CUPULIFER.E. (OAK FAMILY.) 475 



Minn., Iowa, E. Kan., and Tex. Tree or shrub, 10-45 high, with ridged 

 trunk, and very hard wood. 



6. QUERCUS, L. OAK. 



Sterile flowers in slender naked catkins ; bracts caducous ; calyx 2 - 8-parted 

 or lobed ; stamens 3 - 12 ; anthers 2-celled. Fertile flowers scattered or some- 

 what clustered, consisting of a nearly 3-celled and 6-ovuled ovary, with a 3-lobed 

 stigma, enclosed by a scaly bud-like involucre which becomes an indurated cup 

 (cupule) around the base of the rounded nut or acorn. Cotyledons remaining 

 underground in germination ; radicle very short, included. Flowers greenish 

 or yellowish. Sterile catkins single or often several from the same lateral scaly 

 bud, filiform and hanging in all our species. (The classical Latin name.) All 

 flower in spring, and shed their nuts in Oct. of the same or the next year. 

 1. LEUCOBALANUS. Bark pale, often scaly ; leaves and their lobes or 

 teeth obtuse, never bristle-pointed ; stamens 6 - 8 ; scales of the cup more or 

 less knobby at base ; stigmas sessile or nearly so ; abortive ovules at the base 

 of the perfect seed ; inner surface of nut glabrous ; fruit maturing the first 

 year, often peduncled ; kernel commonly sweetish; wood tough and dense. 

 * Leaves deciduous, It/rate or sinuate-pinnatifid, pale beneath. WHITE OAKS. 



1. Q. alba, L. (WHITE OAK.) Mature leaves smooth, pale or glaucous 

 underneath, bright green above, obovate-oblong, obliquely cut into 3-9 oblong 

 or linear and obtuse mostly entire lobes ; cup hemispherical-saucer-shaped, rough 

 or tuber ded at maturity, naked, much shorter than the ovoid or oblong acorn 

 (!' long). All soils, Maine to S. E. Minn., E. Kan., and south to the Gulf. A 

 large and valuable tree ; lobes of the leaves short and broad (3-5), or deep 

 and narrow (5-9). 



2. Q. stellata, Wang. (POST OAK. IRON OAK.) Leaves grayish or 

 yellowish-downy underneath, pale and rough above, thickish, sinuately cut into 

 5-7 rounded divergent lobes, the upper ones much larger and often 1-3- 

 notched ; cup deep saucer-shaped, naked, one third or half the length of the ovoid 

 acorn (6 - 9" long). (Q. obtusiloba, Michx.} Sandy or sterile soil, Martha's 

 Vineyard to Mich, and E. Neb., south to Fla. and Tex. ; common, especially 

 southward. A small tree with very durable wood. 



3. Q. macroearpa, Michx. (Bun OAK. OVER-CUP or MOSSY-CUP OAK.) 

 Leaves obovate or oblong, lyrately-pmnatijid or deeply sinuate-lobed, or nearly 

 parted, sometimes nearly entire, irregular, downy or pale beneath ; the lobes 

 sparingly and obtusely toothed, or the smaller ones entire ; cup deep, thick and 

 woody (9 // -2 / across), conspicuously imbricated with hard and thick pointed 

 scales, the upper ones awned, so as usually to make a mossy-fringed border ; acorn 

 broadly ovoid (1 - 1-J-' long), half immersed in or entirely enclosed by the cup. 

 Rich soil, N. Scotia to W. Mass, and Penn., west to Minn., central Neb., and 

 Kan. A large and valuable tree ; extremely variable in the size and fringe of 

 the acorns. Var. OLIV/EFORMIS, Gray, is only a narrower-leaved form with 

 unusually small oblong acorns. 



4. Q. lyrata, Walt. (OVEB-CUP OAK. SWAMP POST OAK.) Leaves 

 crowded at the end of the branchlets, obovate-oblong, acute at base, more or less 

 deeply 7 - Q-lobed, white-tomentose beneath or at length smoothish, the lobes trian- 

 gular to oblong, acute or obtuse, entire or sparingly toothed ; fruit short-peduncled 



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