Live Oak 



313 



Fig. 265. Live Oak, Miami, Florida. 



reddish brown or grayish scales. The twigs are slender, stiff, woolly at first, be- 

 coming smooth, gray or brown. The winter buds are globose or broadly ovoid, 

 1.5 mm. long, hght brown. The leaves are oblong, oval, or obovate, blunt or 

 slightly pointed, narrowly wedge-shaped, or sometimes rounded or shghtly heart- 

 shaped at the base, usually entire on the 

 more or less revolute margin, thick and 

 leathery, dark green and shining above, 

 pale, smooth or slightly hair}', but never 

 rugose, beneath; the midrib is narrow and 

 yellowish, the petiole stout, flattened and 

 grooved, from 5 to 10 mm. long; they per- 

 sist for about one year, turning yellow or 

 brown before falling. The flowers appear 

 in March or April, the staminatc in haiiy 

 catkins 5 to 7.5 cm. long, their calyx hght 

 yellow, divided into 5 to 7 ovate, blunt hairy 

 lobes; stamens little exserted; anthers ob- 

 long, notched, hair)- and yellow. The pistil- 

 late flowers are spicate on slender hair\' 

 peduncles 2.5 to 7.5 cm. long, their involu- fig. 266. Live Oak. 



