Chapter XVIII: Section 1: Flowers in unisexual aments (female flowers of Juglans and (6)

Trees, with watery juice, slender terete branchlets marked by numerous usually pale lenticels, alternate stalked penniveined leaves, and narrow mostly deciduous stipules. Flowers monœcious, the staminate in unisexual heads or aments, composed of a 4—8-lobed calyx, and 4 or 8 stamens, with free simple filaments and introrse 2-celled anthers, the cells parallel and contiguous, opening longitudinally; the pistillate solitary or clustered, in terminal unisexual or bisexual spikes or heads, subtended by an involucre of imbricated bracts becoming woody and partly or entirely inclosing the fruit, and composed of a 4—8-lobed calyx adnate to the 3—7-celled ovary with as many styles as its cells and 1 or 2 pendulous anatropous or semianatropous ovules in each cell. Fruit a nut 1-seeded by abortion, the outer coat cartilaginous, the inner membranaceous or bony. Seed filling the cavity of the nut, without albumen; seed-coat membranaceous; cotyledons fleshy, including the minute superior radicle; hilum, basal, minute.

The six genera of this widely distributed family occur in North America with the exception of Nothofagus, separated from Fagus to receive the Beech-trees of the southern hemisphere.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA.

Staminate flowers fascicled in globose-stalked heads; the pistillate
in 2—4-flowered clusters.
1. Fagus.
Staminate flowers in slender aments.
Pistillate flowers in 2—5-flowered clusters below the staminate, in
bisexual aments.
Nut inclosed in a prickly burr.
Leaves deciduous; ovary 6-celled; nut maturing in one season;
branchlets lengthening by an upper axillary bud;
bud-scales 4.
2. Castanea.
Leaves persistent; ovary 3-celled; nut maturing at the end of
the second season; branchlets lengthening by a terminal
bud; bud-scales numerous.
3. Castanopsis.
Nut inclosed only partly in a shallow cup covered by slender
recurved scales united only at the base, free above.
4. Lithocarpus.
Pistillate flowers solitary, in few-flowered unisexual spikes; nut
more or less inclosed in a cup covered by thin or thickened
scales, closely appressed or often free toward its rim.
5. Quercus.

1. FAGUS L. Beech.

Trees, with smooth pale bark, hard close-grained wood, and elongated acute bright chestnut-brown buds, their inner scales accrescent and marking the base of the branchlets with persistent ring-like scars. Leaves convex and plicate along the veins in the bud, thick and firm, deciduous; petioles short, nearly terete, in falling leaving small elevated semioval leaf-scars, with marginal rows of minute fibro-vascular bundle-scars; stipules linear-lanceolate, infolding the leaf in the bud. Flowers vernal after the unfolding of the leaves; staminate short-pedicellate, in globose many-flowered heads on long drooping bibracteolate stems at base of shoots of the year or from the axils of their lowest leaves, and composed of a subcampanulate 4—8-lobed calyx, the lobes imbricated in æstivation, ovate and rounded, and 8—16 stamens inserted on the base of and longer than the calyx, with slender filaments and oblong green anthers; pistillate in 2—4-flowered stalked clusters in the axils of upper leaves of the year, surrounded by numerous awl-shaped hairy bracts, the outer bright red, longer than the flowers, deciduous, the inner shorter and united below into a 4-lobed involucre becoming at maturity woody, ovoid, thick-walled, and covered by stout recurved prickles, inclosing or partly inclosing the usually 3 nuts, and ultimately separating into 4 valves; calyx urn-shaped, villose, divided into 4 or 5 linear-lanceolate acute lobes, its 3-angled tube adnate to the 3-celled ovary surmounted by 3 slender recurved pilose styles green and stigmatic toward the apex and longer than the involucre; ovules 2 in each cell. Nut ovoid, unequally 3-angled, acute or winged at the angles, concave and longitudinally ridged on the sides, chestnut-brown and lustrous, tipped with the remnants of the styles, marked at the base by a small triangular scar, with a thin shell covered on the inner surface with rufous tomentum. Seed dark chestnut-brown, suspended with the abortive ovules from the tip of the hairy dissepiment of the ovary pushed by the growth of the seed into one of the angles of the nut; cotyledons sweet, oily, plano-convex.

Fagus as here limited is confined to the northern hemisphere, with a single American species and seven Old World species; of these one is widely distributed through Europe, another is found in the Caucasus, and the others are confined to eastern temperate Asia. Of exotic species, the European _Fagus sylvatica_ L., an important timber-tree, is frequently planted for ornament in the eastern states in several of its forms, especially those with purple leaves, and with pendulous branches. The wood of Fagus is hard and close-grained. The sweet seeds are a favorite food of swine, and yield a valuable oil.

_Fagus_ is the classical name of the Beech-tree.

1. Fagus grandifolia Ehrh. Beech.

_Fagus americana_ Sweet.

Leaves remote at the ends of the branches and clustered on short lateral branchlets, oblong-ovate, acuminate with a long slender point, coarsely serrate with spreading or incurved triangular teeth except at the gradually narrowed generally cuneate base, when they unfold pale green and clothed on the lower surface and margins with long pale lustrous silky hairs, at maturity dull dark bluish green above, light yellow-green, very lustrous, and glabrous or rarely pilose below (f. _pubescens_ Fern. & Rehd.) with tufts of long pale hairs in the axils of the veins, 2½′—5′ long, 1′—3′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib covered above with short pale hairs, and slender primary veins running obliquely to the points of the teeth; turning bright clear yellow in the autumn; very rarely deeply laciniate; petioles hairy, ¼′—½′ length; stipules ovate-lanceolate on the lower leaves, strap-shaped to linear-lanceolate on the upper, brown or often red below the middle, membranaceous, lustrous, 1′—1½′ long. Flowers opening when the leaves are about one third grown; staminate in globose heads 1′ in diameter, on slender hairy peduncles about 2′ long; pistillate in usually 2-flowered clusters, on short clavate hoary peduncles ½′—¾′ long. Fruit: involucres ½′—¾′ in length often shorter than the nuts, on stout hairy club-shaped peduncles ¼′—¾′ long, fully grown at midsummer, and then puberulous, dark orange-green, and covered by long slender recurved prickles red above the middle, becoming at maturity in the autumn light brown and tomentose, with crowded much recurved pubescent prickles, persistent on the branch after opening late into the winter; nut about ¾′ long.

