86 CUPULIFER^. Querent. 



A tree 15 to 24 metres in height, with a trunk rarely exceeding 0.60 

 metre in diameter, or reduced to a low, much-branched shrub ; a poly- 

 morphous species, varying greatly in habit and in the shape and texture 

 of the leaves, but apparently well characterized by its connate cotyledons ; 

 the large specimens generally hollow and defective. 



Wood very heavy, strong, hard, close-grained, checking badly in dry- 

 ing ; layers of annual growth marked by one or two rows of small open 

 ducts, these connected by rows of similar ducts parallel to the numerous 

 conspicuous medullary rays ; color very dark brown, the thick sap-wood 

 much lighter. 



265. Querents reticulata, Humb. & Bonp. 



Southeastern Arizona, — San Francisco, and Santa Rita Mountains 

 between 7,000 and 10,000 feet elevation ; in northern Mexico. 



A small .tree, 9 to 12 metres in height, with a trunk 0.30 to 0.45 metre 

 in diameter ; dry. gravelly slopes. 



Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained, checking badly in drying, con- 

 taining many small scattered open ducts ; medullary rays numerous, very 

 broad ; color dark brown, the sap-wood lighter. 



266. Quercus Durandii, Buckley. 



Central Alabama ; western and southern Texas. 



A tree 21 to 24 metres in height, with a trunk O.CO to 1.20 metres in 

 diameter ; ri<'h bottom-lands, or dry slopes and limestone hills, then re- 

 duced to a low shrub forming dense, impenetrable thickets of great 

 extent ( Q. San-Subeana) ; very rare and local in Alabama; the common 

 and most valuable white oak of western Texas. 



Wood very heavy and hard, strong, brittle, close-grained, inclined to 

 check in drying; layers of annual growth marked by few large open 

 ducts; medullary rays numerous, conspicuous; color brown, the sap-wood 

 lighter ; used for the same purposes as that of the white oak (Q. alba). 



267. Quercus virens, Ait. 

 Live Oak. 



Southern Virginia, south along the coast to Bay Biscayne and Cape 

 Romano, Florida, along the Gulf Coast to Mexico, extending through 

 western Texas to the valley of the Red River, the Apache and Guadalupe 

 Mountains, and the mountains of northern Mexico south of the Rio 

 Grande, here between I'.. 000 and 8,000 feet elevation ; in Costa Rica. 



An evergreen tree, 1.5 to 18 metres in height, with a trunk 1.50 to 

 2.10 metres in diameter, or in the interior of Texas much smaller and 

 often shrubby; on the coast, on rich hummocks and ridges, a lew feel 

 above water-level ; common and reaching its greatest development in the 

 south Atlantic States. 



