144 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
each catkin-scale sometimes with 2 floral scales adnate to it, or with 
the floral-scales cohering, and forming a perianth (?) with 4 to 6 lobes: 
stamens 6 to 20. Female flowers solitary or 2 or 3 together, surrounded 
by an involucre, which increases in size after flowering: perianth 
adhering to the ovary, and apparent only as a very minute and often 
deciduous crown of teeth: ovary 2- to 7-celled, with 1 or 2 pendulous 
ovules in each cell. Fruit a nut, which is 1-celled and 1-seeded by 
the abortion of the other cells and ovules, enclosed in a cupule formed 
by the enlarged involucre of the female flowers. 
GENUS I—QUERCUS. Tournef. 
Male flowers in long slender interrupted flexible catkins, without 
catkin-scales, or with minute and deciduous ones at the base of the 
glomerules of which the catkin is composed: floral-scales combined into 
a cuplike perianth (?) with 6 or § narrow unequal segments: stamens 
6 to 10, inserted in a glandular disk at the base of the perianth, 
Female flowers solitary, surrounded by a cup-shaped involucre, the 
outside of which is furnished with numerous scale-like or linear or 
subulate bracts imbricated in many rows: perianth completely adherent 
to the ovary, and produced but little beyond it, the limb with 6 teeth 
or nearly entire: ovary with 3 or 4 cells; ovules 2 in each cell; style 
short and thick; stigmas as many as the cells of the ovary, usually 
spreading. Nut ovoid or oblong-ovoid, crowned by the minute calyx- 
limb and style, 1-celled and 1-seeded, solitary, the base inserted in a 
woody cupule with an entire margin, and with the outside marked by 
bosses or clothed with the linear points of the bracts of which it is 
composed; pericarp tough and leathery. Cotyledons filling the seed, 
plano-convex, fleshy-farinaceous. 
Trees with scaly buds, and deciduous or evergreen leaves often 
sinuated at the margins. Flowers monecious, appearing before the 
leaves or with the young leaves. 
The derivation of the name of this genus of plants is differently given. One writer 
says it is derived from two Celtic words, quer frise, and cuez, a tree; others say it 
comes from the Greek word xoipos, a pig, because pigs feed on the acorns. Mr. Loudon 
tells us that the Celtic name for the oak is Derv, and is said to be the root of the word 
Druid—that is, priest of the oak—and of the Greek word Drus. The Hebrew name 
for the oak (Al or Alow) is said to be the origin of the old English word clan, origi- 
nally signifying an oak grove or place of worship of the Druids, and afterwards, by 
implication, a town or parish ; and also of the Irish words clan and clun. In the book 
of Isaiah (chap. 44, verse 14), idols are said to be made of Allun or Alow—that is, 
of oak, 
