4*> Rhodora [Pbbbttabt 



certainly does not represent any form of the Red Oak. On the second 

 sheet there is a branch with four fully grown leaves and a single de- 

 tached leaf. This was also called "jxdustria" by Smith and also 

 represents, I believe, Quercus vaccinal. There are photographs of 

 these specimens in the herbarium of the Arboretum. 



The earliest description of the northern Red Oak appears to be 

 that of Plukenet in the Almagestum Botanicum (p. 309, t. 54, f. 5, not 

 I". I as quoted by Linnaeus) published in 1696. Oatesby's Quercus 

 Cardiniensis virentibus venis muricata (i. 21, t. 21, f. 1), judging by 

 the figure of a single leaf and of an acorn also well represent the 

 \{vd Oak. Linnaeus's "Quercus foliorum sinubus obtusis: angulis 

 acutis seta terminatis, intermediis vix tridentatis, margine integer- 

 rimo" in the Hortus Cliffortimus (p. 44S) is based on the description 

 and figures of Plukenet and Oatesby, and on a specimen presumedly 

 from Clifford's garden now preserved in the British Museum. Of 

 this specimen there is a photograph in the herbarium of the Arbore- 

 tum. This is a leaf of the Red Oak and it was on this specimen 

 and on the description in the Hortus ClifforHanus that Linnaeus 

 based his Quercus rubra, var. (3 in the Species Plantarum which, as 

 I suggested, in Rhodora last year, is our northern Red Oak. 



As the name Quercus- rubra Linnaeus must be transferred to the tree 

 which later was called Quercus falcata by Michaux, the Red Oak of 

 the southern states, another must be found for the common northern 

 \{vt\ Oak. The Gray Oak, as Michaux called it, which I believe is 

 only a variety of this tree and which is common in the north, was 

 distinguished by him in his Histoire des arbres foresti&res de VAmtrique 

 septentrumale as Quercus ambigua. This tree only differs from the 

 more widely distributed and more common form of the Med Oak with 

 broad shallow cups of the fruit by its usually smaller acorns with 

 deeper cups. The two trees often grow together; in habit, bark and 

 foliage they cannot be distinguished, and individual trees with fruit 

 intermediate between the two in size and in the shape of the cups are 

 not rare. Although the tree with the deep cups is most common along 

 the northern border of the United States and in Canada, it extends 

 into western New York and a specimen collected by Cocks in St. 

 Tammany Parish, Louisiana, is clearly this northern tree. 



There is some doubt about the correct name for the Gray Oak. 

 The younger Michaux who first distinguished it called it Quercus 

 ambigua. There was, however, an earlier Quercus ambigua used for a 