A tree, usually 70°—80° but exceptionally 120° high, sending up from the roots numerous small stems sometimes extending into broad thickets round the parent tree, in the forest with a long comparatively slender stem free of branches for more than half its length, and short branches forming a narrow head, in open situations short-stemmed, with a trunk often 3°—4° in diameter, and numerous limbs spreading gradually and forming a broad compact round-topped head of slender slightly drooping branches clothed with short leafy laterals, and branchlets pale green and coated with long soft caducous hairs when they first appear, olive-green or orange-colored during their first summer, and conspicuously marked by oblong bright orange lenticels, gradually growing red, bright reddish brown during their first winter, darker brown in their second season and ultimately ashy gray. Winter-buds puberulous, especially toward the apex, ¾′ to nearly 1′ long, about ⅛′ broad, the inner scales hirsute on the inner surface and along the margins and when fully grown often 1′ long, lustrous, brown above the middle, and reddish below. Bark ¼′—½′ thick, with a smooth light steel-gray surface. Wood hard, strong, tough, very close-grained, not durable, difficult to season, dark or often light red, with thin nearly white sapwood of 20—30 layers of annual growth; largely used in the manufacture of chairs, shoe-lasts, plane-stocks, the handles of tools, and for fuel. The sweet nuts are gathered and sold in the markets of Canada and of some of the western and middle states.

Distribution. Rich uplands and mountain slopes, often forming nearly pure forests, and southward on the bottom-lands of streams and the margins of swamps; valley of the Restigouche River, New Brunswick, to the northern shores of Lake Huron and the southern shores of Lake Superior, and southward to Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, the ravines of Rock River near Oregon, Ogle County, Illinois, Minnesota and northern Missouri; southward passing into the var. _caroliniana_ Fern. & Rehd., differing in its ovate to short-ovate thicker leaves, usually rounded or subcordate at base, and often less coarsely serrate or undulate on the margins, glabrous or rarely densely soft pubescent below (f. _mollis_ Fern. & Rehd.), in the often shorter involucre of the fruit with shorter and less crowded prickles; usually on the bottom-lands of streams and the borders of swamps, New Jersey, and southern Ohio and Missouri to western Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, eastern Texas, and northeastern Oklahoma; ascending on the southern Appalachian Mountains to altitudes of 3000°; probably growing to its largest size in eastern Louisiana.

The northern form is occasionally planted in the northern states as a shade and park tree.

2. CASTANEA Adans. Chestnut.

Trees or shrubs, with furrowed bark, porous brittle wood, durable in the ground, terete branchlets without terminal buds, axillary buds covered by 2 pairs of slightly imbricated scales, the outer lateral, the others accrescent, becoming oblong-ovate and acute and marking the base of the branch with narrow ring-like scars, and stout perpendicular tap-roots; producing when cut numerous stout shoots from the stump. Leaves convolute in the bud, ovate, acute, coarsely serrate, except at the base, with thin veins running to the points of the slender glandular teeth, deciduous; petioles leaving in falling small elevated semioval leaf-scars marked by an irregular marginal row of minute fibro-vascular bundle-scars; stipules ovate to linear-lanceolate, acute, scarious, infolding the leaf in the bud, caducous. Flowers opening in early summer, unisexual, strong-smelling; the staminate, in 3—7-flowered cymes, in the axils of minute ovate bracts, in elongated simple deciduous aments first appearing with the unfolding of the leaves from the inner scales of the terminal bud and from the axils of the lower leaves of the year, composed of a pale straw-colored slightly puberulous calyx deeply divided into 6 ovate rounded segments imbricated in the bud, and 10—20 stamens inserted on the slightly thickened torus, with filiform filaments incurved in the bud, becoming elongated and exserted, and ovoid or globose pale yellow anthers; the pistillate scattered or spicate at the base of the shorter persistent androgynous aments from the axils of later leaves, sessile, 2 or 3 together or solitary within a short-stemmed or sessile involucre of closely imbricated oblong acute bright green bracts scurfy-pubescent or tomentose below the middle, subtended by a bract and 2 lateral bractlets, each flower composed of an urn-shaped calyx, with a short limb divided into 6 obtuse lobes, minute sterile stamens shorter than the calyx-lobes, an ovary 6-celled after fecundation, with 6 linear spreading white styles hairy below the middle and tipped by minute acute stigmas, and 2 ovules in each cell, attached on its inner angle, descending, semianatropous. Fruit maturing in one season, its involucre inclosing 1—3 nuts, globose or short-oblong, pubescent or tomentose and spiny on the outer surface, with elongated ridged bright green ultimately brown branched spines fascicled between the deciduous scales, coated on the inner surface with lustrous pubescence, splitting at maturity into 2—4 valves; nut ovoid, acute, crowned by the remnants of the style, bright chestnut-brown and lustrous, tomentose or pubescent at apex, cylindrical, or when more than 1 flattened, marked at the broad base by a large conspicuous pale circular or oval thickened scar, its shell lined with rufous or hoary tomentum. Seed usually solitary by abortion, dark chestnut-brown, marked at apex by the abortive ovules, with thick and fleshy more or less undulate ruminate sweet farinaceous cotyledons.

Castanea is confined to the northern hemisphere, and is widely distributed through eastern North America, southern Europe, northern Africa, southwestern Asia, and central and northern China, Korea, and Japan. Seven species are distinguished. In the countries of the Mediterranean Basin much attention has been given to improving the fruit of the native species _Castanea sativa_ Mill., which is occasionally planted in the middle United States; in Japan the seeds of _Castanea crenata_ S. & Zucc. in many varieties and in China those of _Castanea mollissima_ Bl. are important articles of food. Castanea produces coarse-grained wood very durable in contact with the soil, and rich in tannin. Chestnut-trees suffer in the eastern United States from the attacks of a fungus, _Endothia parasitica_ Anders. which has nearly exterminated them in many parts of the country.

_Castanea_ is the classical name of the Chestnut-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.

Involucre of the fruit containing 2 or 3 flattened nuts.
1. C. dentata (A, C).
Involucre of the fruit containing a single terete nut.
Involucre of the fruit densely covered with spines; branchlets hoary
tomentose.
2. C. pumila (A, C).
Involucre of the fruit covered with scattered spines; branchlets
glabrous or sparingly pilose.
3. C. alnifolia (C).

1. Castanea dentata Borkh. Chestnut.

Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute and long-pointed at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, when they unfold puberulous on the upper surface and clothed on the lower with fine cobweb-like tomentum, at maturity thin, glabrous, dark dull yellow-green above, pale yellow-green below, 6′—8′ long, about 2′ wide, with a pale yellow midrib and primary veins; turning bright clear yellow late in the autumn; petioles stout, slightly angled, puberulous, ½′ long, often flushed with red; stipules ovate-lanceolate, acute, yellow-green, puberulous, about ½′ long. Flowers: staminate aments about ½′ long when they first appear, green below the middle and red above, becoming when fully grown 6′—8′ long, with stout green puberulous stems covered from base to apex with crowded flower-clusters; androgynous aments, slender, puberulous, 2½′—5′ long, with 2 or 3 irregularly scattered involucres of pistillate flowers near their base. Fruit: involucre attaining its full size by the middle of August, 2′—2½′ in diameter, sometimes a little longer than broad, somewhat flattened at apex, pubescent and covered on the outer surface with crowded fascicles of long slender glabrous much-branched spines, opening with the first frost and gradually shedding their nuts; nuts usually much compressed, ½′—1′ wide, usually rather broader than long, coated at apex or nearly to the middle with thick pale tomentum, the interior of the shell lined with thick rufous tomentum; seed very sweet.

