitudinally, lemon yellow, 

 becoming brown. Female flowers : perianth completely fused 

 with the ovary, the limb very small, usually with 6 teeth ; ovary 

 inferior, thick and fleshy, 3- celled, with 2 erect ovules in each 

 cell ; style thick, short ; stigma rather fleshy, with 3 spreading 

 lobes. Fruit (glans) surrounded at the base by the enlarged 

 involucre which has become a solid ^hemi spherical cup (cupule), 

 extending about J the length of the fruit, with an entire margin 

 and several series of strongly appressed, bluntly triangular scales 

 on its outer surface, solitary or two or three in a cluster, sessile or 

 on an axillary stalk which may reach 3 or 4 inches in length, about 

 1 inch long, oblong-ovoid, tipped by the remains of the perianth- 

 limb and style, readily separating from the cupule when ripe, 

 1 -celled; pericarp coriaceous, thin, smooth and shining, often 

 faintly furrowed longitudinally, yellowish orange, indehiscent. 

 Seed solitary (the rest abortive), completely filling the pericarp, 

 testa thin, rather lax ; embryo with very large thick plano- 

 convex cotyledons and a short superior included radicle, no 

 endosperm. 



Habitat. One of the commonest British trees, and forming 

 the greater part of original woodlands in this country, throughout 

 the whole of which it occurs. It is equally abundant and forms 

 large forests in the rest of Europe and in Western Asia, 

 extending into the far north, but stopping short of the Arctic 

 districts ; it also grows in North Africa and Syria. As a timber 

 tree also it is very frequently planted, but in this country to a 

 far less extent than was formerly the case. 



