CUPULIFER^. 



8ILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



45 



and along the northern shores of Lake Huron ; appearing again in the country south of Lake Winnipeg, 

 it often forms groves of considerable extent in Manitoba, extending in depauperate forms to the mouth 

 of Shell River, on the Assiniboine, and to the westward of Fort ElHce on the Qu'Appelle.^ In the 

 United States it occurs in the valley of the 



Penobscot River, in Maine 



Ri 



the 



of Lake Ch 



plain, in Vermont j in the valley of Ware River, in Massachusetts, and in Lancaster County, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and ranges westward to the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains of Montana," to western 

 Nebraska ^ and central Kansas,* and southwestward to central Tennessee, the Indian Territory, and the 

 valley of the Nueces River in Texas. Comparatively rare and local east of the Alleghany Mountains, 

 it is common in the lowland forests of the Mississippi Basin and in eastern Texas, growing probably to 

 its largest size in southern Indiana and Illinois ; ^ it is the common species of the scattered Oak forests or 

 " Oak Openings " of western Minnesota, where the eastern woodlands are gradually replaced by treeless 

 prairies, and in all the basin of the Red River of the North, ranging farther to the northwest than any 

 other species of eastern America^ and as a low shrub maintaining a foothold in the cold dry regions of 

 Manitoba, Dakota, and eastern Montana.^ It is the most frequent and generally distributed Oak of 

 Nebraska, attaining a large size in canons and on river-bottoms in the extreme western part of the state, 

 or remaining low and shrubby on dry hillsides- It is the most generally distributed Oak of Kansas 

 also, growing to a large size near small creeks in all the eastern parts of the state, and spreading at the 

 north to the valley of Bow Creek, in Philhps County, and to Sumner County in the south. 



Qiierciis viacroccuya is one of the most valuable timber-trees of North America, its wood being 

 superior in strength even to that of Qitercits alha^ with which it is commercially confounded. It is 

 heavy, strong, hard, tough, close-grained, and very durable in contact with the soil. It contains 

 conspicuous and often broad medullary rays and bands of from one to three rows of small open ducts 

 marking the layers of annual growth, and is a dark or rich light brown in color, with thin much lighter 

 colored sapwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.7453, a cubic foot weighing 

 46.45 pounds. It is used in ship and boat building, for constructions of all sorts, and the interior 

 finish of houses, in cabinet-making, in 



cooperage, m 



the manufacture of carriages, agricultural imple- 

 ments, and baskets, for railway ties and fencing, and for fuel. 



Qiierciis macrocarpa was discovered by the French botanist Michaux in his journey west of the 

 Alleghany Mountains in the spring of 1795.^ 



The vigor and rapid growth^ of Quercus macrocarpa in cultivation, the beauty of its ample deeply 

 lobed leaves, with the contrasting colors of their upper and lower surfaces, its handsome fruit and its 

 curious and picturesque winter aspect, when the branches are furnished with their broad wings, make 

 the Bur Oak one of the most interestino^ and desirable of American Oaks as an ornamental tree where it 

 can be given room for its free development. 



1 Brunet, Cat. Veg. Lig. Can. 48. — Bell, Rep. Geolog. Surv. Can. when he was within twelve miles of Nashville, Michaux makes the 



1879-80, 47^ — Macoun, Cat Can. PL 441. 



Winchell 



W; 



first mention of Quercus macrocarpa as " Quercus glandibus magnis, 



Oak:' (See Proc. 



White 



Nebraska 



jf A ndre 



Nebraska 



State Board Agric. 1894, 109. ^ The log specimen in the Jesup Collection of North American 



^ Mason, Eighth Bienn. Rep. State Board Agric. Kansas, 271 ; Woods in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, 



Garden and Forest, iv. 508, 



s Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. v. 81. 



obtained from the neighborhood of AUenton, Missouri, is thirty- 

 two and a half inches in diameter inside the bark, and shows two 



Quercus stellaia, y depressa, A. de CandoUe, Prodr. xvi. pt, ii. 22 hundred and fifty-three layers of annual growth, fourteen of which 



(1864). 



' In an entry for the 15th of June, 1795, written in his journal 



are of sapwood. 