A tree, occasionally 100° high, with a tall straight columnar trunk 3°—4° in diameter, or often when uncrowded by other trees with a short trunk occasionally 10°—12° in diameter, and usually divided not far above the ground into 3 or 4 stout horizontal limbs forming a broad low round-topped head of slightly pendulous branches frequently 100° across, and branchlets at first light yellow-green sometimes tinged with red, somewhat angled, lustrous, slightly puberulous, soon becoming glabrous and olive-green tinged with yellow or brown tinged with green and ultimately dark brown. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, about ¼′ long, with thin dark chestnut-brown scales scarious on the margins. Bark from 1′—2′ thick, dark brown and divided by shallow irregular often interrupted fissures into broad flat ridges separating on the surface into small thin closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, liable to check and warp in drying, easily split, reddish brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 3 or 4 layers of annual growth; largely used in the manufacture of cheap furniture and in the interior finish of houses, for railway-ties, fence-posts, and rails. The nuts, which are superior to those of the Old World chestnuts in sweetness were formerly gathered in great quantities in the forest and sold in the markets of the eastern cities.

Distribution. Southern Maine to Woodstock, Grafton County, New Hampshire (rare) and to the valley of the Winooski River, Vermont, southern Ontario, and southern Michigan, southward to Delaware and Ohio, southern Indiana, and southwestern Illinois (Pulaski County) along the Appalachian Mountains up to altitudes of 4000° to northern Georgia, and to western Florida (Crestview, Walton County) southeastern (Henry and Dale Counties) and south central (Dallas County) Alabama, Northern, central and southeastern Mississippi (Pearl River County), and to central Kentucky and Tennessee; very common on the glacial drift of the northern states and, except at the north, mostly confined to the Appalachian hills; attaining its greatest size in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.

Formerly sometimes planted in the eastern states as an ornamental and timber tree, and for its nuts, of which several varieties have been recognized.

× _Castanea neglecta_ Dode with leaves intermediate between those of _C. dentata_ and _C. pumila_ and an involucre containing a single large nut occurs on the Blue Ridge near Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina.

2. Castanea pumila Mill. Chinquapin.

Leaves oblong-elliptic to oblong-obovate, acute, coarsely serrate, with slender rigid spreading or incurved teeth, gradually narrowed and usually unequal and rounded or cuneate at base, when they unfold tinged with red and coated above with pale caducous tomentum and below with thick snowy white tomentum, at maturity rather thick and firm in texture, bright yellow-green on the upper surface, hoary or silvery pubescent on the lower, 3′—5′ long, 1½′—2′ wide; turning dull yellow in the autumn; petioles stout, pubescent, flattened on the upper side, ¼′—½′ long; stipules light yellow-green, pubescent, those of the 2 lowest leaves broad, ovate, acute, covered at apex by rufous tomentum, on later leaves ovate-lanceolate, often oblique and acute, becoming linear at the end of the branch. Flowers: staminate aments ½′ long when they first appear, pubescent, green below, bright red at apex, becoming when fully grown 4′—6′ long, with stout hoary tomentose stems and crowded or scattered flower-clusters; androgynous aments silvery tomentose, 3′—4′ long; involucres 1-flowered, scattered at the base of the ament or often spicate and covering its lower half, sessile or short-stalked. _Fruit_: involucre 1′—1½′ in diameter, with thin walls covered with crowded fascicles of slender spines tomentose toward the base; nut ovoid, terete, rounded at the slightly narrowed base, gradually narrowed and pointed at apex, more or less coated with silvery white pubescence, dark chestnut-brown, very lustrous, ¾′—1′ long, ⅓′ thick, with a thin shell lined with a coat of lustrous hoary tomentum, and a sweet seed.

A round-topped tree, rarely 50° high, with a short straight trunk 2°—3° in diameter, slender spreading branches, and branchlets coated at first with pale tomentum, becoming during their first winter pubescent or remaining tomentose at the apex, bright red-brown, glabrous, lustrous, olive-green or orange-brown during their second season and ultimately darker; east of the Mississippi River often a shrub spreading into broad thickets by prolific stolons, with numerous intricately branched stems often only 4° or 5° tall. Winter-buds ovoid, or oval, about ⅛′ long, clothed when they first appear in summer with thick hoary tomentum, becoming red during the winter and scurfy-pubescent. Bark ½′—1′ thick, light brown tinged with red, slightly furrowed and broken on the surface into loose plate-like scales. Wood light, hard, strong, coarse-grained, dark brown, with thin hardly distinguishable sapwood of 3 or 4 layers of annual growth; used for fence-posts, rails, and railway-ties. The sweet nuts are sold in the markets of the western and southern states.

Distribution. Dry sandy ridges, rich hillsides and the borders of swamps; southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania to central (Lake County) and western Florida and westward through the Gulf States to the valley of the Neches River, Texas, and through Arkansas to eastern Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri; on the Appalachian Mountains ascending to altitudes of 4500°; most abundant and of its largest size in southern Arkansas and eastern Texas.

3. Castanea alnifolia Nutt. Chinquapin.

A low shrub spreading into broad thickets by underground stems, with leaves pale pubescent on the lower surface; and distributed in the neighborhood of the coast from the valley of the Cape Fear River, North Carolina, to southern Georgia. Passing into

Castanea alnifolia var. floridana Sarg. Chinquapin.

Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic, acute, acuminate or rounded at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, irregularly sinuate-toothed with apiculate teeth, hoary tomentose below when they unfold, soon glabrous with the exception of the last leaves of vigorous summer shoots, and at maturity thin, glabrous, dark green above, light green and lustrous below, 3′—4′ long and 1′—1¾′ wide; petioles stout, glabrous, about 1/12′ in length. Flowers: staminate aments pale pubescent, 4′—5′ long; androgynous aments pubescent, as long or rather longer with ten or twelve involucres of pistillate flowers below the middle, often only the lowest being fertilized. Fruit: involucre 1-seeded, subglobose to short-oblong, pale tomentose, ¾′ to 1¼′ in diameter, covered with stout pubescent scattered spines divided at base into numerous branches; nut ovoid, terete, acute, dark chestnut-brown, lustrous, ½′ to nearly ¾′ in length.

A tree occasionally 40°—45° high, with a tall trunk sometimes a foot in diameter, small irregularly spreading branches forming a narrow head, and slender glabrous or rarely pilose red-brown branchlets; more often a shrub sometimes with broader obovoid leaves sometimes puberulous on the lower surface.

Dry sandy soil; coast of North Carolina, near Wrightsville, New Hanover County; Dover, near the Ogechee River, Screven County, Georgia; Jacksonville, Duval County, and Panama City on Saint Andrew’s Bay, Bay County, Florida; near Selma, Dallas County, Alabama; and Covington, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.

