CHAP. CV. 



C'ORYLA CE/E. (^UE f llCUS. 



1907 



Lamarck; and whether both sorts may not be 

 merely varieties of Q. Plex. Sir J. E. Smith 

 says Linnaeus confounded a variety of Q. Plex, 

 which he had received from MagnoPs herba- 

 rium, with Q. gramuntia, which Smith, as quoted 

 above, has correctly described, apparently from 

 a living plant. From a tree bearing this name at 

 Purser's Cross, which produces fruit annually, 

 this oak certainly appears to be closely allied to 

 Q. Plcx ; but it is, nevertheless, very distinct, and 

 is, doubtless, as well entitled to be considered a 

 species as many others recognised as such by 

 botanists. Captain S. E. Cook, who paid great 

 attention to this oak when in Spain, has the 

 following remarks on it : — " This species is 

 quite distinct from the Q. Plex, its nearest con- 

 gener. The leaves are thicker, more rounded at 

 the point, of a dull glaucous green, and the tree 

 altogether is of a more compact and less grace- 

 ful form than the Italian ilex. The great and essential difference, however, 

 consists in the acorns, which are edible, and, when in perfection, are as good 

 as, or superior to, a chestnut. To give this sweetness, they must be kept ; 

 as, at first, they have a considerable taste of the tannin, like those of the 

 other species, which disappears in a few days, and accounts 

 for the scepticism of some writers, who assert that both 

 sweet and bitter are the produce of the same tree, and that 

 their sweetness is no character. These are the edible acorns 

 of the ancients, which they believed fattened the tunny fish 

 on their passage from the Ocean to the Mediterranean ; a 

 fable only proving that the acorns grew on the delicious 

 shores and rocks of Andalusia, which, unhappily, is no longer 

 the case. Remains of them may, however, still be traced in 

 the west ; and they fattened the swine which produced the 

 celebrated salted meats of Malaga and that vicinity. These 

 are the bellotas, which Teresa, the wife of Sancho Panza, 

 gathered herself in La Mancha, where they grew in the 

 greatest perfection, and sent to the duchess, wishing, instead 

 of their being only the best of their kind, they were the 

 size of ostrich eggs. I have frequently seen them produced 

 by individuals, and offered to the company, as bon-bons are in some 

 countries, with a sort of apology for their small intrinsic value, from their 

 size and flavour. This species is, beyond question, very hardy ; I believe 

 even more so than the ilex of Italy. It ascends the sides of the sierras 

 in the inclement region of the centre of Castile; and, in Arragon, is seen 

 within the limits of the Pinus sylvestris and P. uncinata; as also in the 

 cold and wintry valley of Andorre. The widest forests of it are now in 

 Estremadura, where the best sausages, and other salted meats, are made 

 from the vast herds of swine which are bred in them. This species ought 

 to be denominated Q. hispanica, instead of a weak and obscure name from 

 a wood (which, 1 have heard, no longer exists), where the tree may possibly 

 not have been a native, although the climate and soil of Lower Languedoc 

 very much resemble that of the two regions of Spain to which this tree is 

 confined." (Sketches in Spain, vol. ii. p. 246.) As a proof of the hardiness 

 of this tree, Dralet mentions that he found it growing on the crest of the 

 mountains of the Andorras, where the snow covers the surface for several 

 months during the year ; and this circumstance, he says, explained to him 

 the reason why the kings of Spain had succeeded in getting it to grow in 

 the park at the Prado, near Madrid, where they had tried in vain to cultivate 

 the olive. (See Traite, &c, p. 17G.; see, also, Gard. Mag., vol. iv. p. 0'9.) 



h 3 



1788 



