244 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
lifera, belong to Cerris. Spach forms, for the single species, Q. infectoria 
Oli o the group gallifera, with dai maturation, Endlicher added Q. 
only European species; the American botanist is more interested in 
Spach's group, Suber, with the species Q. virens Ait. This species was 
taken by all the authors from Michaux, the elder, to A. Gray, as maturing 
the fruit in the second year. Spach puts it with Suber, with annual matu- 
ration. In the ** Prodromus," and in the latest edition of ** Gray's Manual,” 
itis annual. Gay agrees with, but does injustice to, Endlicher, when he 
says that Endlicher's seventy-seven American and thirty-five east Asiatic 
species, which never have been examined upon their maturation, had been 
joined with Suber. Endlicher ranges neither virens nor the rest in the 
group Suber, but into no group at all. His arrangement is thus: Ilex 
1. Mediterranez et orientales; VI. Suber. VII. Coccifera. 2. Americans. 
8. Japonicer, etc. 
The disagreement of view in respect to maturation is explained by the 
fact that until now two different species, with different maturation, have 
Spain along the Atlantic, and furnishes all the cork used in these coun- 
tries. It is Quercus occidentalis Gay, with biennial maturation, and was 
kept before the discovery of Gay for Suber. Itis remarkable that often 
quite EOGHAE species differ only in maturation, and it is not impossible 
hat the mistake concerning Q. virens grounds on an interchange o 
cinerea d pes former. In regard to the flrst groups Gay follows End- 
licher and Spach; but I think there is an objection to the second group 
Elxobalanus. The subulate prolongation of the upper scales of the cup 
is so variable that this character is not profitable to be used.in a natural 
arrangement. I have seen fruits of Q. macrocarpa, in which the prolon- 
gation of the scales was scarcely perceptible; on the other hand I have 
seen fruits of Q. bicolor or Prinus discolor, with very much prolonged 
scales. It is my opinion that Q. macrocarpa falls under the group Robur, 
and that in — Elzobalanus should be dropped. 
There wo essays of A. De Candolle in ** Ann. des Sc. Nat. ser., 
IV, Vol. poh ” (1862): Sur le fruit Ps chêne and Etude sur Véspéce. De 
to form artificial subdivisions, which are necessary from the great number 
of species. A new diagnostic character, discovered by De Candolle, is 
for the same reason unfit to form natural groups. This is the position of 
the abortive ovules at the base, or at the apex, of the ripe seed. Workin 
for the 
nervation of the leaf, respecting the direction and relative size of the 
