THE FLORA OF SCOTT AND MUSCATINE COUNTIES. 283 



drying. Nut chestnut brown, often striped with darker lines, y 2 — ^ 

 in. long, ellipsoidal to oval- cylindrical, or when short and broad oval- 

 globular, the base and apex mostly rounded about equally. The 

 kernel is pale yellow and bittter. 



Q. ellipsoidalis more closely resembles Q. palustris in general appear- 

 ance than any other of the biennial-fruited oaks. This is seen in the 

 comparative smoothness of the bark, the depression of the lower limbs, 

 which descend low down on the trunk except when much crowded in 

 dense woods ; and in the finely divided leaves and general character 

 of the branching. But it differs in the form of the leaf-lobes, in the 

 color of the bark, and especially in the form and size of the nut and 

 acorn-cup. The lower branches, though long persistent, die and fall 

 off like those of the pin oak, but do not leave the stubs so character- 

 istic of that species. It resembles Q. coccinea in the form of some 

 of its acorns, in the lobation of the leaves and reddish color of 

 the inner bark, but the outer bark is darker and generally much 

 smoother than on trunks of the scarlet oak uf similar age and size, 

 and the leaves do not turn scarlet in autumn. Q. velutina is suggested 

 by the darker color of the bark near the base of the trunk, the band 

 of yellow next to the wood, the dull color of the autumn leaves, the 

 hairs in the axils of the veins beneath, though this is a feature of Q. 

 palustris and is frequent in Q. coccinea; but the bark is not rough and 

 black, a character that appears very early on boles of the black oak; 

 the yellow of the inner bark is usually much less in amount, the acorns 

 differ in shape, and especially in the loosened or squarrose densely 

 puberulent scales of the cup. ^ t u ill 



