FAGACE^E 



285 



obscure primary veins forked and united at some distance from the margins, gradu- 

 ally turning yellow or brown at the end of the winter and falling with or soon after 

 the appearance of the new leaves in the spring; their petioles stout, rarely more than 

 }' long. Flowers : staminate in hairy aments 2 '-3' long; calyx light yellow, hairy, 

 divided into 5-7 ovate rounded segments; anthers hirsute?; pistillate in spikes on 

 slender pubescent peduncles 1/-3' long, their involucral scales and ovate calyx-lobes 

 coated with hoary pubescence ; stigmas bright red. Fruit usually in 3-5-fruited 

 spikes or rarely in pairs or single on stout light brown puberulous peduncles l'-5' 

 long; acorn oval or slightly obovate, narrowed at the base, rounded or acute at the 

 apex, dark chestnut-brown and lustrous, about V long and |' wide, inclosed for about 

 one fourth its length in a turbinate light reddish brown cup puberulous within, its 

 scales thin, ovate, acute, slightly keeled on the back, covered by dense lustrous 

 hoary tomentum and ending in small closely appressed reddish tips ; seed sweet, 

 with light yellow connate cotyledons. 



A tree, 40-50 high, with a trunk 3-4 in diameter above its swollen buttressed 

 base, usually dividing a few feet from the ground into 3 or 4 horizontal wide-spread- 

 ing limbs forming a low dense round-topped head sometimes 150 across, and slender 

 rigid branchlets coated at first with hoary toinentuin, becoming ashy gray or light 

 brown and pubescent or puberulous during their first winter and darker and glabrous 



the following season; occasionally 60-70 tall, with a trunk P>-7 in diameter; 

 often shrubby and occasionally not more than a foot high. Winter-buds globose 

 or slightly obovate, about \' long, with thin light chestnut-brown scales white and 

 scarious on the margins. Bark of the trunk and large branches \'-V thick, dark 

 brown tinged with red, slightly furrowed, separating on the surface into small closely 

 appressed scales. Wood very heavy, hard, strong, tough, close-grained, light brown 

 or yellow, with thin nearly white sap wood; formerly largely and still occasionally 

 used in shipbuilding. 



Distribution. Shores of Mobjack Bay, Virginia, southward along the coast and 

 islands to southern Florida, and along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to northeast- 

 ern Mexico, spreading inland through Texas to the valley of the Red River and to 

 the mountains in the extreme western part of the state; on the mountains of Cuba, 

 southern Mexico, Central America, and Lower California; most abundant and of its 



