QUE 
a u e 
5 A 1 
a u k 
pears, which always falls when this salt is 
dropt into pure water. 17. Muriat and ar- 
seniat of cobalt occasion no change. 18. Arse- 
niat of potass produces no effect. 19. Tinc- 
ture of nutgalls, infusion of nutgalls, gallic 
acid, occasion no effect. 
These properties are sufficient to convince 
us that the bitter principle is a substance 
differing considerably from all the other ve- 
getable principles. The little effect of the 
different reagents is remarkable. Nit rat of 
silver and acetat of lead are the only two 
bodies which throw it down. This precipita- 
tion cannot be ascribed to the presence ot 
muriatic acid ; for if muriatic acid was pre- 
sent, nitrat of lead would also be thrown 
down. Besides, the flakes introduced by 
nitrat of stiver are too light, and indeed have 
no resemblance whatever to muriat of silver. 
The precipitate by acetat of lead is very co- 
pious. This salt is therefore the best sub- 
stance for detecting the presence of the bitter 
principle, when we are certain that no other 
substance is present which throws down lead. 
QUEEN, a woman who holds a crown 
singly. The title of queen is also given by 
way of courtesy to her that is married to a 
king, who is called by way of distinction 
queen-consort. 
A queen-consort is inferior to the king, and 
is really his subject, though, as the king’s 
wife, she has several prerogatives above other 
women. Though an alien, she may purchase 
lands in fee-simple, without either naturaliza- 
tion or denization. She may present to a 
benefice. She shall not be amerced if she is 
nonsuited in any action ; and may not be 
impleaded till first petitioned. To conspire 
her death, or violate her chastity, is high 
treason. She has an antient peculiar revenue 
called queen-gold; besides a very large 
dower, with a royal court, and officers of her 
own. No person here must marry a queen 
dowager without the licence of the succeed- 
ing king, on pain of forfeiting his lands and 
goods; but though she marry any of the no- 
bility, or even one under that degree, she 
does not lose her dignity. 
QUERCUS, the oak-tree, a genus of the 
polyandria order, in the moncecia class of 
plants, and % the natural method ranking 
under the 50th order, amentaceae. The calyx 
is nearly quinquefid ; there is no corolla ; the 
stamina are from five to ten in number. r I he 
female calyx is monophyllous, very entire, 
and scabrous. There is no corolla; the styles 
are from two to five ; and there is an ovate 
seed. 
There are 26 species ; the most remarkable 
are: 1. The robur, or common English oak, 
from about 60 or 70 to 100 feet high, with a 
prodigious large trunk and spreading head. 
There is a varietv having the leaves finely 
striped with white. This species grows in 
great abundance all over England, in woods, 
forest, and hedge-rows, and is supposed to 
continue its growth many centuries. 2. 'I he 
prinus, or chesnut-leaved American oak, 
grows 50 or 60 feet high; having large ob- 
long-oval smooth leaves, pointed both ways, 
the edges sinuated- serrated, with the sinuses 
uniformly round. 3. The phellos, or willow- 
leaved American oak, grows 40 or 50 feet 
high, having long, narrow, smooth, entire 
leaves, like those of the willow. There is a 
variety called the dwarf willow-leaved oak. 
4. The alba, or white Virginian oak, grows 
10 
30 or40 feet high, having a whitish bark, with 
long obliquely pinnatilid light-green leaves, 
the sinuses and angles obtuse. 5. The nigra, 
or black Virginian oak, grows 30 or 40 feet 
high, having a dark-coloured bark, large 
wedge-shaped slightly-trilobated leaves. 6. 
Tire rubra, or red Virginian oak, grows about 
60 feet high, having a dark-greyish bark, long 
obtusely-sinuated leaves, with the sinuses 
terminated by bristly points, and sometimes 
red spotted veins, but generally dying in 
autumn to a reddish colour, remaining on the 
trees late in the season. 7. The esculus of 
Pliny, or cut-leaved Italian oak, grows about, 
30 feet high, having a purplish bark, oblong 
deeply-sinuated smooth leaves, and long 1 
slender close- sitting acorns in very large ! 
cups. 8. TEgilops, or large prickly-cupped 
Spanish oak, grows 70 or 80 feet high, or 
more, with a very large trunk, and widely 
spreading head, having a whitish bark, large 
oblong-oval deeplv-serrated smooth leaves, 
the serratures bowed backward, and large 
acorns placed in-singularly large prickly -cups. 
This is a noble species, almost equal in growth 
to our common English oak. 9. Cerris, 
or smaller prickly-cupped Spanish oak, grows j 
30 or 40 feet high, and has oblong lyre-shaped 
pinnatilid transversely-jagged leaves, downy j 
underneath, and small acorns placed in 
prickly cups. 10. The ilex, or common 
evergreen oak, grows 40 or 50 feet high, hav- 
ing a smooth bark, oval and oblong undivided 
serrated petiolated leaves, downy and whitish 
underneath. The varieties are, broad-leav- 
ed, narrow-leaved, and sometimes both sorts, 
and other clifferent-shaped leaves on the same 
tree; also sometimes with sawed and prickly 
leaves. 1 1 . The gramuntia, or Montpelier 
holly-leaved evergreen oak, grows 40 or 50 
feet high ; and has oblong-oval, close-sitting, 
sinuated, spinous leaves, downy underneath, 
bearing a resemblance to the leaves of holly. 
