DR. HOOKER ON THREE OAKS OF PALESTINE. 38:* 
that any person who should cut or maim the Oak would lose his firstborn son, eomiderabh 
difficulty was experienced in procuring hands to saw up the timber for transportation 
these were at last brought from Jerusalem, nearly twenty-five miles off, and loaded sevei 
camels with the wood of the one limb of this fine tree. 
The timber of Q. pseudo-coccif era is said to be of ordinary value ; but I could procure no 
precise information on this head. How far it is permanently distinct from Q. coccf/cru 
of Spain and Italy may reasonably be questioned : the characters given, even if constant, 
amount to no more than enough to establish a variety upon ; and it will lie seen that in 
geographical distribution, as in botanical synonymy, the Q. pscudo-eoccifcru completely 
overleaps Q. coccifera, extending from Spain and Algeria to the borders of the Mcsopo- 
tamian Desert, whereas the latter is not described as inhabiting any country further east 
than Asia Minor. 
With regard to the differences in the acorns of these species, they are very Blight, and a 
long way within the limits of variation of pseudo-coccij ? vra observed in Syria ; and as the 
acorns of cocci fera take two years to ripen, there is much time for variation during deve- 
lopment. The European Q. coccifera is described as a bushy shrub resembling tli 
Holly, and is browsed on by cattle: this precisely accords with the character of pseudo* 
coccifcra in Syria, which is further called Holly by many traveller! (IMartineau, Porter, 
&c). Again, the specimens of cocci/era cultivated at Kew precisely accord with the 
Syrian pseudo-coccif era, whilst the Algerian specimens of the latter (which, however, are 
grafted) are of a rather more straggling habit, with larger leaves. 
Loudon and others described pseudo-coccif era as having leaves twice or thrice as large 
as coccifera, thicker and less wavy, with smaller and shorter spinous serratures rather 
than teeth. Not one of these characters holds good, with any approach to constancy, in 
Syria, where large and small, more or less membranous, and more or less waved and 
spiny leaves occur on individual plants, and, more conspicuously, on adjacent ones. On 
Carmel, just below the convent, we gathered two forms growing with interlocked branches, 
with the typical leaves attributed respectively \o pseudo-coccif era and coccifera, but with 
identical acorns— those of the former plant. The Kermes was not observed by us in Syria. 
Q. pseudo-coccifera is an uncommon tree in English gardens. Th. re arc young 
Algerian specimens, which have survived the severe frosts of 1800-01, at 
the acorns I brought from Syria have germinated. Loudon (1838) mentions but. on< 
tree known to him in cultivation as bearing this name, which exists in the Horticnl 
tural Society's Gardens at Chiswick. 
2. Querctjs infectoria, Olivier, Voyage 1. 10 ; Willd. Sp. PI. iv. 436; Kotschy, Herb 
It. Cilic. No. 363 ! 371 ! var. qrosse-serrota, No. 369 ! 
Kew 
Q. Cariensis, Willd. fid. Loudon, Arboret. p. 1928. 
Q. Boissieri, Reut., Boiss. Diagn. xii. p. 119 ; Herb. It. Syriac No. 126 ! 
Q. Pfceffingeri, Kotschy, Eichen Europ. und Orient, t. xxiii., et Herb. It, 
Q. inermis, Ehrb. fide Kotschy, Herb. It. Syriac. No. 364 ! 
Q. Tauricola, Kotschy ! /. c. t. x., et Herb. It. Cilic. No. 365 ! et var. fol. 
Q. leptocarpos, Kotschy, Herb. It. Cilic. No. 372 ! 
Q. polvcarvos* Kotschv. Herb. It. Cilic. No. 370! 
367 
