FAGACE^ 273 



iu the autumn before falling; their petioles stout or slender, ^'-1' long. Flo"wers: 

 staminate iu elongated hirsute aments; calyx light yellow, pilose and deeply divided 

 into 7-9 acute segments tipped with clusters of pale hairs ; pistillate in short spikes 

 on stout puberulous dark green peduncles, their iuvolucral scales covered with pale 

 hairs; stigmas dark red. Fruit on short stout stems singly or in pairs; acorn oval 

 or ovate, rounded and rather obtuse or pointed at the apex, bright chestnut-brown, 

 very lustrous, I'-l^' long, f '-1' broad, inclosed for about one half its length or some- 

 times only at the base in a turbinate cup-shaped thin cup light brown and pubes- 

 cent on the inner surface, reddish brown, hoary -pubescent, and roughened or tuber- 

 culate, especially toward the base, on the outer surface by small scales thickened and 

 knob-like, with nearly triangular free light brown tips. 



A tree, usually 60-70 or occasionally 100 high, with a trunk 3-4 or rarely 

 6-7 iu diameter, divided generally 15 or 20 above the ground into large limbs 

 spreading into a broad open rather irregular head, and stout branchlets green tinged 

 with purple or bronze color and glabrous or pilose when they appear, light orange 

 color or reddish brown during their first winter, becoming dark gray or brown; on 

 dry exposed mountain slopes often not more than 20-30 tall, with a trunk 8'-12' 

 in diameter. Winter-buds ovate, acute or acuminate, j-^' long, with bright chest- 

 nut-brown scales pilose toward the apex and ciliate on the margins. Bark of young 

 stems and small branches thin, smooth, purplish brown, often lustrous, becoming on 

 old trunks and large limbs f '-1^' thick, dark reddish brown or nearly black, and 

 divided into broad rounded ridges separating on the surface into small closely ap- 

 pressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, rather tough, close-grained, durable 

 in contact with the soil, largely used for fencing, railway-ties, and fuel. The bark, 

 which is rich in tannin, is consumed in large quantities in tanning leather. 



Distribution. Hillsides and the high rocky banks of streams in rich and deep 

 or sometimes in sterile soil; coast of southern Maine, the Blue Hills of eastern Mas- 

 sachusetts, southward to Delaware and the District of Columbia, and along the 

 Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia and Alabama, westward to the shores 

 of Lake Champlain and the valley of the Genesee River, New York, the northern 

 shores of Lake Erie, and to central Kentucky and Tennessee; rare and local in New 

 England and Ontario; abundant on the banks of the lower Hudson River and on the 

 Appalachian hills from southern New York to Alabama; most common and of its 

 largest size on the lower slopes of the mountains of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 

 here often forming a large part of the forest. 



36. Quercus acuminata, Sarg. Yellow Oak. Chestnut Oak. 



Leaves usually crowded at the ends of the branches, oblong-lanceolate or broadly 

 obovate, acute or acuminate, with long narrow or with short broad points, abruptly 

 or gradually narrowed and wedge-shaped or slightly narrowed and rounded or cor- 

 date at the base, equally serrate except at the base, with acute and often incurved or 

 broad and rounded teeth tipped with small glandular mucros, or rarely slightly un- 

 dulate, when they unfold bright bronzy green and puberulous above, tinged with 

 purple and coated below with pale tomentum, at maturity thick and firm, light 

 yellow-green on the upper surface, pale often silvery white and covered with short 

 fine pubescence on the lower surface, 4'-7' long, l'-5' broad, with stout yellow mid- 

 ribs and conspicuous primary veins running to the points of the teeth, turning in the 

 autumn orange color and scarlet; their slender petioles f'-l^' long. Flo"wers: stami- 

 nate in pilose aments 3'-4' long; calyx light yellow, hairy, deeply divided into 5 or 



