FAGACEJE 247 



at the base, full and rounded at the pubescent apex, light yellow-brown, often striate, 

 '-$' long and nearly as broad, 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 ap- 

 pressed 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 the second season. Winter-buds ovate, acute, strongly 

 angled, covered by loosely imbricated dark red-brown pnberulous scales slightly ciliate 

 on the thin margins. Bark ^'-f thick, with a smooth light brown surface slightly 

 tinged with red and covered by smooth closely appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, 

 strong, close-grained, light brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood; little valued 

 except as fuel. 



Distribution. High sandy borders of swamps and streams and the rich bottom- 

 lands of rivers; southern Delaware southward to Cape Malabar and the shores of 

 Tampa Bay, Florida, ranging inland through the south Atlantic states to the base of 

 the Appalachian Mountains, west through the Gulf states to the valley of the Colo- 

 rado River, Texas, through the eastern borders of ,the Indian Territory, and through 

 Arkansas to southeastern Missouri and to central Tennessee and Kentucky. 



Commonly planted as a shade- tree in the streets and squares of the cities and 

 towns of the southern states. 



++++Leaves lanceolate to oblong or lanceolate-obovate, usually entire. WILLOW OAKS. 



15. Quercus Phellos, L. Willow Oak. 



Leaves ovate-lanceolate or rarely lanceolate-obovate, often somewhat falcate, 

 gradually narrowed and acute at the ends, and entire, with slightly undulate margins, 

 when they unfold light yellow-green and lustrous on the upper surface, coated on the 

 lower with pale caducous pubescence, at maturity glabrous, light green and rather 

 lustrous above, dull and paler or rarely hoary-pubescent below, conspicuously reticu- 

 late-venulose, 2^'-5' long, }'-!' wide, with slender yellow midribs and obscure pri- 

 mary veins forked and united about half way between the midribs and margins, 

 turning pale yellow in the autumn before falling; their petioles stout, about \' long. 

 Flowers : staminate in slender-stemmed aments 2'-3' lonjr; calyx yellow, hirsute, 

 with 4 or 5 acute segments; pistillate on slender glabrous peduncles, their involucral 

 scales brown covered by pale hairs, about as long as the acute calyx-lobes; stigmas 

 bright red. Fruit short-stalked or nearly sessile, solitary or in pairs; acorn hemi- 

 spherical, light yellow-brown, coated with pale pubescence, inclosed only at the very 

 base in the thin pale reddish brown saucer-shaped cup silky-pubescent on the inner 

 surface and covered by thin elongated ovate truncate hoary-pubescent scales dark 

 red-brown on the margins. 



A tree, occasionally 70-80 high, with a trunk 2 or rarely 4 in diameter, small 

 branches spreading into a comparatively narrow open or conical round-topped head, 

 and slender glabrous reddish brown branchlets roughened by dark lenticels, becom- 

 ing in their second year dark brown tinged with red or grayish brown ; usually 

 much smaller. Winter-buds ovate, acute, about ^' long, with dark chestnut-brown 

 scales pale and scarious on the margins. Bark ^' f ' thick, light red-brown slightly 



