236 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



rounded at the base, full and rounded or gradually or abruptly narrowed and rounded 

 at the apex, puberulous, light reddish brown, sometimes conspicuously striate, with 

 broad dark bands, '-!' long, inclosed for one third to nearly one half its length in 

 a turbinate or deeply cup-shaped cup light reddish brown and puberulous within, 

 covered by thin closely imbricated light brown scales rounded at the ends and hoary - 

 tomentose, except on their red-brown margins. 



A tree, occasionally nearly 200 high, with a trunk free of branches for 80-90, 

 and 7-8 in diameter above the much enlarged buttressed base, comparatively 

 small branches spreading into a narrow head, and stout brittle branchlets coated at 

 first with hoary pubescence, soon glabrous and bright green, lustrous, orange or 

 reddish brown during their first winter, becoming ashy gray or dark brown the fol- 

 lowing year; often much smaller toward the western limits of its range in Texas 

 and usually 30^40 tall; sometimes reduced to a shrub. "Winter-buds ovate or 

 obovate, full and abruptly rounded at the apex, -jf'-^' long, with thin closely imbri- 

 cated dark brown scales. Bark of young stems and branches thin, smooth, light 

 gray, becoming on old trunks f'-l^' thick, light brown tinged with red, and divided 

 into broad ridges broken into thick square plate-like scales. Wood heavy, hard, 

 close-grained, light reddish brown; now often manufactured into lumber in the 

 Mississippi valley and considered more valuable than that of the eastern Red Oak. 



Distribution. Northeastern Iowa and central Illinois, through southern Illinois 

 and Indiana and western Kentucky and Tennessee to the valley of the Appalachi- 

 cola River, Florida, northern Georgia, central South Carolina, and the coast plain 

 of North Carolina, and through southern Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana to the 

 mountains of western Texas; most abundant and of its largest size on the low bot- 

 tom-lands of the Mississippi basin, often forming a considerable part of lowland 

 forests; less abundant in the eastern Gulf states; in western Texas on the low lime- 

 stone hills and on bottom-lands in the neighborhood of streams. 



6. Quercus coccinea, Moench. Scarlet Oak. 



Leaves oblong-obovate or oval, truncate or wedge-shaped at the base, deeply 

 divided by wide sinuses rounded at the bottom into 7 or rarely 9 lobes repand-den- 

 tate at the apex, the terminal lobe ovate, acute, arid 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 yellow midribs and primary veins, late in 

 the autumn turning brilliant scarlet; their petioles slender, terete, l'-2' long. 

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

 red before opening, divided into 4 or 5 ovate acute segments shorter than the 

 stamens; pistillate on pubescent peduncles sometimes \' long, bright red, their in- 

 volucral scales ovate, pubescent,' shorter than the acute calyx-lobes. Fruit sessile or 

 stalked, solitary or in pairs; acorn oval, oblong-ovate or hemispherical, truncate or 

 rounded at the base, rounded at the apex, \'-V long, '-f ' broad, light reddish brown 

 and occasionally striate, inclosed for one third to one half its length in a deeply cup- 

 shaped or turbinate thin cup light reddish brown on the inner surface, and covered by 

 closely imbricated oblong-ovate acute light reddish brown slightly puberulous scales. 



