1881.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 121 



QUEKCUS DURANDII, Buckley. 

 BY S. B. BUCKLEY, PH. D. 



I bad spent several years in studying the trees of the United 

 States in their native places, when, in the month of September, 

 1859, as I was walking from Camden to Allenton, in Wilcox 

 County, Alabama, I saw an oak, different from any I had ever 

 seen. It was in a dark, rich, limestone soil, on the right hand 

 side of the road, about three miles from Allenton. The bark of 

 its trunk and limbs was scaly ; leaves lanceolate, entire or slightly 

 lobed or repand ; acorns small, ovate, obtuse ; cup ver^^ shallow, 

 about one-eighth as long as the acorn. The tree Avas 1 foot in 

 diameter and about 25 feet high, and the only one there. I showed 

 specimens of it to the gentleman with whom I staid all night. 

 He told me it was a rare oak in that country, growing near the 

 banks of streams and swamps, that its wood was close grained 

 and xery tough, making excellent screws for cotton-gins, firm and 

 durable wagon-hubs, etc., also splints for making baskets for the 

 cotton-fi^ld, when the cotton is being gathered; that it was seldom 

 more than 3 feet in diameter and 60 feet high. 



This oak was the Quercus Durandii, a new species which I de- 

 scribed in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences in 

 1861. It is named after the late Elias Durand, who was for many 

 years chairman of the Committee on Botany of the Academy. 



In October, 1859, I saw it again at Shreveport, in Louisiana, on 

 the bluffs of the Red River, in the upper part of the town. There 

 its acorns were larger and longer than in Alabama. Here there 

 were several trees of it, one of which was 4 feet 2 inches in dia- 

 meter at 3 feet from the ground. These were low, spreading trees, 

 growing in an open space. 



In Southern Texas, on the Colorado River, in Fort Bend and 

 other counties, it is a large tree, often 2 to 3 feet in diameter and 

 60 to YO feet high. 



In 1814, in Milam County, Texas, I saw many large, tall trees 

 of this oak in the bottom lands of Little River, a tributary of 

 the Brazos. There it is sometimes called the " bastard white oak " 

 because the bark of its trunk resembles that of the scaly forms 

 of white oak. 



Durand's oak grows on the bauks of Shoal Creek, one-half to 



