FAGACE.E 247 



Distribution. In the neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, to southeastern Minnesota 

 common; often covering large areas of sandy soil with a stunted growth and on the prairies 

 sometimes a low shrub; eastern Iowa (Muscatine County), and the Lower Peninsular of 

 Michigan (Montmorency, Arenac, and St. Clair Counties). 



5. Quercus coccinea Muench. Scarlet Oak. Spanish Oak. 



Leaves oblong-obovate or elliptic, truncate or cuneate at base, deeply divided by wide 

 sinuses rounded in the bottom into 7 or rarely 9 lobes repand-dentate at apex, the terminal 

 lobe, ovate, acute, and 3-toothed, the middle division the largest and furnished with 2 small 

 lateral teeth, the lateral lobes obovate, oblique or spreading, sometimes falcate, usually 

 broad and oblique at the coarsely toothed apex, when they unfold bright red covered with 

 loose pale pubescence above and below with silvery white tomentum, green at the end of 

 a few days, at maturity thin and firm, bright green, glabrous and very lustrous above, 

 paler and less lustrous and sometimes furnished with small tufts of rusty pubescence in the 

 axils of the veins below, 3'-6' long, 2|'-4' broad, with a yellow midrib and primary veins, 



Fig. 227 



late in the autumn turning brilliant scarlet; petioles slender, terete, l|'-2' in length. 

 Flowers: staminate in slender glabrous aments 3'-4' long; calyx pubescent, bright red be- 

 fore opening, divided into 4 or 5 ovate acute segments shorter than the stamens; pistillate 

 on pubescent peduncles sometimes \' long, bright red, their involucral scales ovate, pubes- 

 cent, shorter than the acute calyx-lobes. Fruit sessile or stalked, solitary or in pairs; nut 

 oval, oblong-ovate or hemispheric, truncate or rounded at base, rounded at apex, \'-\' long, 

 i'-f ' thick, light reddish brown and occasionally striate, inclosed for one third to one half 

 its length in a deep cup-shaped or turbinate thin cup light reddish brown on the inner sur- 

 face, covered by closely imbricated oblong-ovate acute thin, or rarely much thickened 

 (var. tuberculata Sarg.) light reddish brown slightly puberulous scales. 



A tree, 70-80 high, with a trunk 2-3 in diameter, comparatively small branches 

 spreading gradually and forming a rather narrow open head, and slender branchlets coated 

 at first with loose scurfy pubescence, soon pale green and lustrous, light red or orange- 

 red in their first winter and light or dark brown the following year; usually much smaller. 

 Winter-buds ellipsoidal or ovoid, gradually narrowed at apex, \'-\' long, dark reddish 

 brown, and pale-pubescent above the middle. Bark of young stems and branches smooth, 

 light brown, becoming on old trunks ^'-1' thick and divided by shallow fissures into irregu- 

 lar ridges covered by small light brown scales slightly tinged with red. Wood heavy, 

 hard, strong, coarse-grained, light or reddish brown, with thicker darker colored sap wood. 



Distribution. Light dry usually sandy soil; valley of the Androscoggin River, Maine, 





