162 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CUPDLIFER^. 



orange-color, or brown and scurfy-pubescent below ; usually six or seven inches long and broad, they vary 

 from three to eight inches in length and from two to eight inches in width, with thick broad orange- 

 colored midribs much raised and rounded on the upper side, primary veins that are stout when they run 



the points of the lobes and slender and arcuate on the 



part of the leaf, thin 



dary veins 



d coarsely reticulate 



they are borne on stout yellow glabrous or pubescent petioles grooved 



on the upper side and from one half to three quarters of an inch in length, and turn brown or yellow 

 the autumn before falling. The stipules are oblong-obovate or linear-lanceolate, coated, especially abc 

 the middle, with long hairs, about three quarters of an inch in length, brown and scarious, and caduco 

 The flowers appear from March in the south to May in the north, when the leaves are about half grov 



the staminate bo 



hairy aments from 



four inches 



the pistillate on short peduncl 



clothed with thick rusty tomentum. The calyx of the staminate flower is thin and scarious, tinged with 

 red above the middle, coated on the outer surface with pale pubescence, and divided into four or five 

 broad ovate rounded lobes ; the stamens are usually four in number, with oblong apiculate dark red 



glabrous anthe 



The involucral scales of the pistillate flower are coated with rusty tomentum and 



about as long as the acute calyx-lobes ; the short broad stigmas are reflexed and dark red. The acorns, 

 which ripen in the autumn of the second year, are solitary or in pairs and are generally borne on stout 

 peduncles rarely half an inch in length ; the nut is oblong, full and rounded at both ends, rather 

 broader below than above the middle, about three quarters of an inch long, light yellow-brown and 

 often striate, with a thin shell Hned with a coat of dense fulvous tomentum ; the cup, which incloses 

 from one third to nearly two thirds of the nut, is thick, turbinate, light brown and puberulous on the 

 inner surface, and covered by large reddish brown loosely imbricated scales often ciliate with long hairs, 

 and coated with loose pale or rusty tomentum ; inserted on the top of the cup in several rows smaller 

 scales stand erect and form a thick rim around the inner surface, or occasionally are reflexed and cover 

 the upper half of the inner surface of the cup. 



The Black Jack grows on dry sandy barrens or sometimes in the southwest on heavy clays, and is 

 distributed from Forbell's Landing and Pine Island, Long Island, New York, through northern Ohio 

 and Indiana to southeastern Nebraska,^ central Kansas ^ and the Indian Territory, and southward to 

 the shores of Matanzas Inlet and Tampa Bay, Florida, and to the valley of the Nueces River in Texas. 

 Rare in the north, it is very abundant in the south, and west of the Mississippi River, forming on 

 sterile soil in some parts of western Missouri and eastern Kansas, in the Indian Territory and central 

 Texas, a great part of the forest-growth, and attaining its largest size in southern Arkansas and eastern 

 Texas.^ 



The wood of Quercics Marilandica is heavy, hard, and strong, but checks badly in drying ; it is 

 dark rich brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood, and contains 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 0.7324, a cubic foot weighing 45.64 pounds. It is largely used 

 as firewood and in the manufacture of charcoal, but has little value for other purposes. 



Qiierciis Marilandica appears to have been first described by Ray in the Mistoria Plantarumy 



^ Bessey, Rep. Nebraska State Board Agric, 1894, 110. 



2 Mason, Eighth Bienn. Rep. State Board Agric. Kansas, 272. 



they are red and covered on the upper surface with pale stellate 

 hairs, and are pale and tomentose on the lower, with large tufts of 



3 A group of small shrubby trees discovered in September, 1892, whitish hairs in the axils of the primary veins ; and when fully 



at Watchogue, Staten Island, New York, by Mr. William T. Davis grown they are about four inches long and from three to four 



and described by him as Quercus Brittoni (Bull Torrey BoL Club, inches broad, dark green and lustrous above and rusty brown and 



xix. 301) were believed by the author to be hybrids between Qwercus scurfy-pubescent below. The fruit I have not seen. From the 



Marilandica and Quercus nana which grow together at this place. pale color of their bark, these supposed hybrids are said by Mr. 



The leaves are broadly obovate, gradually narrowed to the wedge- Davis to present a lighter appearance than Quercus Marilandica, 



shaped base, sinuately lobed toward the broad apex with bristle- which they resemble in the general aspect of their leaves, 

 tipped mostly entire or remotely dentate lobes ; when they unfold 



