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1915] Sargent,— Three of Clayton's Oaks 39 
THREE OF CLAYTON'S OAKS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 
C. S. SARGENT. 
A visit a few months ago to the region in Gloucester County, Vir- 
ginia, where John Clayton lived for many years, led me to examine 
last summer the specimens of Oaks collected by him and preserved 
in the British Museum. Three of these specimens are of some interest. 
1. Clayton's Quercus rubra seu Hispanica hic dicta, foliis amplis 
varie profundeque incisis was described by Gronovius as Quercus 
foliorum sinubus obtusis, angulis lanceolatis seta terminatis integerrimis 
vix divisis. This is the first synonym quoted by Linnaeus under his 
description of Quercus rubra in the Species Plantarum and that on 
which his diagnostic phrase was based. "The other synonym quoted 
by Linnaeus and by Gronovius is Quercus esculi divisura, foliis ampli- 
oribus aculeatis of Plukenet & Catesby. Plukenet’s figure of a single 
leaf might possibly pass for a leaf of the Red Oak, although it looks 
more like some form of Q. coccinea or of Q. velutina. Catesby’s plate 
well represents Q. falcata, although a single unattached and uncolored 
fruit on this plate might represent a small fruit of Quercus rubra. 
Catesby calls his Oak the Red Oak. In the southern states Quercus 
falcata is always called Red Oak, and if the name Spanish Oak is ever 
used for it this name is not common. Clayton’s specimen is clearly 
the digitate form of Quercus falcata. Linnaeus’s description of his 
Quercus rubra, “Q. foliis obtuse-sinuatis, setaceo-mucronatis," means 
little and might apply to several species as well as to Q. rubra, and if 
his species was based on the descriptions of earlier authors Q. rubra 
should be the name of the tree now called Q. falcata or Q. digitata. 
Linnaeus's Q. rubra B in the Species Plantarum, judging by the figures 
of Catesby & Plukenet quoted by him, although they represent only 
single leaves, was probably what we now call Quercus rubra. 
2. This is a specimen of a single leaf of Quercus velutina, under 
which is written * Quercus foliorum, sinubus obtusis, angulis lanceo- 
latis seta terminatis integerrimis vix divisis, Fl. Virg. p. 117, our 
common black Oak, Bartram. 
Quercus foliis obtuse sinuatis setaceo-mucronatis, Linn. Syst. gen. 
949, n. 9." 
Clayton's description was not quoted by Linnaeus and Clayton's 
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