292 



The Oaks 



appear when the leaves are about one fourth unfolded, the staminate in shghtly 

 hairy catkins 5 to 8 cm. long, their calyx usually reddish and hairy; stamens 

 about as long as the calyx, their anthers oblong, notched at each end. The pis- 

 tillate flowers arc on short, stout, woolly, i- to 3-flowered peduncles; involucral 

 scales and the 4- to 7-lobed calyx hairy; styles 3, spreading or recurved and dark 

 colored. The fruit, ripening in the autumn of the second season, is sessile, soH- 

 tary or in pairs; nut cUipsoid or varying from cyhndric to globose-ovoid, 12 to 

 18 mm. long, brown, often striped and slightly hairy; shell thin, dark and velvety 

 inside; seed yellow and bitterish; cup top-shaped, 12 to 18 mm, across, narrowed 

 at the base, reddish brown inside, embracing one third to one half of nut; scales 

 ovate, blunt and imbricated. 



Wood coarse-grained, resembling that of Q. velutina. 



9. TEXAN OAK Quercus texana Buckley 



A small tree with spreading branches, in dry, rocky soil of southern and west- 

 ern Texas, where it is 

 called Red oak. Spotted 

 oak, and Spanish oak. 



The bark is light brown 

 and scaly. The twigs are 

 slender, smooth, reddish or 

 grayish brown, the win- 

 ter buds elliptic, about 3 

 mm. long, blunt, dark 

 brown and smooth. The 

 leaves are oblong to obo- 

 vate in outhne, 5 to 10 

 cm. long, the 3 to 7 lobes 

 narrowly triangular to 

 ovate, the terminal one 

 the longest, sometimes 

 toothed, the lobes bristle- 

 pointed, the sinuses ob- 

 lique and broad; they are 

 deep green, smooth, some- 

 what shining above, yel- 

 lowish or brownish, 

 smooth or slightly hairy, 

 with prominent reddish venation beneath. The leaf-stalk is slender, i to 3 cm. 

 long, smooth and red. The flowers appear with the unfolding leaves, the stami- 

 nate in rather many-flowered clustered slender hairy catkins 4 to 6 cm. long. The 

 fruit ripens in the autumn of the second year, and is nearly sessile; nut oblong 



Fig. 244. Texan Oak. 



