FAGACE^E 255 



with a stout yellow midrib and slender primary veins; turning dull scarlet or yellow in the 

 autumn; petioles slender, glabrous, or pubescent, l'-l' in length. Flowers: staminate in 

 hairy aments 4 '-5' long, and often persistent until midsummer; calyx red or green tinged 

 with red and irregularly divided into 3-5 ovate rounded lobes shorter than the stamens; 

 anthers bright red ultimately yellow; pistillate on stout tomentose peduncles, their involu- 

 cral scales ovate, about as long as the acute calyx-lobes, red and tomentose; stigmas 

 dark red. Fruit produced in great profusion, sessile or stalked, in pairs or rarely solitary; 

 nut ovoid, broad, flat or rounded at base, gradually narrowed and acute or rounded at 

 apex, about \' long and broad, light brown, lustrous, usually faintly striate, inclosed for 

 about one half its length in the cup-shaped or saucer-shaped cup often abruptly enlarged 

 above the stalk-like base, thick, light reddish brown within, and covered by thin ovate 

 closely imbricated red-brown puberulous scales acute or truncate at apex, the minute free 

 tips of the upper scales forming a fringe-like border to the cup. 



A tree, occasionally 18-20 high, with a trunk 5'-6' in diameter, with slender spread- 

 ing branches usually forming a round-topped head, and slender branchlets dark green 

 more or less tinged with red and hoary-pubescent at first, during their first winter red- 

 brown or ashy gray and pubescent or puberulous, becoming glabrous and darker in their 

 second year and ultimately dark brown or nearly black; more frequently an intricately 

 branched shrub, with numerous contorted stems 3-10 tall. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, 

 about \' long, with dark chestnut-brown rather loosely imbricated glabrous or pilose 

 scales. Bark thin, smooth, dark brown, covered by small closely appressed scales. 



Distribution. Dry sandy barrens and rocky hillsides; coast of eastern Maine south- 

 ward through eastern and southern New England to southern and southwestern Penn- 

 sylvania and along the Appalachian Mountains, principally on their eastern slopes, to 

 southern Virginia; on Crowder and King Mountains, Gaston County, North Carolina; 

 and westward to the shores of Lake George and the valley of the Hudson River; common 

 in eastern and southern New Engnlad, in the Pine barrens of New Jersey, and in eastern 

 Pennsylvania. 



X Quercus Brittonii Davis, believed to be a hybrid of Quercus ilicifolia and Q. mari- 

 landica, has been found on Staten Island, New York, and at Ocean Grove, Monmouth 

 County, New Jersey. 



X Quercus Gijfordii Trel., believed to be a hybrid of Quercus ilicifolia and Q. Phellos, 

 has been found at May's Landing, Atlantic County, New Jersey. 



X Quercus Rehderi Trel., believed to be a hybrid of Quercus ilicifolia and Q. velutina, 

 is not rare in eastern Massachusetts and occurs on Martha's Vineyard (Chilmark). 



12. Quercus rubra L. Red Oak. Spanish Oak. 



Quercus digitata Sudw. 



Leaves ovate to obovate, narrowed and rounded or cuneate at base, the terminal lobe 

 long-acuminate, entire or slightly lobed, often falcate, usually longer than the 2 or 4 

 acuminate entire lateral lobes narrowed from a broad base and often falcate, or oblong- 

 obovate and divided at the broad apex by wide or narrow sinuses broad and rounded in 

 the bottom into 3 rounded or acute entire or dentate lobes, and entire and gradually 

 narrowed below into an acute or rounded base (var. triloba Ashe), the two forms usually 

 occurring on different but sometimes on the same tree, at maturity thin and firm, dark 

 green and lustrous above, coated below with soft close pale or rusty pubescence, 6'-7' long 

 and 4'-5' wide, obscurely reticulate-venulose, with a stout tomentose midrib and primary 

 veins; turning brown or dull orange color in the autumn; petioles slender, flattened, l'-2' in 

 length. Flowers: staminate in tomentose aments, 3'-5' long; calyx thin and scarious, pu- 

 bescent on the outer surface, divided into 4 or 5 ovate rounded segments; pistillate on stout 

 tomentose peduncles, their involucral scales coated with rusty tomentum, as long or rather 

 shorter than the acute calyx-lobes; stigmas dark red. Fruit sessile or short-stalked; nut 

 subglobose to ellipsoidal, full and rounded at apex, truncate and rounded at base, about 



