12 Some "Enquiry concerning 



to decay even while growing, whence its habitual hollowness. It is added, that 

 this species of oak is apt to be struck by lightning, although of no altitude. 



5. The Phegos, we are told, bore a round fruit, the sweetest of all the tribe. 

 Its timber was remarkably strong, and not subject to decay. Its growth was 

 less straight than that of the Hemeris. The trunk was very thick, and the 

 whole form depressed, from the circumstance of the branches not tending up- 

 wards, but forming a round head. 



Such are the oaks of Theophrastus. Others, subvarieties no doubt, were 

 to be found, like that mentioned by Olivier {Travels, ii. 5.), which is merely a 

 pedunculated variety of the Q. Cerris, and may easily have passed unheeded. 

 But, if we endeavour to identify these five with existing specimens, we may be 

 well assured that the most common and conspicuous of the oaks that grow in 

 the Levant are best suited to the enquiry. 



1. The Hemeris agrees well with the Cerris, the Turkey, or Iron, Oak, the 

 Romaic SiSvpoarapt.. " This tree furnishes a timber that is good both in size 

 and quality. The comparative experiments made upon this tree indicate a 

 remarkably quick growth, without, it is said, any inferiority in the quality of 

 the timber to that of our common English oak, either for ship-building or 

 other purposes." (Holland's Travels, p. 88. and 210.) The Q. Cerris, observes 

 Olivier (Travels, ii. 5.), " is that which is brought to the arsenal of Constanti- 

 nople from the southern shores of the Black Sea, and which is most commonly 

 employed in the framework of houses. It is also met with in a great part of 

 Asia Minor and Syria. It grows to a considerable height, and furnishes an ex- 

 cellent wood." 



2. The iEgilops is a name now affixed to the well known * Valanida Oak, 

 which is described by Olivier, speaking, like Theophrastus, of the oaks of Ida. 

 (Travels, ii. 44.) " It grows on the western coast of Natolia, in the islands of 

 the Archipelago, in those of Corfu and Cefalonia, and throughout all Greece ; 

 it does not rise to the height of our Turkey oak : its wood is not so esteemed, 

 and is scarcely employed but in cabinet-work." But can this be the lofty 

 iEgilops, with its timber of such excellent quality ? the iEgilops of Theo- 

 phrastus ? That far better accords with the Virgilian iEsculus, by which 

 name M. Alexandre and others have translated the Greek iEgilops. 



" Nemorumque Jovis qua? maxima surgit 



iEsculus." Virg. Geor., i. 16. 



-" For Jove's own tree, 



That holds the woods in awful sov'reignty, 



Requires a depth of lodging in the ground ; 



And, next the lower skies, a bed profound. 



High as his topmost boughs to Heav'n ascend, 



So low his roots to Hell's dominion tend. 



Therefore, nor winds, nor winter's rage o'erthrows 



His bulky body, but unmoved he grows. 



For length of ages lasts his happy reign, 



And lives of mortal men contend in vain. 



Full in the midst of his own strength he stands, 



Stretching his brawny arms, and leafy hands ; 



His shade protects the plain, his head the hills commands." f 



Dryden. 



* The Romaic language delights in diminutives, and Valanida is the dimi- 

 nutive, from fiaXavoc, as affording the acorn of commerce. 



f It must be admitted that this version of Dryden's, beautiful and animated 

 as it is, falls short of the magnificent original : — 



" iEsculus in primis : qua? quantum vertice ad auras 

 iEthereas, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. 



