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1 "Glandes." Under this name, for which we do not appear to have any English equivalent, were included, as already mentioned, not only the acorn of the oak, but the nut or mast of the beech, and probably most of the hard or kernel fruits. In the present instance Pliny probably alludes only to the fruit of the oak and the beech. Acorns are but little used as an article of food in these days. Roasted, they have been proposed as a substitute for coffee.
2 The acorn of the Quercus ballota of Linnæus is probably meant, which is still much used in the province of Salamanca, and forms an agreeable article of food. This acorn, Fée 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 Romans. These acorns are sold at market in Andalusia in the month of October.
3 So far as it goes, the kernel of the mast or beech-nut is not unpalatable; but in the English beech it is very diminutive.
4 The word "quercu" 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.
5 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. Fee thinks that it answers to the Quercus sessiliflora of Smith, sometimes also called "rouvre" by the French.
6 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.
7 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.
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- Cross-references in notes to this page
(1):
- Strabo, Geography, Strab. 9.2
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(5):
- Lewis & Short, con-gĕnĭtus
- Lewis & Short, occurso
- Lewis & Short, rĕpercussus
- Lewis & Short, rixor
- Lewis & Short, vastĭtas