Chap. 6.] 
THIETEEW YARIETIES OF THE ACORN. 
345 
CHAP. 6. (5.) THIETEEK VABIETIES OE THE ACOllN. 
It is a well-known fact that acorns at this very day con- 
stitute the wealth of many nations, and that, too, even amid 
these times of peace. Sometimes, also, when there is a scarcity 
of corn they are dried and ground, the meal heing employed 
for making a kind of hread. Even to this very day, in the 
provinces of Spain, we find the acorn introduced at table in 
the second course : it is thought to be sweeter when roasted 
in the ashes. Ey the law of the Twelve Tables, there is a 
provision made that it shall be lawful for a man to gather his 
acorns when they have fallen upon the land of another. 
The varieties of the glandiferous trees are numerous, and 
they are found to difter in fruit, locality, sex, and taste ; the 
acorn of the beech having one shape, that of the quercus 
another, and that, again, of the holm-oak another. The various 
species also, among themselves, offer a considerable number of 
varieties. In addition to this, some of these trees are of a 
wild nature, while the fruits of others are of a less acrid 
flavour, owing to a more careful cultivation. Then, too, there 
is a difference between the varieties which grow on the moun- 
tains and those of the plains; the males differ from the 
females, and there are considerable modifications in the flavour 
of their fruit. That of the beech is the sweetest of all ; so 
much so, that, according to Cornelius Alexander, the people of 
the city of Chios, when besieged, supported themselves wholly 
on mast. The different varieties cannot possibly be distin- 
guished by their respective names, which vary according to 
39 Glandes." Under this name, for which Ave do not appear to have any- 
English equivalent, were included, as already mentioned, not only the 
acorn of the oak, hut the nut or mast of the heech, and prohably most of 
the hard or kernel fruits. In the present instance Pliny prohably alludes 
only to the fruit of the oak and the beech. Acorns are but little used as 
an article of food in these days. Eoasted, they have been proposed as a 
substitute for coffee. 
The acorn of the Quercus ballota of Linnaeus is probably meant, which 
is still much used in the province of Salamanca, and forms an agreeable 
article of food. This acorn. Fee says, contains a considerable proportion 
of saccharine matter, and is better roasted in the ashes than boiled in water. 
It is not, however, used as a dessert, as in the time of the Eomans. These 
acorns are sold at market in Andalusia in the month of October. 
^1 So far as it goes, the kernel of the mast or beech-nut is not unpa- 
latable ; but in the English beech it is very diminutive. 
