296 



The Oaks 



hair}^ midrib beneath, becoming orange-brown or yellow before falling in the 

 autumn. The leaf-stalk is slender and hairy, i to 5 cm. long. The flowers ap- 

 pear from March to May, as the leaves unfold. The staminate flowers are in 

 clustered slender woolly catkins 7.5 to 12.5 cm. long, their calyx hairy, the 4 or 

 5 lobes ovate, blunt; stamens exserted, 4 or 5; anthers oblong, notched, smooth, 

 and yellow. The pistillate flowers are on stout hairy stalks, their involucral scales 

 brown woolly, the calyx-lobes sharp-pointed; styles elongated, nearly upright, 

 dark red. The fruit, ripening in the autumn of the second season, is short-stalked; 

 nut subglobose, i to 1.5 cm. long, yellowish brown; cup hemispheric or top- 

 shaped, 15 to 18 mm, across, reddish brown within, embracing about one fourth 

 of the nut, its scales thin, oblong, reddish and covered with pale hairs. 



The wood is hard and strong, coarse-grained and Hght red ; its specific gravity 

 is about 0.69. It is not very durable and checks badly on drying, and is spar- 

 ingly used for construction purposes but quite extensively for fuel. The astrin- 

 gent bark is sometimes used in tanning and, hke the bark of most all oaks, is 

 sometimes used in domestic medicine. 



Of very distinct appearance, it is quite desirable as a shade tree for park plant- 

 ing, wherever it has proven hardy ; it is considerably used in the streets and parks 

 of our southern States. 



A supposed hybrid with the Black oak, Q. velutina Lamarck, is reported from 

 Tennessee and North CaroHna. 



13. ELLIOTT'S OAK Quercus pagodaefolia (Elliott) Ashe 



Quercus jalcata pagodcBJolia Elliott 



Fig. 248. Elliott's Oak. 



A tree of swamp borders 

 and along streams from Long 

 Island to southern IlHnois 

 and Missouri, southward to 

 northern Florida and Arkan- 

 sas, attaining a maximum 

 height of 32 meters, with a 

 trunk diameter of 1.5 m. 

 Also called Swamp Spanish 

 oak and Red oak. 



The branches are large, 

 stout and widely spreading 

 or ascending, forming a 

 large, spreading, round tree 

 in the open ; in the forest the 

 branches are more slender 

 and form a narrow head, 

 supported by a tall massive 