A tree only on the shores of Saint Andrew’s Bay.

3. CASTANOPSIS Spach.

Trees, with scaly bark, astringent wood, and winter-buds covered by numerous imbricated scales. Leaves convolute in the bud, 5-ranked, coriaceous, entire or dentate, penniveined, persistent; stipules obovate or lanceolate, scarious, mostly caducous. Flowers in 3-flowered cymes, or the pistillate rarely solitary or in pairs, in the axils of minute bracts, on slender erect aments from the axils of leaves of the year; the staminate on usually elongated and panicled aments, and composed of a campanulate 5 or 6-lobed or parted calyx, the lobes imbricated in the bud, usually 10 or 12 stamens inserted on the slightly thickened torus, with elongated exserted filiform filaments and oblong anthers, and a minute hirsute rudimentary ovary; the pistillate on shorter simple or panicled aments or scattered at the base of the staminate inflorescence, the cymes surrounded by an involucre of imbricated scales; calyx urn-shaped, the short limb divided into 6 obtuse lobes; abortive stamens inserted on the limb of the calyx and opposite its lobes; ovary sessile on the thin disk, 3-celled after fecundation, with 3 spreading styles terminating in minute stigmas, and 2 ovules in each cell attached to its interior angle. Fruit maturing at the end of the second or rarely of the first season, its involucre inclosing 1—3 nuts, ovoid or globose, sometimes more or less depressed, rarely obscurely angled, dehiscent or indehiscent, covered by stout spines, tuberculate or marked by interrupted vertical ridges; nut more or less angled by mutual pressure when more than 1, often pilose, crowned with the remnants of the style, marked at the base by a large conspicuous circular depressed scar, the thick shell tomentose on the inner surface. Seed usually solitary by abortion, bearing at apex the abortive ovules; cotyledons plano-convex, fleshy, farinaceous.

Castanopsis inhabits California with two species, and southeastern Asia where it is distributed with about twenty-five species from southern China to the Malay Archipelago and the eastern Himalayas. Of the California species one is usually arborescent and the other _Castanopsis sempervirens_ Dudley is a low alpine shrub of the coast ranges and the Sierra Nevada.

_Castanopsis_ from κὰστανα and ὄψις, in allusion to its resemblance to the Chestnut-tree.

1. Castanopsis chrysophylla A. DC. Chinquapin. Golden-leaved Chestnut.

Leaves lanceolate or oblong-ovate, gradually narrowed at the ends or sometimes abruptly contracted at apex into a short broad point, entire with slightly thickened revolute margins, when they unfold thin, coated below with golden yellow persistent scales and above with scattered white scales, at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, 2′—6′ long, ½′ to nearly 2′ wide, with a stout midrib raised and rounded on the upper side; turning yellow at maturity and falling gradually at the end of their second or in their third year; petioles ¼′—⅓′ in length; stipules ovate, rounded or acute at apex, brown and scarious, puberulous, ¼′—⅓′ long. Flowers appearing irregularly from June until February in the axils of broadly ovate apiculate pubescent bracts on staminate and androgynous scurfy stout-stemmed aments 2′—2½′ long and crowded at the ends of the branches; calyx of the staminate flower coated on the outer surface with hoary tomentum, divided into broadly ovate rounded lobes much shorter than the slender stamens; calyx of the pistillate flower oblong-campanulate, free from the ovary, clothed with hoary tomentum, divided at apex into short rounded lobes, rather shorter than the minute abortive stamens; anthers red; ovary conic, hirsute, with elongated slightly spreading thick pale stigmas. Fruit ripening at the end of the second season, involucre globose, dehiscent, irregularly 4-valved, often slightly shorter than the nuts, sessile, solitary, or clustered, tomentose and covered on the outer surface by long stout or slender rigid spines, 1′—1½′ in diameter, containing 1 or occasionally 2 nuts; nuts broadly ovoid, acute, obtusely 3-angled, light yellow-brown and lustrous; seeds dark purple-red, sweet and edible.

A tree, 50°—100° high, with a massive trunk 3°—6° in diameter, frequently free of branches for 50°, stout spreading branches forming a broad compact round-topped or conic head, and rigid branchlets coated when they first appear with bright golden-yellow scurfy scales, dark reddish brown and slightly scurfy during their first winter, and gradually growing darker in their second season; often much smaller and sometimes reduced to a shrub, 2°—12° high (var. _minor_ A. De Candolle). Winter-buds fully grown at mid-summer, usually crowded near the end of the branch, ovoid or subglobose, with broadly ovate apiculate thin and papery light brown scales slightly puberulous on the back, ciliate on the scarious often reflexed margins, the terminal about ¼′ long and broad and rather larger than the often stipitate axillary buds. Bark 1′—2′ thick and deeply divided into rounded ridges 2′—3′ wide, broken into thick plate-like scales, dark red-brown on the surface and bright red internally. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong, light brown tinged with red, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 50—60 layers of annual growth; occasionally used in the manufacture of ploughs and other agricultural implements.

Distribution. Skamania County, Washington, valley of the lower Columbia River, Oregon, southward along the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains, and in California along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and through the coast ranges to the elevated valleys of the San Jacinto Mountains, sometimes ascending to altitudes of 4000° above the sea; of its largest size in the humid coast valleys of northern California.

Occasionally cultivated in the gardens of temperate Europe.

4. LITHOCARPUS Bl.

_Pasania_ Örst.

Trees, with astringent properties, pubescence of fascicled hairs, deeply furrowed scaly bark, hard close-grained brittle wood, stout branchlets, and winter-buds covered by few erect or spreading foliaceous scales. Leaves convolute in the bud, petiolate, persistent, entire or dentate, with a stout midrib, primary veins running obliquely to the points of the teeth, or on entire leaves forked and united near the margins, and reticulate veinlets; stipules oblong-obovate to linear-lanceolate, those of the upper leaves persistent and surrounding the buds during the winter. Flowers in erect unisexual and in bisexual tomentose aments from the axils of leaves of the year, from the inner scales of the terminal bud or from separate buds in the axils of leaves of the previous year; staminate in 3-flowered clusters in the axils of ovate rounded bracts, the lateral flowers subtended by similar but smaller bracts, each flower composed of a 5-lobed tomentose calyx, with nearly triangular acute lobes, 10 stamens, with slender elongated filaments and small oblong or emarginate anthers, and an acute abortive hairy ovary; pistillate scattered at the base of the upper aments below the staminate flowers, solitary in the axils of acute bracts, furnished with minute lateral bractlets, and composed of a 6-lobed ovoid calyx, with rounded lobes, inclosed in the tomentose involucral scales, 6 stamens, with abortive anthers, an ovoid-oblong 3-celled ovary, 3 elongated spreading light green styles thickened and stigmatic at apex, and 2 anatropous ovules in each cell. Fruit an oval or ovoid nut maturing at the end of the second season, 1-seeded by abortion, surrounded at base by the accrescent woody cupular involucre of the flower, marked by a large pale circular basal scar, the thick shell tomentose on the inner surface. Seed red-brown, filling the cavity of the nut, bearing at apex the abortive ovules; cotyledons thick and fleshy, yellow and bitter.

