DR. HOOKER ON THREE OAKS OF PALESTINE. 383 



that any person who should cut or maim the Oak would lose his firstborn son, considerable 

 difficulty was experienced in procuring hands to saw up the timber for transportation ; 

 these were at last brought from Jerusalem, nearly tAventy-five miles ofi", and loaded seven 

 camels with the wood of the one limb of this fine tree. 



The timber of Q. pseudo-coccifera 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. coccijera 

 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 be seen that in 

 geographical distribution, as in botanical synonymy, the Q. pseudo-coccifera completely 

 overleaps Q. coccifera, extending from Spain and Algeria to the borders of the Mesopo- 

 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 slight, and a 

 long way within the limits of variation oi pseudo-coccifera observed in Syria ; and as the 

 acorns of coccifera take two years to ripen, there is much time for variation during deve- 

 lopment. The European Q. coccifera is described as a bushy shrulj resembling the 

 Holly, and is browsed on by cattle : this precisely accords with the character of pseudo- 

 coccifera in Syria, which is further called Holly by many travellers (Martineau, Porter, 

 &c.). Again, the specimens of coccifera cultivated at Kew precisely accord with the 

 Syrian pseudo-coccifera, 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-coccifera 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 Avaved 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 to pseudo-coccifera 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. There are young 

 Algerian specimens, which have survived the severe frosts of 1860-61, at Kew, where also 

 the acorns I brought from Syria have germinated. Loudon (1838) mentions but one 

 tree known to him in cultivation as bearing this name, which exists in the Horticul- 

 tural Society's Gardens at Chiswick. 



2. Qtjercus infectouia, Olivier, Voyage, 1. 10 ; Willd. Sp. PI. iv. 436 ; Kotschy, Herb. 

 It. Cilic. No. 863 ! 371 ! var. grosse-serrata, No. 369 ! 



Q. Cariensis, Willd. fid. Loudon, Arboret. p. 1928. 



Q. Boissie7-i, Rent., Boiss. Diagn. xil. p. 119 ; Herb. It. Syriac. No. 126 ! 



Q. Pfmffingeri, Kotschy, Eichen Europ. und Orient, t. xxiii., et Herb. It. Cilic. No. 373 ! 



Q. inermis, Ehrb. fide Kotschy, Herb. It. Syriac. No. 364 ! 



Q. Tauricola, Kotschy ! I. c. t. x., et Herb. It. Cilic. No. 365 ! et var. fol. undul. No. 367 ! 



Q. leptocarpus, Kotschy, Herb. It. Cilic. No. 372 ! 



Q. poly car pos, Kotschy, Herb. It. Cilic. No. 370 ! 



