294 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



aiuents 3'-4' long; calyx hirsute, yellow, usually divided into 5 ovate acute laciniately cut 

 segments; anthers covered by short scattered pale hairs; pistillate sessile or stalked, their 

 involucral scales broadly ovate, hirsute; stigmas bright red. Fruit sessile or short-stalked; 

 nut oval to ovoid or ovoid-oblong, broad at base, obtuse and naked or covered with pale 

 persistent pubescence at apex, \'-\' long, 'f ' thick, sometimes striate with dark longi- 

 tudinal stripes, inclosed for one third to one half its length in the cup-shaped, turbinate, 

 or rarely saucer-shaped cup pale and pubescent on the inner surface, hoary-tomentose on 

 the outer surface, and covered by thin ovate scales rounded and acute at apex, reddish 

 brown, and sometimes toward the rim of the cup cilia te on the margins with long pale hairs. 



A tree, rarely 100 high, with a trunk 2-3 in diameter, and stout spreading branches 

 forming a broad dense round-topped head, and stout branchlets coated at first, like the 

 young leaves and petioles, the stalks of the aments of staminate flowers and the peduncles 

 of the pistillate flowers, with thick orange-brown tomentum, light orange color to reddish 

 brown, and covered by short soft pubescence during their first winter, ultimately gray, 

 dark brown, nearly black or bright brown tinged with orange color; usually not more 

 than 50-60 tall, with a trunk l-2 in diameter, and at the northeastern limits of its range 

 generally reduced to a shrub. Winter-buds broadly ovoid, obtuse or rarely acute, \'-\' 

 long, with bright chestnut-brown pubescent scales coated toward the margins with scat- 

 tered pale hairs. Bark '-1' thick, red more or less deeply tinged with brown, and divided 

 by deep fissures into broad ridges covered on the surface with narrow closely appressed 

 or rarely loose scales. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained, durable in contact with 

 the soil, difficult to season, light or dark brown, with thick lighter colored sap wood; largely 

 used for fuel, fencing, railway-ties, and sometimes in the manufacture of carriages, for 

 cooperage, and in construction. 



Distribution. Dry gravelly or sandy uplands; Cape Cod and islands of southern 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Long Island, New York, to western Florida and southern 

 Alabama and Mississippi, and from New York westward to southern Iowa, Missouri, 

 eastern Kansas, western (Dewey County) Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas; most abund- 

 ant and of its largest size in the Mississippi basin; ascending on the southern Appalachian 

 Mountains to altitudes of 2500; the common Oak of central Texas on limestone hills and 

 sandy plains forming the Texas "Cross Timbers "; usually shrubby and rare and local in 

 southern Massachusetts; more abundant southward from the coast of the south Atlantic 

 and the eastern Gulf states to the lower slopes of the Appalachian Mountains; in western 

 Louisiana rarely in the moist soil of low lands. 



Showing little variation in the shape of the fruit and in the character of the cup scales 

 Quercus stellata is one of the most variable of North American Oaks in habit, in the nature 

 of the bark, and in the presence or absence of pubescence. Some of the best marked va- 

 rieties are var. araniosa Sarg., a large tree differing from the type in the usually smooth 

 upper surface of the leaves, in the floccose persistent tomentum on their lower surface, 

 in the less stout usually glabrous yellow or reddish branchlets, and in its scaly bark; dry 

 sandy soil, southern Alabama, western Louisiana, southern Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma and 

 eastern Texas. Var. paludosa Sarg., a tree up to 75 in height, differing from the type in its 

 oblong-obovate leaves 3-lobed above the middle, slightly pubescent branchlets becoming 

 nearly glabrous, and in its scaly bark; in rich deep soil on the often inundated bottoms of 

 Kenison Bayou, near Washington, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Var. attenuata Sarg., 

 a large tree differing from the type in the oblong to oblong-obovate narrow leaves 3-lobed 

 at apex and gradually narrowed to the long cuneate base; near Arkansas Post on the White 

 River, Arkansas County, Arkansas. Var. parviloba Sarg., a round-topped tree 25-30 

 high, differing from the type in the smaller lobes of the leaves with more prominent reticu- 

 late veinlets; dry sandstone hills near Brownwood, Brown County, Texas. Var. anomala 

 Sarg., a tree 15-18 high, differing from the type in its broadly obovate subcoriaceous 

 leaves slightly 3-lobed and rounded at apex; dry sandstone hills near Brownwood, Brown 

 County, Texas; possibly a hybrid. Var. Palmeri Sarg., a shrub 6-15 high, forming clumps, 

 differing from the type in its narrow oblong or slightly obovate 5-7-lobed leaves with 



