CUTCLIFEK^E. (OAK FAMILY.) 477 



* * Leaves coriaceous, evergreen, entire or rarely spinjj-toothed . — Live Oaks. 



10. Q. virens, Ait. (Live Oak.) Leaves small, oblong or elliptical, 

 hoaiy beneath as well as the brauchlets ; peduncle usually conspicuous, 1-3- 

 fruited; cup top-shaped ; acorn oblong; cotyledons completely united into one 

 mass. — Along the coast from Va. to Fla. and Tex. Becoming a large tree 

 at the south, and formerly extensively used in ship-building. 



§2. MELAXOBALAXUS. Bark dark, furrowed ; leaves deciduous, their 

 lobes and teeth acute and bristle-pointed (at least in youth) ; stamens mostly 

 4- 6 ; Clip-scales membranaceous ; styles lung and spreading ; abortive ovules 

 near the top of the p)erfect seed ; inner surface of nut tomentose ; fruit ma- 

 turing the second year, sessile or on short thick peduncles ; wood porous and 

 brittle. — Black Oaks. 



* Leaves pinnatifid or lobed, slender-petioled, not coriaceous, the lobes or teeth 



conspicuously bristle-pointed. 

 •t- Mature leaves glabrous on both sides or nearly so, oval, oblong or someivhat 

 obovate in outline, from moderately sinuate-pinnatifd to deeply pinnatifd, 

 turning various shades of red or crimson in late autumn: large trees, with 

 reddish coarse-grained wood ; species closely related and apparently readily 

 hybridizing. 



11. Q. rubra, L. (Red Oak.) Cup saucer-shaped or flat, with a narrow 

 raised border (9-12'' in diameter), of rather fine closely appressed scaleo, 

 sessile or on a very short and abrupt narrow stalk or neck, very much shorter 

 than the oblong-ovoid or ellipsoidal aco.n, which is V or less in length; leaves 

 rather thin, turning dark red after frost, moderately (rarely very deeply) 

 pinnatifid, the lobes acuminate from a broad base, with a few coarse teeth ; 

 bark of trunk dark gray, smoothish. — Common both in rich and poor soil, 

 westward to E. Minn, and E. Kan. Timber coarse and poor. — A^ar. rinci- 

 nXta, a. DC, is a form with regular nearly entire lobes and the frnit nearly 

 a half smaller : found near St. Louis. 



12. Q. COCCinea, Wang. (Scarlet Oak.) Cup top-shaped, or hemi- 

 spherical ivith a conical base (7-9" broad), coarsely scaly, covering half or 

 more of the broadly or globular-ovoid acorn, the scales somewhat appressed and 

 glal)rate, or in western localities yellowish-canescent and squarrose as in var. 

 tinctoria; leaves in the ordinary forms, at least on full-grown trees, bright 

 green, shining above, turning red in autumn, deejjly pinnatifid, the slender 

 lobes divergent and sparingly cut-toothed ; buds small ; acorns 6 - 9'' long ^ 

 l)ark of the trunk gray, the interior reddish. — Moist or dry soil; common, 

 from 8. Maine to Del., Minn., N. Mo., and south in the mountains. 



Var. tinctoria, Gray. (Quercitron, Yellow-barked, or Black Oak.) 

 Leaves witli broader undivided lobes, commonly paler and somewhat pubes- 

 cent beneatli, turning brownisli, orange, or dull red in autumn ; cup-scales 

 large and hjosely imbricated or squarrose when dry, yellowisli gray, pubescent ; 

 bark of trunk darker-colored and rougher on the surface, tliicker, and inter- 

 nally orange, much more valuable for the tanner and dyer ; buds longer and 

 more pointed ; cup sometimes less top-shaped. (Q. tinctoria, Bartram.) — Dry 

 or gravelly uplands, S. Maine to S. Minn., E. Neb. and Tex. Intermediate 

 forms connect this with the type. The bark is largely used in tanning. 



