50 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
CUPULIFERA. 
Quercus ellipsoidalis grows in the neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois,’ and ranges to eastern Iowa” 
and southeastern Minnesota.® 
1 This tree was first noticed in the suburbs of Chicago by Dr. E. 
J. Hill in the autumn of 1891 at Gardner’s Park near the southern 
limits of the city. Here it grows on an ancient beach of Lake 
Michigan in thin sandy soil overlaying a heavy clay. South of the 
Calumet River, near Halsted Street, it spreads over an area of 
several acres, growing on clay soil with Quercus rubra, and it is 
common at Glenwood, where it is associated with Quercus coc- 
cinea and Quercus velutina, and where it grows also on clay soil. 
2 Quercus ellipsoidalis was collected by William D. Barnes in 
1895 at Big Rock, Scott County, Iowa. (See E. J. Hill, Bot. Ga- 
zette, xxviii. 215.) 
3 I first saw this Oak, which had been collected by Engelmann 
at the Falls of Minnehaha in September, 1878, at Brainerd on the 
Red River of the North, and near St. Paul, in September, 1882. 
At various times I have considered it an extreme form of both 
Quercus coccinea and. of Quercus velutina, and as a possible natural 
hybrid between these species. Now that it is known to be much 
more generally distributed than I formerly supposed and to remain 
constant in its characters in widely separated regions, the idea of 
recent hybrid origin will have to be abandoned, and Iam glad to 
follow Dr. Hill and consider it a species which possesses some of 
the characters of Quercus velutina, Quercus coccinea, and Quercus 
palustris. As Dr. Hill has pointed out, like Quercus palustris it has 
comparatively smooth bark, pendulous lower branches long-persist- 
The dark color of the 
bark near the base of the trunk, the yellow color of the inner bark, 
ent on the trunk, and deeply lobed leaves. 
the coarse-grained. wood, the tufts of hairs in the axils of the leaves, 
and the duil color of the autumn foliage, suggest Quercus velutina. 
The bark, however, is much less rough and lighter colored than that 
of the Black Oak. The inner bark is of a lighter yellow color, and 
the winter-buds are much smaller and only slightly pubescent, not 
tomentose, and the fruits are of a different shape. From Quercus 
coccinea it differs in its smooth bark, pubescent buds, in the autumn 
color of the leaves, in the shape of the fruit, and in the character of 
the cup-scales. 
A fruit of Quercus ellipsoidalis appears on the plate of Quercus 
coccinea in this work (viii. t. eccexiii. f. 2). 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Prats DCCXXI. 
QUERCUS ELLIPSOIDALIS. 
1. A flowering branch, natural size. 
2. A staminate flower, enlarged. 
3. A pistillate flower, enlarged. 
4. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
5, 6, and 7. Acorns, natural size. 
