2 6o BEECH FAMILY 



only the base Of the acorn, scales of cup closely appressed and adherent, 



slightly puherulent : rubra, red. 



In various well-drained soils, Nova Scotia and Quebec to Minnesota. 

 Nebraska, Tennessee and northern Georgia. In Minnesota throughout 

 the forest regions even to the extreme northeastern corner of the state, 

 most abundant and largest in the rich soils of the central portion of the 

 state where it occurs with hard maple, white elm and basswood. Flowers 

 in late April and May, acorns ripe a year from the next September. 



Wood light reddish brown, hard, strong, coarse, weight 41 lbs., used 

 for construction and finish of houses, cheap furniture and for fuel. ( )n 

 account of its coarse grain and liability to crack in drying the wood of 

 the red and black oaks is much less valuable than that of the white oaks. 



Cultivated as an ornamental tree both in this country and Europe. 

 The black and red oaks can be easily transplanted as they have com- 

 paratively shallow and fibrous roots. In pastures their shallow roots arc- 

 often injured by the trampling of cattle which has led to the notion that 

 they do not do well in cultivation. 



Quercus velutina Lamarck 1783 Black Oak 

 Q. tinctoria Michaux 1801. 



Large tree 12-24 m. (40-80 ft.) high, 6 dm. -1.2 m. in diameter (occa- 

 sionally much larger in the Ohio valley) ; bark dark brown or nearly 

 black, ridged, scaly, inner bark orange; buds rounded or slightly pointed, 

 hairy, in Minnesota specimens 3-5 mm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, in more 

 typical eastern specimens 6-10 mm. long: leaves thick, variable in shape. 

 deeply divided into five or seven lobes, widest about the middle, the 

 lobes again somewhat deeply lobed or merely toothed, all the ultimate 

 divisions very acute and bristle-pointed, tip acute, bristle-pointed, base 

 truncate or very broadly wedge-shaped, leaves dark green and glossy above, 

 paler yellowish or brownish below, crimson when they appear in the 

 spring, silvery and woolly when half grown, smooth, or the lower side 

 more or less hairy when mature, turning brown in the autumn. 8-17 cm. 

 lung, 10-15 cm. wide, petiole 3.5-6 cm. Ion--; flowers opening when the 

 leaves are half grown, staminate catkins 8-18 cm. long, hairy, flowers 

 about 4 mm. in diameter, reddish, pistillate flowers short stalked or 

 nearly sessile; acorns ripening the second season, round, 12-18 mm. long, 

 11-17 mm. wide, dark brown, covered with whitish down, cup top-shaped 

 about 2 cm. broad, covering one-third to one-half of the acorn, covered 

 with a fine satiny pubescence, scales loose, thin, their tips free and 

 spreading: velutina, velvety, referring probably to the acorn cups. 



