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A small tree, rarely attaining 60 feet in height, and often, in the wild state, a dense shrub with a twisted stem. Bark rather rougher and more scaly than that of the common oak. Twigs and buds densely pubescent, the scales of the latter being ciliate on the margin and pubescent all over their surface. Leaves small, about 3 inches long, variable in shape, wrinkled in margin, cuneate or cordate at the base, with four to eight pairs of rounded lobes variable in depth; always densely pubescent underneath; petiole tomentose, ½ to 1 inch long. Axis of male flowers pubescent. Female flowers with sessile stigmas and tomentose ovary. Fruits, one to four, crowded on a short thick stalk, or sessile; cups tomentose and often tubercular.

This oak occurs on dry soils, especially those of limestone formation, in the south of France, Corsica, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Alsace, south Baden, Thuringia, Austria, Hungary, southern and western Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Crimea, Caucasus, and Asia Minor. In Provence it forms dense, low thickets covering extensive areas of the very dry lower parts of the limestone mountains. In Corsica it appears to be the only deciduous species of oak; and was seen by me forming scattered groves in the mountains below the zone of Pinus Laricio, at about 2000 feet elevation. I observed no trees larger than a foot in diameter; and it is evident that it is very distinct from Q. sessiliflora, which, if it occurred, would grow to a large size in the Corsican humid climate. The tree is of no importance in Corsica as a source of timber; and Mr. Rotgès of the forest service considered that it should always be treated as coppice.

It produces hybrids with both Q. sessiliflora and Q. pedunculata, and differs markedly from both these species in its habit of producing root-suckers, and moreover the bark is different.

Loudon incorrectly states that it occurs in the New Forest, and Sussex. There is a tree of this form growing at Syon with a remarkably curved bole of about 18 feet long and 5 feet 10 inches in girth. If upright this tree might have been 50 feet high. Elwes has seen this species growing wild in the forest of Fontainebleau, which Hickel informed him was about its northern limit as a wild tree; here it is usually small and stunted, so far as he saw, and of no economic value.

1. Var. Hartwissiana, Hort. Leaves with six or seven pairs of lobes, which are mucronate at the tips.