CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CER. QUE'RCUS. 1865 
iS 1724 
NE N \. 
\ 
yl Re 
NN ial 
1724. is from a sprig apparently of this variety, grown in the Hor- 
ticultural Society’s Garden, under the name of Q. Alba. In Messrs, 
Loddiges’s arboretum is an oak named Q. squamosa, from a spe- 
cimen of. which fig. 1725. was taken. This tree, which is 20 ft. 
sly 7 
1725 
high, has exactly the appearance, bark, and habit of growth of Q. 
alba, and as it only differs from it in the shape of the leaves, it may 
probably be a variation of this variety. 
Description. The American white oak, according to Michaux, bears most 
resemblance to Q. pedunculata, which is sometimes called the white oak in 
Europe. Q. alba, in the American forests, is often 70 ft. or 80 ft. high, and 
with a trunk 6 ft. or 7 ft. in diameter; but its proportions vary with the soil 
and climate. Cobbett says that it is “ amongst the least curious and beautiful 
of the American oaks.” The leaf, he adds, “ is small, and the shape and colour 
not very handsome.” According to Michaux, the leaves are regularly and ob- 
liquely divided into oblong rounded lobes, destitute of points or bristles ; and 
the indentations are the deepest in the most humid soils. “ Soon after their 
unfolding, the leaves are reddish above, and white and downy beneath; when 
fully grown, they are smooth, and of a light green on the upper surface, and 
glaucous underneath. In the autumn they change to a bright violet colour.” 
(N. Amer, Syl., i. p.19.) Michaux adds that this is the only American oak 
that retains some of its withered leaves till spring The acorns are large, oval, 
and very sweet ; and they are contained in rough, shallow, greyish cups. They 
are borne singly, or in pairs, on long peduncles, “ attached, as in all the species 
with annual fructification, to the shoots of the season.” The fruit is rarely 
