Handbook of Trkics ok the Northern Statks and Canada. 170 



Tlio rhinqnnpin T'ak is nn abiindaiit trop 

 west of the Allegheny .Mountains, and in the 

 luxuriant forests of the Wabash Kiver \alley 

 of southern Indiana and Illinois has hi'cn 

 known to attain the e\.c|)t ional height of Hit) 

 n.. with -Iraight ((duMinar trunk I?-.') ft. i!i 

 thickness above the wide buttressed base, but 

 it is generally a niueli smaller tree and in the 

 eastern part of its range uneotunion and local 

 in its distribution. When growing apart from 

 other trees it develoits an oblong or rounded 

 top of many branches, and its trunk is vested 

 in a pale gray scaly-ridged bark. Its leaves 

 very much resemble those of the Chestnut and 

 in autumn turn to various tints of orange 

 and red. 



The wood is heavy, a cubic foot when thor- 

 oughly dry weighing 53.63 lbs., strong and 

 hard and is extensively used in cooperage, the 

 construction of agricultural iiiijilenients, furni- 

 ture, etc.. and for posts and railway ties.-' 



Lrarrs lanceolato-ohlons;, to obovate. 4-8 in. 

 long, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, acute or 

 acuminate at apex, erpially and coarsely serrate, 

 with glandnlar-mucronate teeth, darlc green above, 

 whitish pubescent beneath, the straight prominent 

 veins terminating in the teeth : petioles slender. 

 Flotrers: staminate aments pilose. 3-4 in. long, 

 with yellow 5-6-lobed calyx ; stigmas short, red. 

 Fruit sessile or short-pedunclate with lustroiis 

 brown short ovoid acorn Vj-% in. long and half 

 invested by the hoary-tomentose hemispheric cup 

 covered with small appressed scales : seed some- 

 times edible. 



A division of this species has recently been 

 suggested, and the name Q. Alexander! Britt ap- 

 plied to covf-r trees with leaves broader above the 

 middle and acnins with rather shallow cnps. l>ut. 

 inasmuch ns both forms of leav(>s and acorns 

 are often found on the same tree, the proposed 

 new species would hardly seem to be valid. 



1. Syn. Q. Miililrnbcrf/ii Engelm. 



2. A. \V., Ill, ()S. 



