CUPULIFER^. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMEBIC A. 



» > 



9 



rtis 



distributed from Brewster near the 



^n extremity of Cape Cod/ the island 

 .Massachusetts, North Kinoston. Rhod 



s 



of Martha's Vineyard and Naushon off the coast of 



Island,^ and Long Island^ New York^ to northern Florida and southern Alabama and Mississipp 



New York it ranp-es westward to Missouri, eastern 



from 



Kansas,^ the Indian Territory^ and Texas, where it 

 extends southward to the valley of the San Antonio River and westward to the one hundredth meridian 



of Martha's Vinevard, the Post 



of west lono^itude 



Growing on the dry and sandy wind-swept soil 



with low and much contorted stems ; of larger size in Rhode Island and 



on 



Oak is usually shrubby with low ai 

 Long Island^ it is more abundant farther south;, and from the coast of the south Atlantic and the 

 eastern Gulf states to the lower slopes of the Appalachian Mountains^ and in the Mississippi basin it is 

 one of the common Oak-trees on dry gravelly uplands, where it grows to its largest size ; it is the most 

 abundant Oak of central Texas, being usually found on limestone hills and sandy plains, and toward 

 the western limits of its range, in Texas and the Indian Territory, it forms with Qiiercffs MarUandtca 

 an open forest belt to which the name of the " Cross Timbers" was given by the early travelers and 

 settlers. 



The wood of Quercus muior is very heavy, hard, close-grained, and durable in contact with the 

 soil, although it is difficult to season, checking badly in drying. It contains numerous conspicuous 

 medullary rays and bands of one to three rows of small open ducts marking the layers of annual 

 growth, and is light or dark brown, with thick Hghter colored sapwood. The sjDecific gravity of the 

 absolutely dry wood is 0.8367, a cubic foot weighing 52.14 pounds. It is largely used for fuel, 

 fencing, and railway ties, and in some states west of the Mississippi River, especially in Texas, in the 

 manufacture of carriages, for cooperage, and in construction. 



Long confounded with the White Oak, Quercus inlnor was first distinguished by the Pennsylvania 

 botanist, Humphry Marshall,^ who published the earliest description of it, in 1785, in his Arhustum 

 Americmmm. According to Aiton,^ it was introduced into English plantations in 1800, although it 

 is probable that the French botanist Michaux^ had sent it to France before the end of the last century. 



Its dense round-topped head and its dark foliage, which at a distance sometimes appears nearly 

 black, make it easy to recognize the Post Oak in the landscape ; and, always a beautiful tree, it might 

 be used to advantage in the decoration of parks and pleasure-grounds in the eastern United States. 



ered by Dr. Engelmann as possible hybrids between Quercus minor New World and was the principal American botanist of his time, and 



and Quercus alba. The buds of both trees were larger than those from him, no doubt, he acquired that love of botany which has made 



usually produced by Quercus minor ; the first had the normal leaves his name also famous. Like Bartram, he collected plants and seeds 



of Quercus minor^ glabrous branchlets and anthers, and the second for English correspondents ; and when he established his new home 



had rather narrow cuneate leaves with oval lobes and glabrous 



at Bradford Meeting-house he planted about his house a collection 

 branchlets ; the stamens of the latter and the mature fruit of both of trees and shrubs which lovers of plants still visit M'ith interest 



are unknown (Engelmann, Trans, St. Louis Acad, iii. 389, 398). 



1 Farlow, Garden and Forest, ii, 48. 



2 L. W. Russell, Garden and Forest, ii. 34. 



3 Mason, Eighth Bienn, Rep, State Board Agric, Kansas, 271. 



4 Havard. Proc, U. S. Nat, Mus. viii. 505. 



5 Humphry Marshall (1722-1801), the son of a Pemisylvania of 



and pleasure. Five years later Marshall began to prepare an ac- 

 count of the forest trees of the United States. This was published 

 in 1785 in a duodecimo volume of one hundred and seventy-nine 

 pages, and was entitled the Arhustum Americanum, The American 

 Grove, or an alphabetical catalogue of forest trees and shrubs natives 

 the American United States, Apart from its value as a record 



farmer who emigrated from England in 1697, and the eighth of 

 nine children, was born in West Bradford, Chester County. Affcer 



of the observations of an acute field botanist of excellent judgment, 

 the Arhustum Americanum is of special interest as the first book of 



leaving school at the age of twelve, he worked on his father's farm botany written and published by an American. Reappearing in 



imtil he was sent to learn the trade of a stone-mason. He appears German and French editions, it received wide recognition at the 



to have inherited a large part of the paternal farm, which he man- time of its publication, and students of American trees will always 



aged for some time after his father's death in 1767, and upon which consult it. The memory of Humphry Marshall is also preserved 



he continued to live until 1774, when he removed to a tract of land by Marshallia, a genus of herbs of the southern United States, 



near the Bradford Meeting-house, now the town of Marshallton in dedicated to him by the German botanist Scbreber. (See Darling- 



Chester County, where he had built with his own hands a substan- 

 tial stone house that still bears witness to his skill as a mason and 



mess of his work. Marshall was a relative of John Bar- 



ton, Memorials of John Bartram and Humphrey Marshall, 485.) 

 G Hort. Kew, ed. 2, v. 294. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. iii. 1870, f 



1732, t. 



tram, who planted near Philadelphia the first botanic garden in the '^ See i. 58. 



