1882 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
Under that parallel, and at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, it is only 40 ft. high ; 
but it increases in size as it gets farther south, till, on the shores of Lake 
Champlain, it often attains the height of 60 ft. It was first described by the 
younger Michaux, and was introduced into England by the Messrs. Fraser, 
in 1800. From its geographical range, it is evidently fitter for the colder 
parts of Europe than either the preceding or following sorts. Plants, in the 
neighbourhood of London, grow vigorously ; and, from their very large foliage, 
make a fine appearance, even when young. This kind must not be confounded 
with the Q. ambigua of Humboldt, which is a native of Mexico, and a totally 
different plant (see App. viii. Mewican Oaks) ; nor with a tree marked (in 1836) 
Q. ambigua in the Horticultural Society’s Garden, which is intermediate be- 
tween Q. sessiliflora and Q. pedunculata, and may be called Q. Robur am- 
biguum, as this may be called Q. rubra ambigua. There are trees of the true 
North American kind in the Horticultural Society’s Garden, of one of which 
the plate of this species in our last Volume is a portrait. The wood is as 
coarse and open in its pores as that of the red oak; but it is stronger and 
more durable; and, though unfit for wine casks, it is sometimes employed, 
in Canada, for the knees of schooners, and other small vessels, and by 
wheelwrights. As a tree to introduce occasionally in hanging woods in the 
Highlands of Scotland, along with the British oak, no species can be more 
desirable than Q. ambigua. 
¥ 17. Q. ratca‘ta Michxr. The sickle-shaped, or Spanish, Oak. 
Identification. Michx. Quer., No. 16.; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 631.; N. Du Ham., 7. p. 169. ; 
Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836. 
Synonymes. Q. discolor Att. Hort. Kew., ed. 1., 3. p. 358.; Q. elongata Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. p. 444., 
Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 2., 5. p, 291., Smith in Rees’s Cycl., No. 57.; Q. lyrata Lodd. Cat., 1836; Q. 
cuneata Wang.; Q. triloba Wélld. Sp. Pi., 4. p. 443., Michx. Quer., 14. No. 26.; Q. cuneata 
Wang. Forst.; the downy-leaved Oak. 
Engravings. Michx. Quer., t. 28.; N. Amer. Syl, 1, t. 23.; and our figs. 1750. and 1751, 
Spec. Char., §c. Leaves downy beneath, sinuated, with three or more some~ 
what falcate bristle-pointed lobes; the terminal one elongated and jagged. 
Calyx hemispherical. ( Willd.) A tree, varying from 30 ft. to 80ft. high. 
Introduced, under the name of Q. elongata, in 1763; dnd again, under that 
of Q. triloba, in 1800. 
Description, §c. This oak is a very remarkable one, from the great differ- 
ence which exists in its leaves and general appearance, in different climates. 
This difference is so extraordinary, that nearly all the botanists who have 
written on the American oaks have supposed it to be two species. In the south- 
