242 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



below with thick white tomentum, soon glabrous, at maturity thin and firm, dark green, 

 dull and glabrous above, pale yellow-green, glabrous or rarely puberulous and sometimes 

 furnished with small tufts of rusty hairs in the axils of the veins below, 5'-9' long, 4'-6' 

 wide; falling early in the autumn after turning dull or sometimes bright orange color or 

 brown; petioles stout, yellow or red, l'-2' in length. Flowers : staminate in pubescent aments 

 4 '-5' long; calyx divided into 4 or 5 narrow ovate rounded lobes shorter than the stamens; 

 pistillate on short glabrous peduncles, their involucral scales broadly ovate, dark reddish 

 brown, shorter than the conspicuous linear acute bract of the flower and as long as the 

 lanceolate acute calyx-lobes; stigmas bright green. Fruit solitary or in pairs, sessile or 

 short-stalked, ovoid, gradually narrowed and acute at apex or cylindric and rounded at 

 apex, pale brown, lustrous, more or less tomentose toward the ends, '-!' long; %'-\' 

 in diameter; cup cup-shaped, puberulous on the inner surface, covered with small closely 

 appressed ovate acute red-brown pubescent scales slightly thickened on the back toward 

 the base of the cup, with a thin dark-colored tip and margins. 



A tree usually not more than 60-70 high, with a trunk 2-3 in diameter, often much 

 smaller, stout branches forming a narrow head, and slender lustrous branchlets light green 

 and covered with pale scurfy pubescence when they first appear, dark red during their first 

 winter and ultimately dark brown. Winter-buds ovoid, gradually narrowed to the acute 

 apex, about \' long, with thin ovate acute light chestnut-brown scales. Bark on young 

 stems and on the upper part of the limbs of old trees !'-!' thick, dark brown tinged with 

 red and divided into small thick appressed plates scaly on the surface. Wood heavy, 

 hard, strong, close-grained, light reddish brown, with thin lighter-colored sap wood; used 

 in construction, for the interior finish of houses, and in furniture. 



Distribution. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, through Quebec to southern Ontario, 

 and southward to northern New England, western New York, northern Pennsylvania 

 (Presque Isle, Erie County), northern Michigan, southeastern Wisconsin, central Minne- 

 sota, central Iowa (Winneshick County), and on the Appalachian Mountains of North 

 Carolina at altitudes of about 4000. Passing with many intermediate forms differing in 

 the size of the nut and in the depth of the cup into 



Quercus borealis var. maxima Ashe. Red Oak. 



Quercus rubra Du Roi, not L. 



Fruit solitary or in pairs, sessile or short-stalked; nut ovoid to slightly obovoid, gradu- 

 ally narrowed and rounded at apex, slightly narrowed at base, usually l'-l|' long and 

 --'-' thick, occasionally not more than ' long and thick, inclosed only at the base in a 

 thick saucer-shaped cup. 



