271. QUERCUS PHELLOS WlLLOW OAK. 45 



271. QUERCUS PHELLOS, L. 



WILLOW OAK. 

 Ger., Weiden-Eiche. Fr., Chene de Saule. Sp., Roble de Sauce. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves oblong-lanceolate 2 1 /-5 in. long, acute at both ends 

 with very short petiole and usually bristle-tipped, entire or with slightly undulate and 

 involute margins; revolute in the bud and light green and pubescent when they unfold, 

 but finally lustrous light green, paler and usually glabrous with pubescent midribs beneath. 

 Flou-ers staminate calyx yellow, pubescent, 4-5-lobed; pistillate with short glabrous 

 peduncles and slender recurved stigmas. Fruit sessile or with short stalks, usually soli- 

 tary, with subglobose or hemispherical pale-pubescent nut and thin flat saucer-shaped cup 

 enveloping only its base and covered with small thin closely imbricated scales. 



The Willow Oak occasionally attains the height of 70 or 80 ft. (22 m.), 

 and its trunk ma} 7 be 2 or 3 ft. (0.90 m.), vested in a brownish gray bark, 

 furrowed into many low, firm, longitudinal ridges. When isolated from 

 other trees it develops an ovoid or rounded top, with many slender branches. 



HABITAT. From Staten Island, 1ST. Y., southward between the Alle- 

 ghanies and the coast to northern Florida, thence westward in the Gulf 

 coast region to Texas, and northward to southeastern Missouri and western 

 Kentucky, inhabiting alike the lowlands and rich slopes and uplands. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood heavy, hard and strong, rather coarse- 

 grained and of a light mottled reddish brown color, with creamy white sap- 

 wood. Specific Gravity, 0.7472; Percentage of Ash, 0.50; Relative Ap- 

 proximate Fuel Value, 0.7435 ; Coefficient of Elasticity, 78440 ; Modulus of 

 Rupture, 989; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 390; Resistance to In- 

 dentation, 216; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 46 57. 



USES. Wood used to some extent in the manufacture of agricultural 

 implements, house-building material, etc., and for fuel. An interesting tree 

 for planting in parks and door-yards, and deserving of more extensive use 

 for this purpose than has hitherto been made of it. 



GENUS CASTANEA, TOURN. 



Leaver alternate, strongly straight-veined, acuminate and expanding before the flowers. 

 Mcrile flowers clustered in long naked cylindric axillary catkins; calyx 5-6-parted; 

 stamens 5-20 with slender filaments and 2-celled anthers. Fertile flowers usually three 

 together inclosed in an ovoid, 4-lobed, scaly involucral cup; calyx 5-6-lobed, adherent to 

 the 3-7-celled, 6-14-ovuled ovary; stigmas awn-shaped and as many as the cells: abortive 

 stamens 5-12. Fruit a globose, hard, very prickly. 4-valved dehiscent involucre, inclosing 

 each, 1-3 coriaceous 1-seeded nuts; cotyledons very thick. 



Trees and shrubs. (" Castanea " is the ancient Greek name of the chestnut.) 



