316 Earl Harrington Foots 



imbricaria. The petioles are much longer than in Q. imbricaria, the 

 leaves larger and more obtuse at base. These modifications (if it is a 

 hybrid) may be derived from the long petioles and larger leaves of the 

 black and scarlet oaks. I have found but a single stock of this (about 

 five years ago). It grows three miles north of Cincinnati.^ 



Thomas Nuttall,^ in commenting on these lines differed with 

 Mr. Lea, expressing the belief that the new oak was a distinct 

 species allied to the black or red oak. He said, 



I confess I see too little resemblance in our plant with Quercus 

 imbricaria to agree with my friend, Mr. T. G. Lea, as to any hybrid 

 connection with that remotely allied species. Betwixt the gray oak 

 (Q. ambigua Mich.), and Q. tindoria I perceive a nearer resemblance. 

 The fruit appears to be wholly that of the gray oak. The gland in both 

 is striated and with a small conic projection. In our plant, however, 

 the base of the gland and that of the cup are yellow, indicating its al- 

 liance to Q. tinctoria. The leaf differs wholly from l)oth in its simple 

 undivided lobes, though the long petioles and rounded base is that of 

 tinctoria. Scarce as this species yet appears to be, under the present 

 circumstances, I am inclined to believe it is of a distinct race, with 

 features as distinct as any species in the genus; for the gray oak, being, 

 I l)elieve, unknown in Ohio, is again out of the question. I suspect 

 it is in all physical respects allied to tinctoria and would equally afford 

 a yellow dyeing material. 



The full grown leaves are from five to five and a half inches long 

 by three to three and a half wide, smooth and shining above, with a 

 small quantity of deciduous stellate pubescence beneath. The lobes 

 are about a single pair on a side, the central lobe only sometimes again 

 subdivided into three lesser lobes all of them ending in bristles. The 

 base is rounded, and often hollowed out, or somewhat sinuated. The 

 buds are small and brown. The fertile flower often by threes, on a 

 short, thick common pedicel, the middle flower abortive. Male flowers 

 not seen. Cups rather deep, as in Quercus tinctoria with the scales 

 ovate, obtuse, and closely imbricated. The acorn roundish, some- 

 what ovate, broadly striate, with short roundish conic point or umbo 

 about half-way, or nearly so immersed in cup. 



Some years later Lester F. Ward^ discovered two trees in the 

 District of Columbia w^hich he identified as Leana, comparing 

 them with the specimens in the Herbarium of the Department 

 of Agriculture. He says: 



• - Nuttall, North American Sylva, vol. i, p. 25, 1865. 

 ^Ibid., pp. 25-27. 

 * Field and Forest, vol. i, p. 41, 1865. 



