[2231] The word “quercus” is frequently used as a general name for the oak; but throughout the present Book it is most employed as meaning a distinct variety of the oak, one of the larger kinds, Fée says, and answering to the Quercus racemosa of Lamarck, the Quercus robur of Linnæus, and the Rouvre of the French.
[2232] This also has been much employed as a general name for the oak; but here, and in other parts of this Book, it is applied to one variety. Fée thinks that it answers to the Quercus sessiliflora of Smith, sometimes also called “rouvre” by the French.
[2233] The Quercus æsculus of Linnæus. It is not improbable that this oak is a different tree from the “Æsculus” of Horace and Virgil, which was perhaps either a walnut, or a variety of the beech.
[2234] It has been suggested that this is the same with the Quercus cerrus of Linnæus, and the Quercus crinita of Lamarck, the gland of which is placed in a prickly cupule. It is rarely found in France, but is often to be met with in Piedmont and the Apennines.
[2235] The Fagus silvatica of Lamarck. Its Latin name, “fagus,” is supposed to have been derived from the Greek φάγω, “to eat.” An oil is extracted from the acorns or nuts, that is much used in some parts of France.
[2236] He speaks probably of one of the galls which are found attached to the leaves of the forest trees.
[2237] “Ilex.” Fée thinks that the varieties known as the Prinos and the Ballota were often confounded by the ancients with the “ilex” or “holm-oak.” This tree, he says, bears no resemblance to the ordinary oak, except in the blossoms and the fruit. It is the Ilex of Linnæus, the “yeuse,” or “green oak,” of the French.
[2238] The Quercus suber of Linnæus; it is found more particularly in the department of the Landes in France.
[2239] As Fée remarks, Pliny is clearly in error here; one kind being the veritable ilex or holm oak, the other, the aquifolium or holly, quite a different tree.
[2240] The smilax or milax was a real holm oak, but the aquifolia was the holly.