1250 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



QUERCUS PALUSTRIS, Pin Oak 



Quercus palustris, Muenchhausen, Hausv. v. 253 (1770); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1887 (1838); 



Sargent, Silva N. Amer. viii. 151, tt 422, 423 (1895), and Trees N. Amer. 232 (1905). 

 Quercus rubra dissecta, Lamarck, Diet. i. 720 (1783). 

 Quercus rubra ramosissima, Marshall, Arbust. Am. 122 (1785). 



A tree, attaining in America 120 ft. in height and 15 ft. in girth, but usually 

 considerably smaller. Bark of young trees smooth, shining, light brown tinged with 

 red ; on old trunks about an inch thick and covered with small scales. Branches 

 more or less pendulous, with drooping branchlets, which in the first year are slender, 

 glabrous, shining, with white lenticels. Buds ovoid, about ^ in. long, pointed, with 

 glabrous pale brown ciliate scales. Leaves (Plate 334, Fig. 17) deciduous, 4 to 

 6 in. long, 2 to 4 in. wide, obovate, cuneate at the base, divided about half-way 

 to the midrib by rounded wide sinuses into usually seven, occasionally nine, 

 symmetrical, bristle-pointed, oblong-triangular, entire or two- to three-toothed lobes ; 

 the terminal lobe acuminate, the lateral lobes spreading or directed forwards ; 

 shining above and below, glabrous except for conspicuous brown axil-tufts on the 

 lower surface ; petiole slender, glabrous, ^ to 2 in. long. 



Fruit ripening in the second year, short-stalked, solitary or clustered ; acorns 

 hemispherical, in. in diameter, enclosed at the base only by a thin saucer-shaped 

 cupule, covered by thin closely appressed ovate minutely pubescent scales. 



This species is readily distinguished, apart from the shape of the leaves with 

 their characteristic conspicuous axil-tufts, by the drooping habit of the branches and 

 branchlets. 



The pin oak is found on deep rich soil on the borders of swamps and in 

 alluvial land, in company with Liquidambar, Nyssa sylvatica, Acer rubrum, Populus 

 heterophylla, and hornbeam, but thrives well when transplanted to drier situations. 

 It is widely distributed in the United States from Massachusetts southwards to 

 Virginia, and westwards through Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern Arkansas 

 to the eastern borders of Indian Territory, Missouri, and Illinois, attaining its largest 

 size on the banks of streams in the basin of the lower Ohio. It is also very common 

 on the coast plain south of the Hudson river, but is rare and of small size in New 

 England. (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



Though introduced on the Continent prior to 1770, this species does not seem 

 to have been known in England until 1800, when it was introduced 1 by Messrs. 

 Fraser. It is one of the most beautiful American oaks, on account of the varied 

 colour of its leaves both in spring and autumn. As a rule it grows better in 

 England than any American oak except perhaps Q. rubra, and seems to prefer a 



1 Aiton, Hort. Kew. v. 292 ( 1 8 1 3 ). 