Lithocarpus is intermediate between the Oaks and the Chestnuts, and, with the exception of one California species, is confined to southeastern Asia, where it is distributed with many species from southern Japan and southern China through the Malay Peninsula to the Indian Archipelago.

_Lithocarpus_ from λίθος and καρπός, in allusion to the character of the fruit.

1. Lithocarpus densiflora Rehd. Tan Bark Oak. Chestnut Oak.

_Quercus densiflora_ Hook. & Arn.
_Pasania densiflora_ Örst.

Leaves oblong or oblong-obovate, rounded or acute or rarely cordate at base, acute or occasionally rounded at apex, or rarely lanceolate and acuminate (f. _lanceolata_ Rehdr.) repand-dentate, with acute callous teeth, or entire with thickened revolute margins, coated when they unfold with fulvous tomentum and glandular on the margins with dark caducous glands, at maturity pale green, lustrous and glabrous or covered with scattered pubescence on the upper surface, rusty-tomentose on the lower, ultimately becoming glabrous above and glabrate and bluish white below, 3′—5′ long, ¾′—3′ wide, with a midrib raised and rounded on the upper side, thin or thick primary veins and fine conspicuous reticulate veinlets; persistent until the end of their third or fourth year; petioles stout, rigid, tomentose, ½′—¾′ in length; stipules brown and scarious, hirsute on the outer surface. Flowers in early spring and frequently also irregularly during the autumn; aments stout-stemmed, 3′—4′ long; staminate flowers crowded, hoary-tomentose in the bud, their bracts tomentose. Fruit solitary or often in pairs, on a stout tomentose peduncle ½′—1′ in length; nut full and rounded at base, gradually narrowed and acute or rounded at apex, scurfy-pubescent when fully grown, becoming light yellow-brown, glabrous and lustrous at maturity, ¾′—1′ long, ½′—1′ thick, its cup shallow, tomentose with lustrous red-brown hairs on the inner surface, and covered by long linear rigid spreading or recurved light brown scales coated with fascicled hairs, frequently tipped, especially while young, with dark red glands and often tomentose near the base of the cup.

A tree, usually 70°—80° but sometimes 150° high, with a trunk 1°—4° in diameter, stout branches ascending in the forest and forming a narrow spire-like head, or in open positions spreading horizontally and forming a broad dense symmetrical round-topped crown, and branchlets coated at first with a thick fulvous tomentum of fascicled hairs often persistent until the second or third year, becoming dark reddish brown and frequently covered with a glaucous bloom; or sometimes reduced to a shrub, with slender stems only a few feet high (var. _montana_ Rehdr.). Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, ¼′—⅓′ long, often surrounded by the persistent stipules of the upper leaves, with tomentose loosely imbricated scales, those of the outer ranks linear-lanceolate, increasing in width toward the interior of the bud, those of the inner ranks ovate or obovate and rounded at apex. Bark ¾′—1½′ thick, deeply divided by narrow fissures into broad rounded ridges broken into nearly square plates covered by closely appressed light red-brown scales. Wood hard, strong, close-grained, brittle, reddish brown, with thick darker brown sapwood; largely used as fuel. The bark is exceedingly rich in tannin and is largely used for tanning leather.

Distribution. Valley of the Umpqua River, Oregon, southward through the coast ranges to the Santa Inez Mountains, California, and along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada up to elevations of 4000° above the sea to Mariposa County; very abundant in the humid coast region north of San Francisco Bay and on the Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia Mountains, and of its largest size in the Redwood forest of Napa and Mendocino Counties; southward and on the Sierras less abundant and of smaller size; the form _lanceolata_ in southern Oregon and in Del Norte and Mendocino Counties, California; the var. _montana_ at high altitudes on the Siskiyou Mountains, in the region of Mount Shasta and on the northern Sierra Nevada.

5. QUERCUS L. Oak.

Trees or shrubs, with astringent properties, pubescence of fascicled hairs, scaly or dark and furrowed bark, hard and close-grained or porous brittle wood, slender branchlets marked by pale lenticels and more or less prominently 5-angled. Winter-buds clustered at the ends of the branchlets, with numerous membranaceous chestnut-brown slightly accrescent caducous scales closely imbricated in 5 ranks, in falling marking the base of the branchlet with ring-like scars. Leaves 5-ranked, lobed, dentate or entire, often variable on the same branch, membranaceous or coriaceous, the primary veins prominent and extending to the margins or united within them and connected by more or less reticulate veinlets, deciduous in the autumn or persistent until spring or until their third or fourth year; petioles in falling leaving slightly elevated semiorbicular more or less obcordate leaf-scars broader than high, marked by the ends of numerous scattered fibro-vascular bundles; stipules obovate to lanceolate, scarious, caducous, or those of upper leaves occasionally persistent through the season. Flowers vernal with or after the unfolding of the leaves; staminate solitary in the axils of lanceolate acute caducous bracts, or without bracts, in graceful pendulous clustered aments, from separate or leaf-buds in the axils of leaves of the previous year, or from the axils of the inner scales of the terminal bud or from those of the leaves of the year; calyx campanulate, lobed or divided to the base into 4—7, usually 6, membranaceous lobes; stamens 4—6, rarely 2, or 10—12, inserted on the slightly thickened torus, with free filiform exserted filaments and ovate-oblong or subglobose glabrous or rarely hairy 2-celled usually yellow anthers; pistillate solitary, subtended by a caducous bract and 2 bractlets, in short or elongated few-flowered spikes from the axils of leaves of the year; calyx urn-shaped, with a short campanulate 6-lobed limb, the tube adnate to the incompletely 3 or rarely 4 or 5-celled ovary inclosed more or less completely by an accrescent involucre of imbricated scales, becoming the cup of the fruit; styles as many as the cells of the ovary, short or elongated, erect or incurved, dilated above, stigmatic on the inner face or at apex only, generally persistent on the fruit; ovules anatropous or semianatropous, 2 in each cell. Fruit a nut (_acorn_) maturing in one or in two years, ovoid, subglobose, or turbinate, short-pointed at apex, 1-seeded by abortion, marked at base by a large conspicuous circular scar, with a thick shell, glabrous or coated on the inner surface with pale tomentum, more or less surrounded or inclosed in the accrescent cupular involucre of the flower (_cup_), its scales thin or thickened, loosely or closely imbricated. Seed marked at base or at apex or rarely on the side by the abortive ovules; cotyledons thick and fleshy, usually plano-convex and entire.

