122 



THE BEECH FAMILY^ 



KEY TO THE OAKS. 



A. Leaves bristle-tipped, divided: 



a. Green on both sides, 



b. Covered with tomentum on the lower surface. 

 A A, Leaves bristle-tipped, mostly entire, 



AAA. Leaves not bristle-tipped. 



a. Crenate and dentate. 



b. Pinnately lobed. 



c. Entire (sometimes toothed, or rarely bristle-tipped). 



A. Leaves bristle-tipped, divided. 

 rt. Green on both sides. 



TEXAN RED OAK. {Plate XLII) 

 Ouereus Texana. 



FAMILY 

 Beech. 



SHAPE 

 Tnll^ narrow. 



HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



'jyioo feet. Florida and Texas to JMarcli-May. 



Missouri and Indiana. Fruit; Sept.-Oct. 



Bark: reddish brown: ridged and broken into plates. Leaves: large, with 

 slender, light coloured petioles; obovate or oblong, squared or wedge-shaped at 

 the base and pinnatelv divided into five to nine oblong lobes, which have a few 

 coarse teeth with bristle tips. Sinuses : broadly rounded, the deepest of which ex- 

 tends to within a quarter of an inch of the midrib. Bright green; lustrous above; 

 lighter below and tufted conspicuously in the axils of the veins. Flowers .'monoe- 

 cious. Acoj'fis: sessile, or growing on short thick peduncles and maturing the 

 second season. Cup: saucer-shaped, with closely appressed scales. Ntit: ovoid, 

 or ovate and three times or more longer than the cup. 



This great oak, which, in the Mississippi basin where it attains its best 

 development, becomes taller than any other of America, may well be chosen 

 for description as being one of the most interesting if not the least known of 

 the group to which it belongs. It is Buckley's oak of the south, having 

 been recognised by him as different from other species and described as 

 Ouereus Texana in i860. It had been confused with the eastern red oak, 

 Ouereus rubra, while in other places, it has appeared to botanical investiga- 

 tors as being almost identical with the pin oak, Ouereus palustris. From 

 the former of these two, however, it can be known by its winter buds, which 

 are considerably shorter and broader than those of the red oak ; by its rather 

 small and highly lustrous leaves ; by its timber, which lumbermen have 

 now recognised to be of more value : and from the pin oak by its fruit ; 

 and also by its enlarged and buttressed base which alone is a feature dis- 

 tinctive enough to mark it from all other trees. When its vividly green 

 leaves are lit by the sunlight and its dusky, unbranched stem towers high 

 above other growth it is indeed a notable object. In the autumn its leaves 



