DR. HOOKER ON THREE OAKS OF PALESTINE. ' 38 
Q. Trojana, Webb in Jaub. et Spach, III. i. t. 54; Kotschy, Coll. No. 391 ! 
Q. Gaedelii, Kotschy, Herb. It. Cilic. No. 387 ! (et407 !?). 
Q. Vallonea, Kotschy, I. c. t. 7, et Herb. It. Cilic. No. 80 ! 391 ! 394 ! Tchihatcheff, /. c. p. 4/4. 
Q. Ithaburensis, Kotschy, I. c. t. 12. 
? Q. Look , Kotschy, I. c. t. 21 : vide sub Q. castaneafolia. 
?Q. Ehrenbergii, Kotschy, /. c. t. 15; Herb. It. Cilic. No. 393 ! Tchihatcheff, I. c. p. 474 (vide 
sub Q. Toza). 
Hab. In collibus Syriae in Galilee ! et Samaria ! PL vere ; fr. October. 
Bist. Hispania, Graecia ! Asia minor ! Creta ! 
Of the above names, the original, JEgilops, is that in general nse for this the Vallonea 
Oak. Grisebach identifies Olivier's plant (Vallani, Oliv., JEgilops, L.) with Q. LWani, 
Oliv., and Q. castanetefolia, C. A. M. {Trojana, Webb), a plant of Lebanon which we did 
not observe in Palestine. Tchihatcheff, As. Min. Bot. vol. ii. p. 470, however, refers the 
Vallani of Olivier to JEgilops, L. Q. Trojana was applied by Webb to specimens fr 
Phrygia ; Q. Ithaburensis by Decaisne to specimens from Tabor ; and Kotschy lias also 
applied the name to the same plant from the vicinity of Nazareth, by which, no doubt, 
Tabor is meant. Of Q. Look, which inhabits Hermon, I have seen only one specimen, 
without flower or fruit, which altogether resembles small examples of Q. JEgilops, but 
may be referable to Q. castane&folia, C. A. M. The other four names are all applied by 
Kotschy to Taurus forms, except Ehrenbergii, of which a fine specimen is in the Kew 
Museum, resembling JEgilops in the acorn, but the leaves broader and more deeply cut : 
this species was founded on a plant gathered by Ehrenberg at Massa, in the Antilebanon. 
The Vallonea Oak is, like the Q. pseudococcifera, very gregarious in Syria, though 
growing in a widely different manner, never forming a bush or growth of underwood, 
but rising, on a stout gnarled trunk 3-7 feet in girth, to the height of 20-30 feet. 
Wherever we saw it, as on the hills east of Nazareth, on Tabor (where it is abundant), 
to the east of Caifa, and on the N.E. flank of Carmel, it forms scattered, rather round- 
headed, densely leafy trees, giving an open park-like appearance to the landscape. From 
its stout habit and sturdy limbs, and from a specimen of the wood of the Basan Oak given 
to the Kew Museum by Cyril Graham, Esq., I should be inclined to suppose that this was 
the Oak of Basan. The wood is said to be excellent ; and the tree is, like all other timber 
fo Syria, indiscriminately cut for house-fitting and fuel. At the foot of Tabor, almost 
ah the largest trees were mutilated by ineffectual attempts on the part of the Turks and 
Arabs to fell them ; none of these were more than about 6 feet in circumference. 
The gland of the acorn of this species often attains a very large size : some we gathered 
were 2\ inches long, and 3 inches in girth ; but they vary extremely on the same tree, 
some being so smaU that I have had difficulty in discriminating between them and large 
°aes of Q. pseudococcifera. I have examples which, had they not been taken by myself 
f rom an ^Jgilops tree which also bore large acorns, I should have attributed to hybri- 
dization between the two. When fully ripe the gland is still green ; and in this state it 
germinates, the pericarp never hardening. These may be seen in all the bazaars, raw 
a nd boiled, in which state they are eaten by Turks and Arabs ; rude ornaments are also 
made of the shell. The seeds of this species which I brought home have germinated in 
