“In the year 1840, an account was published in the ‘Botanical Register,’ of certain oaks that had been found in Kurdistan, by Dr. Edward Dickson, while travelling with James Brant, esq., Her Majesty's Consul at Erzeroum. From the information thus obtained it appeared, that out of six or seven species inhabiting the country examined by Mr. Brant, three were previously unknown, and two were of great rarity. These were, Quercus rigida, of Willdenow; Q. infectoria, of Linnæus; and Q. regia, Brantii, and mannifera, then described for the first time. Q. regia was a tree with the foliage of a Spanish chesnut. Q. Brantii was remarkable for its large leaves, which, when full grown, were six inches long, including the stalk, and three and a-half inches across at the widest part; when young they were covered with thick down. Q. mannifera, with much the appearance of the Q. sessiliflora of Europe, had larger and thinner leaves without the yellow footstalks of that species: it received its name from producing, in considerable quantity, a sweet secretion, comparable to manna, called by the natives Ghiok-hel-vahsée, and made by them into round flat cakes.

“As soon as the existence of these oaks was ascertained, a desire was felt to obtain them for cultivation. Mr. Layard, at the request of the Horticultural Society, sent home, in the autumn of 1850, a box of acorns packed in paper, and still retaining vitality; and at a later period a package, in which honey had been employed as a preservative, but in that instance the acorns were all dead.