90 TREES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



reappearing within three or four miles of the Connecticut, 

 ceasing at North Charlestown ; Vermont, - -western and 



southeastern sections ; Massachusetts, abundant eastward ; 

 Rhode Island and Connecticut, frequent. 



South to the Gulf states; west to Minnesota, Kansas, Indian 

 territory, and Texas. 



Habit. One of our largest oaks, 50-75 feet high and 2-4 

 feet in diameter, exceptionally much larger, attaining its 

 maximum in the Ohio and Mississippi basins ; resembling 

 Q. coecinea in the general disposition of its mostly stouter 

 branches ; head wide-spreading, rounded ; trunk short ; foliage 

 deep shining green, turning yellowish or reddish brown in 

 autumn. 



Bark. Bark of trunk dark gray or blackish, often lighter 

 near the seashore, thick, usually rough near the ground even 

 in young trees, in old trees deeply furrowed, separating into 

 narrow, thick, and firmly adherent block-like strips ; inner bark 

 thick, yellow, and bitter ; branches and branchlets a nearly 

 uniform, mottled gray ; season's shoots scurfy-pubescent. 



Winter Buds and Leaves. Buds ^-J inch long, bluntish to 

 pointed, conspicuously clustered at ends of branches. Leaves 

 simple, alternate, of two forms so distinct as to suggest 

 different species, a (Plate XLV, 8) varying towards b (Plate 

 XLV, 6), and b often scarcely distinguishable from the leaf of 

 the scarlet oak ; in both forms outline obovate to oval, lobes 

 usually 7, densely woolly when opening, more or less pubes- 

 cent or scurfy till midsummer or later, dark shining green 

 above, lighter beneath, becoming brown or dull red in autumn. 



Form a, sinuses shallow, lobes broad, rounded, mucronate. 



Form b, sinuses deep, extending halfway to the midrib or 

 farther, oblong or triangular, bristle-tipped. 



Inflorescence. Early in May. Appearing when the leaves 

 are half grown ; sterile catkins 2-5 inches long, with slender, 

 pubescent threads ; calyx usually 3-4-lobed ; lobes ovate, 

 acute to rounded, hairy-pubescent ; stamens 3-7, commonly 

 4-5 ; anthers yellow : pistillate flowers reddish, pubescent, 

 at first nearly sessile; stigmas 3, red, divergent, reflexed. 



