4 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CUrULIFER.E. 



composed of the 



everg-reen 



Qiiercus glauca^^^ Quercus acitta^^^ Quercus glahra^^^ and Quercus cus- 



pu 



r.L 



In the United States Quercus is preyed upon by many insects/^ and is attacked by numerous 



fungal diseases.'" Oak-trees can easily be raised from seeds^ which must not be allowed to become dry 



before they are planted, as they soon lose their vitality.^ Their long stout tap-roots make the operation 

 of moving Oak-trees difticidt, and only young specimens can be successfully transplanted.^^ 



Quercus, the classical name of the Oak-tree, was adopted by Linnaeus, who united in it the Quercus^ 

 Ilex and Suher of Tournefort.^^ 



^ The biuls in the section Lepidobalanus are clustered at the end apical, or rarely lateral. Leaves lobed, spinescent or entire. By 



of the branches and are somewhat five-angled, covered with nu- Engelmann (Trans, St. Louis Acad. iii. 381) the North American 



merous che.stnut-brown membranaceous slightly accrescent caducous species of Lepidobalanus are grouped in two subsections : Leuco- 



scales keeled on the back, closely imbricated in five ranks, and often balanus, the White Oaks, with sessile or subsessile stigmas, annual 



inclosing minute leaves. They represent morphologically stipules, or rarely biennial maturation of the fruit, basal or rarely lateral 



and in falling mark the base of the branch with their ring-like abortive ovules, and a glabrous or rarely pubescent inner sur- 



scars. On vigorous shoots the terminal and axillary buds are often face of the pericarp ; and Melanobalauus, the Black Oaks, with 



accompanied by minute lateral buds. On Quercus Cerris of south- elongated styles, annual or biennial maturation of the fruit, supe- 



ern Europe and some allied species the buds are surrounded by rior abortive ovules, and a tomentose inner surface of the pericarp, 



linear-lanceolate loosely imbricated or free scales and by the per- To Lepidobalanus belong, with one exception, all the species of 



sistent stipules of the upper leaves ; in Pasania the buds are America, Europe, and western Asia, most of the Himalayan spe- 



covered with fewer erect or spreading foliaceous scales (Henry, cies and those of northern China, Manchuria, and northern Japan, 



Act Nat, Cur. xviii. 531, t. 40 ; xxii. 337, t. 32. — Orsted, Vidensk. or about two thirds of all that are known. 



Medd. fra nat. For. KJobenh. 1866, 26, f. 1 ^Bidrag til Egeslcegtens 

 SystematilS] ; Liebmann Climes Am. Trap. 6, f. 1). 



Cyclobalanopsis (Bentham & Hooker, Gen. iii. 408. — G. King, 

 L c. 28). Aments of the staminate and pistillate flowers of Lepi- 



Scales of the fruiting involucre united in concentric 



- The radicle is imbedded near the apex of the seed between dobalanus. 



the fleshy cotyledons with the minute plumule or growing point laminse or zones with crenulate or dentate margins ; abortive 



between their petioles toward the middle of the seed, the radicle ovules superior. Leaves usually dentate, rarely lobed or entire. 



in the North American Black Oaks and in a few of the White Oaks Inhabitants of India, Malaya, southern China, and Japan, 



being longer than the petioles of the cotyledons, and shorter in 



Pasania (Miquel, Fl. Ned. hid. Bat. i. pt. i. 848. — A. de Can- 



most of the White Oaks. In germination the petioles of the coty- doUe, L c. 97. - — G. King, I. c. 37 [Androgyne, A. de Candolle, I, c.J), 



ledons with the plumule lengthen, pushing the plumule outside the Sterile spikes erect, simple or panicled from the axils of leaves of 



cracked shell of the nut within which the cotyledons remain ; and the year or of the previous year, the flowers in two to five-flowered 



from between the bases of the petioles the plumule develops into cymes ; stamens usually twice as many as the lobes of the calyx ; 



the ascending axis of the plant, which is covered in its lower nodes ovary rudimentary. Pistillate flowers on short pedunculate sepa- 



with minute scales or rudimentary leaves, and is nourished by the rate axillary spikes or at the base of the staminate spikes ; styles 



food contained in the cotyledons, which rot and disappear toward terete, erect and abbreviated or elongated, stigmatic at the apex 



the end of the first season after the radicle, by absorbing some of only; staminodia or abortive stamens as many as and opposite the 



their nutritious matter, has become swollen and enlarged (Engel- calyx-lobes. Fruit solitary or in threes, the involucres cup-shaped, 



mann, Trans. St. Louis Acad.iv. 190. — Marshall F. Ward, The Oaky saucer-shaped, or discoid, their bracts imbricate, free or united by 



18, f. 3, 4). 



the bases only ; abortive ovules superior. Leaves entire or spinose. 



3 The species of Quercus have been grouped under the following Inhabitants of India, Malaya, southern China, and Japan, and of 



Pacific North America, where a single species occurs. 



Cyclobalaxus (Endlicher, I. c. 28. — A. de Candolle, L c — G. 



sections : 



Lepidobalanus (Endlicher, Gen. Suppl. iv. pt. ii. 24. 



A. de 



Candolle, Arch. Sci. Phys. et Nat. de Geneve, nouv. p^r. xv. 96. — G. King, /. c. 59 [Gyrolecana, Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. i. 299]). 

 King, Ann. Bot. Gard. Calcutta, ii. 21 \_Lulo' Malayan Species of Inflorescence and flowers of Pasania. Scales of the involucre 

 Quercus and Castanopsis'] — [Sec. Robur, Cerroides, Erythrobalanos, united into concentric laminae or zones with crenulate or dentate 



Cerris, Gallifera, Suber, Coccifera, Spach, Hist. Veg. xi. 148. 



margins ; abortive ovules superior. Leaves entire. Inhabitants 



Sec. Esculus and Ilex, Gay, Ann. Sci. Nat. sdr. 4, vi. 239, 242]). of Malaya and southern China. 



Staminate flowers on slender pendulous clustered aments from 



Chlamydobalanus (Endlicher, I c. 28. — A. de Candolle, I c. 



separate or leafy buds in the axils of leaves of the previous year G. King, L c. 75 [Castaneopsis, Blume, l. v. 288. — Encleisocarpon, 



or from the axils of the inner scales of terminal buds and at the Miquel, A7i7i. Mus. Lugd. Bat. i. IIC]). Spikes erect ; flowers and 



base of shoots of the year or from the axils of leaves of the year, leaves of Pasania. Fruiting involucres ovoid or globose, marked 



the flowers solitary in the axils of lanceolate caducous bracts, or externally with concentric zones, or tuberculate with the thickened 



ebracteate ; calyx usually irregularly divided ; stamens from two to points of the scales, closed, or rarely open at the apex only, and 



ten ; anthers glabrous or rarely pilose. Pistillate flowers in abbre- enveloping but not attached to the nut except at the base, dehiscent 



viated or elongated few-flowered spikes from the axils of leaves of at maturity ; abortive ovules superior. Inhabitants of India, Ma- 



the year ; styles from three to five, usually five, abbreviated, short laya, China, and Japan. 



and erect, or long, patulous or recurved. Involucre of the fruit Lithocarpus (]\Iiquel, I c, — A. de Candolle, Prodr. xvi, pt. ii. 



open at the mouth, covered with imbricated scales free at the apex ; 104. — G. King, I. c. 81). Spikes erect ; staminate flowers, styles 



maturation of the fruit annual or biennial ; abortive ovules basal, and leaves of Pasania. Fruiting involucres large, thick, and woody. 