12. The sober, or cork-tree, grows 30 or 40 
feet high, having a thick, rough, fungous, 
cleft bark, and oblong-oval, undivided, serrat- 
ed leaves, downy underneath. This species 
furnishes that useful material cork, it being 
the bark of the tree ; which becoming of a 
thick fungous nature, under which, at the 
same time, is formed a new bark, and the 
old being detached for use, the tree still lives, 
and the succeeding young bark becomes also 
of the same thick spongy nature in six or 
seven years, fit for barking, having likewise 
another fresh bark forming under it, becom- 
ing cork like the others in the like period of 
time: and in this manner these trees wonder- 
fully furnish the cork for use. The tree 
grows in great plenty in Spain and Portugal, 
and from these countries we receive the cork. 
The Spaniards burn it, to make that kind of 
light black we call Spanish black, used by 
painters. Cups made of cork are said to be 
good for hectical persons to drink out of. The 
Egyptians made coffins of cork, which being 
lined with a resinous composition, preserved 
dead bodies uncorrupted. The Spaniards 
line stone walls with it, which not only ren- 
ders them very warm, but corrects the moist- 
ure of the air. 13. The coccifera, scarlet, 
or kermes oak, grows but 14 or 15 feet high, 
branching all tiie way, and of bushy growth, 
with large oval, undivided, indented, spinous 
leaves, and producing small glandular ex- 
crescences, called kermes, or scarlet grain, 
used by the dyers. The small scarlet glands 
found in this tree are the effect of certain in- 
sects depositing their eggs betwixt the bark of 
the branches and leaves, causing an extrava- 
sation of the sap, and forming the excres- 
cence or substance in question, which being 
dried is the kermes or scarlet pastel. 14. 1 he 
Molucca, Moluccan oak, commonly called 
American live oak, grows about 40 feet high, 
having oval, spear-shaped, smooth, entire 
leaves, and small, oblong, eatable acorns. 
All the above produce flowers annually in 
the spring, about April or May, of a yellow- 
ish colour, but make no ornamental appear- 
ance, and are males and females separated in 
the same tree, the males being in loose amen- 
turns, and the females sitting close to the buds 
in thick leathery hemispherical calyxes, suc- 
ceeded by the fruit or acorns. 
The English oak claims precedence as a 
timber-tree, for its prodigious height and 
bulk, and superior worth of its wood. Every 
possessor of considerable estates ought there- 
fore to be particularly assiduous in raising- 
woods of them ; which is effected by sowing 
the acorns either in a nursery and the plants 
transplanted where they are to remain, or 
sown at once in the places where they are 
always to stand. All the sorts will prosper in 
any middling soil and open situation, though 
in a loamy soil they are generally more pros- 
perous ; however, there are but few soils in 
which oaks will not grow ; they will even 
thrive tolerably in gravelly, sandy, and clavey r 
land, as may be observed in many parts of 
this country of the common oak. 
The oak is remarkable for its slowness of 
growth, bulk, and longevity. It has been 
remarked that the trunk has attained to the 
size only of fourteen inches in diameter, 
and some to twenty, in the space of four- 
score years. As to bulk, we have an ac- 
count of an oak belonging to lord Powis 
growing in Broomfield-wood, near Ludlow 
m Shropshire, in the year 1764, the trunk 
of which measured 68 feet in girth, 23 in 
length, and which, reckoning 90 feet for 
the larger branches, contained in the whole 
1455 feet of timber, round measure, or 29 
loads and five feet, at 50 feet to a load. 
In the opinion of many, the Cowthorp oak 
near Wetherby, in Yorkshire, is the father of 
the forest. Dr. Hunter, in his edition of 
Evelyn, has given an engraving of it. Within 
three feet of the surface, lie says, it measures 
16 yards, and close to the ground 26. In 
1776, though in a ruinous condition, it was 
85 feet high, and its principal limb extended 
16 yards from the hole. Hie foliage was 
very thin. If this measurement M as taken as 
the dimensions of the real stem, the size of 
this tree would be enormous; but, like most 
very large trees, its stem is short, spreading 
wide at the base, the roots rising above the 
ground like buttresses to the trunk, which is 
similar not to a cylinder but to the frustum of 
a cone. Mr. Marsham says, “ I found it in 
176S, at four feet, 49 feet 6 inches; at five 
feet, 36 feet 6 inches; and at six feet, 32 feet 
l inch.” In the principal dimensions then, the 
size of the stein, it is exceeded by the Bent- 
ley oak, of which the same writer gives the 
following account: “ In 1759 the oak in 
Holt-forest, near Bentley, was at seven feet 
34 feet. There is a large excrescence at five 
and six feet that would render the measure 
unfair. In 1778 this tree was increased half 
an inch in 10 years. It does not appear to 
