CUPULIFERiE. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



5 



ovoid or subglobose, concentrically or obliquely zoned, or echinate one recognized hybrid has yet been discovered, although in southern 



by the prominent rigid points of the scales, closed or rarely open California individual plants exist which may have been produced 



at the apex by a circumscissile line, enveloping and more or less by the crossing of Quercus Douglasii with Quercus dumosa. Too 



adnate to the nut, indehiseent ; pericarp thick and bony or granu- little, however, is known of the innumerable forms which plants of 



late ' abortive ovules superior. Inhabitants of Assam and Malaya. these species assume to make possible any conclusions on this sub- 



* A. de Candolle, Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 2. — Wenzig, Jalirb. BoL ject. American hybrid Oaks appear to be all derived from the 



GarL Berlin, iii. 175 ; iv. 179. 



crossing of species of the s 



section of the genus Lepidobalanus ; 



^ Nde, ^naZ. Cienc. Nat, iii. 276. — Humboldt & Bonpland, P^. and there are no indications that species with annual -maturing 



jEquin 

 ii. 6. 



Humboldt, Bonpland & Kuuth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. fruit cross with those whose acorns ripen in the second year (En- 



jEq 



Schlechtendal & Cha- gelmann, Trans* St. Louis Acad. iii. 397). 



misso, Linncea, v. 77. — Bentham, PL Hartweg. 55. — Liebmann, 



In addition to the supposed hybrids of Quercus Cerris which origi- 



Oversigt Dansh. Vidensk. Selsk. ForhandL 1854, 159. — Martens & nated in England among cultivated trees, several hybrids between 



Galeotti, Bull. Acad. Brux. x. 208. — Seemann, Bot. Voy. Herald, closely related species, like Quercus Robur and Quercus Lusitanica 



332. — Orsted, Liebmann Chenes Am, Trop. — Hemsley, Bot. Biol, with deciduous leaves, and between Quercus Ilex and Quercus Suber 



Am. Cent. iii. 166. with persistent leaves, have been noticed in southern Europe, espe- 



^ Blume, Verhand. Batav. Genoot. ix. 203 (Javaansche Eiken) ; cially in Spain and Portugal, where the genus is an important com- 



Bijdr, FL Ned. Ind. 517 ; Mvs, Bot, Lugd, Bat. i. 286. — Blume mercial element of the forest, and in recent years has been carefully 



& Fischer, Fl, Jav. i. 6. — Korthals, Verhand. Nat, Geschied. Bot. studied. (See Brotero^ FL Lusitan. ii. 31, — Saporta, Compt. Rend, 



201. 

 106. 



Miquel, FL Ind, Bat, i. pt. i. 844 ; Ann. Mus, Lugd. Bat. i. Ixxxiv. 245. — Barros Gomes, Condifoes Forestaes de Portugal, 60. 

 Oudemans, Verhand, Kon, Akad. Amsterdam, xi, 1 (^Anno-^ Laguna, Rev, de Montes, 1881, 477 (C/w Mesto Italiano y Varios 



tationes Criticce in Cupuliferas nonnullas Javanicas), 



■^ Blanco, Fl, Filip, 725 ; ed. 3, iv. pt. ii. 207. — Laguna, Apuntes 



sobre El Roble de la Flora de Filipinas. 



5 Loureiro, FL Cochin, 571,. — Abel, Narrative of a Journey in 



Mestos Espanoles) ; FL Forestal Espanola, i. 272. — Borzf, l. c. 149. 



Coutinho, L c, 104. — Debeaux, Fl, de la Kabylie du Djurdjura, 

 333.) 



^® In the deciduous-leaved forests of eastern America, which. 



the Interior of China, 165, 363. — Carruthers, Jour. Linn. Soc. vi. except in the extreme north, are largely composed of different 



31. — Hauce, Ann, Sci. Nat, s^r. 4,xviii. 229 ; Jour, Bot, xii. 240, 



Oak-trees, their numbers are increasing and they are gradually 



Bentham, FL Hongk. 319. — Forbes, Jour, Bot, xxii. 80, — Franchet, usurping the places formerly occupied by other trees. The vitality 



Nouv. Arch, Mus. sdr. 2, v. 272 (PL David, i.). 



of the Oak and its ability to produce year after year shoots from 



^ Thunberg, Fl, Jap, 175. — Siebold & Zuccarini,4&Aanc?.^torf. the stump enable it to survive the effects of fire, which usually 



Munch, iv. 225. — Franchet & Savatier, Enum. PL Jap, i. 445. 



destroys other trees, but only checks and does not kill the Oak. 



