502 OCTANDRIA. TETRAGYNIA. Quergus. 
(E. hydropi'per. Leases opposite, in pairs : stem striking root, very 
much branched. 
E. Bot. 955. 
Has the general appearance of Montia fontana. Root fibrous^ white. 
Plant very smooth, often growing under water. Stems very much 
branched, spreading, striking root, leafy, about two inches long. 
Leaves opposite, battledore-shaped, very entire, scarcely one quarter of 
an inch long. Blossoms axillary, solitary, on fruit-stalks, white, or rose- 
coloured, generally closed, and, with us, three-cleft, having six stamens, 
three pistils; though sometimes, on the same plant, four-cloven, with 
eight stamens, and four pistils. Seeds numerous, small, oblong, curved, 
angular, prettily striated across. FI. Brit. 
Small Waterwort. ( E. Hydropiper. E. Bot. FI. Brit. Willd. /3. but, 
according to Smith, not of Linn, which is described as a larger plant, 
generally growing entirely under water, and not yet observed in Eng¬ 
land. E. tripetala. Eng. FI. E.) On the sandy shores of lakes and 
ponds. Discovered by the Rev. Mr. Williams, about the eastern shore 
of Bomere Pool, near Condover, Shropshire. (Near Binfield, Berks. Mr. 
T. F. Forster. E.) A. Aug. E.) 
QUER'CUS.* B. and F. Flowers on the same plant: Bloss. 
none. 
B. Calyx bell-shaped, five-cleft: Stamens five to ten. 
F. Cal. bell-shaped, very entire, rough: Style one: 
Nut egg-shaped, coriaceous, of one seed, and, 
when ripe, of one cell. 
(Q. ro'bur. Leaves deciduous, oblong, wider towards the extremity: 
their sinuses rather acute: lobes obtuse: fruit-stalks elongated. 
E. Bot. 1342— Hunt. Evel. 69— Woodv. 126— FI. Han. 1180. 
A noble tree with widely extended, nearly horizontal, and somewhat 
flexuose, or zigzag arms. Leaves alternate, sub-sessile, smooth, shining 
above, paler, and slightly glaucous beneath, with a single mid-rib, and 
veins passing into the lobes. Flowers in axillary catkins; the barren 
ones pendant, yellow, many-flowered, deciduous, two inches long. The 
fertiles ones lateral, small, brownish green, about three on each peduncle ; 
the outer calyx enlarged and indurated, becoming the permanent recep¬ 
tacle or cup of the smooth, finally deciduous nut or acorn . 
Common British Oak. Irish: Crann Darah. Welsh: Herwen goesog. 
Gaelic: An Harach. Q. robur. Linn. Huds. a. Relh. Sibth. Woodv. Sm. 
Hook. Grev. Purt. Q.foemina. With. Oed. Q. pedunculata. Willd. Ait. 
Ehrh. Very general in woods and hedges, especially in the northern half 
of our island; in sheltered situations attaining a vast size ; on mountain¬ 
ous and exposed spots dwarfish. (In proof of the aboriginal nature of 
the Oak, Mr. Winch adduces the fact, that enormous trunks and branches 
of these trees are dug out of the peat mosses in the vales of Tyne, Der¬ 
went, and Tees; and that this phenomenon occurs even among the 
recesses of the Cheviot mountains, a district which is now destitute of 
Oaks. E.) T. April. E.) 
* (The etymology of this name has been satisfactorily deduced by Le Pelletier and De 
Theis, from the Celtic quer, fine or noble, and cuez , a tree. This pre-eminent tree was 
also called in the Celtic tongue Derw , whence Druid or Priest of the Oak. E.) 
