266 



The Journal of Heredity 



in March, 1913. These have durin<i; the 

 present unfavorable season added an 

 average of 3 or more feet to the length 

 of every main limb. Of this second 

 lot of h>-brids there were originally' 

 planted four on the lawn of the Experi- 

 ment Station building, the most vigorous 

 and beautiful of which succumbed a 

 year ago to the cottonroot rot, and a 

 fifth was planted on the same gTOund as 

 the first lot. Hence se\-en young hy- 

 brid oaks are growing on the camjjus, 

 three planted in 1912 and four in 1913. 



All these hybrid trees arc so unifonn 

 in character that seedlings of pure 

 parentage could not be more so. In all 

 of them the father, or Q. lyrata, is easily 

 dominant ; especially is this true for the 

 second lot, or those from the cross-pol- 

 lination of 1910. Their pyramidal fonn 

 and straight shoots arc stricth' charac- 

 ters of the father. The three of the 

 first lot are less inclined to the ])yraiTiidal 

 fonn of head, and show considerable 

 ])roclivity to set short-jointed, more or 

 less crooked, lateral branches, after the 

 manner of the Live Oak. The leaves 

 are very uniform in all of them, being 

 intermediate in size of that of the parents. 

 The general outline is oblanceolate with 

 the margins denlately lobed. The tex- 

 ture is strictly cariaceous and of a color 

 of a much deeper green on the upper 

 surface than that of the father species. 

 The leaves commence falling in the 

 winter, but many of them remain green 

 until spring. In the fruit, the Live 

 Oak is strictly dominant except in the 

 size, which is larger and may be con- 

 sidered intermediate. The bark, as it 

 now appears on the lower part of the 

 trunks of the older trees, will be flaky 

 as in the Overcup Oak. 



The wood, so far as I have cut into it 

 in pruning, seems to be extremely hard, 

 close-grained, and tough. 



As ornamental trees, these h\'ljrids are 

 much sujjcrior to the mother, the Live 

 Oak, in form, and to the father, the 

 Overcuj) Oak, because of the density 

 and luster of their foliage. 



One of the three, planted in 1913 by 

 the Experiment Station building, pro- 

 duced several female flowers in 1917, 

 only four years after j)lanting. One 



of these developed a normal acorn, 

 although no male catkins were produced. 

 The jjollen that fertilized this female 

 could possibly come from only two 

 sources, namely, from a Post Oak (Q. 

 minor) standing less than 100 feet to 

 the south; or from a Water Oak (Q. 

 nigra) standing about twice that dis- 

 tance to the southwest from the hybrid 

 tree producing this acorn. Both of 

 those oaks produced abundance of 

 pollen during the time ]5roper for fertili- 

 zation of my hybrid oak. 



The acorn was planted as .soon as 

 ripe, and has at the time of this writing 

 de\x'loped into a little tree about 12 

 inches tall with twelve full grown leaves. 

 The stem is more short-jointed than in 

 any of the individuals of the immediate 

 mother fonn. The lea\'es are of the 

 same texture, have similar lobations, 

 but are longer in proportion to the width 

 than in those of the mother type. One 

 or two of the larger of these leaves are 

 strangely similar to the form of leaves 

 frequently borne by strong water shoots 

 upon Q. nigra. (I am bearing in mind 

 that 0. nigra belongs to that group of 

 oaks, which ripens its fruit in the second 

 season after flowering, namely, the 

 black oaks, or the red oak division of 

 the genus.) My attempts to cross 0. 

 nigra with Q. Virginiana ha\'e up to the 

 present time been fruitless. 



Since the above notes, made on 

 August 24, 1917, a croj) of twelve acorns 

 from four mother plants ha\-e ripened, 

 been planted, and at this time (June 14. 

 1918) made a growth \'ar>-ing from 6 

 to 14 inches in height. As to the im- 

 mediate male parent of these, there is 

 the same doubt as in the case of the first 

 seedling of the second generation, re- 

 ferred to abo\'e. All of them are 

 glabrous with the excej^tions of one, 

 which has ])ubcscent stem and under 

 surface of the leaves, strongly similar to 

 a >'oung seedling of a Post Oak. One 

 has the lyrata-form of leaves to a \-ery 

 marked degree. 



At the present writing, the form of 

 the ]ea\'cs seems to be in a state of 

 transition, the later ones being somewhat 

 difl"erent in fonn from the earlier. How- 