Quercus inhabits the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere and high altitudes within the tropics, ranging in the New World southward to the mountains of Colombia and in the Old World to the Indian Archipelago. Two hundred and seventy-five species have been described; of the North American species fifty-four are large or small trees. Of exotic species, the European _Quercus Robur_ L., and _Quercus sessiliflora_ Salisb., have been frequently cultivated as ornamental trees in the eastern United States, where, however, they are usually short-lived and unsatisfactory. Many of the species are important timber-trees; their bark is often rich in tannin and is used for tanning leather, and all produce wood valuable for fuel and in the manufacture of charcoal.

_Quercus_ is the classical name of the Oak-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.

Fruit maturing at the end of the second season (except 22); shell of
the nut silky tomentose on the inner surface; leaves or their
lobes bristle-tipped. Black Oaks.
Stamens usually 4—6; styles elongated, finally recurved; abortive
ovules apical.
Leaves deciduous in their first autumn or winter.
Leaves pinnately lobed, convolute in the bud.
Leaves green on both surfaces.
Scales of the cup of the fruit closely appressed.
Leaves usually dull on the upper surface, 7—11-lobed; cup
of the fruit cup-shaped or in one variety broad and
saucer-shaped, its scales thin.
1. Q. borealis (A).
Leaves lustrous.
Leaves dimorphous, 5—7-lobed, axillary clusters of hairs
large and prominent; cup of the fruit
saucer-shaped or in one form deep cup-shaped.
2. Q. Shumardii (A, C).
Leaves similar on upper and lower branches.
Cup of the fruit turbinate or deep cup-shaped.
Leaves 5-lobed, the lobes usually entire, rarely
furnished with tufts of axillary hairs below.
3. Q. texana (C).
Leaves 5—7-lobed, the lobes dentate, furnished with
tufts of axillary hairs below.
4. Q. ellipsoidalis (A).
Cup of the fruit deep cup-shaped to turbinate; leaves
5—9-lobed, the lobes toothed.
5. Q. coccinea (A, C).
Cup of the fruit saucer-shaped.
Leaves 5—9-lobed.
6. Q. palustris (A, C).
Leaves 3—5-lobed.
7. Q. georgiana (C).
Scales of the cup of the fruit more or less loosely
imbricated, forming a free margin on its rim.
Leaves usually 7-lobed.
Winter-buds tomentose.
8. Q. velutina (A, C).
Winter-buds pubescent only at apex.
9. Q. Kelloggii (G).
Leaves usually 3—5-lobed; winter-buds rusty pubescent.
10. Q. Catesbæi (C).
Leaves whitish or grayish tomentulose below.
Leaves mostly acutely 5-lobed, pale or silvery white below.
11. Q. ilicifolia (A).
Leaves often dimorphous, 3—11-lobed, the lobes often
falcate.
12. Q. rubra (A, C).
Leaves broad-obovate, often abruptly dilated at the wide
obscurely lobed apex.
Leaves rounded or cordate at base.
Lower surface of the leaves orange color or brownish, the
upper scales of the cup forming with several rows a
thick rim on its inner surface, often reflexed.
13. Q. marilandica (A, C).
Lower surface of the leaves pale, the erect scales on the
rim of the cup in a single row.
14. Q. arkansana (C).
Leaves cuneate at base.
Leaves oblong-obovate.
15. Q. nigra (C).
Leaves rhombic.
16. Q. rhombica (C).
Leaves lanceolate-oblong or lanceolate-obovate, usually entire,
involute in the bud. Willow Oaks.
Leaves glabrous.
Leaves lanceolate to oblanceolate, deciduous in autumn.
17. Q. Phellos (A, C).
Leaves elliptic or rarely oblong-obovate, deciduous in the
late winter.
18. Q. laurifolia (C).
Leaves tomentose or pubescent below, oblong-lanceolate to
oblong-obovate.
Leaves pale blue-green, hoary tomentose below.
19. Q. cinerea (C).
Leaves dark green, pubescent below.
20. Q. imbricaria (A).
Leaves not deciduous in the autumn, revolute in the bud (convolute
in 23).
Leaves mostly persistent until after the appearance of those of
the following year.
Leaves lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic, pale and
tomentose below.
21. Q. hypoleuca (E, H).
Leaves oval, orbicular to oblong, green and pubescent below;
fruit maturing at the end of the first season.
22. Q. agrifolia (G).
Leaves persistent until their second summer or autumn.
Leaves lanceolate to oval or oblong-lanceolate, entire or
serrate; cup of the fruit turbinate or tubular.
23. Q. Wislizenii (G).
Leaves oval to oblong-obovate; cup of the fruit saucer-shaped
or turbinate.
24. Q. myrtifolia (C).
Stamens usually 6—8; styles dilated; abortive ovules basal or
lateral; leaves persistent until their third or fourth season,
involute in the bud.
Leaves oblong, entire, dentate, or sinuate-toothed,
fulvous-tomentose and ultimately pale on the lower surface;
cup of the fruit usually thick.
25. Q. chrysolepis (G, H).
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, crenate-dentate or entire, pubescent or
tomentose below; cup of the fruit usually thin.
26. Q. tomentella (G).
Fruit maturing at the end of the first season; shell of the nut
glabrous on the inner surface (hoary-tomentose in 27); abortive
ovules basal; stamens 6—8; styles dilated; lobes of the leaves
not bristle-tipped. White Oaks.
Leaves mostly persistent until the appearance of those of the
following year, revolute in the bud (convolute in 28).
Leaves yellow-green.
Fruit sessile or short-stalked.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, entire or repand-dentate; inner
surface of the nut hoary tomentose.
27. Q. Emoryi (F, H).
Leaves oblong or obovate, entire, sinuate-toothed or lobed.
28. Q. dumosa (G).
Fruit long-stalked; leaves oblong, elliptic or obovate, pale,
glabrous or in one form densely tomentose below.
29. Q. virginiana (C).
Leaves blue-green.
Fruit usually in many-fruited long-stalked clusters; leaves
broad-obovate, coarsely reticulate-venulose.
30. Q. reticulata (H).
Fruit solitary or in pairs.
Cup of the fruit saucer-shaped; leaves ovate to ovate-oblong,
entire.
31. Q. Toumeyi (H).
Cup of the fruit cup-shaped or hemispherical,
oblong-lanceolate to broad-obovate, pubescent below.
32. Q. arizonica (H).
Cup of the fruit usually cup-shaped or turbinate.
Leaves ovate, oval or obovate, usually cordate at base;
fruit rather long-stalked.
33. Q. oblongifolia (E, H).
Leaves oblong to obovate, usually cuneate or rounded or
cordate at base.
34. Q. Engelmannii (G).
Leaves deciduous in their first season.
Leaves blue-green.
Arboreous; leaves oblong, lobed, spinescent-dentate or entire,
pubescent below; cup of the fruit shallow cup-shaped.
35. Q. Douglasii (G).
Arborescent or shrubby.
Leaves oblong to oblong-obovate, undulate-lobed; cup of the
fruit saucer-shaped to cup-shaped.
36. Q. Vaseyana (C).
Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic or lanceolate, undulate,
serrate-toothed or irregularly lobed; cup of the fruit
hemispheric to cup-shaped.
37. Q. Mohriana (C).
Leaves oblong to oblong-ovate, slightly lobed or entire; cup
of the fruit cup-shaped or rarely saucer-shaped.
38. Q. Laceyi (C).
Leaves yellow-green.
Leaves entire or slightly lobed.
Leaves different on upper and lower branches, oblong to
oblong-obovate, slightly lobed or entire.
Cup of the fruit cup-shaped.
39. Q. annulata (C).
Cup of the fruit shallow saucer-shaped.
40. Q. Durandii (C).
Leaves similar on upper and lower branches, entire or slightly
sinuate-lobed toward the apex, oblong or oblong-obovate.
41. Q. Chapmanii (C).
Leaves more or less deeply sinuate-lobed.
Leaves white-tomentulose below (sometimes green and pubescent
in 43).
Leaves obovate or oblong, lyrately pinnatifid or deeply
sinuate-lobed; cup of the fruit fringed by the awned
scales.
42. Q. macrocarpa (A, C, F).
Leaves obovate-oblong, deeply 5—9-lobed or pinnatifid; nut
often inclosed in the cup.
43. Q. lyrata (A, C).
Leaves pubescent below.
Leaves usually covered above with fascicled hairs, obovate,
3—5-lobed, their lobes truncate or rounded.
44. Q. stellata (A, C).
Leaves glabrous above at maturity.
Leaves obovate to oblong; cup of the fruit shallow
cup-shaped or slightly turbinate, its scales usually
thin.
45. Q. Garryana (B, G).
Leaves oblong-obovate; cup of the fruit hemispheric, the
scales often much thickened.
46. Q. utahensis (F).
Leaves oblong-obovate, deeply lobed; nut conic, elongated,
inclosed for one-third its length in the cup-shaped
cup.
47. Q. lobata (G).
Leaves glabrate or puberulous below, oblong to oblong-obovate.
48. Q. leptophylla (F).
Leaves glabrous below.
Leaves oblong-obovate, usually 5-lobed.
49. Q. austrina (C).
Leaves oblong-obovate, obliquely pinnatifid or 3—9-lobed.
50. Q. alba (A, C).
Leaves coarsely sinuate-toothed. Chestnut Oaks.
Fruit on peduncles much longer than the petioles; leaves
obovate or oblong-obovate, generally sinuate-dentate or
lobed, pubescent, and usually hoary on the lower
surface.
51. Q. bicolor (C).
Fruit on peduncles about as long or shorter than the petioles.
Leaves obovate or oblong-obovate, cuneate or rounded at the
broad or narrow base, tomentose or pubescent and often
silvery white below.
52. Q. Prinus (A, C).
Leaves obovate or oblong to lanceolate, acuminate, with
rounded or acute teeth.
53. Q. montana (A, C).
Fruit sessile or nearly so; leaves oblong to lanceolate, acute
or acuminate or broadly obovate, puberulous and pale,
often silvery white on the lower surface.
54. Q. Muehlenbergii (A, C).

