Necessity for Greater Accuracy in Describing American 



Trees 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 

 Washington, D. C. 



(Illustrated by reproductions of three of the author's photographs) 



During the autumn of 191 6, I paid some little attention to the 

 various species of indigenous oak trees (Quercus) found growing in 

 the woods and open country about the city of Washington. I 

 collected, with great care, the fruit and leaves of ten or more of 

 what appeared to me to be distinct species. I likewise photo- 

 graphed a number of oak trees of this region, as I found them grow- 

 ing in nature, for the purpose of comparing their different styles 

 or manner of growth, collecting from these trees, as well as from 

 others, numbers of acorns, leaves, branches, and so on. As my 

 investigations progressed, I was reminded of what the late Pro- 

 fessor Lester F. Ward — a most profound botanist — once said to 

 me, at the time he had just described a new species of oak for the 

 District of Columbia: "If you ever take up botany, be very 

 cautious when you come to study the genus Quercus; they are a 

 most puzzling lot, and liable to discourage you." When my 

 collection and photographs came to be to some degree representa- 

 tive of this quercusine group of the Beach family (Fagacea), I 

 submitted the material to Mr. P. L. Ricker, Assistant Botanist of 

 the Division of Plant Industry, of the U.S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and to his assistant, Mr. Peterstrom. Through their cour- 

 tesy, all of my specimens were quickly identified, and these identi- 

 fications I duly compared with the descriptions (illustrated) given 

 in the last edition of Gray's "New Manual of Botany" (Robinson 

 and Fernald edition). On page 338 of this work we are informed 

 with respect to the oaks that "all the species fare] inclined to 

 hybridize freely." In the case of the descriptions of some of the 

 species, we are further told that the foliage is "extremely variable" 

 (Q. falcata) . Of Q. margaretta it is said that it " is possibly a hybrid 

 of Q. stellata and Q. alba"; and in the case of Q. virginiana, that it 

 may be a very large tree in rich soil, and a dwarf in sterile soil, the 

 two varieties differing widely. Finally, in the case of others, as in 

 the common Red oak (Q. rubra) for example, it is found "passing 

 to var. ambigua along our northern border." 



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