282 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



be bare for an inch or two. The form of the root is a very safe means 

 of identification at any season when it can be found. If more than 

 one they are similar in shape and all spring from the base of the stem. 

 Its habits are like those of the pasture thistle, growing in fields and 

 meadows, and it seems to take the place of that species in the central 

 and western states, and may fitly be termed the western pasture thistle. 



E. J. Hill. 



Quercus ellipsoidalis, E. J. Hill. Botanical Gazette 27:205, 1899. 



Trees 30 — 60 feet high, 1 — 3 feet in diameter, the head oblong, 

 spray repeatedly and finely dividing, the limbs usually coming low 

 down on the trunk, the lower drooping. The bark is close, quite 

 smooth, y 2 — 1% in. thick, divided by shallow fissures into narrow, 

 thin, flat plates, 2 — 6 in. long. It is dark near the base, dull gray 

 above, grayish brown and quite smooth among the branches, dull red 

 within, with a thin band of yellow next the wood. The winter buds 

 are small, yk — ^ in. long, ovate, obtuse or acutish, with a rusty or 

 grayish pubescence. The leaves are broadly oval to oval-orbicular or 

 somewhat obovate orbicular in outline, 2^ — 6 in. long, lyi — 5 or 

 more wide, lustrous green and smooth above, lighter green and smooth 

 beneath or with slight tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the principal 

 veins, and are deeply cut into 5 — 7 lobes by broad and rounded 

 sinuses which extend half way or more to the midrib. The base is 

 bluntly cuneate or truncate, petioles rather slender, 1 — 2 in. long, 

 generally tinged with red on the upper side. In autumn the leaves 

 are yellowish to pale brown, often blotched or tinged with purple or 

 sometimes of a vinous or crimson purple. They are quite persistent 

 on the trees in winter. The aments are long and slender, loosely 

 flowered pubescent. Calyx campanulate, variously cut into 2 — 5 seg- 

 ments which are fringed with long hairs. Stamens 4 or 5 ; filaments 

 shorter than the anthers. Pistillate flowers on stout tomentose 1 — 3 

 flowered peduncles, the calyx variously divided into 5 — 7 parts, the 

 margin laciniate-hairy. Styles 3, thick and flattened, spreading or 

 recurved. Acorns single or in pairs, the cup turbinate or cup-shaped, 

 thin, or in some thickened and rounded near the margin, covering 

 1/3 — 1 / 2 the nut. The cup scales are brownish, more or less puberu- 

 lent, closely appressed, occasionally loosening a little near the rim on 



