CUPULIFERJE. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



169 



QUERCUS LAURIFOLIA 



Water Oak. 



Leaves oblong-oval or oblong-obovate, narrowed at both ends, dark green and 



lustrous. 



Quercus laurifolia, Michaux, Hist. Chenes Am. No. 10, t. Quercus laurifolia, a acuta, Willdenow, Spec. iv. pt. i 



17 (1801) ; Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 197. — WiUdenow, Spec, iv 



428 (1805). —Alton, HoH. Kew. ed. 2, v. 288. 



pt. 



1. 



427. 



Persoon, Syn. ii. 567. — Pursh, Fl. Am. Quercus laurifolia, /? obtusa, WiUdenow, Spec. iv. pt. i 



Sept. ii. 627. — Nuttall, Gen. ii. 214. — Nouveau Duhcv- 



428 (1805). — Alton, Hort. Kew. ed. 2, v. 288. 



mel, vil. 153. — Elliott, Sk. 11. 597. — Sprengel, Syst. ill. Quercus obtusa, Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 11. 627 (1814). 



857. 



N. ( 



Dietrich, Syn. v. 306. — Curtis, Rep. Geolog. Surv. Quercus Phellos, var. laurifolia, Chapman, Fl. 420 



Orsted, Liebmann Chenes Am 



(1860). 



Troj).tT>. — Engelmann, Trans. St. Louis Acad, iil 386, Quercus aquatica, a laurifolia, A. de CandoUe, Prodr 



395. 



Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. lOth Census U. S- 



ix. 152. — Mayr, Wald. Nordam. 150, t. 1, 2. 



xvi. pt. ii. 68 (1864). — Houba, Chenes Am. en Belgique, 

 306, t. 



Michaux, Hist 



No. 10, t. 18 (1801). 



A tree, occasionally one hundred feet in height, with a tall trunk three or four feet in diameter 

 and comparatively slender branches which spread gradually into a broad dense round-topped shapely 

 head. The bark at the base of old trees is one or two inches in thickness, nearly black, and divided 

 by deep fissures into broad flat ridges j higher up on the trunk and on the main stems of young trees 

 it is from half an inch to an inch in thickness, dark brown more or less tinged with red and roughened 

 with small closely appressed scales. The branchlets are slender, covered with pale lenticels, glabrous, 

 dark red when they first appear and dark red-brown during their first winter, becoming reddish brown 



dark gray in their second year. The winter-buds are broadly 



or 



apex, from 



sixteenth to one eighth of an inch long, and 



closely imbricated bright red-brown scales ciliate on the mar 



val, abruptly narrowed and 

 covered by numerous thin 

 The leaves are involute in the bud. 



oblong-oval or oblong-obovate 

 the base, acute 



sometimes falcate, gradually narrowed and acute or rarely rounded 



acute or occasionally rounded at the bristle-pointed apex, and entire with slightly thickened 

 cartilaginous often undulate margins, or near the extremities of the vigorous branches of young trees 

 they are frequently unequally lobed, generally below the middle or near the base, with small almost 

 triangular acute bristle-pointed lobes j when they unfold they are thin, green tinged with dark red, 

 and shghtly puberulous, especially on the lower surface, and at maturity are thin but firm in texture, 

 een and very lustrous above and light green and less lustrous below ; usually three or four inches 

 ig and three quarters of an inch wide, they vary from an inch and a half to six inches in length 

 d from half an inch to two inches in width, with conspicuous yellow midribs much raised and rounded 



gr 



the upper side, and obscure primary 



and united near the margins and connected by 



inch long, and fall 



many closely reticulated veinlets which are more conspicuous on the upper than on the lower surfac 

 they are borne on stout grooved yellow petioles rarely more than a quarter of an 

 irregularly during the winter. The flowers appear in March and April when the leaves are about one 

 third grown, the staminate borne in red-stemmed hairy aments from two to three inches in length, and 



the pistillate on 



iabrous pedu 



The 



lyx of the 



min 



flower is thin and 



ounded lob 



pubescent on the outer surface, and deeply divided into four ovate 



four or five in number^ with oblong shghtly emarginate yellow glabrous anthers 



of the pistillate flower are brown and hairy and about as long as the acute calyx-lobes ; the stig 



es ; the stamens 

 The involucral s( 



