44 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



HABITAT. The maritime region from southern Virginia to nearly 

 the southern extremity of Florida, and westward to western Texas and 

 into Mexico and Central America. In the western part of its range it is 

 found at much higher altitudes than in the east, and of smaller stature 

 or even shrubby. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood very heavy, hard, strong, tough, com- 

 pact, close-grained and taking a beautiful polish, but difficult to work, 

 with strong thick medullary rays and with principal ducts rather smaller 

 and more distributed than in most of the oaks. It is of a light-brown 

 color with lighter sap-wood. Specific Gravitq, 0.9501; Percentage of Ash, 

 1.14; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.9393; Coefficient of Elasticity, 

 113627; Modulus of Rupture, 1017; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 

 547; Resistance to Indentation, 324 ; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 

 59.21. 



USES. Formerly extensively used in ship-building for which it was 

 more highly valued than any other oak. Of late it is still somewhat 

 employed for the same purpose, but it has been largely replaced by other 

 material. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES, owing to the astringency of the bark, though 

 not specifically reported, are probably those common to most of the oaks. 



118. QUERCUS AQUATICA, WALT. 

 WATER OAK, DUCK OAK, POSSUM OAK, PUNK OAK. 



Gen., Wasser-Eiche; Fr., Chene aquatique; Sp., Roble acuatico. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves thickish, glabrous and shining, green both sides, 

 mostly deciduous, obovate-spatulate, entire, and more or less obscurely and irregu- 

 larly 3-5-sinuate-lobed with rounded apex and lobes, but sometimes, especially on 

 young shoots with more pointed and even mucronate lobes and apex, generally 

 narrowing to a very short petiole. Flowers with mostly 4-6 stamens, styles long and 

 spreading and abortive ovules near the top of the perfect seed. Fruit a small, sub- 

 sessile acorn ^ in. or less in length, maturing the second year, with subglobose and 

 often shortened nut tomentose within, and about i immersed in the very shallow, 

 saucer-shaped cup, composed of many thin and pointed scales. 



A handsome tree of medium-size and with full rounded top, under the 

 most favorable conditions attaining the height of 80 feet (24 in.) with a 

 trunk 3 or 4 ft. (1 m.) in diameter, clothed in a smooth grayish-brown 

 bark blotched with whitish and on large trunks only very slightly fissured 

 with irregular longitudinal checks. Few oaks compare with this in 

 smoothness of bark. 



HABITAT. From Delaware southward to about the latitude of Tampa 

 Bay in Florida and westward to central Texas; in the Mississippi valley 

 it ranges as far north as Kentucky and Missouri, growing mostly in wet 

 soil along the banks of streams, bottom-lands and swamps. 