1. Quercus borealis Michx. Red Oak.

Leaves obovate or oblong, acute or acuminate, abruptly or gradually cuneate or rounded at the broad or narrow base, usually divided about half way to the midrib by wide oblique sinuses rounded at the bottom into 11 or sometimes into 7 or 9 acute oblique ovate lobes tapering from broad bases and mostly sinuately 3-toothed at apex with elongated bristle-pointed teeth, or sometimes oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, and sinuately lobed with broad acute usually entire or slightly dentate lobes, when they unfold pink, covered with soft silky pale pubescence on the upper surface and below with thick white tomentum, soon glabrous, at maturity thin and firm, dark green, dull and glabrous above, pale yellow-green, glabrous or rarely puberulous and sometimes furnished with small tufts of rusty hairs in the axils of the veins below, 5′—9′ long, 4′—6′ wide; falling early in the autumn after turning dull or sometimes bright orange color or brown; petioles stout, yellow or red, 1′—2′ in length. Flowers: staminate in pubescent aments 4′—5′ long; calyx divided into 4 or 5 narrow ovate rounded lobes shorter than the stamens; pistillate on short glabrous peduncles, their involucral scales broadly ovate, dark reddish brown, shorter than the conspicuous linear acute bract of the flower and as long as the lanceolate acute calyx-lobes; stigmas bright green. Fruit solitary or in pairs, sessile or short-stalked, ovoid, gradually narrowed and acute at apex or cylindric and rounded at apex, pale brown, lustrous, more or less tomentose toward the ends, ½′—1′ long; ½′—¾′ in diameter; cup cup-shaped, puberulous on the inner surface, covered with small closely appressed ovate acute red-brown pubescent scales slightly thickened on the back toward the base of the cup, with a thin dark-colored tip and margins.

A tree usually not more than 60°—70° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, often much smaller, stout branches forming a narrow head, and slender lustrous branchlets light green and covered with pale scurfy pubescence when they first appear, dark red during their first winter and ultimately dark brown. Winter-buds ovoid, gradually narrowed to the acute apex, about ¼′ long, with thin ovate acute light chestnut-brown scales. Bark on young stems and on the upper part of the limbs of old trees 1′—1½′ thick, dark brown tinged with red and divided into small thick appressed plates scaly on the surface. Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, light reddish brown, with thin lighter-colored sapwood; used in construction, for the interior finish of houses, and in furniture.

Distribution. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, through Quebec to southern Ontario, and southward to northern New England, western New York, northern Pennsylvania (Presque Isle, Erie County), northern Michigan, southeastern Wisconsin, central Minnesota, central Iowa (Winneshick County), and on the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina at altitudes of about 4000°. Passing with many intermediate forms differing in the size of the nut and in the depth of the cup into

Quercus borealis var. maxima Ashe. Red Oak.

_Quercus rubra_ Du Roi, not L.

Fruit solitary or in pairs, sessile or short-stalked; nut ovoid to slightly obovoid, gradually narrowed and rounded at apex, slightly narrowed at base, usually 1′—1¼′ long and ½′—⅔′ thick, occasionally not more than ⅔′ long and thick, inclosed only at the base in a thick saucer-shaped cup.

A tree, usually 70°—80°, or occasionally 150° high, with a trunk 3°—4° in diameter, and stout spreading and ascending branches forming a broad head.

Distribution. Province of Quebec in the neighborhood of Montreal, and southern Ontario, westward through southern Michigan to southeastern Nebraska, and southward to northern Georgia, on the southern Appalachian Mountains up to altitudes of 3000°, southern Kentucky, eastern and central Tennessee, northeastern (Tishomingo County), northwestern (Yazoo County), and central and southern (Hinds and Union Counties) Mississippi, northern and southwestern Alabama (Dekalb, Cullman, Jefferson, and Dallas Counties), northwestern Arkansas, and eastern Kansas and Oklahoma; one of the largest and most generally distributed trees of the northern states; rare and local in the south; of its largest size in the region north of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers.

