260 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



usually 4 rarely 3-lobed, thinly covered with long white hairs; stamens usually 4; anthers 

 ovoid-oblong, apiculate, dark red; pistillate on stout peduncles hoary-tomentose like the 

 scales of the involucre; stigmas dark red. Fruit solitary or in pairs, on short glabrous 

 peduncles; nut broad-ovoid, rounded at apex, sparingly pubescent especially below the 

 middle with fascicled hairs, light brown, obscurely striate, |' |' long, |'-f ' thick, inclosed 

 only at base in the flat saucer-shaped cup, pubescent on the inner surface, covered with 

 closely appressed scales obtuse at their narrow apex, red on the margins, pale pubescent, 

 those of the upper rank smaller, erect, inserted on the top of the cup and forming a thin rim 

 round its inner surface. 



A tree when crowded in the forest often 60-70 high, with a tall trunk, stout ascending 

 branches forming a long narrow r head, and slender branchlets thickly coated early in the 

 season with pale fascicled hairs, pubescent or nearly glabrous in their first autumn and 

 darker and glabrous in their second year, when not crowded by other trees rarely 40 high 

 with a short trunk occasionally 1 in diameter. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, with thin 

 light chestnut-brown slightly pubescent or nearly glabrous scales. Bark thick, nearly 

 black, divided by deep fissures into long narrow ridges covered with thick closely appressed 

 scales. 



Distribution. Low woods and on rolling sand hills four miles north of Fulton, Hemp- 

 stead County, Arkansas; rare and local. 



15. Quercus nigra L. Water Oak. 



Leaves oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base and enlarged often 

 abruptly at the broad rounded entire or occasionally 3-lobed apex, on vigorous young 

 branchlets sometimes pinnatifid with acute, acuminate or rounded lobes or broadly oblong- 

 obovate and rounded at apex with entire or undulate margins, on upper branches occa- 

 sionally linear-lanceolate, on occasional trees narrowed below to an elongated cuneate 

 base and gradually widened above into a more or less deeply 3-lobed apex, the lobes 

 rounded or acute (var. tridentifera Sarg.), or often acute at the ends, and on upper branch- 

 lets sometimes linear-lanceolate to linear-obovate, acute or rounded at apex, divided 

 above the middle by deep wide rounded sinuses into elongated lanceolate acute entire 

 lobes, or pinnatifid above the middle, when they unfold thin, light green more or less tinged 

 with red and covered by fine caducous pubescence, with conspicuous tufts of pale hairs in 

 the axils of the veins below, at maturity thin, dull bluish green, paler below than above, 

 glabrous or with axillary tufts of rusty hairs, usually about %\' long and \\' wide, or on 

 fertile branches sometimes 6' long and 2^' wide; turning yellow and falling gradually during 

 the winter; petioles stout, flattened, \'-\' in length; leaves of seedling plants linear-lanceo- 

 late with entire or undulate margins, or occasionally lobed with 1 or 2 pointed lobes, 

 often deeply 3-lobed at a wide apex, and occasionally furnished below the middle with a 

 single acuminate lobe, all the forms often occurring on a plant less than three feet high. 

 Flowers: staminate in red hairy-stemmed aments 2'-3' long; calyx thin and scarious, 

 covered on the outer surface with short hairs, divided into 4 or 5 ovate rounded segments; 

 pistillate on short tomentose peduncles, their involucral scales a little shorter than the 

 acute calyx-lobes and coated with rusty hairs; stigmas deep red. Fruit usually solitary, 

 sessile or short-stalked; nut ovoid, broad and flat at base, full and rounded at the pubescent 

 apex, light yellow-brown, often striate, \'-\ ' long and nearly as thick, usually inclosed only 

 at the base in a thin saucer-shaped cup, or occasionally for one third its length in a cup- 

 shaped cup, coated on the inner surface with pale silky tomentum and covered by ovate 

 acute closely appressed light red-brown scales clothed with pale pubescence except on their 

 darker colored margins. 



A tree, occasionally 80 high, with a trunk 2-3| in diameter, numerous slender 

 branches spreading gradually from the stem and forming a symmetrical round- topped 

 head, and slender glabrous branchlets light or dull red during their first winter, becoming 

 grayish brown in their second season. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, strongly angled, covered 

 by loosely imbricated dark red-brown puberulous scales slightly ciliate on the thin margins. 



