PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 83 



72. (231.) Quercus palustris. "Water Oak"; "Turkey Oak." 



A very common species in wet bottoms, distinguished by its compara- 

 tively smooth, grayish bark, and usually by the numerous small droop- 

 ing branches which grow from the trunk, sometimes to quite near the 

 ground. In close woods, however, it frequently has a clean straight 

 stem of 50 feet or more, one of 73 feet having been measured. The 

 Water Oak is usually 100 to 120 feet high, and 2 to 3 feet in diameter, 

 but much larger specimens sometimes occur, trunks even 4 and 5 feet 

 through being occasionally met with. But few specimens have been 

 measured, as follows : 



This species blossoms about the middle of April. 



(?)73. (232.) Quercus pJiellos. Willow Oak. 



This species I give with some doubt, not beiug quite positive that it 

 occurs. I have seen, however, along the road between Mount Carmel 

 and Olney (Kichland County) several trees which, at the time of inspec- 

 tion, I unhesitatingly decided to be Q. pheUos (a tree with which, as 

 growing in Maryland and Virginia, I was perfectly familiar), but not 

 having seen it since, while Dr. Schneck has not recorded it, I place the 

 interrogation mark as above. 



74. (234.) Quercus rubra. Eed Oak; "Spanish Oak"; "Turkey Oak." 

 With the possible exception of Q. coccinea, this is the tallest oak 

 growing in the district under consideration, and, excepting Q. macro- 

 carpa, is the largest also. Trunks, straight as an arrow, of 5 or even 6 

 feet diameter (above the spurs), and 50 to more than 70 feet clear, were 

 formerly not at all rare, but at the present time most of them have been 

 cut for barrel-staves or clap-boards. The largest Red Oak which I have 

 measured was 23 feet in girth (round the top of the stump), the trunk 

 7G feet long and 3 feet in diameter at the small end. The top branches 

 beyond 120 feet from the base were destroyed, but at this point the sev- 

 eral main limbs were a foot in thickness. Another tree, measuring 19 

 feet in girth and 71 feet to the first limb, was 150 feet long. At the 

 ground these large Eed Oaks measure much more than they do a few 

 feet up, on account of the projecting spurs, or buttresses, which, as in 

 the White Elm ( Uhnus americana), are a very characteristic feature of 

 the species. Thus, a Red Oak measuring 6 feet through at two yards 

 from the ground may be 12 feet or more in diameter at the base. 

 Flowers April 18 to 20, and leafs out a few days later. 



