DR. HOOKER ON THREE OAKS OF PALESTINE. 385 



Q. Trojana, Webb in Jaub. et Spacli, 111. i. t. 54; Kotschy, Coll. No. 391 ! 



Q. Gaedelii, Kotschy, Herb. It. Cilic. No. 387 ! (et 407 ! -O- 



Q. Vallonea, Kotschy, /. c. t. 7, et Herb. It. Cilic. No. 80 ! 391 ! 394 ! Tchihatcheff, /. c. p. 474. 



Q. Ithaburensis, Kotschy, I. c. t. 12. 

 ? Q. Look, Kotschy, Z. c. t. 21 : vide sub Q. cast anecef alia - 



? Q. Ehrenbergii, Kotschy, I. c. t. 15; Herb. It. Cilic. No. 393 ! TchihatchefT, L c. p. 474 (vide 

 sub Q. Toza). 



Hub. In collibus Syrise in Galilee ! et Samaria ! Fl. vere ; fr. October. 

 Dist. Hispania, Graecia ! Asia minor! Creta ! 



Of the above names, the original, ^gilops, is that in general use for this the Vallonea 

 Oak. Grisebach identifies Olivier's plant {Vcdlani, Oliv., u^Scjilops, L.) with Q. Libcmi, 

 Oliv., and Q. castanecefoUa, C. A. M. {Trojana, Webb), a plant of Lebanon which we did 

 not observe in Palestine. TchihateheflP, As. Min. Bot. vol. ii. p. 470, however, refers the 

 Vallani of Olivier to ^TJgilops, L. Q. Trojana was applied by "Webb to specimens from 

 Phrygia ; Q. Ithaburensis by Decaisne to specimens from Tabor ; and Kotschy has 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. castanecefoUa, 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 ^Egiloj^s 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. 2^seudococcifera, 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 

 in Syria, indiscriminately cut for house-fitting and fuel. At the foot of Tabor, almost 

 all the largest trees were mutilated by ineffectual attempts on the part of the Turks and 

 Araljs 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 small that I have had difficulty in discriminating between them and large 

 ones of Q. pseudococcifera. I have examples which, had they not been taken by myself 

 from an JEgilox)s 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 

 and 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 



