305 



a single stock in a field belonging to Mr. Bartram on the banks 

 of the Schuylkill, 4 miles from Philadelphia. This is a flourishing 

 tree, 30 feet in height and 12 inches in diameter; and seems 

 formed to attain a much greater development. * * * * i 

 was at first disposed to consider this tree as a variety of the laurel 

 oak, to which it bears the greatest affinity ; but the leaves of that 

 species are never indented, and not a stock of it exists within a 

 hundred miles of Philadelphia." 



This is no doubt the first published description and represen- 

 tation of this oak, and the very appropriate specific name given 

 to it at that time by Michaux has fortunately not been subjected 

 to any change by later botanists, so that there is no tangled skein 

 of synonomy to unravel, and the specific title, heterophylla, 

 "various leaved," will always serve it as its name, no matter 

 whether it be classed as a variety, a species, or a hybrid. From 

 the time of Michaux's description until about the year 1850 no 

 other trees seem to have been found, and the only ones known 

 were the original and a few seedhngs from it. In fact, when 

 the original tree was cut down, about the year 1840, it was 

 thought that the species, if such it was, was exterminated. So 

 that for a period of a hundred years the only material for study was 

 from a single tree and its immediate progeny. This, however, 

 did not prevent the botanists of that time from recording opinions 

 in regard to it. Michaux, as before stated, gave to it a specific 

 rank. Pursh said : "* * It is probably only a hybrid plant." 

 * * Nuttall asked : " May not this be an anomalous variety of 

 coccinea?" Torrey states unequivocally : "A hybrid." Gray, in 

 his Manual published in 1848, says: "* * * doubtless a hybrid 

 between Q. Phellos and Q. falcata, or some other species of that 

 section." In the second edition ot the Manual, published in 

 1856, he changes his opinion, and says: "* * * apparently 

 a hybrid between Q. Phellos and Q. tinctorial In the fifth 

 edition, published in 1867, he quotes De Candolle as referring it 

 to a variety of Q. aquatica, and then says : " It is as likely to be 

 a variety of Q. Phellos, with dilated and toothed or cut leaves." 

 About the year 1855, however, some trees were discovered at Mt. 

 Holly, N. J., {Fide specimen in Herb. Columbia College, marked 

 " Mt. Holly, N. J., Aug. 25, 1855, W. Proctor,") and others 