Often planted as a park and shade tree in the northeastern states and in the counties of western and northern Europe; generally more successful in Europe than other American Oaks.

× _Quercus Lowellii_ Sarg., a possible hybrid of _Quercus borealis_ and _Q. ilicifolia_, has been found in the neighborhood of Seabury, York County, Maine.

× _Quercus Porterii_ Trel., probably a hybrid of _Quercus borealis_ var. _maxima_ and _Q. velutina_, has been found on Bowditch Hill, Jamaica Plain, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, on College Hill, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and near Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio.

× _Quercus runcinata_ Engelm., believed to be a hybrid of _Quercus borealis_ var. _maxima_ and _Q. imbricaria_ first found near St. Louis, occurs also in the neighborhood of Independence, Jackson County, and at Williamsville, Wayne County, Missouri, and in Richland and Wayne Counties, Illinois.

2. Quercus Shumardii Buckl.

_Quercus texana_ Sarg. in part, not Buckl.

Leaves obovate, seven rarely five-lobed, the lobes two or three-lobed and sometimes dentate at apex, on leaves of lower branches short and broad, and separated by narrow sinuses pointed or rounded in the bottom, on upper branches deeply divided by broad rounded sinuses into narrow acuminate lobes, when they unfold often tinged with red and covered with pale loose tomentum deciduous before they are half grown, at maturity glabrous, dark green and lustrous above, paler and furnished below with large axillary tufts of pale hairs, 6′—8′ long, 4′—5′ wide, with a thin midrib and slender primary veins running to the points of the lobes; petioles slender, glabrous, 2′—2½′ in length. Flowers: staminate in slender glabrous aments 6′—7′ long; calyx divided into 4 or 5 rounded slightly villose lobes shorter than the stamens; pistillate on pubescent peduncles, their involucral scales ovate, light brown, pubescent; stigmas red. Fruit: nut oblong-ovoid, narrowed and rounded at apex, ¾′—1¼′ long, ½′—1′ in diameter, inclosed at the base only in the thick saucer-shaped cup with a slightly incurved rim and covered with closely appressed ovate pale pubescent or nearly glabrous scales narrowed above the middle, abruptly long-pointed, thin or often conspicuously tuberculate.

A tree up to 120° high, with a tall trunk occasionally 5° in diameter, stout wide-spreading branches forming a broad rather open head, and gray or grayish brown glabrous branchlets. Winter-buds ovoid, acute or acuminate, about ¼′ long, with closely imbricated gray glabrous or rarely pubescent scales. Bark 1′—1½′ thick, ridged, broken into small appressed plates scaly on the surface. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, light reddish brown, often manufactured into lumber in the Mississippi valley and considered more valuable than that of the northern Red Oak.

Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps in moist rich soil; coast region of Texas eastward from the Colorado River and ranging inland up the valley of that river to Burnet County, southeastern Oklahoma, through Arkansas, southeastern Kansas and Missouri to Fayette County, Iowa, southern Illinois and Indiana, the neighborhood of Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, and southeastern Michigan (near Portage Lake, Jackson County); through the eastern Gulf States to western and central Florida and northward in the neighborhood of the coast to the valley of the Neuse River, North Carolina; Chesapeake Beach, Calvert County, Maryland (_W. W. Ashe_); ranging inland in the south Atlantic States to Rome, Floyd County, Georgia, Calhoun Falls, Abbeville County, and Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina, and Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina. Passing into

Quercus Shumardii var. Schneckii Sarg.

_Quercus texana_ Sarg. in part, not Buckl.
_Quercus Schneckii_ Britt.

Differing from the type in the deep cup-shaped cup of the fruit covered with thin scales, rarely much thickened and tuberculate at base (only on river banks near Vicksburg, Warren County, Mississippi), and connected with it by forms with the cups of the fruit differing from saucer to deep cup-shaped.

Distribution. Growing with _Quercus Shumardii_; more common in Texas and in the Mississippi valley than the type, and ranging eastward through Louisiana and Mississippi to central and southern Alabama, central and southeastern Tennessee (neighborhood of Chattanooga), and central Kentucky; apparently not reaching the Atlantic States.

3. Quercus texana Buckl.

Leaves widest above the middle, broad-cuneate, concave-cuneate or nearly truncate at base, deeply or rarely only slightly divided by broad sinuses rounded in the bottom into 5 or 7 lobes, the terminal lobe 3-lobed and acute at apex, the upper lateral lobes broad and more or less divided at apex and much larger and more deeply lobed than those of the lowest pair, when they unfold densely covered with fascicled hairs and often bright red, soon glabrous, thin, dark green and lustrous above, pale and lustrous and rarely furnished below with small inconspicuous axillary tufts of pale hairs, 3′—3½′ long, 2½′—3′ wide, with a thin midrib and slender primary veins running to the points of the lobes; petioles slender, soon glabrous, ¾′—1½′ in length. Flowers: staminate in slender villose aments 3′—4′ long; calyx thin, villose on the outer surface, divided into 4 or 5 acute lobes shorter than the stamens; pistillate on short hoary tomentose peduncles, their involucral scales brown tinged with red; stigmas bright red. Fruit short-stalked, usually solitary; nut ovoid, narrowed and rounded at apex, light red-brown, often striate, ¼′—¾′ long and broad, sometimes acute, nearly 1′ in length and not more than ⅓′ in diameter; cup turbinate, covered with thin ovate acuminate slightly appressed glabrous scales, in the small fruit of trees on dry hills inclosing a third or more of the nut, in the larger fruit of trees on better soil comparatively less deep.

A tree on dry hills rarely more than 30° tall, with a trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, small spreading or erect branches and slender red or reddish brown glabrous or rarely pubescent branchlets; often a shrub; on better soil at the foot of hills occasionally 50° high with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, ⅙′—¼′ long and covered with closely imbricated acute slightly or densely pubescent red scales. Bark light brown tinged with red, ¾′—1′ thick, deeply ridged and broken into plate-like scales.

Distribution. Dry limestone hills and ridges, and in the more fertile soil at their base; central and western Texas (Dallas, Tarrant County to Travis and Bexar Counties), and to the Edwards Plateau (San Saba, Kerr, Brown, Coke and Uvalde Counties); westward replaced by the var. _chesosensis_ Sarg. differing in the acuminate lobes of the leaves and smaller cups of the fruit; known only on the dry rocky slopes of the Chesos Mountains, Brewster County, Texas; and by the var. _stellapila_ Sarg., differing in the presence of fascicled hairs on both surfaces of the mature leaves and on the branchlets of the year; above Fort Davis, Jeff Davis County, Texas.

4. Quercus ellipsoidalis E. J. Hill. Black Oak.