CUPULIFERiE. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



127 



rich 



Qiiercus riibra^ which is the most boreal of the Oak-trees 

 uplands^ growing to a large size on glacial drift and the 



of eastern America, generally inhabits 

 well-drained borders of streams and 



swamps 



It ranges from Nova Scotia and southern New Brunswick throuorh Quebec, where it reaches 



& 



the banks of the St. Lawrence in about latitude 47° 50 



north, along the northern shores of Lake 



Huron to the neighborhood of Lake Namekagon on the divide 



of Lake Superior/ southward to 



middle Tennessee, and Virginia and along the high Appalachian Mountains 



westward to eastern Nebraska 



d central Kansas 



Rare 



to northern Georgia^ and 

 d of small size toward the northern hmits 



of its range^ the Red Oak is abundant in Nova Scotia^ southern Quebec^ and Ontario ; it is one of the 

 largest and most common trees in the forests of the northern states with the exception of those which 

 cover the mountains of northern New England and New York^ and reaches its largest size in the states 

 north of the Ohio River. Farther south it is less common and usually small, and on the southern 

 Alleghany Mountains is exceedingly rare. 



The wood of Qitercits rubra is heavy, hard, strong, coarse-grained, and liable to check badly in 

 drying ; it is light or reddish brown, with thin darker colored sapwood, and contains remote conspicuous 



medullary rays and bands of several rows of 



open ducts marking the layers of annual growth 



6 



The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.6621, a cubic foot weighing 41.25 pounds. It is 

 used in construction, for the interior finish of houses, and in the manufacture of cheap furniture. 



Qicerciis rubra was introduced* into Bishop Compton's garden^ near London before the end of 

 the seventeenth century, and the earliest account of it, prepared from these cultivated trees, was 

 published by Plukenet in 1692 



Endowed with a constitution which enables it to withstand climatic conditions unlike those of its 

 native land, Qitercits rubra'^ has succeeded in Europe better than any other American Oak, and 

 individuals more than a century old may be seen in England, France, and Germany.^ No Oak of the 

 northern states grows more rapidly or can more easily be transplanted, and few trees are better suited 

 to ornament the parks and roadsides of the northern United States. 



9 



with conspicuous tufts of hairs in the axils of the veins, and at 



maturity are glabrous or puberulous below; it is probably a hybrid 

 between these species. 



5 See i. 6. 



foliis 



f. 4 ; Aim. BoL 309 (excl. syn.). — Catesby, Nat. Hist. Car. i. 23, 



Usually well characterized by its large nut and flat shallow cup, t. 23 (fruit). 



and by the numerous lateral lobes of the leaf which taper gradu- 

 ally from their broad bases, Quercus rubra near the northern bor- 

 ders of the United States and British America often bears leaves 

 with fewer lobes and smaller fruit with turbinate cups ( Quercus 

 ambigua^ Michaux), but these extreme forms are so intermixed and 

 inconstant that it does not seem practicable to consider them even 

 varieties. 



? Quercus Virginiana rubris venis, muricata, Plukenet, Phyt. t. 

 54, f. 5 ; Aim. Bot. 309. — Miller, Diet. No. 7. — Duhamel, Traite 

 des ArbreSy ii. 203. 



? Quercus Carolinensis virentibus venis muricata, Catesby, Nat. 

 HisL Car. l 21, t. 21. 



^ In Maine Quercus rubra is sometimes called Yellow Oak. 

 ^ Wesmael, Garden and Forest, iii. 129. — R. Hartig, Ausl. Holz. 



1 Bruuet, Cat Veg. Lig. Can. 49. — Bell, Geolog.Rep. Can. 1879- Bayer. Staatswald. 38 (Forst.-nat. Zeit. 1892). 



80, 51°. — Macoun, Cat. Can. PL 442. 

 2 Bessev, Rev. Nebraska State Boar 



In German collections a number of varieties, including one with 

 yellow leaves, are occasionally cultivated (Dippel, Handb. Laub- 



8 Mason, Eighth Bieim. Rep. State Board Agric. Kansas, 272 (in holzJc. ii. 118). 



part). 



•* Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 357. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. iii. 1877, f . 

 1740-1744, t. 



9 Garden mid Forest, iv. 337, f. 58. 



