152 



8ILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. cupulifer^. 



and dentate-lobed, the lobes and teeth of the leaf terminating in long slender bristles ; when they 

 unfold they are Hght bronze-green stained with red on the margins, lustrous and puberulous on the 

 upper surface, and coated on the lower and on the petioles with pale scurfy pubescence, and at maturity 

 they are thin and firm, dark green and very lustrous above, pale below and furnished with large tufts 

 of pale hairs in the axils of the primary veins, from four to six inches long and from two to four inches 

 wide, with stout midribs broad and rounded on the upper side, conspicuous primary veins running 

 obliquely to the points of the lobes, and thin secondary veins arcuate and united within the slightly 

 thickened and revolute margins and connected by obscure reticulate veinlets ; they are borne on slender 

 nearly terete yellow petioles from half an inch to two inches in length, and late in the autumn turn 

 gi-adually to a beautiful deep scarlet color over the entire or over only a part of their surface. The 

 stipules, which are red and scarious but turn brown before falling, are tipped with clusters of soft white 

 hairs, and are about half an inch in length. The flowers appear in May when the leaves are about a 



third grown, the staminate borne in hairy aments from two to three inches long and the pistillate on 

 short tomentose peduncles. The calyx of the staminate flower is puberulous and divided into four or 

 five oblong rounded segments more or less laciniately cut on the margins and shorter than the stamens, 

 which are four or five in number, with oblong slightly emarginate glabrous yellow anthers. The 

 involucral scales of the pistillate flower are broadly ovate, tomentose, and shorter than the acuminate 

 calyx-lobes ; the stigmas are bright red and recurved. The fruit ripens in the autumn of the second 

 season and is sessile or short-stalked and solitary or often clustered ; the nut is nearly hemispherical, 

 about half an inch in length and somewhat less in breadth, and light brown and often striate, with a 

 thin shell coated on the inner surface with pale ferrugineous tomentum ; the cup, which embraces only 

 the very base of the nut, is thin and shaflow, saucer-shaped, dark red-brown and puberulous within, and 

 covered by closely appressed ovate light reddish brown thin puberulous scales darkest along the margins 



and rounded at the ends. 



Quercus jxdustris inhabits the borders of swamps, and river-bottoms where the surface is frequently 

 overflowed, growing in deep moist rich soil, and is distributed from the valley of the Connecticut River, 

 where, near Amherst, Massachusetts, it finds its eastern home,^ to southern Missouri, and southward to 

 the valley of the lower Potomac River in Virginia, and to central Kentucky, northern Arkansas, and the 

 eastern borders of the Indian Territory. Rare and of small size in New England, and absent from the 

 elevated regions of the interior, it is exceedingly common on the coast plain south of the Hudson River 

 and in the basin of the lower Ohio River, where it grows to its largest size in the forests which cover 

 the broad bottom-lands of the principal streams.^ 



The wood of Quercus j^cdustris is heavy, hard, strong, and coarse-grained, but liable to check and 

 warp in drying j it is light brown, with thin rather dark colored sap wood, and contains numerous broad 

 conspicuous medullary rays and broad bands of several rows of large open ducts marking the layers of 

 annual growth. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.6938, a cubic foot weighing 43.24 

 pounds. It is sometimes used in construction and for shingles and clapboards in the regions where this 

 tree is common. 



First described from a specimen cultivated in Germany, Quercus 2^ctlustris has been for more than 

 a century an inhabitant of the parks of Europe, where it often grows vigorously and attains a large size. 

 Although less commonly planted in its native land, its symmetrical habit and the beauty of its summer 

 and autumn foliage make it always a distinct and desirable ornamental tree, and no other Oak is better 

 suited to shade the highways or adorn the parks of the northern states. 



The Pin Oak, which owes its name to the small branches which are inserted on the limbs and trunk, 

 is easily transplanted ; it grows rapidly and is hardy beyond the limits of its native home. 



3 



Stone, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, ix. 57. beautiful rows of this tree in the streets of the town of Flushing, 



Mus 



on Long Island, New York. 



2 The value of the Pin Oak for street-planting is shown by the 



