134: 



SILVA OF NORTH AMEBIC A. 



CUPULITEE^. 



with slender yellow midribs and primary veins rounded on the upper side and obscure lateral veins 



connected by coarsely 



they are borne on slender terete petioles from one and a half 



d a half inches in leno^th, and late in the autumn before falling turn a brilliant 



The 



are obovate-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, b 



and 



d from one half 



two 



of an inch long-. The flowers appear when the leaves are about half orown. the staminate borne 



& 



slender glabrous aments three or four inches 



th, the pistillate on pubescent peduncles some- 

 times half an inch long. The calyx of the staminate flower is pubescent, and before opening is bright 

 red and tipped with a tuft of pale hairs ; it is divided into four or five ovate acute segments shorter than 



The 



stamens, which are usually four in numb 



1 



piculate Hght yellow glabrous anthers 



pistillate flower is bright red, with ovate pubescent involucral scales shorter than the acute calyx-lobes 



and elongated spreading recurved stigmas. The fruit, which ripens in the autumn of the 



d year 



& 



peduncle sometimes almost an inch in length, and is solitary 

 r hemispherical, truncate or roui 



is sessile or often borne on a 



pairs ; the nut is oval, oblon 



apex, from half an inch to 



light reddish brown and occasionally striate, with a thin shell lined with a thick coat of light reddish 



brown tomentum ; the cup, which incloses from one third to one half of the nut, is deeply cup-shaped 



ly an inch long and from one third 



ded at the base, rounded at the 

 to two thirds of an inch broad. 



turbinate, thin, ligr-ht reddish b 



•own on the inner surface, and covered by closely imbricated oblong- 

 ovate acute light reddish brown slightly puberulous scales. 



The Scarlet Oak inhabits Hght, dry, and usually sandy soil, and is distributed from the valley of 

 the Androscoggin Eiver in Maine ^ through southern New Hampshire and Vermont and central New 

 York to southern Ontario,^ westward through central Michigan and Minnesota to southeastern 

 Nebraska,^ and southward to the District of Columbia * and northern Illinois, and along the Alleghany 

 Mountains to North Carolina. It is extremely abundant in the coast region from the southern shores 

 of Massachusetts Bay, where, on light sandy soil, it often forms a large part of the forest growth, to 

 southern New Jersey ; it is less abundant in the interior, growing on dry gravelly uplands with the 

 Black Oak, the Red Oak, and the Pignut Hickory j and in the prairie region of Minnesota it is mixed 

 with the Bur Oak in the scattered groves that form the outposts of the eastern forests. 



The wood of Quercics cocclnea is heavy. 



hard, and strong but coarse-grained. 



and is light or 



reddish brown, with thick darker colored sapwood, and contains thin conspicuous meduUary rays and 

 bands of large open ducts marking the layers of annual growth. The specific gravity of the absolutely 

 dry wood is 0.7095, a cubic foot weighing 42.20 pounds. 



Quercus cocmiea is chiefly valuable for the brilliant scarlet color which its leaves assume late in 

 the autumn after those of most of its companions have fallen, 

 other American tree are more splendid or retain for a longer time their beauty, which is often intensified 

 by the first snowflakes of winter. Less commonly planted in parks and pleasure-grounds than the Red 

 Oak and the Pin Oak, the hardiness and rapid growth of the Scarlet Oak and the beauty of its foliage 

 make it a most desirable ornamental tree. 



The autumn colors of the foliage of no 



1 At South Poland, teste M. L. Fernald. 



2 Macoun, Cat. Can. PI. 443. 



!y, Rep. Nebraska State Board Agric. 1894, 110. 

 Ward, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 22, 113 (Fl. Washingt 



