THE BRITISH OAK. 39 
produced. They are exceedingly acrid; this may be 
much reduced by baking. 
The trees are raised best from acorns. 
(2) The evergreen oak, Q. Ilex. (Plate IV, div. B). 
The natural habitat of this tree is in the southern 
parts of Europe. 
It bears an abundance of leaves which are dark 
bluish-green. on the upper-surface and covered with 
greyish pubescence on the under-surface. 
The tree is an evergreen. The shape of the leaf is 
mostly ovate, terminating with a sharp point. The 
margins may be entire, or serrated, and sometimes 
prickly, when it has much the appearance of the 
holly, a resemblance which has caused it to be named 
Quercus Ilex, or the “holm qak.” 
The young shoots are as remarkable for their light 
hue as the full-grown tree is for the characteristic 
sombreness of its foliage. 
The acorns are on short peduncles, and oblong in 
shape; sometimes sweet and bitter acorns are pro- 
duced on the same tree, but it is usual for a tree to 
bear either all sweet or all bitter. 
In early life the tree grows very rapidly, but after a 
few years much more slowly. In warmer climates 
than England it attains a height of 80 or 90 feet, and 
lives to a great age. It has a great partiality for sea- 
air, and it thrives well along the sea coasts of England, 
especially in the south. It can bear the rough south- 
west gales without injury. 
The colour of the wood is dark brown, very hard, 
close grained, durable and flexible. 
