CrrLLlKEK.K. (oak FAMILY.) 47') 



Minn., Iowa, K. Kan., and lex. Troc «r shrub, 10-4')° higli, with ridged 

 trunk, and very hard wood. 



6. QUE Reus, L. Oak. 



Sterile flowers in slender naked catkins ; bracts caducous ; calyx 2 - 8-parted 

 or lohed ; stamens 3- 12 ; anthers 2-celled. Fertile flowers scattered or some- 

 what clustered, consisting of a nearly 3-celled and G-ovuled ovary, with a ."i-lol^ed 

 stigma, enclosed by a scaly bud-like involucre whicli becomes an indurated cup 

 (ciipule) around the base of the rounded nut or acorn. Cotyledons remaining 

 underground in germination ; radicle very short, included. — Flowers greenish 

 or yellowish. Sterile catkins single or often several from the same lateral scaly 

 bud, filiform and lianging in all our species. (The cla.ssical Latin name.) All 

 flower in spring, and shed their nuts in Oct. of the same or the next year, 

 § 1. LEUCOBALANUS. Bark pale, often scalij ; leaves and their lobes or 

 teeth obtuse, never bristle-pointed ; stamens 6-8; scales of the cup more or 

 less knobby at base ; stigmas sessile or nearlij so ; abortive ovules at the base 

 of the perfect seed ; inner surface of nut glabrous ; fruit maturing the first 

 year, often peduncled ; kernel commonly sweetish; wood tough and dense. 

 * Leaves deciduous, ly trite or sinuate-pinnafijid, pale beneath. — White Oaks. 



1. Q. alba, L. (White Oak.) ]\Iature leaves smooth, pale or glaucous 

 underneath, bright green above, obovate-oblong, obliquely cut into 3-9 oblong 

 or linear and obtuse mostly entire lobes ; cup hemispherical-saucer-shaped, rough 

 or tubercled at maturity, naked, much shorter than the ovoid or oblong acorn 

 (r long). — All soils, Maine to S. E. Minn., E. Kan., and south to the Gulf. A 

 large and valuable tree; lobes of the leaves short and broad (3-5), or deep 

 and narrow (5-9). 



2. Q. Stellata, Wang. (Post Oak. Iron Oak.) Leaves grayish or 

 yelloivish-downy underneath, pale and rough above, thickish, sinuately cut into 

 5-7 rounded divergent lobes, the upper ones much larger and often 1-3- 

 notched ; cup deep saucer-shaped, naked, one third or half the length of the ovoid 

 acorn (6-9" long). (Q. obtusiloba, Michx.) — Sandy or sterile soil, Martha's 

 Vineyard to Mich, and E. Neb., south to Fla. and Tex. ; common, especially 

 southward. A small tree with very durable wood. 



3. Q, macrocarpa, Michx. (Bur Oak. Over-cup or Mossy-cup Oak.) 

 Leaves ol)ovate or oblong, lyratel y-pinnntifid or deeply sinuate-lobed, or nearhf 

 parted, sometimes nearly entire, irregular, downy or pale beneath ; the lobes 

 sparingly and obtusely toothed, or tlie smaller ones entire ; cup deep, thick and 

 woody (9"- 2' across), conspicuously imbricated with hard and thick pointed 

 sccdes, the upper ones auned, so as usually to make a mossy-fringed border ; acorn 

 broadly ovoid {\-\V long), half immersed in or entirely enclosed by the cup. — 

 Rich soil, N. Scotia to W. Mass. and Penn., west to Minn., central Neb., and 

 Kan. A large and valuable tree; extremely variable in the size and fringe of 

 the acorns. — Var. oi,iv/Kf6umis, Gray, is only a narrower-leave*! form with 

 unusually small oblong acorns. 



4. Q. lyr^ta, Walt. (Over-cup Oak. Swamp Post Oak.) Leaves 

 crowded at the end of tlie branchlets, obovate-oblong, acute at base, more or less 

 deeply 7 -9-lobed, white-tomentose beneath or at length smoothish. //(c lobes trian- 

 gular to oblong, acute or obtuse, entire or sparingly toothed ; fruit short-peduncled 



