117 



Authentic specimens are at hand from Wells County, and it has been 

 reported from Gibson and Hamilton Counties. Xo doubt this form has 

 a wider range. 



8. Quercus lyrata Walter. OVERCUP OAK. Plate 47. Medium 

 sized trees; bark generally intermediate between that of the swamp 

 white and bur oak; leaves on petioles 5-30 mm. long which are generally 

 somewhat reddish toward the base, 10-20 cm. long, obovate or oblong- 

 obovate. margins very irregularly divided into 5-9 short or long lobes, 

 ascending and generally acute, ordinarily the three terminal lobes are 

 the largest, base of leaves wedge-shape, or narrowly rounded, upper 

 surface at maturity dark green and smooth, the under surface densely 

 covered with a thick tomentum to which is added more or less long 

 and single or fascicled straight hairs; when the leaves are as described 

 on the under surface they are gray beneath; however, a form occurs 

 which is yellow green beneath and has little or no tomentum, but is 

 thickly covered with long single or fascicled straight hairs; acorn single 

 or in pairs, on stalks generally about 1 cm. long, sometimes the stalks 

 are 3 cm. long, the stalk lies ir a plane at a right angle to the base of the 

 acorn which is a characteristic of this species; nut depressed globose, 

 about 1.5 cm. long, generally almost completely enclosed in the cup, 

 or sometimes enclosed only for about % its length; cup generally 

 very thick at the base, gradually becoming thinner at the top, and often 

 it splits open: scales tomentose on the back, those near the base, 

 thick and tuberculate on the back and blunt, but those near the top of 

 the cup are acute or long attenuate; kernel sweet. 



Distribution. Maryland to Missouri, 2 and south to Florida and 

 west to Texas. In Indiana it is found only about river sloughs or deep 

 swamps in the southwestern counties. At present it is known only 

 from Knox, Gibson, Posey and Spencer Counties. It was reported by 

 Xieuwland 1 for Marshall County on the authority of Clark. This 

 specimen was taken during a survey of Lake Maxinkuckee, and is 

 deposited in the National Museum. I have had the specimen examined 

 by an authority, who reports that it is some other species. Its habitat 

 is that of areas that are inundated much of the winter season. It is so 

 rare that its associates could not be learned. In one place it grew in a 

 depression lower than a nearby pin oak, and in another place it grew in 

 a depression in a very low woods, surrounded by sweet gum, big shell 

 bark hickory, and pin oak. It is generally found singly in depressions, 

 but it is a common tree on the low border of the west side of Burnett's 

 pond in Gibson County. 



Remarks. Wood and uses similar to that of white oak. In our 

 area it is usually known as bur oak. 



iNieuwland: Notes on our local flora. Amer. Mid. Nat. Vol. 3:230:1914. 

 Prof. B. Shimek told me that recently a few trees were found about 3O miles west of 

 Iowa City, Iowa. 



