Fagus. | LXXIII. AMENTACEZ. 407 
1. F. sylvatica, Linn. (fig. 914). Common Beech.—A tall tree, with 
a straight, smooth trunk, and large, dense head. Leaves shortly stalked, 
ovate, entire or obscurely toothed, silky when young, glabrous when full- 
grown. Catkins or flower-heads softly silky-hairy, the males 4 to 6 lines 
diameter, on slender, drooping peduncles 1 to 14 inches long, consisting 
of about a dozen flowers. Female catkins nearly as large, but on a very 
short, erect peduncle. Fruiting catkin about 3 inch diameter ; the prickles 
rather soft and silky, containing 2 or 3 triangular nuts, commonly called 
mast. 
In temperate Europe, extending eastward to the Caucasus and north- 
ward into southern Scandinavia, becoming rather a mountain plant in 
southern Europe. Extensively planted in Britain, establishing itself readily 
as a naturalized tree, and indigenous only in England, 7. spring. 
VII. QUERCUS. OAK. 
Flowers moneecious, the males in slender, pendulous catkins or spikes, 
usually interrupted, without any or with only very small catkin-scales. 
Stamens 6 to 12, with similar filaments, surrounded by about as many 
narrow scales, sometimes united into an irregular perianth. Female flowers 
solitary or clustered, each one surrounded by an involucre of small imbri- 
cated scales. Perianth adherent to the ovary at its base, with a short 
toothed border. Ovary 3-celled, with 2 pendulous ovules in each cell. 
Style 3-lobed. Nut or acorn oblong, ovoid, or globular, protruding from a 
woody cup or involucre formed by the enlarged scales. 
A very numerous genus, extending over nearly the whole of the northern 
hemisphere, excepting the extreme north, but only penetrating into the 
tropics along the chain of the Andes or in the Moluccas. Many exotic 
species have evergreen or entire leaves, or are mere shrubs, but are all readily 
' recognized by the fruit, in which the involucre never so completely encloses 
the nut asin the Chestnut and Beech. Among the most frequent in our 
plantations may be mentioned the evergreen or Ilex O. (Q. Ilex) from 
southern Europe, the Cork-tree (Q. Suber) from south-western Europe, the 
Turkey or moss-cupped O. (Q. Cerris) from south-eastern Europe, the red 
O. (Q. rubra), and some others, from North America. ! 
1. Q. Robur, Linn. (fig.915). British Oak.—A stately tree, one of the 
largest and longest-lived natives of our islands. Leaves deciduous, although 
in some varieties they remain through a great part of the winter, 
usually obovate or oblong, irregularly sinuate or almost pinnatifid; the 
lobes usually obtuse, glabrous or (rarely in Britain) downy underneath. 
Cup very much shorter than the acorn, with short, obtuse, closely imbri- 
cated, often scarcely distinct scales. 
Extends over the whole of Europe, except the extreme north, penetrating 
along the chain of the Caucasus a considerable way into central Asia, 
although further north it does notcross the Ural. 7. spring, as the leaves 
are coming out. It varies considerably in foliage and inflorescence, and 
throughout its range two remarkable forms appear so definite and usually 
so permanent that many of the most acute botanists regard them as distinct 
species, The question of their specific identity has been much discussed, 
but the arguments adduced on each side are too long to be here entered 
into, nor are they absolutely conclusive in favour of the view here adopted, 
