266 BEECH FAMILY 



thread-like ends which form a fringe about the acorn, seed somewhat 

 bitter; a very variable tree both in foliage and in fruit characters, in the 

 southern part of its range occur forms with very large acorns as much as 

 5 cm. long borne on peduncles over 5 cm. in length: macrocarpa. 

 large fruited, named from some of its forms with very large acorns. 



Dry soils, Nova Scotia to Manitoba, south to Tennessee and Texas. 

 west to Montana, western Nebraska and Kansas. Throughout Minne- 

 sota except in the extreme northeast corner. In the central part of the 

 state it forms extensive open woodlands on light calcareous soils, it also 

 occurs on the richest and heaviest soils of the state in company with hard 

 maple, white elm, bass wood, and red oak, and much reduced in size, 

 forms small groves in the prairie region. Flowers open in Minnesota in 

 May or late April, about a week earlier than those of white oak, acorns 

 ripe in September. 



Grown from the acorns which germinate very freely. Its slow growth 

 during its early years in our climate and the difficulty of transplanting 

 saplings of any considerable size have prevented this tree from being 

 planted to any considerable extent. It was naturally the most abundant 

 tree in the vicinity of Minneapolis, and care should be taken to raise 

 young trees to take the place of the old native specimens when they die, 

 as it is one of our finest ornamental trees. 



Wood light brown, hard, very strong and tough, durable, weight 46.5 

 lbs. ; it is somewhat stronger than white oak, has the same uses as the latter 

 and is not distinguished from it commercially. One of our most valuable 

 timber trees. 



Quercus bicolor \Y i 1 1 d e n o w 1801 Swamp White Oak 

 Quercus platinoides Sudworth 1892 



Tree 10-20 m. (33-66 ft.) high, 6 dm.-l m. in diameter (sometimes 

 considerably larger in New York, Ohio, and other parts of the east) ; bark 

 of trunk grayish brown, ridged and furrowed, bark of twdgs ragged, and 

 irregularly peeling ; buds rounded, 2 mm. long, nearly smooth; leaves 

 often crowded at the extremities of the twigs, rhombic in outline, broadest 

 a little above the middle, coarsely crenate, dentate, or with shallow some- 

 what acute lobes, leaves of exposed branches thick, dark green above, 

 densely white hairy below with short stellate hairs, leaves of lower shaded 

 branches much thinner, pale green on both sides, sparingly pubescent 

 below, leaves turning brown in autumn and deciduous, 7-18 cm. long. 

 3.5-11.5 cm. wide, petioles 5 mm. -1.5 cm. long; flowers opening when 

 the leaves are about one-third grown; staminate catkins about 6 cm. long. 



