1890 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
We are not aware of there being any trees of this oak in the neighbourhood 
of London; but we believe there are plants of it in the Edinburgh Botanic 
Garden, raised from acorns brought over by Mr. M‘Nab, jun., in 1834. (See 
p- 182.) 
§ vi. Nigra. Black American Oaks. 
Sect. Char., §c. Leaves wedge-shaped, or imperfectly lobed ; mucronated, but 
the mucros generally dropping off when the leaves have attained their full 
size. Leaves dying off of a blackish green, and in America frequently per- 
sistent. Bark black, and not scaling off. Fructification biennial. Nut 
ovate, with a persistent style, and sometimes marked with dark lines. Trees, 
from 20 ft. to 40 ft. high; and one of them, a miniature tree, often not 
exceeding 3 ft. in height. Rate of growth less rapid than in the preceding 
sections. 
¥ 21. Q.ni‘crA L. The Black Jack Oak. 
Identification. Cat. Carol.,t.19.; Lin. Sp. Pl., 1413. ; Willd. Sp. Pl., 4 p.442.; Ait. Hort. Kew., 
5. p. 291. ; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 629.; Sm. and Abb. Ins., 2. p. 115. ; Michx. Quer., No. 12. ; 
N. Du Ham., 7. p. 168. ; Sm. in Rees’s Cycl., No, 53. 
Synonymes. @.marylandica, &c., Ratt; Q. ferruginea Michz. N. Amer. Syl., 1. p.79. t.20.; Q. 
aquatica Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836; Barrens Oak, Amer, 
Engravings. Abb. Ins., t.58.; Michx. Quer., t. 22, 23. 4 Cat. Carol., t.19.; and our jig. 1764. 
Spec. Char., §c. Leaves wedge-shaped, somewhat heart-shaped at the base ; 
dilated, abrupt, and very slightly 3-lobed at the end; the middle lobe shortest, 
smooth above, rusty beneath. Calyx hemispherical, with membranous 
scales. Nut roundish-ovate. (Willd.) A tree, 20ft. or 30 ft. high. Intro- 
duced before 1739. 
Description, &c. The Black Jack oak, according to the younger Michaux, 
is sometimes 30 ft. high, and 8in. or 10 in. in diameter, but commonly does not 
exceed half these dimensions. Its trunk is generally crooked ; and it is co- 
vered with a very hard, thick, and deeply ie 
furrowed bark, which is black on the 
outside, though the inner bark is of a 
dull red. The head of the tree is broad - 
and spreading, even in the midst of the 
woods. The leaves are of a very re- 
markable shape, being dilated towards ; 
the summit, like a pear, and armed, 
when young, with 3 or 5 bristle-like 
points, which fall off when the leaf has 
attained its full size. Fig. 1765., from 
Michaux’s Histoire des Chénes, shows 
these mucros on seedlings of one year’s 
and two years’ growth. The leaves are 
yellowish, and somewhatdowny, at their 
first unfolding in spring; but, when fully 
expanded, they become of a dark green f 
above, and rusty beneath : they are also Y 
thick and leathery in their texture. In autumn, they turn of a blackish red, 
and fall with the first frost. The oldest trees bear only a few handfuls of 
acorns, which are large, and half-covered with very scaly cups. Michaux 
observed this species for the first time in some forests in New J ersey, about 
60 miles east of Philadelphia. It is commonly found upon soils composed 
of red argillaceous sand, mingled with gravel, and so meagre as scarcely 
to bear cropping. The greater part of Maryland and Virginia, from Balti- 
more to the borders of North Carolina (a distance of 400 or 500 miles), is, 
according to the younger Michaux, composed of this kind of soil; and here the 
Black Jack oak is found in the greatest abundance. The whole of this in- 
terval, with the exception of the valleys and the swamps, with their surround- 
ing acclivities, is covered with forests impoverished by fire, and by the cattle 
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