CHAP. CV. 



COKYLX^CEIP.. QUE'rcUS. 



1865 



1724'. is from a sprig apparently of this variety, grown in the Hor- 

 ticultural Society's Garden, under the name of Q. alba. In Messrs. 

 Loddiges's arboretum is an oak named Q. squamosa, from a spe- 

 cimen of which ^g. 1725. was taken. This tree, which is 20 ft. 



high, has exactly the appearance, bark, and habit of growth of Q. 



alba, and as it only differs from it in the shape of the leaves, it may 



probably be a variation of this variet)'. 

 Description. The American white oak, according to Michaux, bears most 

 resemblance to Q. pedunculata, which is sometimes called the white oak in 

 Europe. Q. alba, in the American forests, is often 70 ft. or 80 ft. high, and 

 with a trunk G ft. or 7 ft. in diameter ; but its proportions vary with the soil 

 and climate. Cobbett says that it is " amongst the least curious and beautiful 

 of the American oaks." the leaf, he adds, " is small, and the shape and colour 

 not very handsome." According to Michaux, the leaves are regularly and ob- 

 liquely divided into oblong rounded lobes, destitute of points or bristles ; and 

 the indentations are the deepest in the most humid soils. " Soon after their 

 unfolding, the leaves are reddish above, and white and downy beneath ; when 

 fully grown, they are smooth, and of a light green on the upper surface, and 

 glaucous underneath. In the autumn they change to a bright violet colour." 

 (iV. Anier. Syl., i, p. 19.) Michaux adds that this is the only American oak 

 that retains some of its withered leaves till spring The acorns are large, oval, 

 and very sweet; and they arc contained in rough, shallow, greyish cups. They 

 arc borne singly, or in pairs, on long peduncles, " attached, as in all the species 

 with annual fructification, to the shoots of the season." The fruit is rarely 



