40 
\ Note on Quercus Muhlenbergii, Excenn. 
Quercus Muhlenbergii is the name proposed by Dr. Engel- 
mann in 1877* for the oak originally described by Muhlenberg 
and Willdenow** as Q. Castanea, known to Michaux? as Q. 
Prinus, var. acuminata, and generally regarded as a variety of 
Q. Prinus by other authors, up to the time of Dr. Engelmann’s 
paper. That it is distinct enough from the common chestnut 
oak of the Eastern States, all are at present agreed. 
The relation of the species under consideration to the Q. pri- 
notdes, Willd.t seems, however, more obscure. The latter was 
formerly regarded by Dr. Gray as a variety of Q. Prinus, and in 
his manuals is recognized as Q. Prinus, var. humilis, Marshall. 
In his last appendix, however, he considers it a distinct species 
under Willdenow’s name. Professor Wood, in his Botanist and 
Florist, calls it Q. Prinus, var. prinoides, but in his class-book, 
— Q. prinoides, Willd. 
That it is more nearly allied to QO. Muhlenbergii, than to 
-Q. Prinus, however, is plainly indicated in its nearly or quite 
sessile thin cup, with small globose acorn. Dr. Engelmann was, 
indeed, inclined to unite it with his Muhlenbergit, and in this he 
has been followed by Mr. Sargent,§ who says: ‘a tree twenty- 
four to thirty, or exceptionally thirty-nine meters in height, with 
a trunk 0.6 to 0.9 meter in diameter (Q. Muhlenbergiz), or often, 
especially toward the eastern and western limits of its range, 
reduced to a low, slender shrub, (Q, prinoides); rare as a tree 
east of the Alleghany Mountains; very common in the Missis- 
sippi River basin, and reaching its greatest development in 
southern Arkansas.” 
The typical, arborescent, Q. Wuhlenbergii is known to Pro- 
fessor Porter in five widely separated stations in Pennsylvania, 
all on limestone soil; he has found it also on the blue Lower 
Silurian Limestone below Phillipsburg, N. J. I have observed 
it on sandy soil in the vicinity of Bridgeton, Cumberland 
Co., and young trees on the white, crystalline limestone of Stir- 
* Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sci., iii, 591. 
** Neue Schriften Gesell. Nat. ids Berlin, iii, 396. 
t Hist. Chénes Amer., No. 5, t. 8. 
} Loc. cit., 397. 
§ Rep. on 1 Forests of N. A., Vol. ix, toth Census U, S., 142, 143. 
