FAGACE^ 269 



lobes broad, more or less emarginate, much longer than the acute or rounded lower 

 lobes, when they unfold bronze-green and pilose above, with caducous hairs, and 

 coated below with thick pale tomentum, at maturity thin and firm, dark green and 

 glabrous above, silvery white or rarely light green, and coated with pale pubescence 

 below, T-8' long, l'-4' broad, turning bright scarlet or scarlet and orange in the 

 autumn; their petioles glabrous or pubescent, j'-l' long. Flo"wers: starainate in 

 slender hairy aments 4'-6' long; calyx light yellow, coated on the outer surface with 

 pale hairs and divided into acute segments; pistillate sessile or stalked, their invo- 

 lucral scales covered, like the peduncles, with thick pale tomentum. Fruit sessile 

 or borne on slender pubescent peduncles sometimes 1^' long; acorn subglobose to 

 ovate or rarely to ovate-oblong, ^'-1' long, usually broader at the base than long, 

 light chestnut-brown, more or less covered above the middle with short pale pu- 

 bescence, almost or entirely or rarely for only half its length inclosed in the ovate 

 or rarely deeply cup-shaped or nearly spherical thin cup, bright red-brown and 

 pubescent on the inner surface, hoary-tomentose and covered on the outer by ovate 

 united scales produced into acute tips, much thickened and contorted at its base, 

 gradually growing thinner and forming a ragged edge to the thin often irregularly 

 split margin of the cup. 



A tree, rarely 100 high, with a trunk 2-3 in diameter, generally divided 15- 

 20 above the ground into comparatively small often pendulous branches forming a 

 handsome symmetrical round-topped head, and slender branchlets green more or less 

 tinged with red and pilose or pubescent when they first appear, light or dark orange- 

 color or grayish brown and usually glabrous during their first winter, ultimately 

 becoming ashy gray or light brown. Winter-buds ovate, obtuse, about ^' long, with 

 light chestnut-brown scales clothed, especially near their margins, with loose pale 

 tomentum. Bark f-V thick, light gray tinged with red and broken into thick plates 

 separating on the surface into thin irregular appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, 

 strong, tough, very durable in contact with the ground, rich dark brown, with thick 

 lighter colored sap wood; confounded commercially with the wood of Quercus alba, 

 and used for the same purpose. 



Distribution. River swamps and small deep depressions on rich bottom-lands, 

 usually wet throughout the year; valley of the Patuxent River, Maryland, southward 

 near the coast to western Florida, through the Gulf states to the valley of the Trinity 

 River, Texas, and through Arkansas and southeastern Missouri to central Tennessee, 

 southern Indiana and Illinois; rare in the Atlantic and east Gulf states; most com- 

 mon and of its largest size in the valley of the Red River, Louisiana, and the adjacent 

 parts of Texas and Arkansas. 



Occasionally cultivated in the northeastern states and hardy in eastern Massachu- 

 setts. 



++++Leaves coarsely sinuate-toothed. Chestnut Oaks. 



33. Quercus platanoides, Sud-w. S"wamp White Oak. 



Leaves obovate to oblong-obovate, rounded at the narrowed apex, acute or rounded 

 at the gradually narrowed and wedge-shaped entire base, coarsely sinuate-dentate, or 

 sometimes pinnatifid, with oblique rounded or acute entire lobes, when they unfold 

 light bronze-green and pilose above, covered below with silvery white tomentum, 

 with conspicuous glands on the teeth, at maturity thick and firm, dark green and 

 lustrous on the upper surface, pale or often silvery white or tawny on the lower 



