DENDROLOGY. 



277 



Mossy-Cup Oak. Quercus olivceformis. 



2 



This species is very rare 

 and little known except in 

 the state of New York on 

 the banks of the Hudson 

 above Albany, in Genessee, 

 and in the northern part of 

 Pennsylvania. 



This tree is 60 or 70 feet 

 in height, with a spacious 

 summit and an imposing 

 aspect. The bark is white 

 and laminated ; but the tree 

 is chiefly remarkable for the 

 form and disposition of its 

 secondary branches, which 

 are slender, flexible, and 

 always inclined towards the 

 earth. Its leaves are of a light green above and whitish beneath ; 

 they resemble those of the white oak in color, but differ from 

 them in form, being larger, and very deeply and irregularly 

 laciniated, with rounded lobes so various in shape that it is 

 impossible to find two leaves that are alike. Its fructification is 

 annual. The flowers appear in May and are succeeded by 

 acorns of an elongated, oval form, and are inclosed in cups of 

 nearly the same configuration, of which the scales are prominent 

 and recurved, except near the edge, where they terminate in 

 slender, flexible filaments: from this* peculiarity is derived the 

 name of Mossy- Cup Oak. 



The wood of this tree is not better than that of the white oak, 

 though far superior to that of the red oak. 



PLATE LXXXII. 

 Fig. 1. A leaf. Fig. 2. The fruit. 



