Quercus 1271 



to 7500 tons per annum, worth £12 to ^15 per ton. Consul Wood of Patras 

 informs me that though the export from Greece alone in 1896 was over 8000 tons 

 the price has now fallen to ^7 or ^8, which scarcely covers the cost of collecting 

 and cleaning. In 1906 the export had fallen to 3900 tons, and it seems as though it 

 would die out altogether. He adds that the figures apply to the cupule alone and 

 not to the acorn also, which is discarded before shipment. 



Professor Procter of Leeds University informs me that the import has 

 diminished owing to the competition of oak and chestnut extracts, and other 

 tanning materials in the extract form. Valonia extract is now made at Smyrna and 

 may have a considerable future. Greek valonia is well known in the trade and 

 usually averages lower in price than the Smyrna article. As a rule it is less in 

 strength, but good samples of Greek are often better than anything but the best 

 Smyrna. The ripe valonia, either Greek or Smyrna, consists of cups only; but 

 Greek cantata and camatina, are unripe varieties valued for their colour. In 

 camatina the acorn is completely enclosed by the unopened cup ; in camata the 

 acorn shows, but cannot be removed. He cannot say definitely whether any import 

 comes from Syra or Crete, but Greek island valonia is a well-known commodity and 

 often good. 



The Valonia oak and an allied species, Q.persica, Jaubert et Spach, yield a kind 

 of manna in Kurdistan. These trees are visited in August by immense numbers of 

 a small white coccus, from the puncture of which a saccharine fluid exudes and 

 solidifies in little grains. This exudation is collected by the wandering tribes of 

 Diarbekir, who use it as food. A complete account of this peculiar substance is 

 given by Fliickiger and Hanbury.'^ (H. J. E.) 



QUERCUS CASTANE^FOLIA, Chestnut-leaved Oak 



Quercus castanecefolia, Meyer, Verz. kauk. Pflz. 44 (1831); Mathieu, Flore Forestiere, 367 (1897). 

 Quercus Afares, Pomel, Nbuv. Mat. Flore Atlantique, 391 (1874). 



A tree, attaining 100 ft. in height and 10 ft. in girth. Bark deeply divided into 

 longitudinal slightly scaly ridges. Young branchlets covered with a minute dense 

 pubescence. Buds (Plate 78, Fig. 4) ovoid, pubescent, those near the apex of the 

 branchlet surrounded by persistent long filiform pubescent stipules. Leaves 

 (Plate 337, Fig. 47) deciduous in autumn, oblong-elliptical, acuminate at the apex, 

 rounded and unequal or cuneate at the base, 3 to 6 in. long, i^ to 2\ in. wide ; with 

 8 to 14 pairs of lateral nerves, each ending in a mucronate triangular tooth; upper 

 surface dark green, shining, with deciduous minute white stellate hairs; lower 

 surface paler, coated with a minute tomentum ; petiole ^ to f in. long, pubescent. 



Fruit ripening in the second year, solitary or rarely in clusters of two to six, on 

 a stout short pubescent peduncle ; acorn ovoid-cylindrical, | to \\ in. long, glabrous, 

 rounded at the apex, which is crowned by the tomentose style ; cupule hemispheric, 



» PkartnacograpMa, 415 (1879). Virgil, Ed. iv. 30, refers to honeydew on oak, and not to manna, as alleged by 

 Hanbury. 



