255 



bracts : stamens 5—20 from the bottom of the perianth, free, 

 filaments slender, anthers 2-ceUed : rudimentary ovary free or 

 none : pollen globose, smooth, 3-lobed. Female flowers 

 single or few immersed in a cupula, the cup bracteate 

 at the base, furnished with scales, and even sometimes with- 

 prickles, or slowly growing segments : perianth regular, 

 usually 6-lobed : ovary inferior, 1 — 3- (seldom 4 — 7-) celled : 

 ovules twin in each cell, erect or pendulous, anatropal, 

 furnished with a double integument: styles as many as the 

 cells, superposed on them, undivided, stigmatose upwards : 

 fruit consisting of a small cup and nut (called an acorn), cup 

 sometimes cleft : seed one, with abortive ovules : albumen 

 none : embryo with a small superior radicle and fleshy coty- 

 ledons. — Trees, rarely shrubs : leaves alternate, penninerved, 

 with stipules : male spikes caducous : cotyledons mealy, some- 

 times edible. 



GENUS I. QUEECUS. 



Monoecia Enneandrla. Sex: Syst: 



BervB. From the Celtic Quer, flne, and Cue% a tree. 



Gen. Chae. Male flowers solitary on a catkin : seldom temate, 

 nsTiaUy surroimded by a caducous bract : perianth regularly or 

 irregularly 4 — 7- (usually 5 — 6-) lobed : "^ stamens varying in 

 number : filaments exserted : anthers 2-ceUed, usually muticous : 

 rudimentary pistil usually none, if present, globose, free, hirsute : 

 female flowers solitary in a single cupula, sometimes approximated 

 in connected cups : perianth 3 — 8-usually 6-lobed at the apex : 

 ovary inferior, l-celled above, 3-ceUed below, the placentae scarcely 

 cohering at the centre, ceUs 2-ovuled ; ovules inserted at various 

 points, hemianatropal upwards : styles 3, placed above the ceUs, one 

 looking to ^e bract, usually ligulate spreading, sometimes Imear, 

 erect: fruit a scaly or zoned cup, the acorn more or less free, 

 exserted or enclosed : seed one by abortion : testa membranaceous : 

 cotyledons thick, usually flat-convex and entire : radicle superor. — 

 Trees : stipules fugacious : leaf-buds stipulaceous, scaly : catkins 

 pendulous or erect, usually males, seldom androgynous, springing 

 from the lower axUs or lateral buds : female peduncles from the 

 foUowing axils or terminal leaf-buds, few-flowered, terminated by a 

 flower, the other flowers usually abortive, few coming to maturity, 

 each flower involucrated by a cup. 



