CUPULIFER^. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



11 



47 



Nearly two liundred years have passed since American Oaks A large number of the insects found on Quercus also feed upon 



were first introduced into European plantations, and during the last other trees, although many of them are 



iphago 



century efforts have been made at different times to cultivate them entirely on the plants of this genus, and beino* either peculiar to a 



r 



on a large scale in various European countries, but the results of single species or to a group of closely allied species. 



these experiments cannot be considered satisfactory or encouraging. 



Besides affording support to some gall-making insects, the roots 



Large and flourishing specimens of Quercus rubra, generally called of Oak-trees in the southern states are often infested by the 



Quercus coccinea, and oi Queixus palustr is ^ csin he ionnd in some of boring larvse of a large beetle, Mallodon melanopus, Linnseus. 



the old collections of France and Germany ; but, so far as I have Quercus Virginiana seems particularly affected by this insect, the 



been able to observe, these are the only American species which large grubs causing the young trees to become stunted and scrubby, 



grow to a large size in Europe ; and I have never seen in any of great root-masses being often produced without a corresponding 



the countries of Europe that I have visited a vigorous or healthy development of trunk, and trees over large areas being thus 



American White Oak, either large or small, although large speci- dwarfed and rendered valueless. The larvse of the large Prionus 



mens of Quercus alba and Quercus macrocarpa are said to grow in the laticollis, Drury, in the northern states are believed to live in the 



Botanic Garden of Turin (Garden and Forest, ii. 508). 



roots of Oaks as well as in those of other trees. A large propor- 



^s Thunberg, Fl, Jap. 175 (1784). — Blume, Mus. BoL Lugd, tion of the borers found in the trunks of Oaks only attack them 

 jBa^i. 302. — M^iqael, Ann, Mus, Lugd. Bat A, 115* — A. de CandoUe, after the trees are injured or dead, or have been felled and the 

 Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 100. — Franchet & Savatier, Enum. PL Jap. i. timber has begun to dry. Among the insects affecting the living 



448. 



Hance, Jour. Bot, xiii. 363. — Forbes, Jour. Bot. xxii. 84. 



trunks, the larva of a large Cossid moth, Prionoxystus Rohinice, 



The nuts of Quercus glauca are eaten by the Japanese, and are of Peck, is considered one of the most destructive. It makes cir- 



considerable comestible and commercial importance. 



49 Thunberg, L c. 175 (1784). —Blume, L c. 299. — Miquel, 



cular holes about half an inch in diameter, which sometimes extend 

 to the heart of the tree (Fitch, Fifth Rep. Insects of New Yorky 4); 



I. c. 115. — A. de Candolle, L c. 91. — Franchet & Savatier, 484. and Oak-trunks are also affected by the larvse of other moths of 



Quercus marginata, Blume, L c. 304 (1855). — Miquel, L c. 

 A. de Candolle, L c. 106. 



Quercus Buergerii^ Blume, L c. 299 (1850). — Miquel, L c. 

 A. de Candolle, L c. 

 e^ Thunberg, I c. (1784). — Siebold & Zuccarini, FL Jap. i. 170, 



the same group. Cossus Querciperda, Fitch, Cossus reticulatus, 

 Lintner, and Cossida magnifca, Bailey, occur in various parts of 

 the country, the last two being particularly noticeable through 

 their injuries to Quercus Virginiana in some of the southern states. 

 Quercus alba and other species are believed to be among the 



t. 89. 



Blume, L c. 289. — Miquel, L c. 106. — A. de Candolle, original food-plants of the Flat-headed Borer, Chrysobothris femo- 



L c. 82. — Franchet & Savatier, L c. 447. 



rata, Fabricius, now so injurious to Apple and other fruit-trees, 



103. 



51 Thunberg, L c. 176 (1784). — Siebold & Zuccarini, L c. 8,t. 2. and the Oak is still a favorite food-plant of this insect. Other 

 Blume, L c. 288. —Miquel, L c. 117. — A. de Candolle, L c. species of Chrysobothris affect the Oaks, apparently most often 



after the trees have been injured or the wood has begun to dry. 



Franchet & Savatier, L c. 449. 



Quercus cuspidata is the most widely distributed evergreen Oak Eupsalis minuta, Drury, bores into the solid wood, and Liopus 



of Japan, often forming extensive forests in southern Hondo, where Querci, Fitch, is also said to infest these trees. Species of many 



it ranges farther north than other species with persistent foliage ; other genera of beetles attack their wood, but in nearly all cases 



and is more frequently planted by the Japanese as an ornamental after the tree is dead or has begun to decay, among the most 



tree than any other Oak. Always a beautiful object, with its common being species of Phymatodes, Xylotreehus, Graphisurus, 



abundant lustrous dark green foliage, it is most lovely in early Goes, Xyleborus, and Pityophthorus. In its beetle state Pityoph- 



white and bright red young shoots thorus pubipennis, Leconte, has been reported as sometimes very 



and leaves. Its nuts are edible when cooked, and are sold in the abundant on newly felled trees in the Pacific forests, while in the 



with 



Japanese markets. 



east Pityophthorus Querciperda, Schwarz, bores through and under 



The most valuable edible mushroom of Japan takes its name, the bark of dead Oak-trees. 



Shii-take, from the Japanese name of this tree, upon the dead and 



Oaks are often much damaged by the Oak-pruner, Elaphidion 



rotten stumps and roots of which it grows, as well as upon those villosum, Fabricius, a beetle which lays its eggs on the young twigs, 



of some other Oaks. The artificial production of the Shii-take and whose larvse, after boring into the branches, cut them off, 



upon pieces of the bark of Quercus cuspidata is an important causing them to fall in large quantities to the ground (J. B. Smith, 



Industry in several provinces, great quantities of this agaricus Garden and Jbmf, v. f . 94, 95); and the Seventeen-year Cicada, 



being consimied in soup in Japan, and exported to China. (See Cicada septendecim, Linn^us, sometimes causes much injury to 



Robertson, Commercial Reports by Her Majesty's Consuls in Japan, Oak branches by the incisions made in depositing its eggs. A 



1875, 52.) 



species of woolly aphis, Eriosoma Querci, Fitch, is occasionally abun- 



52 Quercus in its different species is known to afford support to dant on the branches of Oak-trees, and among scale-insects several 

 a much larger number of insects than any other genus of trees species of Chermes, Chionaspis Quercus, Comstock, Rhizococcus 

 whose insect enemies have been studied. Five hundred and thirty- Quercus, Comstock, Lecanium Quercitronis, Fitch, Lecanium Quer- 



seven species are reported as occurring on the Oaks of central cift 



Europe (Kaltenbach, Die Pflanzenfeinde aus der Klasse der Insecten, 



The majority of insect species affecting the Oak prey, however, 



1874, 643) ; and Packard enumerates about four hundred and fifty upon its foliage, but their number is too great for specific enumera- 

 identified species as living upon Oak-trees in North America, 



Web 



Oak 



exclusive of those found in their decayed wood (Fifth Rep. U. S. tive, and Clisiocampa disstria, Hiibner, and Hyphaniria cunea, Drury, 



Entomolog. Comm. 1890, 48). Between one hundred and two hun- are especially noticeable in the east, while Clisiocampa Californica, 



dred species have been noted but not identified or recorded, and Packard, and Clisiocampa constricta, Stretch, sometimes strip 



further studies of the insects infesting Oaks in the southern and trees of their foliage in the Pacific forests. In California the 



western parts of the continent will, no doubt, greatly lengthen this larvre of Phryganidia Californica, Packard, are frequently very 



2jg^ injurious to Oaks, upon which they are said to feed almost exclu- 