1** Fr. Schmidt, Mem, Acad, Sci, St, Petersbourg, xii. No, 2, 171 Its seeds germinating under the shade of the coniferous forest 



(Reisen in Amur-Lande), 



produce plants which, kept alive by a few small leaves and de- 



11 Maximowicz, Mem, Acad. Sci. St, Petersbourg, ix. 241 (Prim, veloping powerful roots, spring up into vigorous growth as soon 



FL Amur.'). 



as the forest that has dwarfed them is cut away, and take posses- 



12 Brandis, Forest Fl, Brit. Ind, 477, — Kurz, Forest FL Brit. sion of the ground to the exclusion of the species that covered it 



Burm, ii. 482. 



Ind 



G. King, Ann. before. The Oak thus replaces the Pine, and continually as the 



Malayan Species of 



Castanopsis), 



forests of eastern America are burnt extends its sway. Forests of 

 Oak, too, have recently spread over regions in the basin of the 



18 Koch, Linncea, xxii. 317. — Kotschy, Die Eichen Europa's und Mississippi where prairies existed before the white man checked 



des Orients, — Boissier, Fl, Orient, iv. 1163. 



the Indian fires which year after year had swept them bare of 



1* Webb, Iter Hispan, 10. — Parlatore, Fl, ItaL iv. 175. — Will- trees. The Oak forests of the middle and southern states, although 



komm & Lange, Prodr. FL Hispan. i. 237. — Laguna, Coniferas y increasing in area, are deteriorating, however, in composition, the 



Amentaceas Espanolas, 22 ; Fl. Forestal Espanola, i. 211. — Borzf, White Oaks being gradually overpowered by the less valuable 



Compend. FL Forestale Italiana, 147. — Coutinho, BoL Soc. BroL vi. Black Oaks, whose bitter acorns are left to germinate by the hogs 



47 (Os Quercus de Portugal). 



which pasture in the forest and devour the sweet acorns of the 



15 A number of Oak-trees are known in North America whose White Oaks, 



characters, intermediate between those of recognized species asso- 



1*^ Saporta, Origine Paleontologique des Arbres, 159. — Zittel, 



ciated with them, make it probable that they are natural hybrids. Handb. Palceontolog. ii. 433, 



The rarity of these trees, which are always found growing with 



1^ Lesquereux, Rep. U. S. Geolog. Surv, vii, 147 ; viii. 224 (Con- 



individuals of the species from which they are supposed to be trib. Fossil Fl. W. Territories, ii., iii.) ; Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool. vi. 

 derived, the variations in the leaves on one tree and often on one pt. ii. 4 (Fossil Plants of the Auriferous Gravel Deposits of the Sierra 

 branch, and their apparent inability to spread in the forest, support Nevada). 



the theory of their hybrid origin. The foliage and fruit of some 



19 Of the eighty or ninety species of Quercus that have been 



of the best known and most remarkable of these trees are figured described in books devoted to the floras of Mexico and tropical 



in this volume. 



number 



known 



in the United States are probably much greater than is generally value, and comparatively little of their specific characters and geo- 



supposed ; and wherever Oak-trees of several species abound, and graphical distribution. Little is known economically, too, of the 



the peculiarities of individual trees are carefully studied, forms noble Oaks of Malaya, or of those of China, where at least thirty 



wliich can only be accounted for by the hypothesis of natural by- species exist. Some of these are large and valuable trees, supply- 



bridizing are found. They appear to be most abundant in the mid- iug timber for construction, and tanning material, or substances 



die and southern Atlantic states and in the valley of the Mississippi employed in the Chinese Materia Medica. (For an early account 



River, although this may be due to the fact that good observers of the Oak-trees of China, see Memoires sur les Chinois, iii. 484.) 

 have happened to live in these regions. In the Pacific forests only 



